Answers to a Few Common Questions
- I do not operate a puppy mill. If you are concerned, please feel free to contact my veterinary clinic. You can find them online: Strafford Veterinary Clinic, Strafford, Missouri.
- The number of dogs at any given time varies. I have fewer than six breeding age Frenchies and am considered a "hobby breeder". I keep a low number in order to allow my girls less frequent pregnancies with time to fully recover between litters. Fewer dogs allow more time for better socialization of puppies and pet status for adults. After a litter of puppies is born my dining room becomes the "nursery" and the exclusive domain of their mom. We tried two concurrent litters, once. It was extremely difficult to socialize that number (13) of puppies with only three humans. It was not fun or remotely pleasant for any of us. Since then we only have one litter at a time.
- My Frenchies live in my home, all of them. We have barely controlled chaos, they play outside whenever weather permits in a securely fenced area. They sleep in crates at night. Just as cleaning up after children can be a challenge, so too dogs. Cleaning is constant between floors (they track in sand and dirt, and shed hair). I also have dog laundry, and dog dishes. Who would have thought that was a real thing...dog laundry and dishes? It is indeed, with blankets, towels, wash cloths, toys, collars, food and water dishes!
- I have not invested in DNA color testing. I like the surprise when puppies are born. Not only do itty-bitty toes, tails, and ears never grow old, color surprises at birth are exciting.
- I am often asked which litter/puppy is/was my favorite. Answer: Every single litter. My favorite puppy: The one I'm holding right now.
- While my puppies come with basic paper training, do not expect them to be fully house trained before they reach one year. There are exceptions to this generalization, and some new owners are quite adept at house training their puppy. If I have them for a while longer than ten weeks, I begin to crate-train them.
- Your puppy comes up-to-date on vaccinations and worming. My veterinary clinic administers these necessary shots and worm medication at weeks six and eight. I ensure that my puppies have at least two rounds of vaccines and begin at-home worm medication early. It is possible that vet visits may delay shipping by a day or a week, depending on appointment availability. I will not ship within three days of treatment.
- My dogs are free from many of the issues that plague the French Bulldog breed. No serious eye issues, no heart issues, few breathing issues. If a puppy you choose is born with tight nares (sounds like nair-eze), and my vet recommends repair, I will have it taken care of at my expense. Should your puppy develop a hernia and my vet recommends repair, I will do so, again at my expense. Often fatty tissue hernias close up on their own and the vet recommends to let it alone rather than give a puppy needless surgery. I follow vet recommendations. I will not knowingly pass a problem on to you. I believe in transparency, and should something pop-up, I will tell you so. In the event that surgery is recommended, I will not ship within three days of surgery. In the case of hernia repair, I will retain puppy until stitches are removed (seven to ten days), sometimes the vet glues the incision, in that situation it will be three to five days before I will ship.
Breeding Practices
I am not a professional puppy breeder, nor do I pretend to be an expert. I don't know all the answers. Every single litter I learn something new about Frenchie breeding, health, and care. What I am is a person who loves French Bulldogs. This is quite a process. Raising and breeding French bulldogs is expensive, the work and continuing education is never-ending, although for me, it is always, always worth the effort. If you have a Frenchie question that I don't know the answer to, I will happily help you find an answer, my client or not.
My Frenchie puppies are conceived by AI, semen is collected from a donor male and administered to one of my girls by an experienced veterinary clinic that has specialty in Bulldog reproduction. The puppies are whelped by c-section. Frenchies are a man-assisted breed that have heads and shoulders too large to easily whelp naturally. While I have had girls in the past that had absolutely no difficulty whelping naturally, when a dam cannot do so it puts her life and that of her entire litter in peril. It is not worth the risk.
I work hard to make sound breeding choices with the goal of keeping each successive generation healthy with the fewest occurrences of common Frenchie problems. Whenever possible, I keep in contact with my clients so that I have knowledge of their health as the puppies age, and an alert to potential problems. I have recently learned about OFA testing and am working toward having all of my breeding dogs tested. To date, Nic, Poppy, and Amber have been tested and certified as no evidence of patellar luxation and no evidence of congenital heart disease. A couple still need scheduled. My youngest are not old enough to test. I do not sell to brokers, pet stores, or anyone who might resell my dog. I reserve the right to say "no" to any who I believe does not meet my preferred criteria.
My Frenchie puppies are conceived by AI, semen is collected from a donor male and administered to one of my girls by an experienced veterinary clinic that has specialty in Bulldog reproduction. The puppies are whelped by c-section. Frenchies are a man-assisted breed that have heads and shoulders too large to easily whelp naturally. While I have had girls in the past that had absolutely no difficulty whelping naturally, when a dam cannot do so it puts her life and that of her entire litter in peril. It is not worth the risk.
I work hard to make sound breeding choices with the goal of keeping each successive generation healthy with the fewest occurrences of common Frenchie problems. Whenever possible, I keep in contact with my clients so that I have knowledge of their health as the puppies age, and an alert to potential problems. I have recently learned about OFA testing and am working toward having all of my breeding dogs tested. To date, Nic, Poppy, and Amber have been tested and certified as no evidence of patellar luxation and no evidence of congenital heart disease. A couple still need scheduled. My youngest are not old enough to test. I do not sell to brokers, pet stores, or anyone who might resell my dog. I reserve the right to say "no" to any who I believe does not meet my preferred criteria.
Why I have both CKC and AKC Registered Frenchies
Abbreviated version: My first female Frenchie was CKC registered. I did not know then that AKC does not recognize some registries. Rather than sell her, I decided to work with what I had. That girl was beautiful, though not quite up to AKC Standards. She was long, tall, and had fine bones. The male I bred to was AKC registered, of European descent with champion bloodlines (Osage Plains Chip Off The Blue Block of DBG>Chip's sire: Shark Dragon), heavy in head, shoulders, and bone structure. I kept the very best puppy (Matilda) out of her litters. Matilda is beautiful. Heavy in muscle, bone, a beautifully marked coat, a nicely proportioned head with heavy nose ropes and a bit longer nose (shorter than her dam's, less smooshed than her sire's). Her body is shorter in both length and height than her parents. Her weight is heavier than standard. She has a winning personality and demeanor. I kept two of Matilda's daughters as I lost that beautiful pied male. Holly and Jasmine are heavier than AKC standard. I breed to smaller males that are AKC registered. While this line has always been a healthy one, it continues to improve and becomes more AKC standard with each successive generation. I often have non-standard colors with this line, but I rather like that aspect, and have found that this happens even in my AKC registered line. My family and many that I have met prefer the larger dogs and do not understand why I try to keep the offspring lower than 36 pounds.
When I was ready to add another line, I hunted for over two years to find a female that was healthy, had AKC champion blood lines, was AKC registered, and had the color I wanted, red fawn with a black mask. When I found my Dixie, I was delighted. She was standard in every way and very healthy until her last litter. Unfortunately I lost her to eclampsia. She produced four fine litters of puppies with three different males. I reserved the best puppies of her litters for future breeding. She was my constant companion and she had an especially-for-me happy dance that she performed whenever I returned home. She took part of my heart with her and I continue to miss her.
When I was ready to add another line, I hunted for over two years to find a female that was healthy, had AKC champion blood lines, was AKC registered, and had the color I wanted, red fawn with a black mask. When I found my Dixie, I was delighted. She was standard in every way and very healthy until her last litter. Unfortunately I lost her to eclampsia. She produced four fine litters of puppies with three different males. I reserved the best puppies of her litters for future breeding. She was my constant companion and she had an especially-for-me happy dance that she performed whenever I returned home. She took part of my heart with her and I continue to miss her.
About Myself as a Breeder
I fell in love with Frenchies as a breed when I met my Mom's dogs. She had been breeding dogs for several years and had just started breeding Frenchies. As a die hard cat lover, I really didn't want another dog, after years of having German Shepherd size and mess...the shedding was awful. So when my Mom wanted me to start breeding dogs I firmly said, "no thank you". Later she found out she had cancer and didn't want to sell all her dogs, but could not care for them while taking chemo. She asked me to take her boy to temporarily care for, then her girl, in exchange for a puppy later. I wanted no part of either, but could not deny her this request. Ugh! I fell in love with her Frenchies and now I have several of my own. Mom's newest male lived permanently here with me until his death. I think it has been about six years now since I began doing this. Mom is in remission, has moved in with my sister, and is doing fairly well. I am a stay-at-home wife and mom of a college age son. Frenchies are now my thing full-time. I am free to be there for Mom when my sister has to travel for work, or if Mom or my sister need me. What began as a circumstantial necessity is, happily now, a labor of love.
How to Train a Puppy
Wouldn't it be wonderful if our pets came with a one-size-fits-all instruction manual for training? I do have a few tricks up my sleeve and can help with a few things that work for me. However, I find the toughest part of pet training is human consistency. Our repetition of the same actions can teach our pets about consequences. Have you seen the Frenchies skateboarding on Instagram? How about those that do other unusual (for dogs) things? My guess is that their human does those things as well. You do not need to shout at them, they can hear quite well but are generally quite skilled at the "ignore the human" mode. Frenchies can be stubborn, you might even think yours is as dumb as a box of rocks, find what motivates yours, and you can teach them. Frenchies are intelligent, observant, and love human interaction, I talk to mine like they are another human. I begin this while they are tiny puppies and they respond. I know they have understanding of at least a few of my words, and I am convinced that tone of voice is completely understood. TREAT always gets a response, mine know that sit and treat work together, no sit, no treat. When training, I find that many Frenchies are food motivated. We buy the mini-sized treats* or break larger treats into a smaller size. My son uses hand commands, and those work for him. Frenchies like human laughter, they can give high-fives, and they can be obedient. For example: mine are not allowed on the furniture unless invited.
*We know that all treats are not created with the health of our precious pets uppermost in the manufacturers code of ethics. There are a couple of things to consider when purchasing treats: ingredients and place of manufacture. Because of recommendations or concerns about soy, corn, glycerin, and products not manufactured in the USA, I now check all my ingredient labels and look for the origin stamp. Some items are "distributed by" US companies in the USA, but not manufactured here. I came across this eye-opening video when searching for something else. Some of my Frenchies like apple, pear, or broccoli chunks (sans peel), others like baby carrots, cooked green beans, and others consider anything that hits the floor a treat and is fair game. Check to see if your pet food has recalls, or sign up here for recall alerts notification. The FDA also maintains a recall database, find it here. Do you make your own pet treats? You may share your recipe here.
Unfortunately, we must often look for alternative answers when training our pets. I find it's best to look to trusted sources for answers. One source is the AKC library of articles on puppy training, the search on the AKC website provided over 4,000 results. A Google search provides 405 million results! When you get to your desired hunting ground, narrow your search to more specific terms. :) Perhaps you need more help than I can offer with crate training, toilet training, or when your puppy is showing signs of anxiety disorder, it is likely that someone somewhere has written about it.
*We know that all treats are not created with the health of our precious pets uppermost in the manufacturers code of ethics. There are a couple of things to consider when purchasing treats: ingredients and place of manufacture. Because of recommendations or concerns about soy, corn, glycerin, and products not manufactured in the USA, I now check all my ingredient labels and look for the origin stamp. Some items are "distributed by" US companies in the USA, but not manufactured here. I came across this eye-opening video when searching for something else. Some of my Frenchies like apple, pear, or broccoli chunks (sans peel), others like baby carrots, cooked green beans, and others consider anything that hits the floor a treat and is fair game. Check to see if your pet food has recalls, or sign up here for recall alerts notification. The FDA also maintains a recall database, find it here. Do you make your own pet treats? You may share your recipe here.
Unfortunately, we must often look for alternative answers when training our pets. I find it's best to look to trusted sources for answers. One source is the AKC library of articles on puppy training, the search on the AKC website provided over 4,000 results. A Google search provides 405 million results! When you get to your desired hunting ground, narrow your search to more specific terms. :) Perhaps you need more help than I can offer with crate training, toilet training, or when your puppy is showing signs of anxiety disorder, it is likely that someone somewhere has written about it.