Frog Dogs of the Past: Westminster Dog Show 1897

Its been quite a while since we’ve featured any Frenchies from days of yore in our Frog Dogs of the Past series, but here to start things back off is an adorable brindle bully featured on the advert poster/catalog cover for the 21st annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1897. The Frenchie graced the catalog cover despite its not actually being included in the 1987 show.

Jim Grebe, historian for the French Bulldog Club of America, wrote:

[quote style=”1″]Society ladies first exhibited Frenchies in 1896 at Westminster and a Frenchie was featured on the cover of the 1897 Westminster catalog even though it was not yet an approved AKC breed. At that show, both bat eared and rose eared dogs were exhibited but the English judge put up only the rose-eared specimens. This infuriated the American fanciers who quickly organized the French Bull Dog Club of America and drew up a breed standard allowing only the bat ear. At the 1898 Westminster show, the Americans were outraged to find that classes for both bat-eared and rose-eared dogs were to be shown despite the fact that the new breed standard allowed only the former.  They pulled their dogs, the American Judge refused to participate in the show, and the club organized their own show, for bat-eared dogs only, to be held at the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria.[/quote]