The three main countries that tell about the history of a French Bulldog are England, France, and America. England developed the modern Frenchie for the first time in their typical American style and the breeders are France developed smaller bulldogs with a French style. The initial bulldog in England was a very strong, athletic dog with high a high capability of being used in a game called “bull-baiting”. The breeders started to change the breed into a bigger, heavier, and added other features. Another group of breeders from France started working on developing a lighter, smaller bulldog that weighed around 20-25 lbs. with straight ears or raised ears and round foreheads. The first Frenchies were bred in Nottingham who created a miniature version of the old Bulldog.
During the 19th century, the British had nothing to do with Frenchieand the French were the guardians of the breed and developed a uniform breed with a compact body, straight legs, and the extreme underjaw which was a predetermining feature of a Frenchie dog was missing. The wealthy Americans fell in love with these compact dogs and started bringing them while traveling to the USA. The first bulldog club was found in America which was also the first breeding club to dedicate itself to the bulldog. The popularity of Frenchies started growing among the Eastern coast society and after the end of World war 1, a decline was seen.
This new Bulldog breed arrived in England by 1893 with the imports from the French. The Kennel club initially thought if this breed as a subset of the original American bulldog rather than an entirely new breed. Some of the breeders posed restrictions to such breeding. In a meeting held on 10 July 1902, it was decided that a breed club would be set to seek individual recognition for each breed. In 1905, the American Kennel Club changed the policy and started recognizing the French Bulldog as a different breed rather than a subset of the original American Bulldog. This breed was initially named Bouledogue Francais but later, the name was changed to French Bulldog.
In the early 20th century, the breed was started being a status symbol in high society, with the dogs changing hands and being owned by very influential families. Due to the recognition by the breed clubs, the French bulldog by 1906 became the fifth most popular breed. The American kennel club in 2013 ranked the Frenchie as the tenth most popular breed in the United States and was enjoying very sharp popularity.