Brussels Griffon

HDB-APPROVED · DOG BREED GUIDE

Also known as Griffon Bruxellois, Griff, Belgian Griffon.

Brussels Griffons were once rat-catchers in Belgian stables, but now their biggest challenge is finding a comfortable spot on your sofa without knocking over the remote.

At a glance

Size category

Small

Weight

3 to 5 kg

Height

18 to 20 cm

Lifespan

12 to 15 years

Energy level

●●●○○ 3/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Shedding

●●○○○ 2/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Heat tolerance

●●○○○ 2/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Barking

●●●○○ 3/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Trainability

●●●●○ 4/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Grooming needs

●●●○○ 3/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Origin

Belgium

The Brussels Griffon has one of the most expressive faces in dogs, a nearly human set of eyebrows over a flat little muzzle, and that face is both the reason people fall for the breed and the reason this guide is shaped the way it is. The Kennel Club places the Griffon in Breed Watch Category 2 and says the breed "can be affected by conformational concerns". Conformational means the shape of the dog itself.

In a country where the temperature sits above thirty degrees every afternoon, a shortened muzzle is not a cosmetic detail. So this page deals with the breathing first and the charm afterwards, which is the opposite of how the breed is usually sold.

Personality and temperament

Griffons are strange and wonderful company. Trainability is rated 4 out of 5, and the breed is unusually attentive to human faces and moods, which is part of what makes it feel more like a small person than a small dog.

Energy is rated 3 out of 5 and barking 3 out of 5, both moderate, which suits flat life reasonably well.

Two ratings on this page deserve their real explanation rather than a shrug. It is rated not good with young children, and beginner friendliness is low. Neither is about temper. A Brussels Griffon weighs 3 to 5 kg, has prominent eyes in a flat face, and is genuinely fragile, so a household with toddlers puts the dog at risk rather than the other way round. And the breed is sensitive, prone to attaching hard to one person, and can be genuinely anxious if handled roughly or left alone a lot.

Exercise in Singapore's climate

Heat tolerance is rated 2 out of 5, and heatstroke is on this page's health-issue list. The Griffon is a brachycephalic breed: the muzzle is shortened, and airflow is how a dog sheds heat. Panting is a dog's cooling system and this one was built with a narrower vent.

Singapore's daily maximum of 31 to 33 degrees Celsius with average relative humidity around 82% year round (Meteorological Service Singapore) removes the recovery margin that the same dog would have in Belgium. There is no cool season here to be careless in.

What works: two short outings a day in genuinely cool hours, before 8am and after 8pm, on shaded routes, with water, and a readiness to turn back early. Fifteen to twenty minutes is a real walk for this breed. At 3 out of 5 energy, that is enough.

What does not: midday walks of any length, exercise after a meal, hot pavement, and a car without air-conditioning.

Learn the early signs and act on the first, not the third. Breathing that becomes noisier and does not settle within a minute or two of stopping, a wide dark tongue, stumbling, or a dog that sits and will not continue. Cool the dog with water and get to a vet. Do not use ice water.

Coat and grooming in the humidity

Grooming needs are rated 3 out of 5 and shedding 2 out of 5, at about S$1,200 a year. There are two coat types in this breed, rough and smooth, and the rough coat is the one that needs the work: a harsh wiry jacket that is traditionally hand-stripped rather than clipped.

The distinction matters in this climate. Clipping cuts the harsh hairs rather than removing them, and over time the coat softens, lies flatter against the skin and traps more moisture. Discuss stripping versus clipping with your groomer rather than defaulting, and if you clip, keep it short.

The daily job on either coat type is the face. A flat-faced dog has folds, and a fold that stays damp in 82% humidity becomes sore quickly. Wipe with a soft damp cloth and, crucially, dry properly, every day. Twenty seconds.

Check the eyes while you are there, for reasons the health section explains, and make it one short daily routine rather than three tasks you will each forget separately.

Diet and feeding

Food runs about S$700 a year, the joint lowest on this site, which is the small consolation of a 3 to 5 kg dog.

Keeping this dog lean matters more than what you feed it. Every extra gram on a brachycephalic dog is more tissue for a compromised airway to supply and more heat to shed through a system already at a disadvantage. Weigh portions and count treats inside the daily total.

Use a slow feeder. Flat-faced dogs tend to swallow air along with their food, and a slower meal is a more comfortable one. Never exercise a Griffon straight after eating.

Dental health is on this page's list and it is a direct consequence of the shortened jaw: a normal number of teeth in a reduced space means crowding, and crowding traps food. Brush daily from puppyhood.

Hypothyroidism is also listed. It is very manageable once diagnosed and easy to miss, so unexplained weight gain, lethargy or a thinning coat deserves a blood test rather than a diet.

Training

A sensitive, attentive dog trains well on kindness and shuts down under pressure. Three priorities:

• A harness, never a collar, from the first walk. Pressure on the throat of a flat-faced dog is the wrong idea in every direction. A Y-front harness spreads the load across the chest and keeps it off an airway with no margin to spare.
• Handling tolerance, from week ten. Daily face wiping, daily tooth brushing, eye checks, and possibly stripping. A dog that finds all that unremarkable gets fifteen years of better care.
• Time alone, built deliberately. This breed attaches hard and can be genuinely anxious. Practise in minutes, early, long before you need it.

Health

The UK Kennel Club, which lists the breed as the Griffon Bruxellois, recommends eye testing using the BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme, and does not currently offer a breed-specific DNA testing package for it. It places the breed in Breed Watch Category 2 and states that "this breed can be affected by conformational concerns".

That conformational sentence is the most important thing on this page and it is worth unpacking rather than nodding at. It does not mean the breed is unhealthy. It means the features that define how the dog looks are the same features that create its medical risks, and you cannot vaccinate against a face. Brachycephalic sits first on this page's own health-issue list, and heatstroke sits last on it, and they are the same fact viewed from two ends.

On the eyes, ask for the certificates on both parents. A shortened muzzle tends to come with shallower eye sockets, which leaves the eyes more prominent and more exposed to injury, and eyes that do not fully close when blinking dry out. In practice: a squinting, weeping or cloudy eye is an appointment today, not a wait-and-see.

Also on this page's list: patellar luxation, heart conditions and dental health. Ask for a written veterinary patella assessment on both parents, since the Kennel Club scheme does not cover it for this breed and it is partly heritable.

Routine veterinary care runs about S$1,500 a year here against a S$1,200 grooming line, and that balance is the honest summary: this is a dog whose anatomy needs medical attention. Insure in the first weeks, before any airway, eye or knee note is on a clinical record to be written back as an exclusion. On a brachycephalic breed that timing is most of the value of a policy. None of this replaces your own vet's assessment of your own dog.

Housing and space in Singapore

The Brussels Griffon is named on HDB's published list of approved breeds for flats, which runs to 61 named breeds plus a cross of any two of them, and the entry carries the alternative name Griffon Bruxaellois alongside it. Confirm the current position there before you commit, since HDB maintains and updates the list.

Ownership limits come from AVS rather than HDB. Under AVS's rules, an HDB flat may keep a maximum of one dog of an approved small breed plus up to two cats, and no dog on the Specified dogs list; private property may keep up to three cats or dogs in combination. Every dog needs an AVS licence. Licence fees depend on sterilisation status, age and the number of pets. One-time and three-year licences are different options. Check the current AVS fee table before paying.

Space is not this breed's constraint. Temperature is. The question that decides whether a Griffon does well in your home is what the flat does between 11am and 4pm with nobody in it. A unit that closes up to 34 degrees is a welfare problem for a flat-faced dog, not a discomfort, so plan for a cool room, a fan at minimum and air-conditioning on the worst days.

Give the dog a tiled place to lie out of the sun, put runners on polished floors, and provide steps to any furniture it is allowed on, because a 4 kg dog with dodgy knees should not be jumping down onto tile.

Care and cost in Singapore

On this page's figures: about S$700 a year for food, S$1,200 for grooming and S$1,500 for routine veterinary care. The veterinary line is the largest and it is the one most likely to move upward, in steps rather than gradually. Run the ten-year picture with the cost calculator.

Getting a Brussels Griffon: buying and adoption

Ask for the AVS dog farm licence number, eye certificates for both parents, and a written veterinary patella assessment for both parents. Then do the thing that matters more than any certificate on a brachycephalic breed: listen to the parents breathe, at rest and again after they have moved around.

Noisy breathing at rest is not a breed characteristic to be charmed by. It is the problem. A breeder selecting for a slightly longer muzzle and more open nostrils will tell you so proudly, because it is the hard thing to do and the market does not reward it.

Ask whether the litter was born by caesarean and how the breeder manages whelping, which on a breed with this head shape is a reasonable question and one a serious breeder will answer straightforwardly.

Adoption is worth checking. Griffons and Griffon crosses come through SOSD, Causes for Animals and Mercylight. On this breed an adult is arguably the better choice, because you can hear how the dog breathes now rather than hoping about how it will breathe at three, and any eye history is already visible.

What to skip: any puppy advertised on how flat its face is, and any seller who describes snuffling at rest as normal for the breed.

Life stages: puppy to senior

Puppy, to about 12 months. Establish the daily face, fold, eye and tooth routine before the dog has an opinion about it. Fit a harness from the first walk. Set the cool-hours walking pattern now, because month two's habits are still running in year ten. Practise being alone in short doses. Insurance in force early.

Adolescent, roughly 9 to 18 months. Breathing noise under exertion becomes noticeable here if it is going to. Raise it with your vet rather than accepting it as character, because the options are better earlier. Watch for a skip in the back legs. Weight starts to drift in a dog this charming.

Adult, roughly 2 to 9 years. The management years, undemanding once the habits exist: weight, folds, eyes, teeth, knees. Keep a note of any eye treatment so you can tell what has changed. Heat discipline does not relax with familiarity.

Senior, from about 10 years. Lifespan here is 12 to 15 years. Move to twice-yearly vet visits. Older brachycephalic dogs tolerate heat less well, so shorten the walks again without apology. Watch the eyes for cloudiness and dryness, the mouth for one-sided chewing, and the heart, which is on this page's list and is worth having listened to at every visit. Keep the flat cool and keep the dog near you, which is the only thing it has ever asked for.

See dog-friendly cafes and parks in your region → | Run the 10-year cost of a Brussels Griffon in Singapore →

Tags: brachycephalic, rare-in-sg, apartment-friendly, expressive-face, low-energy, sensitive

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