French Bulldog Coat Patterns
Brindle
A coat that appears tiger striped. Gold and peachy stripes that blend throughout the coat base color. Some frenchies have just a few “highlights” here and there while others have it more all over. Brindle is one of the most common coat patterns because of how dominant it is. Brindle coat patterns come in a variety of colors but the 2 pictured here are Blue Brindle (left) and Black Brindle
Fawn
This is often described as a tan/red/yellow color. Think the color of a deer.. Fawns are often called Fawn-Sable when the base of their coats are the light color but the end of the hair shaft is darker. The darker end colors vary between colors making for different shaded fawn dogs. Fawns also have a darker color on their face which is called a “mask”. However not all do and will be called “M
Pied
Pied’s official name is Piebald and is the name to describe French Bulldogs who have spots on their bodies due to the piebald gene causing patches of their coats to be un-pigmented (white). These patches can range from small spots to almost the entire body which is called “an extreme pied”.
Cream
Cream is easy to describe as it sounds like; a creamy white color often with yellow or red ends on the the hair. When a cream coat pattern presents with different coat colors the biggest differences are in the skin pigments. Standard cream will have black noses, lips and pads of their feet while a blue cream will have brighter skin pigmentation. Cream is the only coat pattern to have a bonus
Tan pointed
Tan pointed French Bulldogs will have a base color coat that covers everywhere except the legs, cheeks, bum, eyebrows and around the ears. Those places have a tan color. The tan points on the cheeks and eyebrows can range in boldness, some don’t have eyebrows at all and range all the way up to being extremely bold. Puppies with tan points “grow into their points” because they often don
Trindle
Trindle is a mix of tan pointed and brindle coat patterns. A Trindle dog will only have brindle on their feet, cheeks, bum, and ears. Occasionally eyebrows too but typically not. Trindle is created by a dog having the full tan pointed DNA but also carrying brindle, it covers the tan points making them brindle. This is because brindle is one of the most dominant colors.
Merle
Not to be confused with Pied, Merle is a coat pattern that causes the coat to have many spots in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, as well as different colors. It is a striking color pattern and very fun. There are currently 2 different known Merle modifiers: Harlequin and Tweed. These “modifiers” are responsible for different types of patterns in Merle coats. Harlequin being the most domi
Solid
A solid coat pattern is nothing but the pigmentation color all over their bodies. They may have a white patch on their chest but there is no other thing breaking up the coat color like brindle. This is a more rare coat pattern in French Bulldogs and often people don’t understand when they say I’m looking for a “Blue French Bulldog” they will most likely end up getting a “Blue Brindle” French
French Bulldog Coat Colors
Standard
Standard means the standard color you would assume a coat pattern name to be. A brindle would be a black brindle, a fawn would be a standard or “red” fawn color, pied would have spots on it that are either black brindle patches or standard fawn patches. Cream would have regular creamy yellow coat with black skin. Tan pointed would be a black & tan and solid would be a black solid. Merles w
Cocoa
Cocoa is a rich deep brown color sometimes appearing almost black. They have brown skin and bright amber eyes. Cocoa used to be called chocolate. It was a very unique color because there were no genetic tests that could be done to identify it. Breeders relied on parents and a thing called “The Red Eye Glow Test” to identify cocoa in a dog. If eyes glow bright red when a light is shined in th
Blue
Blue is the dark gray color coat on French Bulldogs. It is a dilution of the color black. My very first Frenchie was a Blue French Bulldog and I remember feeling so uncomfortable calling an obviously gray dog “Blue”. But don’t be uncomfortable about that if you are, it’s what we call it and it’s more odd for us breeders to hear it called gray than it is for you to be calling it Blue 😉. Blue’s
Lilac
Lilac is an even lighter “gray” color than Blues are because It is a double dilution of black. In-fact Lilac coats are made by having a French Bulldog whose DNA is 2 copies of Cocoa and 2 copies of Blue. Think of a paint pallet with a dob of blue and a dob of cocoa and you mix those colors together to produce a new color you can only get by mixing those 2 colors. Lilac is not its own color it
Platinum
Now that I’ve explained getting lilac by mixing cocoa and blue, you’re ready to learn about Platinum! Platinum is made by mixing cocoa, blue AND cream. So it is a triple dilution color. It’s color is like taking white and putting a silver glow around it. With bright eyes and bright pink skin these coats are stunning to say the least. In-person is the only thing to truly do it justice. We