French Bulldogs E-Book

Jane Eastoe

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 112

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This beautifully illustrated guide to French Bulldogs is packed with tips and tricks to keep your furry friends happy and healthy.A companion dog par excellence, the French Bulldog now ranks as the most popular breed in the USA and the second most popular in the UK. This immense popularity is hardly a surprise; Frenchies are incredibly loyal and form deep attachments to their owners, they don't need a huge house or exhaustive exercise and are generally happy curled up in your arms. However, there are many things to consider when you bring a French Bulldog into your home:• How often should I walk them?• How much training will they need?• Am I overfeeding them or are the frequent gaseous emissions quite normal?• How do I manage separation anxiety?This playful and informative book, written from the perspective of your dog, covers everything you need to know about this ultimate companion while celebrating their affectionate personalities that demand attention. The puppy months, diet and training are covered along with advice on grooming, maintaining good health and identifying illnesses. Richly illustrated by Meredith Jensen and packed with adorable photographs of beloved pets, dog lovers, owners and enthusiasts will adore this playful celebration of French Bulldogs.Also available in this adorable series on dog breeds are Whippets and Labradors.

Leseprobe

Contents

Introduction

Puppies

Training

Diet

Grooming

Tiny Companions

Health and First Aid

French Bulldogs

Introduction

Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour, je suis un Bouledogue Français, or French Bulldog if you prefer. I am the sweetest, most comical, most loving dog you could ever hope to meet. I am a companion dog par excellence and am such a favourite that the Frenchie now ranks as the most popular dog in the USA and the second most popular in the UK.

So what is the reason for my recent meteoric rise in the ratings? I am a very loving dog. You, my owner, are the source of my happiness and comfort, you are my security blanket. When I am with you all is right with the world! I am happy for you to pet me, to coddle and cosset me. I like to be close to you at all times. In my eyes you can do no wrong.

I am not much of a barker, so am not likely to upset your neighbours. I don’t need a huge house or garden. I am small and relatively portable, though perhaps a bit weighty to hold for more than a minute or two. I am generally friendly, tolerant of small children and easy-going with most dogs. I don’t have much of a prey drive, though I might make a fruitless attempt to catch a squirrel, and I live harmoniously with other pets.

I am not very demanding in terms of exercise and don’t need you to tramp across the moor with me for hours, day in and day out. Two short walks a day are quite enough for me. My reputation as a couch potato is somewhat undeserved for I adore going out on my little walks. I love playing with other dogs and doing zoomies, but I can’t keep going for long; after a short burst of activity I like to take a little rest and recover my breath.

I am quite clean and abhor getting muddy or wet. I will be perfectly happy to stay at home on the sofa when it is raining. My soft, velvety coat is short and easy to look after, but I do shed, and I need help in keeping the folds of my skin clean. A quick wipe over here and there just two to three times a week is sufficient, it keeps me smelling fresh and helps ensure I don’t develop skin conditions. On the downside I can drool a bit and I slosh an awful lot of water around when I take a drink!

I am great fun to live with and my expressive face makes me a natural comedian. I have a broad grin but can also adopt a look of great tragedy. I love entertaining you and making you laugh. If you leave me alone I will shower you with gifts on your return – admittedly it’s just my chewed up toys that I deposit so tenderly at your feet, but it’s my way of demonstrating how important you are to me.

Mealtimes are one of the high points of my day, I may nag you to feed me as dinnertime draws close. I can emit a startling whining yodel designed to tug at your heartstrings and I can get quite sulky if you ignore my vocal demands. It’s tempting to give in to me but stand firm, the more you indulge me the more demanding I will become.

On the subject of food, I may as well be upfront about its side-effects. My gaseous emissions are frequent and pungent. I fart, and I fart a lot! Proper, big, loud farts. Sometimes so loud they even startle me! I also snore a bit, but if you say my name, I may well shift position in my sleep to stop myself snoring. That’s the clue as to where I like to sleep – with you, as close to you as you will let me get, and I am quite a weight on the bedclothes!

Like all other dogs you can train me to sleep on my own, but I’ve yet to meet a Frenchie owner who doesn’t admit that slowly but surely their dogs have graduated to sharing their bedroom. If night after night you find us with our nose pressed against the bottom of your bedroom door, it’s hard to resist inviting us in.

I love you so much that I struggle being parted from you. No dogs should be left for more than five hours at a stretch in the daytime, but that really is a bit too long for me. Fearing your desertion above all else I have a tendency to develop separation anxiety. If left alone as a pup I might display this anxiety in a spree of wanton destructive behaviour. I may also urinate or defecate in panic. If you can’t give me a lot of your time I will need to spend time with other people so I can’t fret.

My breed has British roots, was popularized and developed in France, before being tweaked, polished and defined in the USA. I am a descendant of the English Bulldog (itself a descendant of the Mastiff), bred for the blood sport of bull-baiting which was finally banned in Britain in the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835. No longer serving a purpose, bulldogs were then crossed with other dog breeds to produce the smaller and friendlier toy or miniature bulldog.

The Toy Bulldog was introduced to France between 1815 and 1870, when thousands of artisan English lacemakers emigrated to Northern France where their work was in great demand and unaffected by the industrialization of their home market. These English lacemakers took with them their beloved Toy Bulldogs. The reasons for their particular fondness for this breed are unknown, possibly companionship or perhaps because they served as a welcome hot water bottle, being content to curl up on their owners’ laps for hour after hour.

Either way, the French, and notably the Parisians, took these sturdy and affectionate little dogs to their hearts and demand for them rocketed. Café owners, butchers, bakers and street walkers were all seduced by the charms of this easy-going breed. French breeders developed a dog that was more uniform in look and it became known as the French Bulldog. The only issue of contention in the breed was whether the ears should stand up like a bat, or flop over in a rose shape.

Wealthy Americans on the Grand Tour were enamoured of these little French Bulldogs and exported them back to the USA. They became so popular that the French Bull Dog Club of America was founded in 1897. It published the very first breed standard for French Bulldogs and controversially defined the desired ear shape as bat. This caused something of a furore with French and English breeders, who preferred the rose ears, but the Americans won out and those distinctive bat ears became the only acceptable ear shape for us Frenchies.

The American Kennel Club gave official recognition to the breed in 1898, with The Kennel Club in Britain following suit in 1906. The breed’s popularity began to decline after the First World War, but started climbing again in the 1980s, slowly rising to its current heights.

Our immense popularity is understandable; we are incredibly loyal and form a deep attachment to our owners and their wider family. We don’t need much space or much exercise and we’re adaptable and easy-going. Give us a bed and we will curl up, preferably in the same room as you and sigh in contentment that we get to share our lives with the most wonderful people in the whole wide world, not that we are biased!

What must be acknowledged by anyone wanting to bring a French Bulldog into their life is that the development of our breed has led to a number of associated health problems, not least respiratory difficulties which can cause a range of complex issues. Please, only purchase Frenchies from reputable breeders so that these physical abnormalities can be minimized over time. This wonderful, loving dog deserves to be given the best future.

Bruce

Owned by Shannon and Adam | Lives in Squamish, British Columbia | @brucethefrenchbully

A larger-than-life personality.

Puppies

I don’t like to brag, but when it comes to puppies there really is nothing more adorable than a French Bulldog puppy! Our fur is soft and our skin too big for our small bodies so we have wrinkles and folds everywhere. Our eyes are huge and our bat ears comical and expressive. Perhaps our most seductive feature is that we not only love you, but worship you. You are EVERYTHING to us, we want to be with you the whole time and the fact that your mere presence makes us so ecstatically happy is a boost to your ego – who doesn’t appreciate being hero-worshipped?

However, sometimes we are too adorable for our own good. Our owners can be inclined to baby us, but we are not babies! We are dogs and we need to be treated as dogs. We should not be indulged and spoilt because we can be incredibly stubborn over some things such as the time we are fed. We push to get our own way, we talk back big time! I understand all too well that I am hard to resist, but it is essential that you kindly and gently teach me how to behave right from the start. If you indulge us too much you are simply making a rod for your own back.

When we are small we are easy to pick up and carry, but be warned, our centre of balance is heavily weighted to our front end, so we are easy to accidentally drop. Please don’t allow children to pick us up for this very reason. Encourage children to sit on the floor and then we can climb on to their laps. This way we both enjoy the cuddle.

We are a brachycephalic, or flat-muzzled breed and our cute looks come at a physical cost: we are predisposed to some anatomical defects, which can affect our health and welfare, not least breathing difficulties and problems with heat regulation (Health and First Aid). Only buy a French Bulldog puppy from a reputable breeder who is using DNA tests and screening schemes to help reduce the impact of a range of physical disorders from their litters. Reputable breeders will be registered with the Kennel Club of that country and with connections to the breed club.

When you come to meet us for the first time you will be questioned carefully by our breeder as to what you want from us. Do you want a show dog or a pet? What kind of a pet do you want, loving or lively? According to your answers you may only be shown a couple of puppies to choose from that best suit your requirements.

You should meet my mother and quite possibly some of my other relatives too. My father might not be around to see as he may live some distance away, but you should see a picture of him at the least.

A litter of French Bulldog puppies is adorable but let me give you some words of wisdom: even if you plan to have two dogs eventually, don’t get them from the same litter at the same time, no matter how great the temptation. Frenchie puppies are a handful; we are playful, clumsy, strong, boisterous, we chew anything and everything and need masses of attention. If you take me and one of my siblings, we will become very reliant on each other and pay you little heed. What’s more, as we mature, we may fight to determine which is the dominant Frenchie in the pack. A pair of male French Bulldogs are very likely to get territorial, which can cause no end of problems. If you want two Frenchies start first with one and only get a second when the first is well trained. The first dog will lead the way with all the basic training techniques.

We French Bulldogs can get a tad possessive of our owner and jealous of attention given to any other dogs in our home environment, even if we are fabulously sociable outside the home. So, while a second dog may seem like a good idea, if your Frenchie is jealous, possessive and insecure you might do better to stick with just the one to maintain a happy home environment.

Home preparation

Once a sale has been agreed you should make a few preparations.

Arrange to take a good chunk of time off work to help your puppy settle in. The more secure I feel from the start the better your chance of curtailing my tendency to separation anxiety. If you can’t take much time off work, you will need to arrange for someone else to be with me. It is not fair to leave any puppies alone for long when small, but Frenchies really can’t cope with being left alone for more than a few hours at a time throughout their life. If you are out at work all day you will need to arrange for me to go to doggy day-care with someone, a friend popping in to let me relieve myself in the day is not sufficient.

However, it is important you still leave me for short spaces of time once I have got used to my new environment.