The French Bulldog

French Bulldogs have dominated America’s purebred scene for several years now. Once again they topped the AKC registration stats for 2021 and there’s no sign of any slowdown there. This triumph is well-deserved, but also surprising. When Labrador Retrievers first took over as the top AKC breed 30 years ago, French Bulldogs were hovering at the bottom of the list, ranked 82nd . The breed began to ascend in popularity in the 1990s, but it didn’t even enter the top ten until 2014. Since then, it’s been a fast climb, jumping to fourth in 2017 and giving the Lab a serious run for the money for a couple of years now.

Celebrity endorsements from the likes of Martha Stewart and Lady Gaga have certainly helped its case, but obviously most of the gratitude for that recognition belongs to the purebred workforce responsible for breeding and presenting this captivating breed to the public. This year’s Westminster RBIS winner, GCHP. Ch. Fox Canyon’s I Won The War At Goldshield has dominated group and all breed rankings for long enough to prove his point and his recent media appearances have only ramped up the red hot demand for this breed. He came into Westminster ranked as the #1 Dog All Breeds and he has owned Non-Sporting for even longer. Winston, we love you. His breeders, owners and handler deserve every accolade for presenting this breathtakingly beautiful, expertly presented dog to the world, which is exactly what this sport is about. Congratulations!

At this point it’s hard to believe that the French Bulldog has been a marginalized, very rare breed for most of its AKC history. Nothing demonstrates that better than the memorable interlude at Westminster 1897 when the internationally lauded Bulldog authority, George Raper, excused every single Bouledogue Francais from his ring. It was not the breed’s finest moment.

Posted by AnthonyA on Oct 23 2022. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.