Je Suis the Top Dog in America

The US still has a major case of French bulldog fever, but a very different breed is staunchly chasing dog lovers' hearts, according to American Kennel Club statistics released Wednesday. For the third year in a row, the comical, controversial Frenchie tops the club's annual rundown of the nation's most prevalent purebred dogs. As the AP reports, Frenchies are followed by Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, German shepherds, poodles, and some other longtime faves. (Rounding out the top 10: dachshunds, beagles, Rottweilers, bulldogs, and German shorthaired pointers.) Yet keep an eye on the cane corso. The powerful, protective breed vaulted from nearly 50th to 14th in the rankings in just a decade. A look at the trends:

• The Frenchie phenomenon: The AKC ranking reflects purebreds, mostly puppies, that were added last year to the nation's oldest dog registry. Nearly 74,500 were Frenchies. That's down from 98,500 in 2023 and 108,000 in 2022, but the AKC isn't saying that the wave has crested. The small, pointy-eared bulldog breed is still way ahead of the once-dominant Lab, which logged 58,500 new registrations last year.
• The cane corso: If a Frenchie is sometimes described as "a clown in the cloak of a philosopher," a cane corso is a protector with no use for a cloak. Big, strong, and athletic, the cane corso served as a Roman war dog and later a farmer's helper, boar hunter, and household guardian.

• New dogs: The newest breed to be counted, the Lancashire heeler, came in at 189th out of AKC's 201 recognized breeds last year. The next-newest, the bracco Italiano, sprang last year from 152nd to 132nd. One owner stresses that the substantial, handsome, and sociable hunting dogs need a good deal of physical and mental exercise. Quite a few still hunt.
• Few dogs: The five rarest AKC-recognized breeds are the sloughi, the Norwegian lundehund, the grand basset griffon Vendeen, the Bergamasco sheepdog, and, at 201st, the English foxhound.
• Doodle doings: To date, the AKC hasn't recognized any sheepadoodles, Havapoos, borgis, or other "designer" hybrids.
• And the everydogs: There's no census of everyday mixed-breed dogs in the US, but the American Veterinary Medical Association estimates the country has about 90 million dogs total.

(More American Kennel Club stories.)