Understanding French Bulldog Bites: Causes and Prevention

When it comes to any problems with aggression, giving recommendations remotely can be tricky, especially since such issues depend heavily on every individual pup. Any mistake in correcting this behavior can aggravate the situation, which is why it is always recommended to see a behavior specialist to get recommendations on how to best deal with such an issue.

It is very important in this case that all family members take part in the correction and are consistent. If one person adequately communicates and works with your Frenchies, while others continue to behave as before, nothing will most likely change.

Potential causes of the biting 

Health

The cause of aggression may be the pet's health condition. These are those cases of sudden aggression when, it would seem, nothing foreshadows an attack, but it suddenly happens, which may indicate that something is bothering your French Bulldog.

Health problems are often not expressed outwardly, but this does not mean that they do not exist. For example, a dog may have a sudden and severe headache due to, for example, vasospasm. It is difficult for a dog to understand the reason for their physical discomfort, so the pup may associate this discomfort with the presence of a person next to them. If this behavior occurs, it would definitely be a good idea to contact a veterinarian and have your pup examined. 

Until you are 100% sure that everything is in order with your Frenchie’s health, you need to keep in mind that any correction methods may not have a positive effect. 

Size

Among other things, small dogs often suffer due to their size. People rarely pay attention to the signals of discomfort that a dog conveys through its body language. The dog is so small and cute that sometimes it’s simply impossible to resist petting them and patting them on the head.

In fact, not all dogs and not always enjoy it. A dog, like any living creature, needs personal space. The integrity and inviolability of this personal space is extremely important for dogs, because this is the key to their safety.

If the boundaries of personal space are repeatedly violated, despite the dog’s warnings (these could be signals of reconciliation in the form of turning away the head, yawning, decreasing in size, or signals of threat - a growl, grin, raising the scruff), then the dog, in fact, has nothing has no choice but to use his teeth to protect himself. In fact, with small dogs, we often observe precisely the ignoring of any signals - after all, the dog is small, all this looks very cute and is unlikely to pose a serious threat from our, human, point of view. Thus, we ourselves provoke the dog into aggression.

We hope that this is not your case, but we cannot help but mention it. 

Excitement

Another reason, or rather, an additional factor that can cause aggressive behavior is the excitability of the French Bulldog. Many Frenchies do not know how to control their excitement and get rid of it in peaceful ways. They behave in accordance with their own ideas about the rules of behavior, without thinking about the consequences.

If the method that the dog “invented” once helped it, then with a 99% probability, it will use the same method again and again. Thus, aggression can quickly become a way to solve problems. 

Treating French Bulldog biting 

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that using negative methods to correct aggression - scolding the Frenchie, hitting them on the face or other parts of the body - is highly not advised.This does not solve the problem, but makes it worse. Aggression always generates retaliatory aggression. 

Before demanding behavior that is correct from your Frenchie puppy, in your opinion, you need to make sure that the dog understands exactly what you expect from them. 

First of all, remember that the best way to correct behavior is not to punish unwanted behavior, but quite the opposite - to reinforce correct behavior. Stock up on treats and reward your Frenchie whenever they behave in an acceptable manner. In fact, most of the time, any dog demonstrates correct behavior to us, but we do not reinforce it, considering it to be self-evident. For us - yes, for the Frenchie - no. This is the key difference. 

At the same time, dogs are extremely mercantile creatures; they always do what is beneficial to them. If the manifestation of aggression becomes unprofitable, then why waste energy on it? 

By rewarding your dog with treats more often, you will become extremely attractive and interesting to him, because you will become associated with something very pleasant. Let the interest in you and your family members be based only on food at first, don’t worry, this is the right way to start. In the future, on this basis it will be possible to build correct, trusting, comfortable relationships for everyone. 

Pay close attention to body language, both yours and your dog's. The importance of body language for a dog cannot be overestimated; in fact, for them it is as important as verbal communication is for us. 

Key takeaways 

We are sure that this information will be useful to you. The main idea that we would like to convey is that the dog does not behave this way out of reasons of revenge or other motives such as “to harm someone”, it is not trying to “spoil” you, this behavior has objective reasons, several of them which we described above.