Page 36 - ShowSight Presents - The French Bulldog
P. 36
THE
FRENCH
BULLDOG
by VIRGINIA ROWLAND
In the past ten years or so registration statistics for French Bulldog puppies and litters registered with the AKC have risen dramatically. From 2013 to 2014 alone, French Bulldogs have gone from
#11 to #9 in registration.
Those of us who love French Bulldogs and consider our-
selves the caretakers of the breed, we understand these dra- matic increase in numbers is not the result of an increase in the number of responsible breeders as much as it is the result of commercial kennels recognizing the financial opportunities that breeding French Bulldog represent.
THE STANDARD HISTORY
The French Bulldog standard is interesting for judges and students of the breed. It has no faults listed. Much of the standard was borrowed word from word from the Bulldog standard before it was approved (for the first time) by the AKC in 1897.
The US was the first country to have an approved standard and were leaders in specifying that the breed have bat ears while breeders in England were still debat- ing whether bat and rose ears were equally acceptable.
DISQUALIFICATIONS
The standard has MANY disqualifications, most having to do with coat and nose color—and weight. Those breeders who are into breeding French Bulldogs for the money either haven’t read the standard or more likely don’t care what the standard’s DQs are. You just have to visit the new akc.org website on French Bulldogs to see photos of dogs with color disqualifications and other breed DQs—dogs with drop ears which would be a DQ for not being a bat ear and being a mutilation— yes mutilation is the word used in the breed standard as a DQ.
Since some breeders are deliberately breeding dogs with color DQs, there are coat colors and eye colors that are being produced now that are not described in the standard that is really scary. Nowhere does the
“THE US WAS THE FIRST COUNTRY TO HAVE AN APPROVED STANDARD AND WERE LEADERS IN SPECIFYING THAT THE BREED HAVE BAT EARS...”
218 • SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, APRIL 2015
