Physical characteristics

 

The French Bulldog is a small and compact dog, but well proportioned and powerful. It has the head and square muzzle, flattened and retracted nose, dark eyes, rounded ears and "bat ears" with a short neck and without dewlap. His expression is always lively, very friendly and with particular aesthetic features, which turns into an almost unique animal. 

The legs are short and massive bones. The chest is wide and its height is 25 to 34 cm at the withers. 

The French Bulldog has a, thick, shiny and soft coat.

The color can vary. Some are uniformly fawn or light brown;  brindle, or with limited white spots (pied or mottled vaquita). All forms of fawn are admissible from red to beige (coffee with milk). 

 

Size and weight: A good specimen should not weigh less than 8 kg nor over 14 size is proportional to the weight.

 

HEAD: very strong, broad and square. The skin way almost symmetrical folds and wrinkles.  The head of the French Bulldog is characterized by a contraction of the jaw with skull has taken up in width that which it has lost in length.

 

CRANIAL REGION 

Skull: Broad, almost flat with very bulging forehead. Superciliary arches prominent, separated by a particularly developed furrow between the eyes. The furrow must not extend onto the forehead. Occipital crest is hardly developed.

 

FACIAL REGION 

Nose: Broad, very short, turned up, well open and symmetrical, slanting backwards nostrils. The inclination of the nostrils as well as the upturned nose must, however, allow a normal nasal breathing.

Muzzle: Broad, very short, with central symmetrical folds coming down on the upper lips (length 1/6 of the total length of the head). 

Lips: Thick, a little loose and black. The upper lip joins uniformly with the bottom, completely covering the teeth which should never be visible. The profile of the upper lip is descending and rounded. 

Jaws: broad, square, and powerful. Lower jaw shows a broad curve, protruding in front of the jaws. With the mouth closed, the prominence of the jaw (undershot) is moderated by the curve of the jaw bones. This curvature is necessary to avoid a too great distance of the jaw. 

Teeth: The lower incisors somehow be behind the upper. The arch of the lower incisors is rounded. The jaw must not show lateral deviation, nor torsion. The removal of the arches of the incisors is not strictly delimited, the essential condition is that the upper and lower lips rejoin to completely cover the teeth. 

Faces: the muscles are well developed, but not prominent. 

Eyes: alert expression, set low, quite far from the nose and especially from the ears , quite big, well round, slightly protruding, dark color apparent without leaving any trace of white (sclera) when the dog is looking straight ahead. The eye rims are black. 

Ears: Medium size, wide at the base and rounded at the tip. Set high head, but not too close together, carried erect. The opening of the acoustic shell is facing forward. The skin is thin and soft to touch. 

 

NECK: Short, slightly arched, without dewlap. 

 

BODY 

Topline: Rising progressively at loin level to slope rapidly towards the tail. This conformation which must be sought after because of short loin. 

Back: Broad and muscular. 

Loin: Short and broad.

Chest: Cylindrical and well let down, ribcage barrel, very rounded. 

Brisket: wide open. 

Belly: Tucked up without being retracted. 

 

TAIL: Short, set low on the rump, close to the buttocks, thick at the base, knotted or kinked naturally and tapering at the tip. Even in motion should be below the horizontal. The relatively long tail (not reaching beyond the point of hock), broken and tapered, is permissible, but not desirable. 

 

MEMBERS PREVIOUS: seen in profile and from the front, upright, parallel and well separated. 

Shoulder: Short, thick, with a firm and visible musculature. 

Arms: short. 

Elbows: work closely fitting to the body. 

Forearm: Short, wide apart, straight and muscular.

Carpals and metacarpals: Solid and short. 

Hindquarters: Strong and muscular, slightly longer than the previous, thus raising the hindquarters. Viewed from behind and from the side, the legs are vertical and parallel. 

Thighs: muscular, firm without being too rounded. 

Hocks: Well let down, or too angulated nor too straight. 

Metatarsals: Solid and short. The French Bulldog should be born without dewclaws. 

 

FEET: The front feet are round, small, called cat feet, well  set on the ground, turning slightly outward. The fingers are very compact, short, thick and well separated nails. Plantar and digital pads are hard, thick and black. In the brindle subjects, the nails must be black. in particoloridos (fawn brindle and white), and tawny, the preference will be for nails dark, without however penalizing the light colored nails. The hind legs are well compact. 

 

MOVEMENT: fluent strides, with members shifting parallel to the median plane of the body. 

 

COAT 

By: Gorgeous by shallow, close, glossy and soft. 

 

COLOR 

• Uniformly fawn, brindled or not, or with limited patching (pied). 

• Fawn brindled or not, with medium or predominant spots. 

 

All the fawn shades are admitted, from the red to the latte. copies  entirely white are classified within the fawn brindle with white markings  predominant. When a dog has a very dark nose, dark eyes  with dark eyelids, a depigmentation of the face may be  exceptionally tolerated in very beautiful subjects. 

 

SIZE / WEIGHT: The weight must not be below 8 kg nor more than 14 pounds; into a bulldog in good condition, size is proportional to the weight. 

 

FAULTS: Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and penalized in exact proportion to its degree. 

• Tightly closed or pinched and chronic snorers. 

• Lips not joining in the front. 

• Depigmentation of the lips. 

• Clear eyes. 

• Dewlap. 

• Tail carried high, too long or abnormally short. 

• Elbows open. 

• Pork hock or placed forward. 

• Past incorrect. 

• For very long. 

• Coat splashed with colors. 

 

SERIOUS FAULTS 

• Incisors visible when mouth closed. 

• Tongue visible when mouth closed. 

• Gait with stiff movements in previous (dog beating drum). 

• Depigmentation on the head, except as provided in the standard fawn brindle with medium and fawn with white spots or patches limited  predominant. 

• Excessive or insufficient weight. 

 

Disqualifications 

• Aggressive or overly shy. 

• Colour of nose other than black.