Another New Member!

[aussieowner]

Hi all French Bulldog lovers, owners, etc!

My husband and I own a 5 month old fawn male and he is often referred to as "our son". We love his little personality and habits. He's as quiet as a mouse when he's in his puppy pen, but is a cheeky little thing as soon as he is allowed out!! We had him desexed last week - which was extremely traumatic (more for me then the dog!!).

Whenever we take him out he always gets lots of attention (which he loves), even at the vets! The vet nurses all cuddle him and give him treats! Obviously, we don't have many french bulldogs where i live in Australia!!

Love the forum and can't wait to read all about other peoples little Frenchies!

aussieowner

[Carolyn]

Welcome!!! It is wonderful having so many new members here. We live in southern California and are owned by two Frenchies...Abby is 3 1/2 yrs old, blk/white and Ferris is our 2 yr old brindle boy. Like you...we don't see many Frenchies here, so we get lots of attention and questions when we are out and about. When we take our two in the car, people stare and smile. :D How can you not smile when looking at a Frenchie? Our life has never been the same since we acquired this breed! Am looking forward to your amusing puppy stories! Carolyn

[adora's mom]

Welcome! Your little guy sounds like quite a character :)

What is his name?

We live in Southern California and don't have many Frenchies in our area (as Carolyn said). Adora certainly attracts plenty of attention wherever we go, which leads to some pretty amusing conversations - but most everyone goes in for the hug & kiss which she is all to happy to provide. :p

The furry portion of our family consists of a 16 wk old brindle Frenchie girl named Adora, a 1 yr old ABPT mix boy named Beckham & 4 cats.

Look forward to seeing more posts from you.

Take care,
Lesley

[aussieowner]

Hi again,

Our little boy is Mac - short for Macintosh. The breeder originally called him Mack and when we saw him we knew we couldn't change it (much)!

The breeder got the name from a truck - "Mack Trucks", because Mac was born in a truck stop - it's quite a sad story actually. One week before Mac's mum was meant to have a caesarian, she started to give birth naturally. So, the breeder quickly attempted to drive to the vets, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time (she lived in a rural area and it was about an hour or so to the vet supposedly).

They stopped in a truck stop, and four puppies were delivered. Unfortunately, only one survived. At the time, there were all these Mack Trucks at the truck stop and so they named the survivor Mack. And that's our boy!! We've slightly changed the spelling of his name and tend to call him Macintosh if he's naughty!!

The breeder told us he is going to be a small boy - he's 5 and a half months and weighs about 15 pounds... so we'll wait and see I suppose!!

Hope I haven't bored you too much!!

aussieowner

[adora's mom]

Nope, not bored at all! That's pretty interesting how he got his name. I'm sorry all the puppies didn't make it though :(

But now I'm really worried! My Adora just turned 4 months yesterday and she is already 15.1 lbs! I may have a giant on my hands... :eek:

[aussieowner]

Hi again,

Sorry I did some recalculation (we use Metric in Australia!!) and Mac's actually around 15.4 pounds. I don't know if that helps. I think Mac is pretty small though?! He doesn't look skinny though... now I'm worried!!!

aussieowner

[adora's mom]

Sorry - didn't mean to alarm you :o

I think Mac sounds just the right size...an old wives tale says to take the dog's weight at 4 months and double it to get the adult weight. That would mean my Adora would be 30 lbs at adult weight! :eek:

Hope that tale proves to be wrong with Adora. I used that method when my APBT mix was 4 months (he was 35 lbs) and he's now 59 lbs. Thank goodness he isn't 70! :)

In any event, sorry if I scared you :rolleyes:

I'm an alarmist! :lol:

Take care,
Lesley

[aussieowner]

Hi again,

We just came home from taking Mac to the vet and he's around 17 pounds now - so all of a sudden he's become hefty!!

He had to have some stiches removed at the vet because he only had one descended testicle. So they had to find the other testicle by making a second incision. Has anyone else come across this with their Frenchie?

He just looked at me with a look that makes me think he knows I'm writing about him!!

aussieowner

[gilazno]

Hello and welcome!! aww poor baby sorry to hear about the undescended testicle :-( from what i just read "this is more common in small breeds and is an inherited trait. For this reason alone
Sometimes the undescended testicle is not active ...apparently it just never developed much"

http://animalpetdoctor.homestead.com/reproduction2.html#anchor_14
hope it helps:-)

[Minky]

Hi Aussieowner,

I am new and from Sydney. Where abouts in Australia are you from? I saw the picture of Mac and he looks so cute. I know what you mean about panicking - When I read information on the Net I would panick if Vuitton and Fitch did not eat the right food, not enough, too much, were too heavy, were too light, were too fat, was not fat enough.

I hope Mac recovers well from the nip.

Minky

[aussieowner]

Hi again!

Minky, I am in Canberra... are there many other French bulldog owners in Sydney that you know of? When I went to the vet yesterday the Veterinary nurse said she had never seen a French Bulldog before Mac... and I've read somewhere there's only an estimated 200 in Australia.

Thanks for the well wishes - I am happy to say that the Vet was extremely happy with Mac's procedure and successfully removed all stiches. What a relief!

Minky, the names for your frenchies are cute!! Where did you come up with them? And speaking of weight and food - what do you feed your frenchies and how big are they?

Sorry for all the questions!!

aussieowner

[Minky]

Hi aussieowner,

Canberra! wow I haven't been there in ages.

I named "Vuitton" (apart from Louis Vuitton) from the dog in one of the books in the "Tales of the City" series. "Vuitton" in the book ran away from it's owner, went missing and no one knew what happened to him. The owner tried to find him through out the book book, calling "Vuitton, Vuitton" and it was at the end that he turned up. I liked the fact that though he was naughty he was loyal to the very end. Vuitton funnily enough is the same, I would have to chase him at the park to take him home. Fitch came from "Abercrombie & Fitch" and sounds like "Stitch" which I think the character was based upon a Frenchie.

I went to a fair on the weekend with the boys and was stopped every two minutes with people asking me what breed of dogs they were. A lot of people asked me what cross from a pug they were. I had to explain that they were french bulldogs. This is indicative of how few Frenchies are in Australia but I think they are becoming more popular. I live in the inner city of Sydney and there are 3 other frenchies at the park I take them.

I assume you had to go on waitlist for Mac. Did you get him flown?

I still have issues with food. In Australia, as you would know there is no pre-made BARF food (that I know of) and most vets recommend premium kibble. Vuitton and Fitch are very fussy (probably my fault because I keep on trying different foods) but I have managed to get them onto Royal Canin Puppy and chicken necks. They will not touch vegetables or rice. As I am about the switch them to adult food I am still trying to find the right food. Royal Canin Puppy has a bit of corn in it so it make them gassy so I am trying Advance Adult which has less corn. What are you feeding Mac?

Great to know I am not the only Aussie in the forum.

As everyone here will tell you, Frenchies are the most amazing dogs.

[behsci]

Hello Everyone!

I don't have a Frenchie yet, but I'm looking to get one ASAP! I'm in southern California and I wish there were more breeders in this area.

I joined this board because I hope to get a lot of good info as well as have an idea of what to do and not do so when I get my Frenchie, I don't make the same mistakes others may have made.

I'm on the internet practically everyday and a day can't go by w/o me looking up something that has to do w/ Frenchies. I'm quickly getting very hooked! They seem to be a fascinating breed and I can't wait to have one in my home.

Bye

[franp]

Hi Minky and Aussie Owner,

I know it is not "around the corner" but New Zealand is near you. There is a breeder there; Chrishell that posts on a list here.

One day I will get to Australia to dive; that is one of my passions.

Even here in NYC,where there are many Frenchies, people do not know what they are. Sometimes people will argue and tell me I have a badly bred pug :eek:

Or a miny pit bull :rolleyes: After 5 years, I have just about given up.The less people know about our dogs the better ;)

[aussieowner]

Hi again,

I wrote a long reply yesterday and I lost it all! Oh well... I'll try remember everything I was writing about.

franp - I've heard of a few NZ breeders and Chrishell sounds familiar. When we were looking into getting a french bulldog we had to go on many waiting lists and at one stage I considered looking overseas to NZ and found their website.

We were on waiting lists galore in the hope that one of the breeders would have an available puppy for us! We waited over 8 months and heard nothing! Then one day, I entered "french bulldog puppy" in google in Australia and found an advertisement online for a male fawn french bulldog. It just so happened that the breeder had posted the advertisement less then 12 hours earlier. I gathered someone would have already enquired about the puppy and put it on hold, but we were in luck!!

I look back on how we got Mac now and think that we were crazy!! I was fully aware of the problems French Bulldogs can have, but didn't stop to consider that because we wanted the puppy so bad. However, as soon as we found out the puppy was available I did all the correct things, asking about parents and problems, etc... Luckily for us, he was fine, and the breeder insisted on a vet check (amongst other things) before she put him on the plane to Canberra!! When we met Mac for the first time, we had only ever seen a digital photo of him!!

Did other people have similar waits to acquire puppies?

What I did find interesting, however, was that the day we decided to get Mac we got an email from a breeder whose waiting list we had been on telling us they had an available 8 week puppy!!! When it rains it pours!!!

How about other owners - did they wait a long time?

In regards to food - we feed Mac Science Diet. When we first got him the breeder had him on Lucky Dog (i.e. the stuff you buy in the supermarket)!! She did this so we could buy it easily and so we didn't just change his diet straight away. I didn't like this at all however, and within a week of getting him we slowly changed him over to Science Diet. When he was on Lucky Dog kibble he didn't like to eat, he would just eat a few bits and leave it for a while and then eat a few more. After the change to Science Diet he literally just inhales his food!! Here we thought we had a dog who just wasn't that into eating, but were we wrong!! We don't feed him any "human food" and we give him doggy treats and puppy dentabones. We haven't given him a fresh bone yet, but it is something we are considering.

Mac's not fussy because he doesn't get much choice, but he does seem to be very happy with the Science Diet Puppy Bites.

Actually, I have a funny story - when we took him to puppy socialisation all the owners of the puppies have treats with them. We took a variety of doggy treats which Mac loves, but other people had thinks like sandwich meats and dried fruit and even stale cereal!! Dog owners would give treates not just to their puppy but to others as well. I can recall Mac been given some chicken sandwich meat and he just spat it out. It's like he doesn't like "human food"!

Anyway, enough talking from me... sorry for the long winded post

aussieowner

[franp]

Sounds like you lucked out :cool: And 8 weeks is WAY too young for a Frenchie to be leaving home anyway.

Your breeder sounds like a good one.

My Dari was a picky eater as well. UNTIL I switched to raw. But if your guy is happy with his food, then go for it. appicon

Love long winded replies!!

[Minky]

Behsci, I know you have heard it before but it is worth the wait. It is better that you get a puppy from a good breeder. I know it is hard to be patient but hang on in there.

Aussieowner, like you I was wait listed for almost a year. I had sent everyone an email and was told to wait. A lot of the breeders didn't even respond. I also looked for breeders in New Zealand and was even contemplating importing from the US. I was going crazy with the waiting, was checking the Net everyday and thought I was never going to get one. I had also done all the research on the breed. I looked on Petlink and there was a litter for sale so I put my name down for a pup. I asked the breeder to send me pictures, she said she would but she didn't do it. After three weeks of waiting for the pictures, caling her and not getting any pictures, I knew something was wrong and thought if I had ever had a problem, she would not be responsive. So I sent a reminder email to the breeders I had wrote to and luckily, Vuitton was available. In hindsight, I was VERY LUCKY because Vuitton came from a reputable breeder. Vuitton's breeder has been great. He truly cares for the pups and we correspond regulary. I keep him updated with pictures.

With Fitch, I was looking for a fawn to keep Vuitton company (I now know colour should not be a test when buying a Frenchie). I used to leave Vuitton with my mother during the day when I am at work and picked him up after work. I thought having another one would mean I can leave them alone during the day.

I looked on Petlink, I think remember seeing Mac advertised. By the time I responded the breeder told me he had been sold. I then found Fitch. The breeder again was very helpful and sent me many pictures. He was flown in from Queensland, however I think if there is a next time, I would get a puppy that I have seen rather than just see from pictures. The rest is history and my plans of leaving them alone when I am at work has not worked out because they are both at my mother's during the day. Grandma doesn't mind because she loves them to bits.

I know one is supposed to check the breeder, see the pups, get guarantees etc but in Australia, you do not have that luxury.

Yes, I have received emails from those breeders I had wrote to telling me they have puppies available.

Fran, I agree with you.. I know it is sort of selfish but I'd rather that Frenchies not be popular and common - that makes them unique. They are not a easiest dogs to have own to their health problems and not suited to everyone. I would hate to see hundreds of them in pounds like a lot of the other breeds. As for diving, Australia is surrounded to sea and I know it is very popular in Queensland. Some of my friends however said SE Asia is also great for diving.

Minky

[franp]

Frenchies do NOT have to have health problems. Dari ( and many I know ) are very healthy. That comes from GREAT breeding;health testing and a breeder who knows what he is doing.

There is this myth that Frenchies have these problems. Well that comes from the dogs that people buy from puppymillers; importers and backyard breeders because they cannot/will not wait for a dog from a reputable breeder.

As for buying a dog from pictures; most of us here in America do it that way. There are breeders that have wonderful reputations and we buy from them. They are not close. People come to see my dog because they have heard of her breeder and want a dog from him. His reputation preceeds him..

[aussieowner]

Well Mac is only 5 and a half months old, and touch wood he'll stay this way, but he's seems really healthy and robust. When I read of the problems associated with Frenchies, I keep thinking how lucky we must be to have Mac. If I hadn't done any research into Frenchies before acquiring one i would have never thought French Bulldogs could be problematic!!

But then again, it appears that in Australia they are pretty good with the whole breeding philosophy. Maybe I just have interacted with good breeders, who knows.

What I am wanting to know is how people stop their french bulldogs from being little cheeky devils!! Does anyone know the best way to teach a French Bulldog to calm down!! Like a canine Time Out?!!?!?

aussieowner

[quinnybear]

just reading what you said about the weight of your pup. our rocky had his last vet visit almost 2 weeks ago and he weighed 10 pounds. he is healthy, rambuncious. and not on the skinny side at all. he is just small in stature. we have had him a month . we took him to our vet the day after he arrived. he weighed 6 pounds then. so he has gained a pound a week. maybe he will just be on the smaller side . :confused:

[quinnybear]

i forgot to add that he is four months old. :lol:

[Martina]

Mine went through a faze where they just about gained a pound a week. Lola's now about 22/3lbs, Gigi's 25lbs and they seem to be holding.