My French Bulldog – 1 Year Later
so this is totally no and he is my 18
month old boy french bulldog he’s very
sweet very loving he loves every single
person and every single dog that he
meets and he wants to play with all of
them he sheds like crazy even with
allergy medicine baths and regular
brushing he has trouble breathing
because of his short snout and his
elongated palate and he is my favorite
dog that I’ve ever had
there’s just something about French
bulldogs that are just so amazing their
breed is extremely loving extremely kind
and extremely playful their
personalities are bigger than life they
think they’re a big dog even though
they’re a small dog we actually we went
to a Great Dane who would have been up
to here like head to feet and he came
right up to me and totally know and
toward Alena was like hey you’re another
dog great I don’t know how big you are
I don’t know how small I am he doesn’t
care he’s just a very sweet dog and so
we’ve had about 18 no 16 months now we
got him when he was 2 months old we went
to this breeder down near San Diego and
picked him out about a month or two
before we went and actually open it well
two months old okay so a month before we
actually got him and we picked him out
of the litter and I don’t know why we
were just kind of drawn to this one we
knew we wanted a boy we thought that
he’d be more playful than a girl and
he’s definitely very playful but we we
chose a boy and we came back to get him
and we brought him home and it was all
love and happiness until the first night
that we went to sleep we put him in a
separate area because he was seemed like
he was pumping a lot we didn’t know if
that was just a puppy or whatever but we
put him in an area by himself and we
okay I guess he’s out of here and we
went and went to sleep and we wanted to
be really sure that we started out early
making sure that he was in a separate
room that
he wouldn’t sleep in the bed with us we
put him separate when we went to bed and
I was woken up at midnight from him
crying which apparently was supposed to
be normal separated from his litter for
the first time sleeping by himself can
be a scary thing so I went out and I you
know I held them and I pet him until he
went back to sleep and I put him back in
his bed and then he started crying again
and again then he woke me up so many
times that night and he would continue
to wake me up in the middle of the night
for months it turns out we took him to
his first vet visit and they did a stool
sample on him because he was pooping a
lot and he had two kinds of parasites
coxa Phyllis and Giardia Cox Phyllis is
pretty easy to get rid of they have a
little liquid taste like chicken he
loved it that was cleared up right away
but the Giardia took a very long time to
get rid of almost a year and I’m not
gonna go into too much detail about what
we went through getting rid of it but my
wife has a video detailing what we did
and the medications that ended up
finally getting rid of the parasites in
him and allowed him be a happy healthy
pup so having a French Bulldog for 18
months you learn a lot first of all
about having your own dog I always had
dogs in my family growing up but they
were really you know family dogs my
parents did a lot of the work our
housekeeper took care of them when we
weren’t there when it’s just you taking
care of the dog you and you know maybe
your spouse or girlfriend if you’re you
know lucky enough to have someone to
share it with it’s a lot of work there’s
a lot of things you don’t think about
when you’re thinking about getting your
first dog that’s your dog such as how
much it costs to feed him how much time
you’re gonna put into walking him
picking up after him bathing him and you
know we don’t we don’t take him to a
groomer or anything like that because
you know you can do it at home it’s free
it’s almost you know it’s very cheap you
buy a big bottle of the dog shampoo
online chewie or something
and you just clean him once a week every
other week once a month even some dog
owners are that lucky unfortunately our
dog he you know he tends to smell he
loves to run around the grass and roll
around in it and
you know he picks up some sense when
he’s doing that some points that I want
to make about the fact that French
bulldogs are very high maintenance more
so than almost any other dog and I knew
that going into it but I didn’t realize
just how much it was and so just to
highlight a couple things that we’ve had
specific to him being a French Bulldog
one he has allergies really bad
allergies and we just noticed them one
day when he was about three or four
months old he woke up one morning and he
was covered in hives and we thought oh
we just got him a new bed a night or two
before maybe that’s what caused it maybe
he has heat hives or something and we
tried a new bed no difference we thought
oh maybe it’s his food so we tried a
different food no difference we’ve
actually tried a lot of foods for him
again related to the Giardia but didn’t
matter any food we put him on he’s still
had hives and it just turns out what our
vet told us is that Bulldogs don’t have
a full derma layer that protects against
allergens so they’re very susceptible to
allergens on their skin than any other
breed and so for that reason we’ve
actually had to be getting him it’s
called site appoints this allergy
medicine to give him a shot we’ve been
havin to get that for him for once a
month for you know as basically since
he’s been old enough to get it so maybe
a year now anyhow he’s um he has very
strong allergies and I mean I have
allergies tun where we live in Southern
California there’s a lot of allergies
and so you know I kind understand but
it’s a lot of work we’re talking about
putting him on this one a day pill
instead supposedly it’s supposed to be
more effective than the shots we’ll let
you know how that works out but yeah
we’ve also tried a lot of foods for him
high-fiber foods all these cables have
so much fiber in them because they want
to make sure that it passes through the
dog right but for little dogs like it
just passes through so fast anyhow
having a high fiber food it’s really
hard to get them to have regular stools
and so we’re trying actually switches
food again
something that actually has slightly
lower fiber than what he has right now
but it’s a different formulation and I
could do a whole video about dog food
and
you know what is healthy and not healthy
and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah
and let’s just be real something that
you start to realize is you have to take
care of someone or something else is
that you’re basically going to feed them
or do for them whatever makes them the
most comfortable and have the best life
and you may have a personal stereotype
about grain-free or flour or rice or you
know lentils or whatever it is and you
think that something is healthy or not
healthy and the truth is I’ve read
things that say things in both
directions who that are both paid for by
companies that lobby for these things
and at this point I just I kind of give
up I just I’m gonna find whatever food
works for him and I’m just gonna keep
him on it as long as he doesn’t show any
signs of getting sick and that’s a tough
decision to make you know the thing
about having a dog that is your own is
that you are fully responsible for
taking care of it and man everyone is
going to be super stoked to tell you how
you are raising your dog incorrectly and
how you were doing things wrong and how
oh he nibbles too much it’s because
you’re not training him how not to bite
or oh he’s very needy it’s because
you’ve made him needy and blah blah blah
you know what entirely possible you know
what else it’s my dog just know that
you’re gonna be raising this dog and
like part of your job is to make sure
that he is happy he is fairly healthy he
has some regular exercise and that if he
has problems you go and you know try to
deal with them sort of the big problem
that a lot of French bulldogs pugs and
English bulldogs have are their noses
their breathing they have obstructed
brachial phallic faces I don’t know but
basically because they’re bred with
shorter noses their Airways are
constricted because it’s a lot tighter
than normal dog works out and their
palate on the roof gets shoved into the
back of their throat because this now is
short normally it’s longer so all that
extra skin has to go somewhere
and in the case of our dog he has severe
stenosis of the nares Ordinaries which
means that basically his pathways on his
nose are
completely blocked you can see that his
nose is very hard for him to breathe
it’s very hard for him to breathe mm-hmm
but he makes the best of it because he
is the best personality we’re actually
having surgery for him this week they’re
going to remove part of the Nerys on his
nose so that his no his nose is open he
can breathe and they’re also gonna
remove part of the the palate that’s
sticking down to his trachea it’s it’s
literally like imagine you have your
your throat and you breathe through it
just try right now it feels pretty good
right now imagine you had your tongue
flipped over backwards into your throat
blocking the air coming down to your
pathway it’s a lot harder to breathe and
that is literally how these dogs breathe
all the time every day and I’ve had a
lot of people tell me oh don’t get the
surgery if you can help it
especially the breeder recommended that
we don’t have any surgery because
surgery’s in general raised the
likelihood of accidental death or scar
tissue and stuff forming later in life
but honestly the benefits of the
surgeries so far outweigh the cons that
we believe it’s worth having it done
there are so many Frenchie owners who
have talked about at the life-changing
difference that the surgery has had for
their dog and that if they could do it
again they’d do it again in a second now
it’s that effect some people actually
have had to have the surgery done twice
because the surgeon that they found the
first time didn’t do didn’t take enough
of the palate out or didn’t remove
enough of the Nerys we feel pretty good
about the surgeon that we found we
actually got to meet one of the dogs
that she performed on before had very
clear open nose ways was not making a
lot of noise she’s shown his pictures of
the before and after of the palate
removal it’s really incredible I mean
she just owns her work and I love that
so we’re really excited to see how this
works out for him also he’s getting his
balls snipped goodbye and
yeah hopefully after this you won’t need
any other surgeries until you know
possibly late in life but hopefully none
ever would be nice but you know this dog
is he’s a dog he’s a medium-sized dog we
have an apartment too good size for us
we can take him for little walkies and
he gets tired out pretty quickly
hopefully he’ll last a little longer
once he’s had his surgery done but he’s
great he’s very loving he loves to be
around people he loves to be around
other dogs I bring him to the office
with me a couple times a week everyone’s
happy to see him he’s very sweet
overall what I recommend a French
Bulldog I mean you have to understand
first of all they are an expensive dog
we paid several thousand dollars for
ours they’re gonna cost you a lot of
money and you know the inevitable
stenotic Neri surgery you’re gonna have
to have for them at least another two
thousand plus dollars some places we’re
talking about charging four to five
thousand dollars for his surgery which
is just insane
and the health insurance that it won’t
it won’t cover it so that’s no good we
do have insurance for him I just I know
my parents spent a lot of money on late
life care for their dogs and I just
figure if I start now I can have a lower
rate and even if I put that money aside
in a savings account over the years he
could easily have ten or twenty thousand
dollars worth of our end-of-life care
and stuff like that I know some people
would just say off my dog needs a hip
replacement I just put him down but you
know he’s he really feels like part of
the family to me and I want to do what I
can within reason to allow him to
continue to live a nice life you know I
think that there’s always a point where
you can say like hey you know doing any
more care at this point you’re just
prolonging the inevitable which is that
you know it’s time for him to say
goodbye but you know I want to do what I
can for him to let him have a nice life
because he adds a lot of joy to ours I
mean every time I see him he’s always
happy to see me it’s nice any time other
people see him we see people just light
up their faces smile Oh was that a
Frenchie oh can I pet him just people
love him and
loves people and he’s just he’s like
this awesome little ball of positive
energy that just leaves this great
feeling on everyone that he meets that’s
one of the things I love most about
having him is that he’s just like the
most personable dog I’ve ever known he’s
so cool I really love him
so things I wish I knew when I was
getting a French Bulldog won the AKC
American Kennel Club standard for French
bulldogs is sick and wrong to say the
flatter the face the better is just
absolutely awful they’re encouraging
breeders to make unhealthy dogs so when
you’re looking for a French Bulldog it’s
important that you don’t focus on things
like a KC I know what makes you feel
better about oh he has papers he’s
pedigree bub up that’s all bull what you
should look for is a pretty decent snout
there’s a ruling in the Netherlands
where the snout needs to be 1/3 the
length of the entire circumference of
the head or something weird like that
basically make sure that the like it
fits up against the face that’s bad you
want to stick out at least like 1/4 1/2
inch so that they can breathe well and
they might not need the naree surgery if
you actually get the nose with it a
little bit longer I would have also
possibly tried to rescue one it’s really
hard to rescue them because as soon as
they’re up they they just go right away
but you can ask around find people who
are fostering animals and see if they
ever foster or Frenchie and maybe you
can adopt it from them when they’re done
a co-worker of Mines fostering a
Frenchie right now and she gets to
decide who gets to adopt it
at the end of her foster period and you
know make sure that when you’re getting
one that you’re not in a hurry don’t
don’t make this decision lightly you are
now responsible for this living thing
and it will change your life you know I
have to be aware that there is a living
thing at home that depends on me so if I
go out I have to remember to come back
and walk him feed him give him water
make sure he’s taken care of make sure
that it’s it’s cool enough in the
apartment we don’t have air conditioning
in our apartment so we actually went and
bought a window unit so that he could
have
conditioning in the summer months when
it gets hot here but you know it’s fine
taking home responsibilities it’s a
great thing but just remember that when
you look for a dog try to get her longer
snout if you can see the parents of the
dog possibly in person if possible if
not definitely get pictures because
that’s basically what your dog is gonna
look like is one or both of them
tortellini looks a little bit more like
his mother but he has definitely aspects
of the father as well try not to support
puppy mills if you can help it so if you
like this video please leave a like if
you want to see more if toward lino and
more videos by me please subscribe to my
channel I promise to not flood your
inbox with spam or marketing videos oh
this is not a newsletter is it ok well
make sure to subscribe anyhow and if you
have any questions please leave them
down below totally you know and I will
be happy to answer them for you
see you later
pop kisses
