There are TWO basic colours and THREE patterns, so, we can say that a French Bulldog comes in THREE colours.

  1. Fawn – with or without a black mask, ideally fawn should be clean and clear.
  2. Brindle – a mixture of black and fawn hairs creating brindle patterning (striping).
  3. Pied (Pattern) – White base with either brindle or fawn patches. Ideally, the white base should be clean and clear of ticking or spotting.

What are “fad” colours?

These are the colours that are not, nor have ever been recognised as desirable in the French Bulldog standards WORLDWIDE. These may include; solid black, blue, blue brindle, blue fawn, blue pied, black and tan, blue and tan, chocolate, chocolate fawn, chocolate pied, lilac and lilac and tan … the list could go on. Basically, no DILUTE colours have ever been accepted as part of the French Bulldog Breed Standard as desirable. Regardless of the information that is being put out there, there is no official French Bulldog Standard that accepts these colours as desirable.

A new and alarming colour trend that has hit the French Bulldog is the colour Merle – the colour or pattern Merle has never existed in the French Bulldog breed and CAN NOT occur naturally. Merle French Bulldogs are CROSSBRED where another breed has been introduced to bring in the Merle gene. Dogs that are homozygous (carrying two copies) for the M gene are at risk of suffering from catastrophic health issues. Eye defects such as Micropthalmia – small and deformed eye or eyes, Anopthalmia – missing eyes or eye, Starburst Pupil (Coloboma), Eccentric Pupil (Wandering Eye) and sadly, deafness is also linked with the doubling of the M gene. With the breed already having deafness as an issue – generally associated with the extreme pieds, add the merle gene and this problem could be massive. Eye defects in a breed that already has prominent eyes is another disaster waiting to happen – double merles having defective irises and vision issues means damaged eyes and degrees of blindness.

2013 Press Release for the UK Kennel Club

“At the request of the French Bulldog breed clubs, the Kennel Club has agreed that it will no longer accept the registration of any merle French Bulldogs from 1 January 2013. Coat colour in the French Bulldog is complex because a range of colours is acceptable. Merle patterning – patches of lighter colouring appearing in the coat – is the result of the M gene in the dog. There are two alleles of this gene: M (Merle) and m (non merle), with the merle (M) being dominant to non merle (m). In some breeds, the effect of the M gene is termed dapple. Unfortunately, the effects of the merle allele (M) are not confined to coat pattering and it is known that there can be an increased risk of impaired hearing and sight associated with it, particularly in dogs that are homozygous for M (dogs that carry two copies of the M allele). In addition, the merle colour is not a naturally occurring colour in this breed, and therefore the Kennel Club General Committee has agreed that it will no longer accept the registration of any merle French Bulldog puppies from this date”

To read more on these potentially disastrous health issues that could affect our beautiful French Bulldogs click here