Ratting Instinct

When I acquired a print depicting a French Bulldog and a small white terrier amongst the straw, you can imagine my disbelief at seeing the brindle Frenchie with a large rat in its jaws! But after delving into the early history of the breed I found evidence of the ratting instinct. The French Bulldog's keenness as a ratter is probably the result of early crossbreeding, where teriers were possibly used to produce the high ears, the terrier blood could also account for high set gay tails and long tails which occasionally make their appearance inb our breed, in particular the long tail which can be seen depicted in some of the early fFenchy postcards. In the book " Bulldogs and All About Them " by Henry John Cooper and revised by F. Barret Fowler in1925, I found this interesting paragraph.

" In the 60's ( 1860's) a vast number of Nottingham lace makers emigrated to Normandy, and Nottingham in those days was the hotbed of Bulldogs, and so it was that when these emigrants were settled, they sent over for the small Bulldogs as pets. No pedigrees were kept and they were simply the lace makers' pals.
Their owners were not particular as to what dogs they mated their bitches, and I have been told that many used three quarter terriers with the object of introducing the ratting instinct into their Bulldogs. That they succeeded in doing so Mr Dick Harrison, who was rhe first to import ther small Bulldogs from France to England some ten years before Mr. Krehl brought some over, assures me that this was a fact, and he had several splendid fFench bulldog rat-catchers. Mr. J Posnoe had a very fampous ratter in his French Bulldog, Sweep, who was sent over to France to compete in a rat-killing competition, where he came up right at the top."

So it should not come as a shock if modern day Frenchies who live in more rural locations seize the opprtunity to surprise their owners with the odd mouse as a present. One such Frenchy that I owned had on occasion caught and killed those unsuspecting rodents who had dared to make their presence known to her. Whilst she was helping to feed the horses she had also been known to catch the odd rabbit, duck and chicken if she was left to her own devices for too long.

So in conclusion, it seems that our delighful parlour companions of today still hide a very different side to their nature than their angelic demeanour admits.

It is not advisable to encourage Frenchies to go ratting as rats carry the Leptospirosis virus, it is also important that your Frenchies' vaccinations against this and other diseases are kept up to date.