French Bulldog full information about French bulldog

French bulldog

It was around 1850, after the ban on bull fighting in the United Kingdom, that the English bulldog was imported into France by British workers and then crossed with a ratman from the outskirts of Paris. His descendant, the French bulldog, met with some success with Parisian traders and then as a companion dog by Westerners on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. At the end of the 19th century, the Kennel Club already accepted toy bulldogs, close to French bulldogs, as canon. This was the subject of endless discussions between French and British ... Nevertheless the French maintain the idea that the canon of the breed belongs to them and that the breed existed long before. It is likely that these toy bulldogs mated with small French ratiers and that from these crosses appeared this small dog of 11 kg, closer to the bulldog than to the ratier. A selection was to give preference to straight ears rather than folded and a stockier body. These dogs were used both for hunting unwanted rodents and as a companion dog, particularly with butchers in the Villette and Halles districts of Paris, or even prostitutes whose originality appealed to visitors. At that time, Toulouse-Lautrec adored these funny, cheeky little dogs, with a remarkable face. The popularity of this dog increased with certain amateurs like Édouard VII which one can see on certain photographs in company of his French bulldog called Peter. The French bulldog was also the darling of Mistinguett, Colette and Yves Saint Laurent. The race knew a smashing success until the United States where personalities like Joséphine Baker fell in love with their little animal. With the difficulties and the horrors of the world wars, many dog ​​breeders abandoned their breeding, so that this breed gradually lost its notoriety. However, from 1980 there was a revival in the breeding of the French bulldog, which had become very fashionable since the 2000s. French bulldogs are sometimes called "boubou" or "bouli" by enthusiasts.