Bentley

Breed: French Bulldog

Sex: Male

Age: 16 months

Weight: 32 lbs.

12/5/2025 Update:

Bentley has been ADOPTED!!!   It may not have always been sunshine and rainbows (Rescue seldom is), LOVE and PATIENCE prevailed and Bentley has found his forever home. 

Life doesn’t always play out how you think it will.  2025 was a year full of intense sadness and intense joy for our household.  
We were a family of two healthy and relatively young French bulldogs until the day we weren’t.  Our barely 10 year old female was called over the rainbow bridge after a rapid battle with a type of veinous untreatable cancer.  It left us shocked and devastated.  How would we ever fill the gaping hole left by the sweetest most gentle girl there ever was?

The whole family struggled in our own way with tears at random times throughout the day and, in the case of our male Frenchie, with deep depression.  

Boo was devastated.  Zoe was all he had ever known his whole life. He had grown up with her as his pack leader and best friend.  They had wrestled and played and loved for all of Boo’s 7 years.  
And now she was gone.  

After weeks of his depression we knew we needed to do something.  My husband and I were still in mourning and weren’t ready for another fur baby, but we were so worried about Boo we figured we needed to try something.  The first thing we tried was a play date with another Frenchie.  She was a female that looked eerily like Zoe.  Boo wanted NOTHING to do with her. Maybe another dog isn’t what Boo needed??? We were conflicted but still felt like the right dog could help him.

At this time I reached out to No Borders Bulldog Rescue.  I asked if we could try the “Foster To Adopt” program because it would be a good way to help another Frenchie in Zoe’s honor, as well as try out another companion for Boo.  Boo was going to be the deciding vote because if Boo didn’t click with the new foster then we would proceed as a regular foster to find them a home. I specifically requested an older Frenchie since Boo wasn’t a baby anymore and was open to a male or female. Remember when I mentioned life not playing out how you think????

Well, get ready to buckle up because I got “the call” and a male 15 month old needed a home STAT!  

Enter Bentley!  A whirl wind of a wrecking ball TANK of a young male Frenchie who culd not have been more opposite of our demure, gentle Zoe.  Oh my goodness.  How was Boo going to take this????

Like a duck to water is the answer!!! Boo sniffed Bentley and followed him around for a total of 1 minute before he was play bowing and trying to initiate play!!! What just happened!?? Our depressed boy was finding joy again!!!

Now begins Bentleys journey with our family.  Within 24 hours I discovered Bentley was NOT potty trained, had separation anxiety AND was resource guarding me against my husband.  WHAT HAD WE GOTTEN OURSELVES INTO???

I was still deeply sad about loosing our sweet girl and now I had this disaster of a wild boy!?
Well, this is rescue and no time to wallow.  It was time to buckle up for serious training and behavior research.   Utube videos, internet searches and a call to a trainer all followed in an intense drive to get this figured out!

The trainer had one session with us to get me kick started and then began the tedious process of repetition and patience. Trips were canceled and dinner dates became ordering in so as not to traumatize Bentley further.  

Slowly but surely Bentley learned the rewards of treats and praise for outside potty and the angry voice and face he would get for accidents inside.  Bentley is a “good time” boy so he is all about the rewards and does not like getting in trouble.  It was obvious from the start how smart he was too and was understanding quickly how to work the system to get maximum treats and belly rubs!

The guarding also progressed from him almost attacking my husband when he would walk through our bedroom to my husband becoming “his” person.  
Through all of this I still felt like I was struggling to bond with Bentley.  He could not be cuter and Boo loved him, so what was the problem? I knew it was because of missing Zoe…I had no idea how long it would take.  

And then came the day that I looked at Bentley and knew I finally felt love in my heart again for another fur baby.  He needed to be ours forever.  

I couldn’t imagine not having his precious good morning kisses, his rowdy rough play, his sweet snuggles with him nuzzling his head into me for a nap, his crazy zoomies and crashing into Boo (and anything else in his way) like a bowling ball,  his enthusiasm for meal and snack times, his cute butt sashay on our walks, his adorable habit of “shopping” at the toy basket for what toy he needed in that moment until the floor was littered with all his fun.  All of that and more are the rewards for saving this sweet, scared, anxiety prone baby. Congratulations are definitely in order for the entire family.  

11/16/2025 Update:

11/9/2025 Update:

10/27/2025 Update:

Bentley continues to be the sweetest boy.  Every morning he comes to get his morning love.  He will suddenly jump into my lap and push his face into mine with both front paws on my chest making sure I focus on him  and only him.  He wants belly rubs and head scratches and kisses and just attention in general.  Once he feels like he has gotten the proper “dose” of love then he moves on to play or nap.  

He has also developed another funny habit that he loves to be under the covers at night.  He doesn’t mind his whole face being under the covers!! If he gets too warm he will shift himself up with his head (or whole body) onto the pillow 🤣.  He is a great snuggler for sure.  

Bentley is doing sooooo much better with the separation anxiety.   He seems less and less stressed by our leaving and continues to be perfectly fine loose in the house when we are gone.  He is still on his anxiety meds for now. 

Have I told you how much he loves toys???  He loves going to the toy basket and picking a toy to play with and then going back and picking another toy.  This goes on until it looks like a toy explosion happened!!  His favorite is when his fur brother tries to take his toy or bone away and the biggest play time of “tug of war” and “keep away” ensues!  Frequently it also turns into wrestle mania with them grabbing each other by the collar, or jowl or leg and pulling and body slamming.  You have never truly lived until you see Frenchie wrestle mania!  They play HARD!!! 

So overall Bentley is super happy and content boy and much loved!

10/19/2025 Update:

Hi frens! Bentley here! I been habing a great week.   I gets walks every morning and every night after dinner. If the people don’t get going soon enough I goes and stands on Mom and looks at her hard.  She KNOWS what I want!  If the “the look” doesn’t work I keep walking around them and “look” even harder at dem.   Dey finally gets de hint!   

My fur brother loves to walk too and I make sure I sniff whatever he sniff cause he smart and knows where de good smells are.  Sometimes he takes breaks on de walk and rolls or just lays there.  I patient and just lays down til he ready.  

Have I told you how much I lubs food??? I so happy when it breakfast or dinner time.  But best part is when Mom and Dad eats and we ALWAYS gets tastes from Dads people food.  He so nice that way.  I makes sure I takes it very gentle.  

Last week we goes to other family house and gets to hang out wit lots and lots of other people.  I likes most of dem but men wit hats kind of scares me.  But I gets lots of belly rubs so I was happy!

So pretty much walks, food and belly rubs are all my favorites! If you ever meet me you now knows what to do!

9/28/2025 Update:

Hi Fren!!! Bentley here!  I hab a fun week.  I gets to go to a place wit lots of people and other dogs!  I thinks at first I needs to claim my turf and I barks and jumps at other dogs.  Dey looks at me like I crazy ….. mom starts giving me treats next to other dogs and I decides dey ok.  But I still watching dem just in case Dey gets too close to us.  My fur brother not mind dem at all and seems to likes de girl dog so I  finally gives her a sniff too and introduce myself properly.  It fun to gets all the scratches and pats from all the people!   I smiles so much when one nice lady picks me up and gives me belly scratches!!! Mmmmm.  Belly scratches are de best!

Dis week I gets lots of walks.  I loves walks almost as much as belly scratches!  We goes wit Mom every morning after breakfast.  If she not get up in time I jump off the bed and walks around to see if that makes her get up.  If the sun is up then am ready to go but Mom sometimes needs more time. 

At night after dinner we gets walk wit Mom AND Dad!   After dey eats dinner it time for leashes!  If dey not get leashes right away den I just looks and looks at dem until finally we go!

My only other favorite thing is food!   I loves my breakfast and dinner and the human food bites we gets after Mom and Dad done eating.  

Dats all my favorite things!!!  Well, zoomies fun too!

Bye! It Nap time! Oh yea.  I likes my afternoon naps too…..

9/21/2025 Update:

Bentley has been doing so well that he decided I needed a new challenge or two…..this is what I  imagine e going on in his head. 

Bentley:  hmmmmm.  I have been getting a lot of “good boys” these days.  That sure is boring for Mom.  I think I will give her some challenges!

Challenge 1:

Why don’t I start eating poisonous acorns and throwing up??? With acorns in our backyard and on our entire walk that should be fun for mom to try and stop me!!

Challenge 2:

I think I will randomly start peeing on her bed if I think she is going to leave the house.  I will lay on the bed so cute and then…BAM…. Pee on the bed when she isn’t watching me!!! That should really throw her for a loop and show her she should NEVER even think about leaving the house!!!   Good luck training me on that one!🤣🤣🤣 

Well, this isn’t Mom’s first rodeo so let’s go!

Challenge accepted!

Challenge one: on our walks Bentley will get in serious trouble for even sniffing an acorn and if he dares to pick one up then the wrath explodes until he spits it out.  I have never seen him spit something out so fast 🤣 by the end of the walk he was sniffing for acorns less and not picking them up as much.  That challenge will continue to be addressed until we achieve 100% victory!

 Challenge 2:

This one is easier and harder all at the same time. For starters when I am showering or getting dressed he will be closed into the bathroom or closet with me.  Then during the day the bedroom door will remain closed.  Secondly, I am taking his anxiety meds back up to the previous dose.  I had started the process of reducing it in hopes of eliminating completely but now I will keep him at full dose for a while longer.  I am pretty sure the urinating on the bed is in protest of just the idea of me leaving, so his separation anxiety, while better,  is still alive and well.  

 Other than these two challenges Bentley is a precious fellow.  He lives for belly rubs and food.  I take this as proof of his being a French Bulldog! 

One other interesting thing occurred this week. Bentley gave evidence that he also had a bit of “protective guard dog” in him.  We were on our usual morning walk and a jogger went past us and then stopped at the end of the street to catch his breath.  As we passed him he started walking right behind us.  Bentley wasn’t having it and kept turning to keep him in his sights and when it was apparent that I wasn’t talking to this person Bently went into guard dog mode with full raised hackles and growling and barking.  I apologized to the gentleman and we began a conversation and immediately Bentley went back to his usual genial self and walked with the gentleman with no issue. Interesting and good to know that no one will be sneaking up on us on Bentleys watch! 

That’s the full report on “Life with Bentley” for this week!

9/15/2025 Update:

Hi frens! Bentley here! I been playin SO hard!  I lubs play with my fur buddy.  We wrestle and zoom around and den wrestle again. 

Las nite I sick. I throws up when it dark outside for long times.  Mom cleans up and snuggles me in bed but den I starts needing to throw up again and mom rushes me over a white towel thing.  Den we snuggled in again and she tries to make me feel better.  Den I needs to throw up again and again and again.  Finally suns coming up and I goes to sleep and not throws up anymore.  I sleeps for a bit but den I ready for breakfast!!! Feed me!!! I is hungry!!!  Now just taking naps.  Maybe I feels like play later. 

Dis week I has fun.  I gets to go with Mom and Dad to frens house for dinner. I such a good boy but dey no has doggy door and I needed to poop…. Mom takes some out but I didn’t needs to poop den.    Ops. Fens nice and not gets mad at me.  

 I been brave dis week when Mom and Dad leave.  I brave but…. Nervous.  Mom and Dad lets me stay out now in de house cause I been so good!  I hab de whole house but I stays by the door so I knows de second dey are back.  Whew!  Always so happy and relieved when dey comes back!!!

Ok, needs to go take a nap!

9/7/2025 Update:

Time to share new milestone victory’s for Bentley!  When Bentley first came to us two months ago, I had to take Bentley out to do his business and stand with him at the grass.  He would not ask to go out and if I didn’t  take him frequently enough he would not hesitate to go inside the house.  I also had to correct him when he would pee and poop on the porch or pool deck. Then he slowly stopped going in the house as long as I took him out side regularly and walked all the way to the grass with him.  Then I was able to go outside with him but stop at the back porch and he would go all the way to the grass by himself.  Then he learned how to use the dog door and I stopped inside at the dog door.  Then he started taking himself out the dog door without me walking him there!  But with all that progress he would never get out of bed in the morning and take himself to the dog door without me.  Every day at some point between 5-6:30 I had to get up and walk with him to the dog door.  But today was a big day!!! Today he jumped off the bed and trotted straight to the dog door and took himself out!!!

He actually took himself out at 5:30am and then again at 6:30am!  Bentley has finally understood the assignment and gained the confidence to go by himself!

Another equally huge milestone is that Bentley has gone up to 3 hours at home without us and without distress and without “nervous pooping” in the house.  For now I am still limiting his access to the whole house, so he stays in the room that has access to the dog door and he is being such a good boy!  I monitor him on a camera and he doesn’t totally relax but he also isn’t pacing, howling or distressed.  He is watching most of the time for our return but does it lying down and will occasionally close his eyes. This is a massive difference from when he first arrived and he would go crazy when I left even if my husband was home. He would frantically race from window to window and almost immediately have a nervous poop in the house. I feel very confident one day in the next few months he will graduate to full house access when we are gone. 

Right now the longest we have left him is 3+ hours.  The goal is to get him to be confident and relaxed even with 4-5 hours at home alone.  It isn’t something I see happening very often but I need to know he can handle that if we need to be gone that long. 

I am so proud of Bentley!

Other than that he continues to be his usual playful and loving self.  He is still very much a puppy and keeps us laughing. He loves attention and just like a young child he will suddenly decide he needs our attention and will climb up on us and stick himself right in our face so we will pay attention. We have discovered a huge favorite of his is to be held like a baby on his back while we rub and scratch his belly 🤣

8/28/2025 Update:

Bentley had a really great week!  He is relaxed in his new home and not nearly as anxious and nervous as when he first arrived. His obsessive following has mellowed a lot.  I can now go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without his supervision 🤣. I can also walk out the door to do things in the yard without him getting upset.  I have started started a new routine to help him with the separation anxiety.  I take him for a walk every morning and now have started leaving again for a second walk after bringing him home and am gone around 30 minutes with him free roaming the house and he is great.  Of course he is on a twice daily med which could be part of the improvement….

His potty training is still going strong. He had one accident this week when we had company over and I wasn’t tracking his outside trips very well.   He went by the back door so he knew he needed to go out that door. I have been introducing him to the dog door and he is starting to use it! He will follow our other dog out the dog door frequently and has even gone through it on his own!  For some reason he will go from inside to outside using the dog door with no help  but not outside to inside without me cracking it open a little. But he is a smart boy so any day now he will be a pro! I am still following him out when I need him to do his business to make sure he is going.  I have yet to see him initiate taking himself outside through the dog door to do his business but once he is super comfortable with the dog door I am hoping he will progress to that.  For now he takes himself to the back door and sits there but hasn’t barked or initiated trying to let me know he needs to go.  I just have to be very aware of when he walks and hangs out at the door.  

But the BIGGEST NEWS is that he finally stayed home in his kennel for over an hour and didn’t poop in the crate!!  I monitored him on the camera and he didn’t seem agitated and didn’t whine or howl!  He has now stayed two separate times in his kennel and was calm and didn’t poop!  Last night we had a set back and he pooped again but it was because he ate diner and didn’t go poop outside before we had to leave the house to meet others for dinner. If we hadn’t been on a time line to leave and had been able to wait until he could go then I feel certain he would have been fine. Lesson learned to feed him dinner farther in advance before we have to leave. 

Another huge improvement is that my husband can now walk in the room with zero barking or reaction from Bentley.  In fact he will snuggle next to my husband if I am up and not available. He is over all much more comfortable in our home. 

Bentley remains a sweet loving fellow who loves his playtime! He loves doing zoomies and wrestling with our other Frenchie multiple times through the day.  

The one time you can count on him being chill is in the afternoons. He loves a good nap in the afternoon!  

But at 5:00 he is giving me the “feed me look”.  Yep, Bentley doesn’t want to miss a meal and knows how to look pathetically hungry.  

Over all it is astounding the progress he has made. I am so proud of him!

8/21/2025 Update:

A day in the life of Bentley –

6 am- time to wake up mom to go outside for a potty break!  Early?? That’s not early! Sometimes I need to go outside at 5 am! 

6:15 am- mom takes me back to bed. I patiently wait until 7 but then put my paw down. It’s time to eat!!!

7am- Mom finally gets up! Yea!  She takes forever getting her walking clothes before heading to the kitchen. 

7:15- Mom finally walks to the kitchen as I prance behind her.  I supervise her prepping the bowls. Sometimes she drops a kibble or two and I am ready and available to clean up! 

7:20- I slurp up every bite and then go check my buddy’s bowl to make sure he didn’t miss anything. 

7:25- Mom gets the harness and leash and I sit perfectly so she can get it on fast!

7:30- Finally we are out the door! 

We go a nice long walk. It is hot but I love every minute. I make sure I walk pretty close to foster mom to make sure she doesn’t get lost.  

8:20-Back home!  Mom now gets her drink ready and we head outside to sit in the shade by the pool.  I have bones to choose from so sometimes I chew on those but sometimes I still have energy after the walk and have to get some zoomies in!  I run around the porch, then slide under the couch, then jump up on a chair, then take a lap around the yard, then back to the porch, back to the chair, back under the couch!   Pant, pant, pant. Hold on…. I need to catch my breath.  Ok, maybe I will just chew a bone…. Oh… nope! Now I need to tackle my Frenchie buddy!  We roll around wrestling each other for a while until we are both panting.  Whew ! Ok. Now time for a quick Power Nap! I lay down in the shade next to Mom and snooze.  

9-11:30 – hang out in the shade and chew bones off and on. Mom gets her breakfast at some point and she always saves a lick or two for me and my buddy. 

Noon- Mom finally goes inside with us and it’s time for air conditioning! Yea!! I plop down on the cold tile. That feels so good! 

12:30-5:00- nap time!!! Sometimes I feel like an afternoon wrestle but there is nothing better than laying next to Mom or Dad in the nice cold air! 

5:00- Time to give Mom the “look”!   A boy needs to eat!

5:30pm-  Time for some outside time. Mom sits on the swing and me and my buddy do our business and it’s wrestle zoomie time!!  We roll around and play keep away with a ball and sometimes I just have to zoomie!  

Hold on! Intruder alerts! I hear rustling in the leaves!  Squirrel!!!  I hear it and go running to check it out!!  That squirrel is too fast and I can’t figure out how to get up where he is!  My buddy really watches him but I get bored pretty quick cause there is no way I can get to the squirrel.  

Time now to find one of my bones and settle down. 

6-6:30- whew! It’s hot so time to go inside.  

FYI: when it’s time for Mom and Dad to eat I always maintain perfect eye contact with Dad because he ALWAYS has a special bite or two for me and Buddy when he is done! Once we hear scrapes on the plate we know it won’t be long! He slips us some tasty morsels at the end and sometimes even has enough to put some in our bowls! Yummy!! 

6:30- 8:00pm- Sometimes Mom needs to do stuff so I settle in next to Dad.  Eventually Mom is ready to settle done and it’s time for Netflix and inside time!  We go to the sleeping room with mom and sometimes I chew a bone and sometimes I wrestle with my buddy! 

8:00pm- Yawn!! It’s been a long day! Time to go to sleep.  I settle in bed next to Mom and I am out! 

9:30pm- Mom wakes me up and makes me go out for last pee of the night. 

9:45pm- lights out!  Zzzzzzz. It takes some good beauty sleep to be this handsome!! 

8/15/2025 Update:

It’s been the best of times. It’s been the worst of times….

The Best:

-Potty Training: Bentley went all week with no potty accidents!  Even when we went to stay over night at another family members house with me he had no accidents!
-Crate Training: He has able to settle down in the kennel while I am gone and actually lay down for decent spells of time. He will howl and whine and I will speak to him through the microphone and he will stop.  Unfortunately it still doesn’t stop the pooping. *See additional note below on crate training.  
-Separation anxiety:  Bentley is doing better when I walk out the door and he is free in the house. I can be outside for maybe 10 minutes before I hear him howling some.  He also hasn’t been pooping  lately when we are separated with one of us inside and the other outside and there is no car leaving.  He also has been able to not poop if I leave and my husband is home.  The trigger is still me leaving in the car and no one else is home.  So, seeing some improvement but lots of work still ahead. 
-Affection: Bentley is incredibly sweet and loving and has been since day one.  I mean look at his face!!! He is so adorable and knows how to “work it” like any respectable pretty boy! 
-Walks: Bentley looks forward to walks and happily sticks his head through the harness and is ready to go!  In spite of his enthusiasm he doesn’t wildly pull on the leash.  He is super easy to walk.  It is interesting that he rarely pees or poops on a walk. He doesn’t feel the need to “mark” like our other male Frenchie does.  He also doesn’t sniff nearly as much as my other dogs have but I think he is learning to do that as he is sniffing more and more.  Wondering if he hasn’t been walked much and is just now learning how to do “dog social media” of sniffing and peeing? 
-Food: Bentley loves food and yet is super gentle if hand fed anything.  Super food motivated so it has been a tool in his training. 

The Worst:

-Potty Training: After a week of perfect potty manners he decided to make a statement with a small pee on the bedroom rug in protest for Dad coming home after 6 days away and daring to take time with me and not him.  He said “I’ll show you who you need to pay attention to!”  
Also need to include that Bentley consistently wants to go out to pee and poop at 5 am😞. It’s good that he is holding it to go outside but is kind of a bummer to have to take him out at 5 am. Insert “Yawn” here.  Hoping he will learn to use the dog door eventually and take himself out.  I haven’t worked on him learning the dog door yet as I needed to be with him for potty training rewards. 
–Resource Hoarding: His resource hoarding showed up again but this time over my grandson. I was holding the baby a lot and over a 24 hour period he slowly started guarding me and the baby more and more. It finally manifested as a snarling lunge at the babies father for daring to kiss the babies head on his watch!  Sounds like a good thing to defend a baby but is actually a bad behavior as it could result in him biting someone.  We will be working on this. I feel confident we can work through it as he started “guarding” me from my husband when he first arrived but now has stopped.  He has never resource hoarded when people show up at the house and we are up. It is only when we are sitting that he feels the need to guard from new people (and by people I mean mainly men he seems to think are threatening) 
–Crate Training: He is still pooping in the kennel when I leave in the car and no one is home.  He has been on some anxiety meds for about 2 weeks now but it hasn’t helped this issue so far.  I have been trying to catch him on the camera so I can know at what time marker he does it but as I am driving and trying to watch the camera I haven’t been able to determine it yet.  He never has any big freak out moments so super surprised he is still pooping.  A work in progress and my fault for not working on it more with quick trips and returns. 

So, over all the “Bests” out weigh “the worsts” by a lot!  Don’t we all wish we were that lucky!!

8/8/2025 Update:

8/1/2025 Update:

Hi Der frens! Dis is Bentley! Yep, it’s a new name to me but call me wat you want as long as you calls me for dinner! And Breakfast! And Treats! I LUB foods!

I hab great time at new house with new lady and man.  It kind of scary at first but I tink it’s ok now.  

I really likes my new fren! We plays a lot and wrestle and zoomie together.  He so fun!  We shares toys. I stays away from his food and he stays away from mine.  Dat makes for a great fren!

But I gets in trouble some dis week.   I gets treats for pee and poop outside but when I needs to go inside I just go and de lady she gets mean face and tells me “No, No!”  I tink maybe I needs to go to door when I needs to go potty? Not sure yet. 

Dis morning I gets my worse mean face ever.  We sleeps all night so good and then de man gets up from bed and I thinks I need to cover his smell so I pees all my pee on his spot.  Dat show him!!! ……ops.  I makes de lady so mad and I gets put outside for a while.  I don’t like not being wit de lady so dat makes me sad.  

All de time I wants to be wit de lady.  If she goes to another room I have to follow her cause she might disappear if I don’t!  And if she gets in de car and leaves I so upset!! It makes me have to poop right away.  It so scary! 

Did week de lady takes me to talk wit a man and Dey makes plans for him to come to de house next week.  I wonder what we gonna do???

I wants all de love and don’t likes getting mean face.   I just wants to be wit the lady and gets love and play wit my fren!   

Gotta go play! I tells you more next week!

7/25/2025 Update:

Where do I even start with Bentley?  He has only been with us 4.5 days but it feels like weeks.  We have him through the Foster To Adopt Program.  We will be fostering him and if he is a good fit for our family we will adopt him.  Please follow our journey of discovery with Bentley!  If you want to start your own journey of Foster to Adopt I highly recommend it!! Just fill out a foster application online! 

 I digress, so back on topic to Bentley.  We have had the whole spectrum of experiences in these short few days. 

So let’s jump in.  Bentley is gorgeous.  I mean poster child perfect specimen of a Frenchie. He is built like a freight train from his tree trunk legs to his block head.  

And you ladies will get it, but beware of the pretty boys 🤣. He will steal your heart with his big brown eyes and if that isn’t enough your heart will be gone when he melts into you as you snuggle.  He is a lover for sure. He is even a lover and not a fighter with other dogs.  He has won over our other male Frenchie from the first “woof”.  He is shy/timid at first but warms up pretty quickly.  He is slower to grow comfortable with men and will flinch until he knows them.  He did great when 2 days after his arrival we had a small pool party and he was in heaven with everyone around to give him attention.  He got over his timidness quickly and soaked up all the love. 

But…….. he wasn’t 100% potty trained so working on that and it is going well as he is highly food motivated and loves the treats when he goes in his designated area. 

The other “but” and is more of a “BUT” is that he has separation anxiety.  I can’t even walk into the next room without him following.  Restroom trips in the middle of the night also includes his direct supervision.  He has attached himself to me specifically (a female) and not my husband.   I have been outside with Bentley and walked inside without him and his cute little nose tracks me as best he can through the windows.  

Then I tried actually leaving the house and he stayed with my husband and our other dog (so he wasn’t even alone).  It was the first time I left him at home and I didn’t anticipate how anxious it would make him. He pooped three times in the house and peed on the dog bed all within 1.5 hours.  Ugh.  

So now we know and will manage it better but haven’t even thought about leaving him at home alone or even with my husband. I will be starting separation anxiety training soon in hopes it can be modified enough to at least allow us to leave him for a couple of hours.  

That part of the story “to be continued”.  

I don’t want to end on a negative note so another positive is that he is excellent on a leash. He doesn’t really pull and maintains excellent eye contact to verify where I am and if he is doing good! With his eye contact and food motivation he should be a good candidate for any training I might want to try.  He already knows the “sit” command so will have to see what else he should learn!

Thats it for this week!  Please stay with us on this journey!

7/20/2025 Update:

Please welcome Bentley to No Borders Bulldog Rescue.   Bentley is a male French Bulldog that weighs 32 lbs. and is 16 months old. 

Bentley joins the No Borders Bulldog Rescue as an owner surrender.   He may be young; be he has already had two homes.  While in his initial home, the owner had a change of living arrangements and could no longer have her pets.   So, a family member agreed that they would take Bentley.   It didn’t take long before they realized they were not a good fit Bentley.   Bentley needs the companionship of another dog and/or humans.  Everything was going great, but they realized that when the summer was over and everyone returned to school that Bentley would be home alone and miserable.    They contacted us at No Borders Bulldog Rescue and asked if we could take him in and find a family that would be able to provide Bentely with everything he needs.   All the details were completed, and Bentley became the newest member of the No Borders Bulldog Rescue family. 

Bentley’s first stop was to the clinic.   We knew he needed to be neutered and brought up to date on his vaccines, but he also needed a physical exam to insure there wasn’t anything internal that needed to be addressed.  We received good news all around.   Bentley is negative for all intestinal worms as well as heartworm.  He received all the necessary vaccine updates and was neutered without any issues.  The vet also mentioned that it was so nice to see a Frenchie that can actually breath and handles anesthesia well (trust us, it doesn’t happen nearly enough). 

Where to start with Mr. B, first his name was changed. Partially to protect the innocent and partially because EVERYONE that met him disliked his previous name ALOT.   He is young and very smart so we have not doubt that he will adjust to the name change in no time.  Next when looking at Bentley, you notice he is a very stout little boy.  When most people hear of a 32 lb. Frenchie, they think “of he’s fat… or he is a mix”.  Neither of these options fit for Bentley, yes, he is a BIG boy but there isn’t any fat to be found AND he is 100% Frenchie.   While he may look “Large and in Charge’, he is actually “Large and very laid back”.   So laid back in fact that he is very timid when meeting new people and animals. While curious, he definitely takes his time to feel comfortable.  But never fear, once comfortable he warms up and appears to never meet a stranger.   Bentley is currently chillin’ at his new foster home and all is going GREAT.   He has met his new foster brother, and they like one another.  It wasn’t love at first sight, but they are working on their bromance.  Stay tuned for more details on Mr. B as we and his foster family get to know him better.