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A brief history of the French Bulldog
From the lace workshops of England to the salons of Paris and the shows of New York: how the breed that is now our specialty was born.
An English origin
The story begins in 19th-century England. In the Nottingham area, the center of the lace industry, artisans had a fondness for small, companion-sized bulldogs.
With the Industrial Revolution many of those workshops lost their work, and many lacemakers moved to northern France, especially Normandy. They took their little bulldogs with them.
The French character
In France these dogs became popular, and breeders gradually shaped a type of their own, distinct from the English bulldog. That is where the name comes from. By 1860 few of those small bulldogs remained in England, because most had found their place in France.
The United States and the bat ears
At the end of the 19th century the breed reached the United States. American breeders set one of its most recognizable traits in the standard: the upright ears known as bat ears. The French Bull Dog Club of America, the world's first club devoted to the breed, held its first specialty show in 1898, and that same year the American Kennel Club officially recognized the breed.
In the United Kingdom, The Kennel Club recognized it as a breed separate from the English bulldog in 1905, and from 1912 under the name French Bulldog.
From rarity to favorite
Its popularity was not constant. Around 1940 the breed was considered rare in the United States, with about a hundred dogs registered with the AKC. Decades later it saw a remarkable resurgence, and in 2023 the AKC ranked it the most popular breed in the country.
And the exotic traits?
The colors, patterns and coats now called exotic did not appear together and have no single date of origin. Several of them, such as merle, blue or long hair, fall outside the breed club's current standard. In our program we explain them one by one, with photos and documents.