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Tear staining is a common problem for Bichon Frise dogs


bichon puppy
At four months old the fur is straight and super soft

bichon puppy
At four months old they just want to play all the time.

Two layered coat

puppy
The characteristic curly 'cotton wool' coat starts to  develop at around six months of age.

poppy
A walk can be a hike or a short trip around the neibourhood, the Bichon is happy with either.

poppy
The Bichon is one of the happiest dog breeds around and loves being part of the family.

Happy Breed

two day old bichons
Two day old Bichon Frise puppies having a cuddle.

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Bichon puppy



meet the puppiesMeet Lola

Meet Melody

Meet Otis

Meet Little Pop

Meet Jasper

one year on
Check out how the puppies turned out. We have pictures of some of them one year on. Click the link above to see them.

Thanks for visiting us


bichon puppy
The four week old bichon is just starting to explore its environment.

Not much exercise


bichon frise
The Bichon will make any excuse to roll over so you can tickle their tummy.

Bichon Puppys 2 Weeks Old
Three week old puppys with their eyes open and bonding.

Sheds No Hair

Bichon Nursing
A tired Bichon nursing her two day old puppies.






questions and answers

Occasionally we receive questions from people who are either thinking of breeding or expecting the arrival of a new puppy and we are happy to help if we can. As we have been there and done it, there's a good chance that we have either experienced it or researched the subject. Please feel free to email us your question here.

The Two most popular questions we are asked are about Toilet Training and Tear Stains - So we created a page which has more in depth answers

CLICK HERE FOR OUR OWN EXPERIENCE WITH TOILET TRAINING AND TEAR STAINS



CHECK MATE
My Bitch is coming in to heat and I just wondered if you could tell me the best time to mate her?

Your Bichon Frise will be on heat for around three weeks and the best day to have her come in contact with her mate would be around 12 - 14 days. We would recommend that you keep her away from the male until then. It will take a few weeks before you can tell whether or not the mating was successful, the vet would be able to tell you at about 25 days, but you will need to pay to find out with an ultrasound test.

If you know your dog well, as many people do, you would be able to recognise behavioural changes in your bitch alerting you to her pregnancy. Please remember your vet will play a very important part in ensuring the safe arrival of your puppies and if you have any concerns please contact them. Always have their number to hand during the whelping period just in case.


PUPPY FOOD
What did you feed your Bichon Frise puppies when you were weening them off their mothers milk?

We gradually started to ween the puppies off their mothers milk at around 6 weeks of age when we would, at first, use a tiny few spoonfulls of cooked fluffy rice with a little goats milk. Goats milk is much easier to digest than cows milk and will not upset the puppies stomachs. After they had become accustomed to lapping and swallowing small solids we started to give them a dry puppy mix that we had softened with warm water, to the consistancy of porridge.

As the puppies were not recieving enough milk from the mother they were always eager to feed on their new found food source. Once we could be sure that all the puppies were passing solids we started to give them a few dry unsoftened biscuits to help with their teething between meals. Just before they left us we added a very small amount of soft carton puppy food to the softened biscuit mix which made the food a little more appetising.

FIRST GROOMING TRIM
I have a 9 week old Bichon pup and wondered when would he need his first trim ?


The Bichon Frise coat will not start to develop it's curly undercoat until about 6 months of age, so the hair will be very manageable until then, after that It would be a case of how you like your Bichon to look - keeping the hair long and fluffy will mean a daily brushing routine, but a short cut rarely needs more than a weekly brush through.

The Powder Puff coat the Bichon is so famous for, although looks wonderfull is usually not very practical in daily family life, unless you have nothing better to do all day than Brush your pet's coat. Keeping the hair trimmed will ensure matts are kept to a minimum. It is also important to ensure that the coat does not contain and mats before you bath them as once the hair get wet it will bind together and be impossible to comb out. Although the Bichon is thought to have an intensive brushing reigime, we have found they do not, but then again our poppy is a bit of a scruff !

CURLY OR STRAIGHT COAT
I just got my second Bichon and his hair is quite straight...my first Bichon was curly day one...is the hair straight at first?


It's common for Bichon puppies to have curly coats just as it is for them to have straight/or slightly wavy coats for the first few months. There is not a 'norm' as all puppies are different. Our puppies just happened to be mostly straight.

The breeding line of your puppy will have an influence on how the coat will look. Our puppy's father was a tight curl coat were as the mother had a slightly fluffier coat. Whatever your puppy's coat looks like in the early weeks, it will start to change at around 5/6 months of age when the dense curly undercoat will start to develop. As the infant coat is lost, your Bichon will develop it's 'Powder Puff coat' that they are so famous for. The tight curls will become more prominent with age though and at 30 to 36 months the coat should be fully developed. Providing your puppy has a pedigree certificate you can at least be assured of having a three generation bred Bichon.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING A PUPPY
I'm looking to buy a bichon frise for our family after reading about them they seem to be the perfect breed for us, any tips on where to look and buy one from?

We don't have any contact with any breeders, so can't recommend any to you. They are only after your money mostly, no matter how professional they are. We wouldn't recommend anyone who bred animals for business anyway. We bred once, with a family pet, and will not be having any more. If you are not in any rush, keep checking the local papers as these are usually the best bet when finding a dog. They will usually be home bred by a family dog rather than a breeder and will benefit from being brought up in a family environment where they will get used to typical daily life. One of the best benefits, of course, is that they will not be too far away, so visiting them will be very convenient.

Online websites selling animals are a bit of a mine field and a lot of the adverts are not genuine, so I would be careful of those, having said that, do not discount them altogether, there are also many genuine ads too. If they show pictures make sure they all look like the same pups! they should have a good selection of pics on their ads too, as it costs nothing to add as many pictures as they want on most websites when advertising pets. It would also be good if you could visit or keep in contact with the owners every couple of weeks if you can, and they should be quite happy to send you pictures and let you visit whenever you want to, of course seeing the mother with the pups is the most important thing of all. Any doubts, make your excuses and walk away.

PUPPY TEAR STAINING
My Bichon will be 2 next week and when I got her her eyes were clear but she now has very bad tear staining. The vet has just said that they are prone to this which I am aware of but as she didn't have this problem when I got her I feel it should be able to be reversed. I Have tried lots of different wipes and solutions on them and they only seem to spread it around even more.

We also tried many of the tear stain solutions too but never found one that actually worked. We have always found that the diet we feed our dog can affect the tear staining. Some Bichon's can be very particular when it comes to changing diets though, so finding the right diet for then can be quite difficult, the o;der they gry. We have had mild staining in the past with Poppy and it is usually linked to her diet. We do keep the hair around her eyes short and well trimmed too though. We don't have any tear stain problems at the moment and I am happy to let you know exactly what we feed our dog each day if it helps.

We feed Butchers Choice (the small cartons, and we use half in a morning and half in an evening)  and mix with Bakers Complete Beef and vegetable Biscuits. We also add a small capful of ASDA own brand Apple Cider Vinegar to each full refill of water. I can't promise that this will work for you and we have tried other brands of cider vinegar that did not do anything to help - strangely only the ASDA brand worked for us.

Poppy's coat is also nice and white and we have yet to find a single flea on her. Think that is more to do with the thick curly undercoat rather than the cider though. But who knows! More details about tear stains, and some other useful information about the benefits of Cider Vinegar, can be found on our advice page. Click here

WHELPING BOX
Would u recommend buying a whelping box? Only our Bichon is grate trained and feels safe in there it's quite a big one so confused about what I need and what will be a waste of time buying!

There is no need to purchase a whelping box as such but the box need to be large enough and safe enough to accommodate your bitch and her puppies. Just ensure that the box has sides large enough to contain the puppies for about 4 weeks, so they can't clamber out over he sides and hurt themselves, We simply used an unused play sand pit box that our children no longer used and cleaned and disinfected it. Make sure it is full on newspapers for the birth as you bitch will instinctively start tearing at the papers when she is ready to give birth, called nesting, the newspapers will help her to prepare. Ensure there are lots of warm blankets available too. to keep the puppies warm.

The main concern we had was puppies being trapped under blankets when we weren't there to supervise. So get large blankets and drape them over the sides so there is no way a puppy could accidentally shuffle themselves underneath and get accidentally laid on by the mother when she is feeding the other pups.

FIRST PUPPY SHOWER
I'm from the Philippines. I have a female 4 week old bichon frise. She's still with the mom but i was just wondering when i can give my puppy a shower?

In the early weeks, as you will have seen, then mother keeps them quite clean. If you would prefer to clean them a little more or simply freshen them up a little, I would recommend that you purchase some dog/puppy wipes. The puppies are still very small and would be quite scared to have a bath at this stage. The wipes you can buy will easily freshen and clean the puppy's coat enough unless they are a little soiled at the back , then you could use a small tub of warm water and a little puppy shampoo just to clean that area. Getting them dry would be the main problem if you bathed them at this age as a hairdryer would be a very scary noise for them and if left damp they may catch a chill. As the coat is still very straight a puppy wipe will be more than sufficient.

BICHON INDEPENDENT
I Keep on seeing the word 'independent' within descriptions of Bichons, what does that mean? How are they independent? It usually says they will follow you around all day so how does that fit in with the independent statement?

Bichon's are equally at home being left for few hours a day and will happily do their own thing even when you are around - they don’t need your attention at all times.

Our Bichon is happy to be left alone and will even be a little grumpy if people are forever bothering her. You may not see her for a few hours and find she is happily asleep in her basket away from the noise of a busy household. They will quickly learn who their master is though - the one that walks, and feeds her and no matter how much attention other people give her she will always want to be around the people who bother her the least. All dogs are different and depending on how they are brought up will affect how they behave in all manner of situations. Although they are known as lap dogs, they really don’t need to be fussed over, they are happy just having you around.

Of course if they sense you may be leaving the house without them, they will think they are missing out on something and they will try their best to make you feel guilty. Oh they are so good at putting on a sad face. As soon as you are out of sight they will have a cosy lie down and a relaxing sleep in their basket, quite happily. You can almost imagine them thinking “oh well, it was worth a try” as soon as you are out of sight.

Another example of independance, if you had two sofas in your lounge you will usually find they will be sitting on the opposite one to you, but will keep one loving eye on you at all times.

FIRST SEASON
What age does a Bichon bitch come into season, I have a 3 month old puppy that my other dog has tried to mount on two occasions, should I be worried?

In response to your question, we can only advise you from our own personal experience, not a medical one. The majority of bitches can become sexually mature at age 6 months although in some smaller breeds this has been discovered to be as early as 5 months. It is all dependant on the size of the dog and the breed but Bichon Bitches would be on the average scale of being anything from 6 months upwards.

We understand your frustration of having to keep you beloved friends separated but think at just over three months old you should have nothing to worry about just yet. If you are planning to have puppies then you will have a bit of a struggle over the next few months keeping the dogs apart especially if they are sleeping together in the same room.

Just for your information our dog was 2 years old when we had puppies and it was a perfect age to become a mother