An animal-loving Family!
We may be new to breeding French Bulldogs however we are not new to raising, showing and breeding animals. With nearly 2 decades of dog experience, 3 generations of dog breeders in the family and almost 10 years of breeding & showing goats, chickens and rabbits under our belts, our passion for animals is deeply routed. We first fell in love with the Frenchie in 2019 during a time our family was struggling with some really heavy issues. We had just lost our old Weimaraner, Hallie a few months earlier and our oldest son was hospitalized for the first time fighting with his mental health. We weren't really looking to add a puppy during this heavy time, however the universe had other plans. While making our daily visits with our son in the hospital, the conversation of a puppy kept coming up.
Now, since we live on a farm and spend a lot of time outside working with the animals, we had always been large dog people. Specifically, we've been owned by Weimaraners and Great Danes. But during this hospital stay, we kept seeing photos of French Bulldogs everywhere; billboards, commercials, TV shows, Facebook, etc. It prompted us to do some research on the breed. So while visiting our son, we would read about temperament, breed characteristics, common health issues and local breeders. We came across a local breeder with some pictures of available puppies on their website and we were all immediately drawn to this cute, little black and white girl named "Snow White". My husband and I set up an appointment to visit her and fell in love the moment our hearts met. We ended up bringing her home, renaming her Stella and surprising our son who was released from the hospital 2 days later. Stella was the bright light in the family during a very dim time. She brought laughter to us when we thought we couldn't smile. She changed our tears from sadness to happiness.
When Stella was about 2 years old, she suffered a back injury during a play session with our Great Dane, Hazel. They had always played so well together but this particular play session was "spicy" and Hazel brought her big Great Dane leg down right on Stella's back. We rushed her to the vet where she stayed a couple nights for pain management. They suspected she had a condition called IVDD (Intervertable Disc Disease), a common issue in Frenchies and other breeds with short legs and long backs. I went home and read everything I could consume on the Disease. I joined facebook groups and read more and was even more scared. I purchased a doggy stroller for her for when she came home because the long-term treatment for her was crate rest and this was a pup used to going everywhere with us. She would be miserable in a crate and possibly cause herself more damage. We spent weeks doing cold laser treatments in the AM at the vet and warm compresses in the evenings.
Eight weeks later, Stella made a full recovery and no IVDD was ever actually found. Hazel's big paw coming down on Stella's back was the cause for the injury and the vet made a quick, breed-stereotype diagnosis. But it opened our eyes to a real issue with the breed.
This sent us on a mission to bring improvement to the breed we fell so deeply in love with. We spent months searching for the puppy that would be the leader of our pack's mission for superior Frenchies. And we found Piper!
