Miniature French Bull Terrier

The Miniature French Bull Terrier is an intentionally crossbred dog, a combination of the French Bulldog, a small companion animal and watchdog that was favored by English makers of lace in the mid 1800s, and the Miniature Bull Terrier, a compact version of the Bull Terrier, first bred as a fighting dogs, then as a “Gentleman’s Companion”. The French Bulldog is believed to be the descendant of the English Bulldog of the 1800s, designed to be a smaller, lighter variety of Bulldog to be employed as a companion animal and a watchdog. These dogs became especially popular with artisans and lace-makers who later moved to northern France during the Industrial Revolution. Once in France, their popularity exploded and fanciers of this breed began to develop a more uniform breed; like the French Bulldog of today, they were characterized by straight legs, and a compact body, with a slightly undershot jaw, but at the time either rose or bat ears were acceptable. A new breed standard was drawn up by the French Bulldog Club of America during the tail end of the 1800s, specifying the bat-eared trait. The breed remained rather rare until the 1980s when they began to enjoy another rise in popularity due to their suitability for urban life. The Bull Terrier’s original ancestors are very similar to the ancestors of the Pit or Staffordshire Bull Terrier and the Bull Terrier of the 1800s not only had a similar body structure, but it also had a head shape that was somewhat similar to these related dogs, rather than the distinct arched skull shape that is devoid of a stop that we see in modern Bull Terriers and Miniature Bull Terriers. At the time, they could be distinguished from these other breeds instead by their trademark white coloration instead, but problems that were genetically linked to color, such as deafness, encouraged breeders to begin adding dogs with different colorations as well. Although the Bull Terrier was recognized by the AKC in 1885, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that the first dog with the characteristic egg-shaped head was born. In 1991 the American Kennel Club recognized the Miniature Bull Terrier, a variety of Bull Terrier that is, on average, around half the size of the modern Standard Bull Terrier.