French Bulldog

French Bulldog

 The French Bulldog should have the appearance of an active, intelligent, muscular dog, of heavy bone, smooth coat, compactly built, and of medium or small structure. The points should be well distributed and bear good relation one to the other, no feature being in such prominence from either excess or lack of quality that the animal appears deformed or poorly proportioned. In comparison to specimens of different sex, due allowance should be made in favour of the bitches, which do not bear the characteristics of the breed to the same marked degree as do the dogs.


French Bulldog Size a lightweight class under 22 lb. (10 kg); heavyweight class, 22 lb. (10 kg) and not over 28 lb. (10-13 kg). The French Bulldog body should be short and well rounded. The back should be a roach back, with a slight fall close behind the shoulders. It should be strong and short, broad at the shoulders and narrowing at the loins. The chest, broad, deep and full, well ribbed with the belly tucked up. French Bulldog acceptable colours are: all brindle, fawn, white, brindle and white, and any colour except those which constitute disqualification. The skin should be soft and loose, especially at the head and shoulders, forming wrinkles. Coat moderately fine, brilliant, short and smooth.

The head should be large and square. The top of the skull should be flat but slightly rounded. The stop should be well defined, causing a hollow or groove between the eyes. Muzzle should be broad, deep, and well laid back; the muscles of the cheeks well developed. The nose should be extremely short; nostrils broad with well defined line between them. The nose and flews should be black, except in the case of the lighter-coloured dogs, where a lighter colour of nose is acceptable. The flews should be thick and broad, hanging over the lower jaw at the sides, meeting the underlip in front and covering the teeth which should not be seen when the mouth is closed.
 
The under jaw should be deep, square, broad, undershot, and well turned up. Eyes should be wide apart, set low down in the skull, as far from the ears as possible, round in form, of moderate size, neither sunken or bulging, and in colour dark. No haw and no white of the eye showing when looking forward. Ears shall hereafter be known as the bat ear, broad at the base, elongated, with round top, set high in the head, but not too close together, and carried erect with the orifice to the front. The leather of the ear fine and soft.

The French Bulldog hindquarters hind legs should be strong and muscular, longer than the forelegs, so as to elevate the loins above the shoulders. Hocks well let down. The feet should be moderate in size, compact and firmly set. Toes compact, well split up, with high knuckles and short stubby nails; hind feet slightly longer than forefeet. Tail The tail should be either straight or screwed (but not curly), short, hung low, thick root and fine tip; carried low in repose.


French Bulldog disqualifications other than bat ears; black and white, black and tan, liver, mouse or solid black (black means without any trace of brindle); eyes of different colour; nose other than black except in the case of the lighter-coloured dogs, where a lighter colour of nose is acceptable; hare lip; any mutilation; over 28 lb. (12.7 kg) in weight.

French Bulldog Care and Maintenance

Eyes
‘Cherry eye’ an everted (rolled out) 3rd eyelid with the gland underneath exposed this occurs usually secondary to loose eyelids and inflammation of the eye. Usually seen over 6 weeks and under 6 months of age. Low incidence as most Frenchies have tight eyelids.
 
Corneal ulcers are not uncommon as Frenchies age, due partially to the prominent nature of their relatively large eyes. These respond well to treatment, provided it is prompt and effective. Any ulcer that fails to respond to treatment quickly needs to be reassessed frequently by your veterinarian and may require surgery in the form of a third eyelid flap to rest the eye while it heals.
 
Pannus deposition of black pigment on the cornea and subsequent drying (dry eye) of the cornea. Seen in the older Frenchie (8 years and up). This is considered to be an autoimmune condition in many breeds. Once the black pigment starts to deposit on the cornea, usually in the medial edge and accompanied by inflammation on the outer edge of the pigmented area, it cannot be stopped but can be controlled for long periods. Eventually the pigment will cover the entire cornea, resulting in blindness this process usually takes several years.
 
Treatment: the condition responds well to the use of cortisone drops and/or Cyclosporin* eye drops. Liquifilm eye ointment to keep the cornea moist is needed in the more advanced cases. Interestingly, most cases I have seen have also been affected by hypothyroidism. Incidence around 10-15% in the aged Frenchie.


Thyroid
Hypothyroidism does occur in the breed there is a small but significant percentage of hypothyroid French Bulldogs seen in general practice probably around 8-10% in older dogs, generally over 5-6 years of age. Symptoms seen generally include bilateral hair loss and thinning of the coat, low fertility (less common) and obesity. Treatment involves replacing thyroid hormones and regular checks initially to ensure the condition is under good control. Within 6 weeks most dogs are under very good control.


Skin Conditions
Other than thyroid problems, skin health is generally very good. Some cases of grass allergy are seen where dogs will bite and chew their feet this is more commonly seen in pied dogs. The dogs respond to appropriate treatment and ideally, there should be decreased assess to wet, fast growing green grass.


Epilepsy
It does occur in the breed, generally seen over 1 year of age, with a higher incidence seen in males. Luckily, the overall incidence within the breed at present appears to be very low.


Reproduction
The French Bulldog has overall a good fertility rate (3-6 per litter, average 4-5).
Whelping -There are often problems associated with whelping which results in a significant proportion of bitches requiring caesarians. This is comes predominantly from having large head and shoulder size in the French Bulldog puppies, combined with a tapering body shape of the bitch. Narrow pelvis shape then further compromises the situation. The relatively large size of puppies, particularly in smaller litters can again increase the incidence of caesarians.
  
Despite this, the bitches generally handle caesarians very well, recover radidly and mother up quickly. A small but steadily increasing percentage of bitches are “free whelping” and breeders are actively trying to select for free whelping bloodlines.


Testicles
Male Frenchie puppies are occasionally affected by cryptorchidism, but the incidence on the whole is relatively low. If the testicles are nearby but not fully descended, add extra zinc to the diet and decrease the weight on fat puppies.

Tumor
French Bulldogs are not high on the tumour lists and usually not under 8-10 years. The tumours more commonly seen would include:
Haemangeosarcoma, of the spleen or liver;
 
Skin tumours, mast cell, squamous cell tumors, melanomas more commonly seen in older pied animals.
 
Bone tumours, fairly rare.
 
Mammary Tumours, as in all breeds of dogs, these are commonly seen in the older non desexed bitch. Desex your bitches as soon as they have finished being bred from this will greatly decrease the incidence of mammary tumours and remove the risk of pyometra.

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