"Losing Daisy the way we did was the hardest thing ever," she said. "It was like losing a child."

Rachel English, of Camden, also "loves her furbaby [a three-year-old French bulldog Benny] to pieces," but she wouldn't buy another short-headed dog after watching him struggle to breathe day to day.

Typical of his breed and many other short-headed or brachycephalic dogs, Benny can't walk more than a few minutes at a time. He suffers from sleep apnoea and shakes with pain from cervical deformities.

"I don't think how they have been bred is humane: It is so unnatural for a dog to be so out of breath all the time, and have these back issues because they are so compressed," said Ms English.

Her decision coincides with a backlash against these cute dogs. Experts say their flat faces, big eyes, little noses and ears - bred by design to shorten their muzzles to make them appear non-threatening - appeal to us because they look like human babies.

Brachycephalic dogs include pugs, English bulldogs, French bulldogs, Boston terriers, Cavalier King Charles spaniels and shih tzus - very commonly seen in the handbags of the rich and famous.

To fight the trend, the Australian Veterinary Association and the RSPCA launched the Love is Blind campaign warning buyers to avoid buying dogs with exaggerated features, and is lobbying the kennel clubs and dog show organisers to breed dogs with longer muzzles.

Vets said nearly every short-faced dog needed surgery to address the snorts, the wheezing, the grunting, and the sleep apnoea that many people on social media find "cute". Those adorable YouTube videos of little dogs, mostly pugs, sleeping standing up? They can't breathe any other way.

Far from cute, these are the sounds of a dog struggling to stay alive, said Dr Jade Norris, the veterinary scientific officer with the RSPCA NSW.

"The health problems ... are as severe a welfare problem as those found inside puppy farms," she said.

"What we are talking about is breeding dogs with a particular anatomy that causes health problems and that is nothing to do with the environment," said Dr Norris.

"It is nothing to do with whether you are a member of the pedigree association or not. It is to do with the selection of the parents," said Dr Norris.

"You could have a pug who is in an airconditioned apartment living on a pink cushion, but if it it can't breathe, it is serious welfare problem. It is a different problem to being covered to excrement in a cage (like a dog in a puppy farm), but it is just as severe," she said. Some faces are so badly squashed that their eyeballs pop out.

But the president of the Australian National Kennel Club Hugh Gent said of the 480,000 puppies bred in 2016, eight out of nine puppies were bred by unregistered breeders.

Many breeders would not join the organisation because they wanted to operate without any scrutiny or regard for the health and welfare of the puppies they breed.

Mr Gent urged the public to contact the club about problems and provide the microchip number of puppies. It had also bought two whole body barometric plethysmography chambers, costing $40,000, from Cambridge University to help breeders select healthy dogs without breathing problems.

Like the Saundersons' and Ms English's dogs, most of these short-headed dogs are kept indoors, usually in airconditioning in summer, because their nasal passages are too narrow and compressed to let them regulate the heat through panting. Many airlines won't carry them because so many have died from overheating.

Veterinarian Professor Philip Moses, from the University of Queensland, said most of these dogs present with breathing difficulties, and most need corrective surgery to some extent to improve their breathing and allow them to lead a relatively normal life. He was also frustrated by the high incidence of abnormal vertebrae, which was becoming "particularly common in the Bostons, the pugs, the French bulldogs" breeds that were becoming more popular.

Julie Saunderson's French bulldog Daisy - bought from a reputable breeder for $3000, she said - had to be put to sleep last year after agonising back problems that emerged within weeks of her adoption. Vet bills for the Saundersons' three dogs have totalled more than $50,000.

"She couldn't move, and she would yell and cry she was in so much pain," said Ms Saunderson.

Ms English bought Benny for $4000 from an "accredited kennel" after researching the breed, the second most popular in NSW according to Dogs NSW. Nothing prepared her, though, for the endless surgeries, costing $15,000, including the widening of Benny's nostrils so he could breathe.

The marketing for these dogs was everywhere, but nothing came close to the reality. Benny can't play with other dogs, and because of the risk of heat exhaustion, he has to stay inside, with the airconditioning on when it is hot.

"The dogs deserve better," she said.

Ms Saunderson warns buyers that these dogs will need a lot of love, care and money.

"We will get another dog, but not another French bulldog. We will get a big dog," she said.

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The issues with these breeds

Because of how they are bred, most of these short-headed dogs:

• Can't breathe properly: Some dogs will faint or collapse due to a lack of oxygen.
• Can't play: These dogs overheat especially when exercising or excited.
• Can't give birth without a C-section or veterinary assistance: 80 per cent of bulldogs require C-sections.
• Can't sleep: Some have to sleep standing or sitting up.
• Can't see: Folds in skin often drape over these dogs eyes, and in other more serious cases, an eye ball may pop out.

Source: LoveIsBlind.org.au