How to keep Your French Bulldog Warm at Night (Inside)

Now that the autumn is ending and we are approaching winter, many pet owners will want to make sure their French Bulldog is warm enough. If your French Bulldog sleeps indoors, or in a garage, it’s important to keep them warm at night.

For many, especially those of you with smaller French Bulldogs or French Bulldogs with thinner coats, keeping your French Bulldog warm at night is a must for not only their comfort, but also their wellbeing and general health.

How can you make sure that your French Bulldog is safe, warm and comfortable during the winter wherever it is they sleep? Well, I’ve put together a guide below which you can follow for outdoor or indoor French Bulldogs.

Like humans, if a French Bulldog gets too cold, they can risk developing hypothermia, which occurs when their body temperature drops. This can cause muscle stiffness, a slow heart rate and slow, labored breathing. If left untreated, this can potentially prove fatal.

Frostbite is also a risk, with areas of skin and flesh dying away, turning blue, and may requiring amputation. To avoid these, there are many dozens of different ways of keeping your French Bulldog warm at night for French Bulldogs who sleep inside.

 

 

Here are my easiest and quickest ways on how you can keep a French Bulldog warm at night when they are sleeping in the home.

1. Heated Dog Beds and Mats:

My first recommendation is that you not only have a warm and snugly bed for your French Bulldog, but also have a heating blanket for them to sleep on. If your French Bulldog prefers to sleep on a mat rather than getting into a bed, then you could instead try a heated French Bulldog mat. They work just the same as heated blankets do for us humans.

2. Raised Dog Beds

If you do decide to invest in a new bed, get it up off the floor. Even if you don’t end up buying a heated French Bulldog bed, you should raise your existing sleeping area away from the ground.

If your floor gets very cold during the winter, raised beds keep your French Bulldog raised away from the floor and stop the loss of heat.

It can be as simple as putting the French Bulldog bed on top of a sofa cushion, just as long as it is not lying against the hard floor (great for older or arthritic French Bulldogs).

3. Arrange Their Blankets Around Them:

Create a little warm nest for your own French Bulldog. All you need to do is wind some blankets together and then arrange them in a donuts shape. This then keeps your French Bulldog warm at night, as he can get into the donuts shape and keep all warm and snugly. 

Dogs don’t necessarily need blankets to sleep, as much the same was as humans don’t necessarily need blankets to sleep either; but it certainly can help, especially when it is cold.

In fact, French Bulldogs will sometimes seek out blankets to warm themselves up, be it a sofa throw or the duvet of your bed, so if you keep finding your blankets being dragged around the house, it may be a sign to get your French Bulldog a blanket of their own.

Not all French Bulldogs are suited to blankets, though, so if your French Bulldog is looking uncomfortable with their blanket then it may be best to take it away or allow them an escape route.

Blankets allow for French Bulldogs to burrow into, even when they aren’t tired, and provide a great place for smaller French Bulldogs to curl up under.

However, when first giving your French Bulldog a blanket, it is best to keep an eye on them and make sure that they are able to breathe under it and that they are able to get free once they are warm.

If your French Bulldog takes to their new blanket, then make sure to wash it regularly to prevent smell, as well as build-up of dust or dander, which can often trigger allergies.

If your French Bulldog isn’t comfortable with a blanket, then don’t worry as there are other ways for them to sleep warmly during the night.

4. Get a Dog Nesting Bed:

If you have struggled to make your French Bulldog a nest using blankets, then you might want to consider a covered French Bulldog bed. These are basically indoor kennels with hoods that cover the bed for additional warmth.

Although, again some French Bulldogs can feel claustrophobic or trapped, so it is best to test them out in the bed before making any final choices. We don’t own one of these but if you look at them you can understand why so many owners use them to keep a French Bulldog warm at night.

5. Try Out Dog Pajamas:

Yes, this really is a thing.

If your French Bulldog is comfortable dressing up, then there are canine pajamas available for them to wear. While they are available in any size, they are best suited for small French Bulldogs with low body fat or short length fur.

6. Draft Filler:

This is a simple but effective solution that is so often overlooked by people wanting to know how to keep their French Bulldog warm at night.

As most French Bulldogs sleep close to the floor, drafts from underneath doors can allow in wind and cold air. If you are worried about your French Bulldog catching a chill, then using a draft Filler to block the gaps under the door can go a long way to making the room warmer.

This is actually a great way of keeping your house warm for you as well as your French Bulldog!

7. Indoor Grass Patches:

If you are living in a place where the winters can get unbearable outside, then you may not want your French Bulldog venturing outside to do his business.

I recommend an indoor grass patch. These are squares of fake grass, with a tray underneath to collect urine. This lets your French Bulldog to go to the bathroom without having to go outside into the cold, helping to keep the pup warm at night.

While these do need to be cleaned regularly, they can be a godsend (and are also incredibly useful for French Bulldogs living in high-rise apartments who cannot get outside very easily).

Some people even go so far as to make their own, with patches of real grass and Tupperware containers!

8. Heated Dog Bowls:

As your French Bulldog’s water bowls will typically be set on the ground, it can often be the case that the water in them becomes icy cold. When French Bulldogs drink ice cold water, their body temperature can drop to dangerous levels.

To mitigate this risk, try a heated French Bulldog bowl. Rather than warming up the water they will instead keep the water at a comfortable room temperature so that your French Bulldog can drink without getting too cold.

9. Don't Let Them Sleep Too Near To Heating:

Whilst is might be tempting to position your French Bulldog’s bed near to a heater or radiator, I would recommend against doing so.

As French Bulldog owners, our particular breed is brachycephalic. This means they can overheat very easily and quickly become uncomfortable.

10. Let Your Dog Sleep in With You:

I put this as the last option as many owners don’t like their French Bulldog sleeping their bed with them. Some owners will keep their French Bulldog warm at night by letting them sleep in their human bed.  if it’s not a problem for you, why not make an exception on those cold winter nights?