Are French Bulldogs stubborn?
Not necessarily, but the evidence is thin: one small study (Ujfalussy et al., 2023) of 43 dogs, 15 English Bulldogs, 15 French Bulldogs and 13 Mudis, a longer-muzzled breed. On one problem-solving task the bulldogs were less successful, took longer to open the problem box, and looked less at the box and more at the people than the Mudi did, which the authors read as puppy-like behavior. What looks like stubbornness may be a dog waiting for you, not defying you.
In short
The whole chapter in a few lines. Read further only where you want to know why.
- One small study (Ujfalussy et al., 2023; 43 dogs): bulldogs solved a task less often than a longer-muzzled breed and looked more at the people.
- The authors’ reading, not a measurement: puppy-like behavior. Other studies on looking at people give mixed results.
- Effort and heat set hard limits for a flat-faced dog, so practice has to stay easy.
- Breed findings describe averages. Your dog is not an average.
A breed summary is only a prejudice about the breed.
You can use prejudices — but get to know your own dog.
It depends on the breeding, the environment, and the dog’s own character. He may have all of the breed’s traits, some of them, or none. Every dog is his own.
1 A Hungarian study of 43 dogs: bulldogs solved the task less often and looked more at people than a longer-muzzled breed
One small study, 43 dogs. Ujfalussy and colleagues published it in 2023 in Scientific Reports. It included 15 English Bulldogs and 15 French Bulldogs (both flat-faced breeds) and 13 Mudis, a breed with a longer muzzle. Owners were asked to take part at annual breed meetings.
Every dog got the same problem: three boxes with a piece of sausage inside, two minutes for each box.
Compared with the Mudi, both bulldog breeds:
- solved the task less often — the difference was significant
- took longer to open the problem box
- looked less at the box and more at the people in the room
Put simply: faced with a problem, the bulldogs looked more to the people, and less at the problem, than the Mudi did.
Limits: one study, one kind of task, 43 dogs. It cannot describe how every flat-faced dog thinks.
2 Does a flat-faced dog stay a “puppy” in behavior? The authors’ reading and other studies
This is the authors’ reading, not a measurement. They see their result as support for paedomorphism in behavior. In plain words: keeping puppy-like traits into adulthood — not only in looks, but in how the dog behaves.
The authors themselves point to a limit: looking back at a person when faced with a problem may also depend on the dog’s life experience, on anxiety-related disorders and on body build, such as vision.
In their reading, turning to people when faced with a problem could be a puppy-like trait, one that draws caregiving from the owner.
Other studies do not point in one direction:
- A Danish survey (Sandøe et al., 2017; 846 owners of four small breeds, the French Bulldog among them): French Bulldog owners seemed to especially value the dog’s distinctive appearance and personality. The survey did not measure whether a puppy-like look attracts them; the authors only mention it as a possible explanation.
- A Hungarian study (Bognár et al., 2021; 125 dogs): shorter-headed dogs formed eye contact with an unfamiliar person faster.
- A Hungarian study (Bognár et al., 2018; 38 dogs, 8 of them flat-faced): flat-faced dogs looked longer at pictures of human and dog heads than long-headed dogs.
- An Italian study (Gazzano et al., 2015; 17 dogs: 9 flat-faced and 8 long-headed) found the opposite: long-headed dogs looked at the owner more often, and flat-faced dogs took longer to look at the owner for the first time (significant in one of two tests). The authors say there were too few dogs and more research is needed.
So the picture is mixed: some studies find that flat-faced dogs seek people’s eyes more or look longer at faces, and one small study finds the opposite.
Our opinion: what studies find does not change the dog you have. It can only help you watch him more closely.
3 A survey of owners of flat-faced dogs: the bond is strong, even though illness is common
One survey, 2,168 owners. Packer and colleagues (PLOS ONE, 2019) asked owners of French Bulldogs (741), Pugs (789) and Bulldogs (638) online, through forums and social media devoted to the breeds, mostly in the United Kingdom. Owners rated their dogs’ health themselves; vets did not.
The authors call the result a paradox:
- the bond between owners and dogs was extremely strong in all three breeds;
- 70.9% of owners considered their dog to be in very good health or the best health possible;
- yet owners also reported frequent problems: 36.5% of the dogs had a problem with heat regulation and 17.9% a problem with breathing.
Owners of dogs with a worse health rating judged the “cost” of ownership to be higher, and owners of dogs with moderately poor health reported fewer shared activities. Emotional closeness to the dog was not significantly linked to the dog’s health.
4 What “stubborn” might mean (our opinion)
Our opinion: the table below is our way of reading the findings. The study did not measure why a dog acts this way, and it is not proof about any one dog.
| The reputation | What may be happening |
|---|---|
| “Stubborn” | He may be waiting for you, not defying you. |
| “Ignores commands” | The task may not hold his attention. You do. |
| “Slow to learn” | He may take longer to solve a problem on his own. That is not the same as learning with a person. |
| “Does it at home, not outside” | Your attention may be what he works for. Outside, many things compete for it. |
Put together: you may not be fighting his will at all. You may be the most interesting thing in the room — which can be both the problem and the solution.
5 Learning with a Frenchie: limits on effort, basic commands and our opinion
Effort and heat are hard limits for a flat-faced dog; our pages on BOAS (the breathing disorder of flat-faced breeds) and heatstroke explain why. He cannot be drilled. Practice has to be low-effort by design — that is a welfare limit, not a matter of style.
Know your own climate. How much a flat-faced dog can practice outdoors depends on the heat. In a tropical city like ours, that shapes when and where practice happens. What works in a cool country may not work in a hot, humid one.
Every dog should know the basic commands for control and obedience: “leave it”, “no”, “sit”, “stay” and “come”. Those commands can save your dog’s life and spare you a lot of trouble.
Our opinion: you are part of the task. If he tends to look at people when faced with a problem, then where you are, what you do and where your attention goes are part of what he is working with. And if it is your attention he is waiting for, that same attention may be the tool you have.
6 An average is not your dog
The 2023 study compared groups of dogs: 15 English Bulldogs, 15 French Bulldogs and 13 Mudis. A difference between groups tells you what was more common in those groups. It does not tell you what the dog in front of you will do.
Inside any group, individual dogs differ: some are close to the average, some are not.
Our opinion: use the findings as a question to ask about your own dog, not as a label. Watch what he does when something is hard for him. We think that tells you more about him than any breed study can.
And remember the limits: one study, one kind of task, 43 dogs.
7 Spike: our experience
Our stories and opinions on this page are our personal experience with one dog, Spike. One dog is not the measure for every dog — for your dog, your vet decides.
“The study describes the breed on average. Ours turned out to be an exception.”
When we asked ourselves what Spike does when a task is too hard for him, the answer was simple: he is a very independent dog. That is the opposite of what the 2023 study (43 dogs) found for these breeds on average.
Spike has basic training. He knows “quédate” (stay), “siéntate” (sit) and “ven” (come), and a few more basic control commands. It is enough that we can walk him without a leash, with just our voice. Off the leash he listens especially well and does not wander away from us. We do not know why. When he heads off somewhere, it is enough to say “ven acá” and he comes back. That is our experience with one dog, not advice: walking without a leash depends on the dog, the place and the local rules.
Breed findings are averages, and your dog is not an average. A breed study tells you what to expect, not what you have. Test it on your own dog before you believe anyone — including us.
Our opinion: one small study cannot describe every Frenchie, and exceptions exist. Like people, dogs are each their own. A lot depends on breeding (the line, not only the breed), on environment (what happened to him, and when) and on the dog’s own character. Any dog can have some or most of the breed’s traits — or be an oddball, like Spike. And a dog who turns to his person when faced with a problem does not look to us like a lack of brains, and it does not look like stubbornness. It fits a puppy-like strategy.
Owners Also Ask
Are French Bulldogs stubborn?
Not necessarily, but the evidence is thin: one small study (Ujfalussy et al., 2023) of 43 dogs, 15 English Bulldogs, 15 French Bulldogs and 13 Mudis, a longer-muzzled breed. On one problem-solving task the bulldogs were less successful, took longer to open the problem box, and looked less at the box and more at the people than the Mudi did, which the authors read as puppy-like behavior. What looks like stubbornness may be a dog waiting for you, not defying you.
Are French Bulldogs less intelligent than other dogs?
One small study (Ujfalussy et al., 2023; 43 dogs) did not measure intelligence as a whole. It measured one kind of problem-solving task, where both bulldog breeds were less successful than the Mudi and took longer to open the box. They also looked more at the people, which the authors connect to puppy-like traits.
Why might a Frenchie turn to people when faced with a problem?
In one small study (Ujfalussy et al., 2023; 43 dogs), French and English Bulldogs looked less at the problem box and more at the people present than the Mudi did. The authors read this as paedomorphism: puppy-like behavior that may draw caregiving from the owner. Other studies give mixed results: in a Hungarian study of 125 dogs, shorter-headed dogs formed eye contact with an unfamiliar person faster, while in an Italian study of 17 dogs, flat-faced dogs looked at their owner less often.
What does paedomorphism mean?
Keeping puppy-like traits into adulthood. In flat-faced breeds it shows in their looks; the authors of one small 2023 study (43 dogs) read it in behavior too, in the way these dogs turn to people.
How much training can a flat-faced dog handle?
Effort and heat are hard limits for a flat-faced dog, so practice has to be low-effort by design. How much is possible outdoors depends on your climate: in a hot, humid place it shapes when and where practice can happen. Our BOAS and heatstroke pages explain why.
References
- Ujfalussy DJ, Bognár Z, Molnár M, Miklósi Á, Kubinyi E. The difference between two brachycephalic and one mesocephalic dog breeds’ problem-solving performance suggests evidence for paedomorphism in behaviour. Scientific Reports 13:14284, 2023. nature.com
- Sandøe P, Kondrup SV, Bennett PC, Forkman B, Meyer I, Proschowsky HF, Serpell JA, Lund TB. Why do people buy dogs with potential welfare problems related to extreme conformation and inherited disease? A representative study of Danish owners of four small dog breeds. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0172091, 2017. journals.plos.org
- Bognár Z, Szabó D, Deés A, Kubinyi E. Shorter headed dogs, visually cooperative breeds, younger and playful dogs form eye contact faster with an unfamiliar human. Scientific Reports 11:9293, 2021. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Bognár Z, Iotchev IB, Kubinyi E. Sex, skull length, breed, and age predict how dogs look at faces of humans and conspecifics. Animal Cognition 21:447–456, 2018. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Gazzano A, Lauria C, Ducci M, Sighieri C. Dog attention and cooperation with the owner: preliminary results about brachycephalic dogs. Dog Behavior 1(1), 2015. dogbehavior.it
- Packer RMA, O’Neill DG, Fletcher F, Farnworth MJ. Great expectations, inconvenient truths, and the paradoxes of the dog-owner relationship for owners of brachycephalic dogs. PLOS ONE 14(7): e0219918, 2019. journals.plos.org
