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With their flat-faces, barrel-shaped bodies, bulging eyes and short legs, pugs are often viewed as pretty adorable dogs.

From 2005 to 2017, there was a huge increase in the registration of pugs at the Kennel Club, which is the UK's largest dog health, welfare and training organisation.

However, new research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has revealed the health of pugs in the UK is now very different to and a lot worse than other dogs.

The experts who worked on the study are now saying pugs should no longer be considered a typical dog from a health perspective and are warning people not to buy them.

So what's the deal with the dogs? Although some may find them cute to look at, pugs are known for having complex needs which other breeds are less likely to experience.

Researchers believe the welfare of the dogs should be valued above people's desire to own one. They say urgent action is required to reduce the high rate of health issues associated with the breed.

"Although hugely popular as pets, we now know that several severe health issues are linked to the extreme body shape of pugs that many humans find so cute," explained Dr Dan O'Neill who is an associate professor in companion animal epidemiology at the RVC and lead author of the new research.

"It is time now that we focus on the health of the dog rather than the whims of the owner when we are choosing what type of dog to own."

Although the health issues linked to pugs has been known for a while, the full extent has never been fully understood.

For this particular study, researchers compared the health of random samples of 4,308 pugs and 21,835 non-pugs.

Overall, pugs were found to be around 1.9 times as likely to have one or more disorders recorded in a single year compared to non-pugs, which suggests the breed has poorer health overall.

The experts put together a list of 40 of the most common disorders across pug and non-pug groups of dogs. Pugs were found to have a higher risk of having 23 out of the 40 (57.5%) disorders compared with other breeds which had a lower risk of only seven out of 40 (17.5%) disorders.

Brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) was the disorder with the highest risk in pugs, with the breed almost 54 times more likely to have the condition. This is linked to the difficulties with breathing flat-faced breeds tend to experience.

Pugs also had a higher risk of having several other conditions compared to non-pugs, including narrowed nostrils, skinfold infections and obesity.

However, they were less likely to have conditions including heart murmur, aggression and wounds.

Following their findings, the researchers say the body shape of pugs must shift to a less extreme one in order for their health issues to improve.

While waiting for these changes, the advice from experts to the public is to stop and think before buying a flat-faced dog.

"Vet teams see pugs with these distressing health problems - from breathing difficulties to eye ulcers and painful spine abnormalities - in veterinary practices across the UK on a daily basis," said Justine Shotton who is the British Veterinary Association (BVA) president.

"This study clearly demonstrates how it is the extreme characteristics many owners find so appealing, such as squashed faces, big eyes and curly tails, which are seriously compromising pugs' health and welfare."