French Bulldog Breed Standard in Canada
Coat & Colour in French Bulldogs
The recent proliferation of ads promoting ‘blue’, ‘chocolate’ black and tan’ ‘lilac’, ‘lavender’, ‘merle’ etc french bulldogs or dogs with coat variations such as ‘long haired’, ‘fluffy’ or ‘hairless’ is of major concern to the French Bulldog Fanciers of Canada. Promoters suggest these variations are rare, exotic, highly desirable and more valuable than dogs with coats and colours that are universally recognized and accepted in our breed. This is not true.
As members of a National Breed Club it is our responsibility to honour and maintain our Canadian Breed Standard.
A Breed Standard is a set of guidelines covering specific externally observable qualities such as appearance, structure, movement, and temperament and is considered the standard of perfection for each dog breed. This standard is the yardstick against which breeders and confirmation judges measure a dog’s quality. Colour and coat guidelines are included in most standards and the breeder’s goal is to produce and maintain these desirable traits.
The Canadian French Bulldog Breed Standard lists acceptable colours as: all brindle, fawn(cream through to red fawn), white, brindle and white. Nature of coat is ‘moderately fine, brilliant, short and smooth.
It is important for potential pet owners to understand that dogs exhibiting certain disqualifying and undesirable colours can occur from time to time but breeders who breed to standard do not intentionally aim to produce them. They could be the result of recessive traits that only appear when puppies inherit a recessive gene from each of their parents, or they may be throwbacks to distant ancestors. Other colours and coat textures seen today are not historically present at all in the french bulldog genome and can only be produced by the intentional introduction of other breeds. Dogs produced in this manner are not purebred. There is also the risk of introducing additional health problems into the breed. Health issues involving skin, hearing and eye problems can be colour linked.
No matter the means of inheritance, in deference to our standard, puppies and dogs exhibiting or carrying disqualifying or undesirable traits should be spayed or neutered and placed as companion dogs with a dollar value no greater than any companion puppy.
Please do not be taken in by advertisements suggesting that French Bulldogs with coats or colours that do not comply with Club Standards are more valuable or desirable than those that are correct.