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Can I Bathe My Frenchie Once a Week?         

French Bulldog in a bathtub

When you want your dog to smell nice and be clean, it is very tempting to give them a bath once a week. Fortunately, dogs are not like children, and unless they play in the mud, once a week bath is not a good idea for your Frenchie.

The French Bulldog’s coat is full of natural oils which provide waterproofing and other protections to your pet. By bathing your Frenchie every week, you will be removing that protection and making your pet vulnerable to different ailments.

Take some time to learn how often you should bathe your little French Bulldog. It will be healthier to follow a better schedule than doing this task once a week.

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Why bathe your French Bulldog

Before we talk about the frequency of those baths, it is important to understand why you bathe your Frenchie. There are some very legitimate reasons why they need infrequent but regular baths throughout their lifetimes.

  • You want to keep skin infections away- these infections make your dog smell bad, so you want to keep them away for as long as possible.
  • A good bath from time to time helps cut down on loose hairs falling all over your house. Control the shedding is a perfectly good reason to bathe your Frenchie.
  • Helps your allergy sufferer- If you have one in the house, bathing your dog and controlling their loose hair will help him or her make it through the day better.
  • Avoids other ailments- yeast infections, fungus, and other skin issues are kept at bay when you give your Frenchie a good bath from time to time.

How often should I bathe my Frenchie?

French bulldog rolling in a mud puddle

For those pet owners with a busy schedule, the Frenchie bath schedule should fit right in. They only require a bath about once a month. This is under ideal conditions. If your Frenchie is an indoor dog only, then this is the schedule you should keep.

However, if you have children and they take the dog out to play on a rainy day, then this is another story. You can bathe your french Bulldog when they get muddy or dirty from playing outside.

But a full bath is not needed at these times. Just rinse them off with warm water, so they do not catch a cold, and they should be good to go. You do not want to wash those natural oils away.

If you can wait, then after that extra bath, you should wait a month before bathing him or her again.

How do you wash a Frenchie face?

White French Bulldog being shampooed

The French Bulldog has a unique face. Not many dog breeds share that style of face so you must be careful when it comes time to wash it. Washing the face of a Frenchie is not going to be the same as washing the face of other dogs.

This dog breed does have natural oils that keep it protected in between baths. That is why you do not bathe your Frenchie more than once a month. But the face is a different story.

There may be dirt, tear stains, food particles, saliva, and so on stuck to that face. The rule of thumb is to wash the face of a Frenchie once a week to keep it nice and clean.

The way to clean their face is to use some non-soap towelettes or use some gauze with water. Just wipe their faces clean and let them go and play. Before you wipe, you can comb out their fur to get rid of any items stuck in between those hairs.

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How to keep your Frenchie nice and clean

French Bulldog laying in dirt and mud

Here are a few tips to help delay that bath time.

  1. Brush your dog in between bath times. This will get rid of the loose hair and some of the dirt.
  2. Use pet wipes to help keep their face and bodies nice and clean.
  3. If you want your dog to smell nice, use some spray perfume made for dogs.
  4. Keep your dog’s bed nice and clean. If it isn’t clean neither will your Frenchie be clean.
  5. Limit his or her contact with water, dirt, mud, and so on.
  6. Cut down on feeding him or her moist dog food. Dry dog food is better for him anyways.

Some final words

Tan French Bulldog laying in grass

Bathing your Frenchie is not a mandatory weekly chore. The once-a-month schedule should fit into your busy schedule just fine. You will want to keep your dog clean but you do not want to remove any of those protective natural oils.

Play it by ear, your Frenchie may be an inside-only pet so they may not get that dirty in a month anyways.

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