Why does a French bulldog cost so much?

The market is flooded with French bulldog puppies for sale from just over $1,000 to upwards of $100,000. But why? If all French bulldog puppies are basically the same, shouldn’t they all be the same price?

Let’s break down the various factors that determine your puppy’s price so you can make the most informed decision when purchasing your puppy.

Lineage

The dam’s (mother’s) and sire’s (father’s) lineage is the most influential factor in your puppy’s health, lifespan, quality of life, and ultimately price. The French bulldog was derived from the English bulldog, bred to its current standards in France, then popularized in America. Relatively speaking, it’s a newer breed. Although humans began selectively breeding dogs thousands of years ago, the French bulldog only came into its own in the 1890s. Compared to other breeds, like the English bulldog, the breed’s relatively short age makes it more susceptible to inbreeding and unethical breeding.

Your puppy’s health and happiness will be deeply dependent on whether your breeder and the breeders before them (and so on) put the effort and financial investment into selectively choosing breeding pairs who result in strong, happy, healthy puppies. Not only should your breeder judge a dam or sire by their appearance, but also by its genetics and lineage.

With the breed’s recent rise to America’s favorite dog, new French bulldog breeders are entering the market daily who, despite their best intentions and unequivocal love for the breed, aren’t equipped to evaluate whether a given dog should be bred. Two French bulldogs that appear perfect in every way when they’re young can produce a litter with significant health issues that manifest throughout the dog’s life, reducing the Frenchie’s quality of life and costing you additional thousands of dollars.

Breeding

Another significant factor in your puppy’s price is how many litters the dam (mother) is expected to birth throughout her lifetime. Low cost, volume breeders will impregnate the dam every heat cycle (roughly every 7 months) from before she turns one until her death- without giving her time to fully recover between litters. These unethical practices create long term health issues for your puppy. When choosing a breeder, we highly recommend asking how many litters the dam has had, and the amount of time she’s given between those litters. Although a female dog can become pregnant from the time she’s 6-7 months old until the end of her life, not only does constant breeding put the dam’s life in danger, but can result in the following issues for your puppy:

• Increased chances of respiratory issues- especially in French bulldogs and other flat-faced breeds

• Hip dysplasia

• eye problems and potentially blindness

• ear problems and potentially deafness

Good breeders will not allow the dam to get pregnant until her second heat, and put the dam’s health first, only allowing her to have 1-3 litters in her lifetime.

We also recommend asking what happens to the dam after she’s birthed her last litter. Is she sold off? Put out to pasture? Or is she a cherished member of the family? How a breeder treats the dam tells you a lot about how they’ve treated your puppy.

Whelping

Another factor that greatly increases a puppy’s price is the care and attention given to it from birth until they come home with you. Were extensive financial, physical, and temporal resources devoted to nurturing a healthy and well-socialized litter? Was the litter left alone most of the time? How many litters were competing for the breeder’s attention? Were the puppies whelped in the breeder’s house? Or somewhere with poor heat control like a garage? Another question to ask is whether the breeder whelped the litter themselves. Many breeders outsource the whelping, sending the dam off when she’s close to giving birth, and getting her and the puppies back when its time to sell them.

One element that prospective puppy owners may often undervalue, yet is of immense importance, is the amount of time breeders spend interacting with the puppies during the whelping process. Remember- these are babies! When they cry at night, good breeders will not only be within earshot, but attend to their needs around the clock, resulting in a healthy and well socialized puppy.

Birth

French bulldogs generally have difficultly not only getting pregnant- hence the popularity of artificial insemination- but also giving birth. The puppies large heads and relatively broad shoulders can easily get stuck in the dam’s vaginal canal. An ethical breeder will have the pups delivered via a scheduled c-section for the mother’s health as a stuck puppy can mean death for the puppy as well as the dam. However, given the high costs of c-sections (up to $8,000), many cost-sensitive breeders will plan for a natural birth and hope for the best.

Traits

Coat coloring and fur length is a hot topic in the Frenchie world, with certain coats trending each year. This year, the fluffy is all the rage.

Nutrition

Just like in humans, the quality of the dam’s and your puppy’s nutrition cannot be understated while the dam is pregnant, nursing, and as the puppies wean off of her milk and onto solid food. The results of poor nutrition, heavily processed foods, low quantities of vitamins and minerals may not be evident when you take your puppy home, but will result in poorer health over the dog’s lifespan.