How to Care For Your French Bulldog Puppy

Best Tips To Care For Your French Bulldog Puppy

It is important to care for your French Bulldog puppy correctly. Bred to be lap warmers, the bat-eared Frenchies make great companion dogs. Whether you’re thinking about getting one or perhaps you already have, here are some essential tips on how to care for a French bulldog.

French Bulldog Feeding

Like other dog breeds, the Frenchie has unique feeding needs according to its age and relative size. Dog food comes in various formulas specific for giant, large, medium and small breeds. Obviously, the petite but brawny Frenchie belongs to the small breed, which requires proper portions and frequency of meals at each phase in its life, from puppyhood to adulthood, to maintain a healthy weight. A veterinarian or a responsible breeder should know how to care for a French bulldog. By consulting them, you can responsibly keep health problems at bay so your pet can enjoy a full and long life, usually spanning 11 to 13 years. Don’t forget to make fresh and clean drinking water constantly available to your pet. Also, wash and clean between the folds of your frenchie’s perpetual frown after every meal, which can be messy owing to his short face.

French Bulldog Exercise

Unlike other breeds, the French Bulldog doesn’t need much exercise. Its short legs and stocky physique also hamper its ability to run long distances. Plus, it tends to get overheated and exhausted quite easily due to having shorter snouts (Frenchies are a brachycephalic breed), which makes it prone to breathing difficulties.

Taking your Frenchie jogging with you is thus not a very bright idea. What Frenchie experts can recommend is walking at least 20 minutes a day (Check out our the best harness for french bulldog puppy). However, do skip exercise on days that are too hot and humid. On such warm weather, your Frenchie would fare better in an air-conditioned room.

Aside from this daily routine, your Frenchie will get all the exercise it needs to maintain a healthy weight through constant play, whether indoors or outdoors. This breed is quite fond of clowning around, doing energetic stunts and making people laugh with its funny antics, all of which is done at its own pace, of course with regular snoozes in between (on your lap or your sofa).

French Bulldog Housebreaking

Frenchies tend to behave more independently, to the point of being stubborn. Also, being the attention seekers that they are, Frenchies can develop behavioral issues if you overindulge and spoil them. But fret not; they can be trained— through tough love, discipline and loads of patience. And once you’ve housebroken them, the results are worth all the challenge.

French Bulldog Health Considerations

Being a dwarf brachycephalic breed, the Frenchie has poor tolerance for strenuous physical activity. If your Frenchie is breathing heavily and noisily or is spitting foam out, it may have an elongated soft palate or pinched nostrils. Also, make sure to find a veterinarian that’s experienced with Frenchie dogs, someone knows about this breed’s anesthesia risks as well as its proneness to having abnormal vertebrae or disc disease.  

As a final note, the best tip on how to care for a French bulldog is to know that they thrive on human contact, attention, and love. Leaving them alone for too long can lead to separation anxiety and a decline in health. To keep your Frenchie happy and healthy, strike a healthy balance between love and discipline.