There’s a new top dog in town, and we mean that quite literally. For three decades straight, the Labrador Retriever was named the favorite dog breed by the American Kennel Club; This year, that has changed.
Is it fate? You tell me. For two years since the death of our big, beautiful, 185-pound Bull Mastiff, Kaiser, I have been begging my family for a French Bulldog.
“Noooooooooo” they squeal. “We’re too busy for a dog right now. It won’t get the right attention. It will be stuck in the house all day without company. Wait until we retire!”
So, I told my husband I’d get a tiny one I could keep in my purse. His full belief is that I’ll get busy with work, forget the dog is in my purse, and he’ll be the one to clean up the mess.
To be clear, we are a family of pet lovers. My husband loves dogs and doesn’t want us to have one right now because he says it won’t be fair to the dog. I get it. I don’t disagree.
Butttttttttttttttt imagine my glee when I was assigned to the story Wednesday (March 15) that the French Bulldog is now America’s No.1 dog, and I got to go to the home of a Metro Detroit breeder. And he has puppies. PUPPIES!!!!!
Here is a small snippet of the text chain between me, hubby, and stepdaughter Wednesday until they both ghosted me.
For 31 years, the affable, family favorite Labrador Retriever has held the nation’s hearts, attentions, hearths, and bedsides as America’s favorite dog, but like our love affairs with fries, pastries, and onion soup. America has gone French, and the new fan fave is the French Bulldog.
Short, stocky, with a lovable face, the French Bulldog has now been the American Kennel Club’s top dog for a second year in a row, officially toppling the lab as the number one dog in America.
Novi breeder Rod Dowdell who fell in love with the remarkable little beast decades ago explained why.
“I love this breed because it’s a really low-maintenance breed, and they’re just a super cool dog, and I think it’s just one of those things you just have to experience the dog,” said Dowdell.
Read: Beloved and debated, French bulldog becomes top US dog breed
As the founder and owner of BlueStar Frenchies and as an AKC registered breeder, he doesn’t show, but he breeds to show, and he explains why good things come in small packages as he lovingly cares for his new litter of pups just seven days old.
Ladybug’s first litter was featured in the video, and to Rod, she is a queen.
“If I was sitting on the couch, Ladybug would hop on the couch with me,” Dowdell said. “She’s going to watch TV, so a lot of times we watch animal planet or dog shows, and she’ll sit here and bark at the TV. It’s almost like she’s communicating with the dogs on the TV.”
It is a man-made breed created specifically for its size and personality.
“The French Bulldog doesn’t naturally breed because of the size and the structure of the dog,” Dowdell said. “So, they’ll have to be surgically inseminated or artificially inseminated as they don’t naturally have puppies because their hips are so small and the puppies heads are so big. They normally won’t naturally pass as they’ll get stuck. So they almost always have to be born cesarean. The French Bulldog and the English Bulldog.”