French bulldog history: from Nottingham lace workers to Paris

Part 1

How lace workers shaped the early bulldog

If you trace your dog's family tree back far enough, you land in the lace-making towns around Nottingham, England. Bull-baiting, the original job of the English bulldog, was banned in England in 1835. By the middle of the 1800s, miniature bulldogs weighing around seven to eleven kilograms had become popular lap dogs, wanted by lace workers for something small and warm to sit with them in cold workshops. When machines took over lace production during the Industrial Revolution, workers lost their jobs and many crossed the English Channel to settle in Normandy, France, where handmade lace was still valued. They brought their toy bulldogs with them.

In France, the dogs became popular, and English breeders kept a trade going, sending over bulldogs they considered too small or with faults such as ears that stood up instead of folding. By 1860 there were few toy bulldogs left in England, because so many had gone to France. Breeders in France gave the type a more uniform look, with a compact body and straight legs, leaving behind the heavy underjaw of the English bulldog. Terrier stock was also brought in later to help develop the breed's long, straight ears.

Part 2

Why the breed became a Paris fashion

The little dogs' popularity spread from Normandy to Paris, and they gained a name of their own, the Bouledogue Français. Ordinary Parisians such as butchers, cafe owners and dealers in the rag trade kept them, and so did the city's streetwalkers. That pairing became well known enough that the dogs turned up in postcards of the period. The artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted a Frenchie named Bouboule, who belonged to a café owner called Madame Palmyre, and Edgar Degas is also thought to have painted the breed. That is a glamorous start for a dog that began on a lace worker's lap. American breeders began importing the little dogs in 1885 to start a breeding program back home. Society ladies first showed their French bulldogs at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1896. At the time, French and English judges still preferred the folded rose ear, while Americans leaned toward the upright bat ear.

Part 3

The first French bulldog club and standard

The ear disagreement came to a head in 1897, when the English judge George Raper only awarded ribbons to rose-eared dogs at the February Westminster show. American fanciers were furious, and on April 5, 1897, they founded the French Bull Dog Club of America and wrote a breed standard that allowed only the bat ear. The following year, the club discovered that Westminster planned to judge both bat-eared and rose-eared dogs again, so the club withdrew its support and its judge stepped down, and members organized their own show instead. That first club specialty was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on February 12, 1898, for bat-eared dogs only. The American Kennel Club recognized the breed soon after the club formed, and by 1906 the French bulldog was the fifth most popular breed in the country. England took longer to come around: French bulldogs arrived there in 1893 to an uproar from English bulldog breeders, and the Kennel Club did not recognize them separately, as the Bouledogue Français, until 1905, renaming the breed French Bulldog in 1912. If your own dog has those upright ears, a group of insistent American club members from the 1890s helped make that happen.

Part 4

How the frenchie's body changed over generations

Away from the show ring, breeders kept shaping the French bulldog's body toward the short, flat face and compact frame people find so appealing today. The breed is classed as both brachycephalic, meaning short-faced, and chondrodystrophic, meaning a dwarf breed. That short face makes breathing less efficient than in longer-nosed dogs, so your French bulldog may have less tolerance for heat, exercise and stress than other breeds. The same dwarf-type genetics that shape the breed's stocky body can also affect the spine, leading to abnormal vertebrae or early breakdown of the discs between them. Surgery to widen narrow nostrils or shorten an overlong soft palate can help a dog breathe more comfortably. If your dog struggles to breathe or overheats easily, ask your vet whether one of these breed-linked conditions might be involved.

Part 5

From rare companion to one of the most popular breeds today

The French bulldog's popularity has not been a straight climb. After the First World War the breed slid into a decline that lasted about fifty years, as the Boston terrier rose in popularity and whelping problems, hot summers without air conditioning, and the Great Depression all worked against it. By 1940 only about 100 French bulldogs were registered with the American Kennel Club, and by 1960 the total stood at 106, prompting an AKC Gazette article to warn that the breed could become extinct. A slow recovery began in the 1980s: registrations rose from 170 in 1980 to 632 in 1990, and topped 5,500 by 2006. The rise kept going after that. By 2013 the American Kennel Club ranked the French bulldog tenth most popular breed in the United States, up from fifty-fourth a decade earlier, and in 2023 it overtook the Labrador retriever to become the most registered breed, a position the Labrador had held for thirty-one years. Social media has helped push that visibility further.