​Because all brachycephalic breeds have varying degrees of predisposing anatomical features of airway obstruction, even if it is sub-clinical, it is appropriate to treat all brachycephalic breeds as having the potential for upper airway obstruction. It is worth remembering that with the shorter face, the less the air will cool before it reaches the lungs.

Predisposing Risk Factors – Heat, humidity, exercise, excitement can all increase panting as the dog attempts to lose heat and cool itself – this excessive panting in turn can produce local swelling (oedema) and further airway narrowing, increasing anxiety and body temperature; creating a vicious cycle.

Treatment – If panting hard, cool the dog all over by hosing the dog down in a bath or wading pool. Pay particular attention to the head, throat and belly. Do not attempt to make the dog swallow – ice packs placed along the belly, under the throat will help cool the dog – keep going for a minimum of 10-15 minutes, until the respiration rate slows down. If the dog is still having problems, get the dog to the veterinarian as soon as possible. Keep the car air conditioned with the cold air directly in the face of the dog.
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Prevention – Be aware of the temperature on a daily basis, weather forecasting generally will give a good idea well ahead of hot weather. Place your dogs on extra electrolytes in their food – this can help them cope with the heat better. Keep your dogs in cool conditions with plenty of through ventilation. 

GENERAL - The French Bulldog, is on the whole, a fairly sound dog. Being a brachycephalic breed that is fairly short and compact with a screw tail, the “Frenchie” is prone to the associated problems these conformational characteristics will bring.
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BODY – While small in size, the Frenchie is incredible solid for its height and muscle weight ratio is phenomenal when comparing this breed to almost any other. Males ideally should weight around 14kgs, females around 12kg. Despite their small stature, the strength of the Frenchie holds it in very good stead. The strength of bone and generally good ligament strength makes them quite a hardy breed, unlikely to break bones or injure themselves, even though they play fairly hard. Launching off beds and chairs even while quite young, rarely causes any damage – only heart attaches to the owners! The French Bulldog is also incredibly agile on the whole, able to spring up onto sofas, chairs, lounges, beds etc in a single bound – usually without having to back off and take a run at it. In play, they often jump up in midair, turn 180 degrees and come down facing the other direction. Chasing and playing with bigger dogs is no problem. As they are fairly easy going, they don’t generally start fights, but are quite willing to give and opinion on whom they are backing and will line up in support.
When lifting this breed, one should be careful to shift the majority of the lift to just behind the shoulders due to the front-heavy head and chest of the breed. As they trust you totally, they are very good at throwing themselves forward in your arms – be prepared and have them securely held at all times.

TEMPERAMENT – The breed was developed to be a comical and affectionate companion – whether you wish to put affection before the humor is your decision! These are incredibly easy-going dogs and are very easy to live with, once the stubborn little darlings are fully house trained! They are easily spoiled rotten and are good nature enough to deal with this very well, and take it as their due. This should not however, extend to you being unable to hold them for an ear clean or nail cut – some discipline is needed, as you will need to be firm at these times – teach them early or it won’t sink in.

LIFESPAM – The Frenchie is on the whole, a reasonably healthy breed and lives between 12-16 years of age, and usually has a good age with minimal diseases.

The French Bulldog can come in a variety of different colors. The standard colors acceptable by the AKC are brindle, fawn, cream, white, brindle and white. Non standard colors are solid black; black and white; mouse, liver, and black and tan.
Bindle is described as a dark color mixed with lighter colored hair mixed between, this color is a dominant gene. Fawn is usually described as a tan color, it can range from light to dark, and is a recessive gene. Cream is a warmer version of the white and both are recessive. 
Are you wondering where does the color blue come from? Well..the blue frenchie color comes from a rare gene known as the dilute gene(d) which alters the coat color of the frenchie from black to blue or gray, and can also cause the change of their eye color.
Why avoid Merle color trend? It is impossible for a Merle French Bulldog to be purebred. French Bulldogs do NOT carry the genetic mutation for Merle. Breeders are crossing into other strains that carry Merle, like a Chihuahua, to create the Merle French Bulldogs. The cross bred pups are then weeded out to pick the Merle examples, which are then bred back to other French Bulldogs. Merle dogs can face alot of health issues ranging from increased fetal mortality rates, deafness, blindness, eye anomalies, and structural defects. 

​There are a lot of reasons for this, as we have come to understand. The French Bulldog is just not an easy dog to breed.
First of all, very few French Bulldogs can breed naturally, mainly due to their narrow hips which makes mounting difficult. Because of this, most Frenchie females must be artificially inseminated. This is a fairly costly and time consuming process.
Secondly, Frenchie’s tend to have relatively small litters. The average litter of live births is about four puppies, but litters of one or two puppies are very common.
Thirdly, because of the relatively large head and shoulders of the Frenchie puppies in comparison to the size of the birth canal of the typical Frenchie mom, almost all Frenchie’s are delivered by C-section, which is a very costly procedure, especially at the ER Vet, which seems to happen quite frequently.
And fourthly, new-born Frenchie puppies take a great deal of hands-on care and attention. New-born Frenchie’s need to be fed every 2 hours around the clock and they should not be left alone with the mom, at least for the first weeks. Frenchie moms are generally very attentive and good moms, but there is a high probability that a mom will inadvertently rollover on one of her babies and smother it. We couldn’t bear to see this happen, so we are up with them constantly and get sleep deprived when we have new litters.
When these things are taken into consideration, along with the normal vet bills, medicines, food, toys, play areas, shelter, and attention that must be devoted to those dogs, breeding Frenchie’s gets to be an expensive and time consuming proposition.
Even with these wonderful dogs selling in the thousands of dollars even for the standard colors, the AKC says that a reputable breeder will do well to break even. There are puppy mills and other disreputable breeders out there that may sell you a dog a little cheaper (unfortunately, even many pets shops buy their dogs from puppy mills where the dogs are repeatedly bred, poorly socialized if at all, and rarely see  the outside of a cage). As with everything else in life, you get what you pay for.
By the way, the reason that blues, blue-fawns, and chocolates (and even more so, the extraordinarily rare pure black, black & tan, pure blue and blue & tan Frenchie’s) are more expensive that standard color Frenchie’s is that there is a very high demand for these colors (because they are so beautiful) and they are relatively rare because they are created by recessive genes, which are naturally occurring but not common in Frenchie’s, which means that they must be inherited from both mom and dad. Based on our research and our own experiences, there are no inherent health problems associated with these rare colors, regardless of what some individuals might say.