The breeds · companion
AKC Miscellaneous · UKC Companion · FCI standard 196
Bolognese.
FCI 196 utilization: companion dog (Group 9, Section 1 Bichons and related breeds), without working trial. FCI history: the distant ancestors are the same little dogs as the Maltese, known in Roman times and given as gifts by the powerful (Cosimo de Medici took eight to Brussels for Belgian noblemen). UKC: an ancient Bichon type breed from Italy, frequently given as a gift to noblemen and leaders. Wikipedia: a toy dog kept as a companion, named for the city of Bologna..
Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.
The body
What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.
Height at the shoulder
low/high span UKC, FCI and the AKC page (the AKC page prints one breed-wide range). Wikipedia's 12 to 14 in reads as an error and is not used for low/high. center is blank: no source prints a single ideal.
Weight
No source splits weight by sex. low/high span UKC, FCI and the AKC page. UKC and FCI print ranges, not a single ideal, so center is blank.
Coat
UKC and FCI agree on pure white. Wikipedia adds pale ivory and a woolly texture; FCI tolerates very slight ivory shades.
Shedding
The AKC band is reported as printed. The non-shedding and allergy statements are Wikipedia's alone; no allergen study was read and the library asserts neither.
Heat tolerance
Derived from the standard's coat (long, fluffy, single coat with no stated heavy undercoat = 3). No measured data.
How long they live, and what they cost
Measured on real dogs, with the sample and the spread. Never a guess.
Median lifespan
McMillan et al. 2024 / Dogs Trust table. Only 32 deaths and no published upper bound, so high is blank; a small sample from the UK population. The breed is not in Teng et al. 2022. The AKC page band is not used as a median.
The dog at home
What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.
Exercise need
No source read gives a minutes-per-day figure (the Royal Kennel Club page was blocked from this environment), so exercise_need_min is left out. AKC bands are not mapped to minutes.
Energy
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Grooming load
Library scale 3 = more than once a week; the AKC band 3 is mapped to it. A UK Royal Kennel Club grooming band was not available (page blocked), so this rests on the AKC band alone.
The work
What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.
Role
Companion breed throughout; no source read gives a working role.
Field trial standard
No working test applies.
More
akc bands
Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.
How to read this page
Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.
Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 4 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.
- Also called
- Bichon Bolognese, Bolognese Toy Dog, Bolo, Botoli
Every breed, read the same way.
The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.
All published breedsYour bolognese, on the record.
Log the days, the miles and the birds, and the KENAI app keeps the dog’s story beside the breed’s. Free to start.
Get the app