I am of the most popular breed and have the winningest baseball team and worn-out balloons on my fence.Hey Dogsters! Jake here! Who better than a Labrador retriever to write today’s story about how once again, Labs are the most popular dog in the US. For the 20th year in a row, we are on top of the AKC’s list of the most popular pooches.
Mind you, “popular” isn’t what it was in high school. This isn’t about dogs with the most athletic builds and biggest smiles and coolest cars. It’s simply that more Labs were registered with the AKC than any other breed. Just between us, I could not be registered because no one knows my parentage. I was found in the streets of San Francisco when I was only six months old. No one can vouch for my purity.
But Labs are not the only dogs out there. (Hard to believe when you go to a park and can’t tell one dog from another because they’re all Labs..) Check out the lists of the most popular dogs of the last two years.
Poor golden retrievers. They’re one of my favorite breeds, but now they’re down to #5. They switched in popularity with beagles. And bulldogs have moved up the list to #6, switching ranking with boxers.
“Not since the early 20th Century has the Bulldog enjoyed such sustained popularity,” said AKC Spokesperson Lisa Peterson. “‘Bob’ was the first AKC registered Bulldog in 1886, and today the breed enjoys its highest ranking in 100 years.”
Some other interesting trends, as noted by the AKC press release:
The French Bulldog made the largest leap in the past decade, jumping 50 places from 71st to 21st. Other breeds with the biggest increase in rankings over the last decade include the Havanese (from 86th to 31st) and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (from 54th to 23rd).Three new breeds entered AKC’s registry in 2010, and the larger the breed, the higher they appeared in the rankings. The Leonberger, the largest of the new breeds, was ranked 33rd; the Cane Corso ranked 51st; and the smallest of the new breeds, the Icelandic Sheepdog, came in at 82nd.
Think you know your dog breeds? Test your knowledge with this AKC trivia quiz.
See you next year, Dogsters, same time, same ranking! (Just kidding! I’m getting pretty tired of Maria not being able to tell me from all the other yellow Labs we encounter on our walks. The other day another Lab followed her, and Maria almost put her in our car instead of me! And it was a GIRL dog! The humiliation! If someone else wants to be more popular next year, they’re welcome to it.)
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