Are French Bulldogs Protective? The Truth + Reasons & Tips

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When deciding to bring a french bulldog into your home there are certain questions you want to know the answer to. One of them certainly being whether french bulldogs are protective or not.

You want a loving family dog but not one that’ll terrorize your guests or neighbors by being overprotective. So…

Are French Bulldogs Protective:

French bulldogs aren’t naturally overprotective as a breed. The most common protective behavior from french bulldogs is in the form of jealousy and when they’ve unknowingly been trained to behave that way. This comes from catering to them because of their size as opposed to giving them proper training.

In this post you’ll discover:

The truth behind french bulldog’s protectiveness
6 reasons why french bulldogs become protective
How you might be reinforcing your frenchies protective behavior
4 tips to help reduce your pups overprotective behavior
And much more

Let’s jump right in.

Table of Contents

6 Reasons Why French Bulldogs Can Be Overprotective

1) Jealousy

One of the more common reasons for your french bulldog to be protective is simply because of jealousy.

If you notice your frenchie starts to act up whenever you pet another dog or when you hug/engage with other people, this is more than likely jealousy driven aggression.

This is generally brought on when a dog receives too much attention at a young age.

In their limited experience, they’ve been your entire world.

They’ve developed a strong bond with you and if you give the slightest bit of attention to another canine or person, in their mind, that person or dog is a threat.

They don’t like competing for your attention and feel like they should be the only one to get your attention.

Obviously this is silly for them to think, but when a frenchie has been showered in love without competition since they were a pup, they don’t want it to change.

They loved being the only one to get your attention and want it to stay that way.

2) Abusive History

If your french bulldog has unfortunately had some traumatic experiences in the past, this can cause them to become overprotective.

While it likely took a while for them to warm up to you.

Now that they have, they’ve grown so emotionally attached to you that anything and anyone is perceived as a threat.

This could also be demonstrated by being protective over things like their toys, certain areas of your home, their food, etc.

Which is called resource guarding.

Again, this type of behavior can stem from them having a troubling past which makes them feel the need to be protective over the things they feel are ‘theirs’.

At one point in their life they were taken advantage of and their guard is always up in an attempt to not let it happen again.

And when they’re overprotective of you, it’s because they love you so much for being such a good owner to them.

Their experience with humans before you was likely terrible and now that they’ve grown to love you, they don’t want anyone to harm you.

Of course 99.9% of the time you’re never actually in danger of being harmed, but your pup has their guard raised very quickly if they have an abusive history.

3) Little Dog Syndrome

Oftentimes small dogs are treated differently than big dogs.

Which creates different behaviors in the different sized pups.

For the most part, small dogs, like your frenchie, are able to get away with more bad behavior because they’re small.

They’re also dealt with differently when they misbehave.

For example, if your frenchie jumps on a guest you might pick them up to stop.

Whereas a golden retriever would need to be taught not to jump up.

Or when your frenchie barks at bigger dogs or other people, you may console them or pick them up again to stop the behavior.

Whereas again, a larger dog would be trained to stop this unnecessary barking behavior.

This means certain possessive/protective behavior isn’t ever trained out of them which causes it to continue or potentially get worse.

The best way to correct this is to treat them just like you would a bigger dog.

Which admittedly is easier said than done.

4) Lack Of Guidance

Your frenchie can also become protective if they haven’t been given enough guidance or structure.

In a wolf pack, it’s obvious among the wolves who’s the alpha/leader and who’s not.

Which means when something happens, everyone knows who to listen to and where to get guidance.

But if your french bulldog hasn’t been given proper structure through training, they may not know for certain who’s the leader in your pack.

Which means they’ll take matters into their own hands whenever they feel you come into contact with someone that could be a potential threat.

When a dog knows you’re their leader, they’ll look to you to see how they should react.

If you’re cool, calm and collected, they’ll see no reason to behave aggressively.

So if your pup hasn’t been given much training, they’re missing a level of guidance that could be causing their overprotective behavior.

5) The Behavior Has Been Rewarded

Because your french bulldog is so small, their initial signs of aggressive behavior may have been seen as cute and instead of being corrected, they were rewarded.

For example, when they were a pup, if they pounced at guests who just came into your house, you all might laugh it off and pick you frenchie up.

Since they didn’t receive any corrective training, they’re slowly learning that there’s no problem with their behavior.

And as they get older and more of these types of occurrences happen, they’re creating a habit of being protective.

Unknowingly, by picking them up to remove them from the situation, you’re showing them their behavior gets them attention

As opposed to giving them corrective training.

Which could be a reason behind why your frenchie has gotten more protective with age.

6) Isolation

While french bulldogs aren’t known for being naturally protective like a german shepherd or schnauzer.

If they aren’t socialized as a young pup, and instead only interact with you, they’ll develop a high level of protectiveness over you.

Since they didn’t meet and interact with any dogs or people during their puppy months, every new dog or person they meet when they’re older is a potential threat in their mind.

Their isolation from other dogs, people and places has made them unaware how to behave around strangers and unfamiliar situations.

Top 4 Tips To Help Your French Bulldog Be Less Protective

1) Proper Socialization

When your pup is between the ages of 2 and 12 months, it’s important to have them experience as many new dogs, people and places as possible.

The more isolated your pup is during this part of their life, the more difficulties they’ll have interacting with unfamiliar dogs and people.

When a dog is socialized from a young age they learn that unfamiliar dogs and people aren’t potential threats and can actually become great friends.

This also gives you an opportunity to train them in different environments and situations so they become an even more well trained pup.

2) Do Your Best Not To Encourage The Behavior

While it might be cute for your little frenchie to act protective while they’re young, it’s creating bad habits as they move into adulthood.

You don’t want to laugh at their cute growls or barks, or pick them up to get them to stop.

Instead, train them as though they’re a great dane.

When they jump on guests or in your lap when someone gets close, or bark/growl at people, do the same corrective training you’d do if they were a bigger dog.

Don’t give them attention (picking them up, petting them to calm them down, etc.) when they behave badly.

Instead, only give positive reinforcement when they behave calmly around guests or unfamiliar dogs.

3) Choose Good Guests While Training

When it comes to training aggression out of a frenchie, you need to be mindful of who you allow them to interact with.

Inviting over a friend who’s afraid of dogs and will project nervous energy isn’t a good training environment for your pup.

Same with letting them be around a neighbor’s dog that also has aggressive tendencies.

It’s best to only allow your pup to interact with other dogs that are calm and balanced.

Same with guests you have at your house.

You want them to behave calm yet firm with your pup to create an ideal environment to help train them proper behavior around unfamiliar people and animals.