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Are English Bulldogs Good With Kids?
The short answer
Yes. In general, a bulldog should be very good with kids. Two things decide it.
One: the breeder. They have to breed for temperament and never breed a dog with any aggression toward kids or people. Two: the environment. Was the puppy raised around kids, and were those good experiences? A puppy that had a bad experience with a child when it was young can grow up not trusting kids.
What you're seeing in the video: Chia and my daughter
A lot of people wonder: are bulldogs good family pets, and are they good with kids? We believe the simple answer is yes. We breed for the full package: health, structure, functionality, and temperament is a huge part of it. They're also better in a smaller size: there's less chance of anything happening.
This is Chia, one of our mini bulldogs. She already knows not to jump on my daughter. Nobody ever told her. My daughter kind of pesters her while they play, and Chia is just sweet and gentle. She'd act differently with a bigger person. That's how you know she has a natural understanding of little kids.
I strongly recommend bulldogs for kids, but I also strongly recommend getting one from a breeder who focuses on temperament and never keeps aggressive dogs. Chia's dad is King Escobar and her mom is Kimora, both bred here, and both amazing with kids. That's how we knew their puppies would be too. I have kids myself, so it's one of the biggest things I breed for.
1:08 · Open on YouTube
The two things that decide it
Are bulldogs good with kids? It's a super common question. There are two main factors that decide it, but in general, they should be very good with kids.
The first, and the most important, is the breeder you're getting from: are they breeding for temperament, for a dog that's good with kids, and not breeding dogs that have any kind of aggression toward kids and people?
The second is environment. Has the puppy been brought up with kids? Is it used to kids? Has it had good experiences with kids? Sometimes a puppy has a bad experience with a kid at a young age, and that makes it not good with kids as it gets older. So it's very important to get a puppy that's bred for good temperament and raised in the right environment.
This is one of our mini bulldog girls, and she's amazing with kids. I've never trained her. I'm watching closely to make sure he's not too rough with her, so she doesn't have a bad experience, but she's happy to be around him. She's not biting hard, she's not being rough. That's her natural instinct, because she's bred that way.
1:10 · Open on YouTube
Why it matters even if you don't have kids
Why is it important for your bulldog to be good with kids no matter what, even if you don't have kids? Kids are extremely precious. If a bulldog grows up having a bad experience with a kid, or just isn't used to kids, it can end up not confident around them, and that leads to aggression.
So they need to be socialized with kids and have good experiences with them at a young age. And you need a breeder who breeds for temperament, with adult dogs that have a good track record with kids and are naturally good-tempered.
Being raised with kids doesn't guarantee it on its own. One bad experience at a young age can scar a puppy for life. That's why the early weeks matter so much: a well-socialized puppy becomes a confident bulldog, and a confident bulldog becomes a reliable one that doesn't bite out of nowhere.
2:47 · Open on YouTube
The red flag: a puppy that wasn't raised around kids
One of the most important rules when you're getting a bulldog puppy: even if you don't have kids, not seeing the puppy raised around kids is a huge red flag.
You want puppies socialized to their environment from a very young age, pretty much from birth until you take them home. It produces a more confident puppy, and a dog that's less likely to bite, whether you have kids or not.
I don't approve of any dog that isn't kid-safe, even for a home without kids, because sooner or later your dog is going to come across kids. If it's not used to them or not confident with them, it could bite a child, and you can't risk that.
Here we're a family, raising the bulldogs from the ground up, and they're raised with kids. Temperament is genetic and environmental. We do the genetics, and our puppies are around the kids and everything else from a very young age, which gives you a better puppy for your family.
Whatever kind of dog you want, and whatever home it's going into, get a breed that fits that home, from a breeder who raises the puppy for it from day one.
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Every puppy here is raised around our kids from day one.
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