Do I breed blue French Bulldogs?
The demand for French Bulldog puppies is high. In my kennel anyway, so I guess that’s also the case in other French Bulldog kennels. The demand for blue pups is also very high. Very tricky, because it pushes the price up, even for Frenchies without a pedigree, so the breeder has no clue of the background of the parents and therefore of the puppies. At this moment, the parents of a blue puppy can have a pedigree, but not the puppy itself. When you have no breeding plans, that’s not a problem.The pedigree is most important to the breeder, so he or she knows which ancestors are in the bloodlines, in order to prevent too much inbreeding. Colors like blue (dark grey), chocolate (dark brown), lilac (light grey) and merle (spots) are not acknowledged by the Dutch Kennel Club, so it’s not possible to take these dogs to a show.
There’s a lot of criticism on breeders of blue French Bulldogs. Many breeders of the standard colors really hate breeders of blue Frenchies or any other non standard color, for that matter. It’s being said that the gene which causes the color to be blue, also causes several diseases. Personally, I wouldn’t want to say that. It just doesn’t seem logical, if you know a little bit about genetics. If I would have blue French Bulldogs, I would have them turned inside out medically, before I would use them for breeding, just like I do with my own Frenchies, who all have a standard color.
I don’t breed blue French Bulldogs, but that might very well change. If you don’t make selections on color like me, of course you can pchoose blue dogs from medically screened parents and have them screened themselves before breeding.I do think that as a breeder, I can’t afford myself to select my breeding dogs only by their color. There are enough problems as it is right now. On the other hand, there are also breeders who select their breeding dogs by their flat face or cobby look and hardly test their dogs’health. I don’t know what is worse. The average price for blue (or other non standard colors) is very high, which I think is really bad, but i’ve also noticed that the price of standard colored dogs has gone to a very high level. I have been looking around a lot lately and if I want to buy a good blue puppy from a reliable breeder, it’ll cost me a huge amount of money. I the world of breeders I’ve seen amounts of more than € 10.000 for a puppy. As you can read on this website, it also means a big risk, because I’m quite strict when it comes to health, no matter if they were expensive.
From January 1rst. 2016, the Dutch Kennel Club has decided not to give out pedigrees for the non-acknowledged colors. Until recently, pups with these colors did get a pedigree, but people weren’t allowed to show them; they could breed them. Much better if you ask me, because at least breeders were able to find out what they were doing when the dogs had an FCI pedigree. That can be quite handy if you’re a breeder. So now it’s impossible and breeders have to use the Arfe pedigrees again, which anybody can get their hands on. Such a ‘pedigree’ has less value, because people can mess with them. Actually, I’m not sure if all FCI pedigrees are that reliable when I think of all the breeders who would buy a few cheap puppies from Eastern Europe and put them in the litter they had. These puppies would get the same pedigree as their ‘sibblings’, but this wasn’t right of course. Nowadays, we get a DNA profile here, so you’ll know that the parents of the puppies are actually the parents. This never is the case with puppies who don’t have an FCI pedigree.
Until recently, some ‘breeders’would simply buy a bunch of puppies from Eastern Europe and put them in a litter they had of their own female. They would get pedigrees for all puppies and nobody would know. With FCI pedigrees, this has become impossible, but it’s still possible with other pedigrees. I don’t understand why our Kennel Club had decided this. On their website it says that they suspect that the blue or other non-standard colors can bring along health problems. So it’s all based on a suspicion, nothing more. It has never been proved. If those puppies would have an FCI pedigree, I would love to have one. Not for their color, but for the genes we need so badly. The gene pool of the French Bulldog is small, way too small to exclude such a large group of possibly healthy dogs, only based on a ‘suspicion’. Actually, the blue color in French bulldogs has always been there. There have been times though, when breeders would simply drown or break the puppy’s neck when they have them in their litters. Really too horrible to think about, but it happened. The color ‘merle’ did come from crossbreeding with another breed.
I would be so happy if they’d think of something that would really be good for the breed. Make medical testing obligatory, for example. At least, as a buyer of a puppy with FCI pedigree, you’ll be certain your puppy would come from healthy parents. Now thát would be great!
Our Abby is a blue fawn pied female with FCI pedigree. We’ve imported her from the UK. Sadly I won’t breed her, because during her medical screening she turned out to have some serious deformities in her spine. This is something that has nothing to do with her colour, because our little red fawn Roxy also has problems with her spine and neither of them will be used for breeding.
