How To Train A French Bulldog Puppy – The Ultimate Guide

We told you French Bulldogs are clever, didn’t we? Of course, that also means they can get bored and frustrated when doing the same thing over and over again. 

We can get better and faster results while avoiding boredom and frustration by using the ‘Push Drop Stick’ strategy to gradually increase the difficulty of exercises.

Essentially, you do the same thing 5 times with your pup. If they get all 5 right, you move to the next level of difficulty (push). If they get 3 or 4 right, you should stay there (stick). If they only get 1 or 2 right, you should switch to an easier version of the exercise (drop).

French Bulldogs are companion dogs and they will want to be with you. Have a crate or bed next to your bed, for at least the first few weeks, while you get them into a Puppy night-time routine. That way you can tell if they need the toilet, and they can seek reassurance when they need to know where you are in the middle of the night. Here is how to get a puppy to sleep through the night successfully.

Teaching your French Bulldog puppy that they can be totally fine being left alone, can be done with stuffed chew toys, time and patience. It’s worth doing alone training from that first week, but do it methodically and don’t rush it as they’ll get distressed.

Practically every website you read may tell you that toilet training your French Bulldog puppy can be a challenge, check out our toilet training guide and keep your eyes peeled so that you can be ready to take them out to prevent accidents indoors!

This first week will be all about getting your French Bulldog puppy used to their new home we can also look at beginning puppy socialisation exercises such as:

• Letting your French Bulldog puppy explore the garden – showing them where the toilet area is especially important in this first week! You can also let them watch birds, butterflies, and hear planes going over. 
• Teach your puppy about surfaces – we want our puppy to be confident on all kinds of different surfaces so have fun setting up little areas with different textures you can get them to explore. Use treats! 

Let’s start off with some basic training for your French Bulldog puppy. Remember to use lots of puppy treats when training, they’ll love that! 

• Teach your French Bulldog their name – it’s important that your French Bulldog puppy knows their name and can respond to it quickly. Turn it into a game and have fun! 
• Teach your French Bulldog puppy to sit – it’s a lovely way to start teaching your puppy some manners as if they’re sitting they can’t be jumping on people! Ok, it also looks cute too when they’re looking up adoringly with those big Frenchie eyes!
• Recall – How to teach your French Bulldog puppy to come back when called – this is important for safety as Frenchies love to ‘go and say hi’ to people and to other dogs! 
• Retrieve/fetch – French Bulldogs LOVE to play and they’ll find retrieving pretty fun! They can get a bit obsessed with balls, so switch around what toys you use when playing, and also work on more ‘find the toy’ type of exercises. Work on lots of drops too.

It’s important to teach your French Bulldog puppy that giving up stuff will bring about fabulous rewards, this will help to avoid resource guarding.

When Frenchies have something they often don’t want to let it go, particularly if it makes you chase them, what a good game!

Always do lots and lots of swaps so that they learn that you’ll trade them for whatever they have. Everything they find will likely go in their mouth as they don’t have hands to explore things, the temptation can be to grab things from their mouths, but try to always do the swap.

Frenchies love to be touched and stroked, but they’re not as tough as they make out and should be handled with care. Also, be careful to not treat them like toys or hand them around too much. This first week we’ll be focussing on handling

• Handling your puppy – your French Bulldog puppy will need their ears cleaned quite regularly, their claws trimmed, and sometimes their bottoms wiped! To do this we want to teach them that hands will do nice things to them so use plenty of treats when handling your puppy.

It’s important to get your French Bulldog used to novelty, interesting sounds and going in and out of the car while they’re young and in their puppy socialisation period. 

Try these socialisation and habituation exercises with your French Bulldog puppy this week.

• Fireworks – play these sounds at a low volume, your Frenchie should just ignore them, you can use treats now and again too – we have a full programme of getting your puppy used to noises in the Zigzag app.
• Watch the world go by – Your Frenchie will like to sit out the front of your house, and just watch all of the sights and sounds that go past them. They’ll soon realise that none of this is a big deal.
• Play dress-up – outfits for your puppy can wait, in this exercise wear a hat or sunglasses, maybe try using a walking stick so your puppy gets exposed to new things.
• Sit in the car – Have some treats handy and teach your puppy that the car is just a nice place to be at first. No need to go anywhere yet, let them climb over the seats and explore a little too.

We’ll crack on with some training this week, nothing too tricky but useful things for a young French Bulldog puppy to learn.

• Alone training – we can’t be with our Frenchies all of the time, much as we would love to, so do work on teaching them that being on their own while home alone is fine. 
• Crate training – this can be useful when trying to teach your puppy to switch off. It can also become their safe space when people come around so they get a chance to have some peace and quiet.
• Teach them their name in the garden – we need to teach them things in different places so that they can respond everywhere. The garden has distractions aplenty and is a good place to start.
• Recall training: add a cue word so that you’re not just calling their name you’re also giving them the instruction to ‘come’. 
• Fetch and drop – the fetch part of the game is usually quite easy, make sure you get a nice reliable drop at the end too.
• Introduce lead walking training – you’ll choose a harness for your French Bulldog when you start actual lead walking, for now, we’re just practising close following in the house and garden. Frenchies often want to rush on ahead so be sure to spend some time teaching them how to walk nicely next to you.

• Brushing your puppy – most French Bulldog puppies love to be brushed. Using a slicker like the Zoom Groom or the furminator brush will help to pull dead hair out and give them a nice massage too. Although their coat is short they will shed so it’s worth getting all of the dead hair out to keep their coat and skin healthy.

• Scent trails – get your puppy’s head down and engaged with snuffling treats from the floor while following a trail of them. Frenchies may have a teeny tiny nose but their nose is still way better than ours! 
• Invite friends over – your French Bulldog will likely love to meet lots of new people, but let them do it in their own time, try not to rush them or allow too much picking up!
• Go for a drive with your French Bulldog puppy – make sure they’re strapped into a car harness, or in a crate in the boot so that they’re safe.  Some will like a booster seat to see out of the window too! 
• Write a puppy socialisation checklist for your French Bulldog puppy: What kind of things are important for your lifestyle, perhaps you have horses, or like going on train journeys? Then your French Bulldog puppy will need exposure positively so that when they’re older it doesn’t faze them.

• Recall: teaching your puppy to come when called, outside will be important for your Frenchie. Practice indoors and then out in your garden. 
• Stop your puppy jumping up: Puppies jump up to be friendly. Frenchies are really friendly and love people. They need to be taught there are other things they can do to say hello, that doesn’t involve jumping. Like a nice ‘sit to greet’ 
• Generalisation: Practice exercises with your puppy in 5 different locations around your home. 
• Teach your French Bulldog puppy to lie down – Always useful to have a puppy that can lie down and settle easily. 
• Alone training – keep on building on the home alone training, week by week so that your French Bulldog puppy can settle by themselves.

• Choosing a harness for a French Bulldog puppy. There are a lot of harnesses on the market and some will be better than others for your Frenchies shape.

• Meeting another dog – your puppy will likely be quite full-on when meeting another dog, so choose a nice calm older dog who likes puppies! 

• Find a good puppy class for your puppy. It’ll be important that your Frenchie can focus on you when there are other dogs around, and that they don’t need to go and say hello to them all! Check out the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, The COAPE Association of Pet Behaviourists and Trainers or any of the members of the UK Dog Training and Behaviour Charter to find a good one.

• Settle on a mat – to have that cafe lifestyle or just take them out to places you’ll want to teach your French Bulldog puppy to settle on a mat. Use a stuffed chew toy under your foot with some yummy goodies inside for your puppy to focus on eating. They’re a bit precious so get them a comfortable piece of vet bed or a memory foam travel mat to settle on. 
• Lead walking – Use your new harness and practice walking your Frenchie puppy around the garden. Despite their small size they are strong and determined little dogs, so teach them that being next to you in your reinforcement zone is the place to be.
• Recall games – Play tennis with your puppy! Your puppy will lap up the attention of being called between people, for treats, strokes, kisses and praise. They love a tickle too! Cute.

• Grooming a puppy – focusing on sensitive areas. For a French Bulldog puppy that place is going to be eyes and ears. Some Frenchies have a lot of wrinkles on their face, so getting them used to being wiped with clean cotton pads, and doing this predicts lots of yummy treats is the way to go. Those ears catch a lot of dirt too. Try using cotton wool pads that are dry for a few days, treating your puppy frequently as you do it, then moisten the pad with some special ear cleaner like Epi-Otic ear cleaner to give them a thorough cleanse. 

Never squirt things in your puppy’s ears! They will hate it and you’ll struggle to clean their ears after that.

• Go to the pub or a dog-friendly café – you deserve it! Yes everyone will love to say hello to your French Bulldog puppy, it’s almost the law! Be mindful that not everyone loves dogs and actually you might not want to be disturbed when you’re sitting chatting with friends. Decide in advance if you want to be interrupted and if people come over, whether you want your puppy to be disturbed too! As the saying goes, let sleeping dogs lie, and my personal preference is that if my dog is calm and relaxed, maybe even asleep then I don’t want people disturbing her.
• Tick 3 things off your personal socialisation checklist – what will it be this week? Perhaps you could take your puppy on a boat trip or to the beach.

• Alone training: increasing time alone will be important – can you get outside the front door yet? 
• Recall – Practice your recall outside, in your garden or the park. If you’re at the park choose a quiet area and just do recalls on the lead, stepping a few steps backwards so your puppy has to travel a bit further. You can also think about using a long recall lead so that your puppy has a little more freedom but can still be managed. 

In parks there are going to be a lot of distractions, so bring along the big guns! The stinky treats and the special toys so that your puppy finds you irresistible.

• Lead walking – Walking your puppy outside will be challenging! Think less  ‘we’re going for a walk’ and more ‘let’s go for a training walk’. When you’re practising lead walking training with your Frenchie puppy it can be useful to keep going up and down the same road several times. That way your Frenchie can get all of the sniffing out the way soon and the novelty of new smells will wear off. 

• Push/drop/stick on known exercises – can your puppy sit on a verbal cue yet? Can they sit for 3 seconds? Think of inventive ways to raise the criteria (the difficulty) of exercises.

• Start pretending to clip your dog’s nails – get your Frenchie puppy used to you feeling in between their toes so that nail clipping won’t be an issue later. Use treats, and have your claw clippers handy. Show your puppy the clippers and give them a treat so they start to predict good things when the clippers come out.  
• Grooming your French Bulldog puppy – carry on with the brushing and cleaning of ears and face each week, they mostly enjoy it anyway, but using treats will make them love it!

• Tick 3 more items off your socialisation checklist – how about taking your French Bulldog puppy on a bus? Or booking a swimming lesson at a hydrotherapy pool?

• Following on walks – get your Frenchie puppy to be happy and excited to stay with you when they’re off lead by frequently calling them, and rewarding them heavily for good choices.
• Push/drop/stick – you can do this on any of the cues your puppy knows by now. We can increase criteria by doing it in a distracting area, holding a longer duration or asking for the behaviour at a longer distance, or covering a longer distance.

• Start checking your puppy’s mouth and teeth. It’s worth checking your Frenchie puppies teeth, they have not been bred to have the best teeth and their skull shape means they can be bunched up and misaligned. You’ll also want to check that they have lost their puppy teeth and that their adult teeth aren’t coming through over the top or in front of their baby teeth. 
• Start gently, just see if you can lift their lip and reward with a treat, to begin with, then gradually open their mouth a little more, giving them lots of verbal praise, let’s face it none of us like people looking in our mouths, so we need to teach our puppy that it’s ok too.

• Have a go at puppy agility – Don’t let anyone tell you that Frenchies can’t do things, some of them are super fast, and they love dog sports such as agility. 
• Tick 3 things off your personal socialisation checklist – maybe go to the agility club and just let them have a watch of what the other dogs do?

• Teach your French Bulldog puppy to stay Teaching your puppy to ‘stay or wait there until I tell you to do something else’ can be such a useful behaviour to teach as it will come in handy when you want them to stay at the front door while you grab a towel to wipe their paws. Or maybe they wait at the side of the road with you until you say it’s safe to cross? It can be a nice little self-control exercise too. 
• Go for a walk with a friend’s dog – The dream! Your puppy is probably going to get quite excited at seeing your friend’s dog. Use lots of treats for both dogs so that when they’re on lead they can walk calmly. 
• Recall – off the lead. Sounds scary we know, but by now all of the fabulous training you’ve done has built a huge reinforcement history and a wonderful relationship between the two of you. If you’re worried don’t forget you can simply drop their lead and let them drag it or switch to using a recall line. 
• Push/drop/stick on known exercises – Perhaps you can do this for recall, and build on the distances they can reliably recall?

• Pretend ear drops – Now those ears are funnels for dirt, I’m sorry but it’s true! You’ve probably already seen how your Frenchie hates the rain as the water gets in and it’s horrible for them. Prevention is always better than a cure, but sometimes even keeping your Frenchie’s ears squeaky clean may not be enough and they’ll need drops, so why not teach them that ear drops are nice from the beginning? Use a bottle with the lid on, pretend to put the drops in their ear, then give them a treat. Keep it light and stress-free, if they walk off, then let them and go back to it later.

• Joggers and Cyclists – ‘Everyone loves me’ thinks most French Bulldogs, and sadly no, not everyone does. There is also a desire for Frenchies to chase after fast-moving objects. Take lots of treats out with you and teach your puppy to focus on you, do some sits and downs or simply reward them for being calm.
• Tick 3 things off your personal socialisation checklist – although their socialisation window will be closing, it’s still important to introduce them to new things.

• Practice exercises in different locations – how about going to some dog-friendly places? Many DIY stores are dog friendly. Or how about showing off your skills at the Vet?
• Teach a hand target  – French Bulldogs tend to love this one and it works great as a recall. Targeting is often the basis of many trick behaviours too, and we’re sure you’re going to love teaching your Frenchie some ‘party tricks’
• Introducing nose work to your puppy – their nose may be small, but like the rest of them, it is mighty! See if you can hide their toys and then get them to ‘find them’ by scent alone.

• Trim your French Bulldog puppy’s claws – we’re going to do this for real this week. If you do them regularly enough all you need to do is just snip the very ends off. If your French Bulldog puppy has dark nails they can be trickier so take care not to cut the little blood vessel that runs almost to the end called the quick. The dewclaws (where your puppy might have once had thumbs!) don’t touch the floor so will need more attention than most. Just do one paw at a time, maybe even just one or two claws and then take a break. Remember to treat regularly., You can also offer something like a lickimat to take their attention away from what you’re doing too.