French Bulldog Colors & Colloquialisms
This visual guide to standard French Bulldog colors and patterns is a very simple classification of a very complicated subject.
DQ or ‘disqualifying’ colors (often referred to as ‘rare’ colors) are not covered here, but can be found here.
I’ve used the term ‘colloquialisms’ because many terms such as ‘tiger brindle’, ‘honey pied’ and ‘smutty fawn’ are not standard terms found in breed standards. Rather, they are subjective terms that breeders have used over the years to refer to certain colors and patterns. Differing opinions exist on the “correct” terminology for many of these patterns and colors, and this guide does not claim to be the definitive one, just my own preference for terminology.
Fawn French Bulldogs
This is rather confusing, but I’ll attempt to simplify it as best I can.
Genetically, all French Bulldogs start out as fawn. This can vary from deep red fawn, to pale golden fawn to a so called ‘smutty’ fawn with black tips on the hair.
Via the E allele, fawn French Bulldogs can be masked if they carry one or more copies of the M allele along with the dominant E allele, or non masked if they are ee, Ee or EE.
Non Masked “American” Fawn
Black Masked Fawn Pied
Black Masked Silver Fawn
Black Masked Red Fawn
Seal or Dark Brindle
Brindle
Tiger Brindle
Reverse Brindle
Brindle Pied
Fawn Pied
Black Masked Fawn Pied
Tiger Brindle Pied
Cream French Bulldogs
Cream dogs are e/e fawn dogs whose coats have faded out to a pale, almost white appearance. Genetically, however, these are not white dogs (you can test this by holding a piece of white paper next to a cream dog’s coat, which will make their slightly off white coat color more apparent).
Cream coat color genetics are complex. While all cream dogs are e/e genotype at MC1R, not all dogs with this genotype are cream (The genetics of cream coat color in dogs, Schmutz and Berryere). e/e Cream dogs, unlike their more deeply pigmented counterparts, carry an additional allele that fades their coat color from the more usual yellow or red, to a pale almost white color.
Because the pigment on a cream French Bulldog remains black (nose leathers, pads and muzzle), we know that this additional allele dilutes phaeomelanin and not eumelanin.
Cream French Bulldog
