Why a starring film role matters for particular breeds of dog
“Every dog must have his day,” wrote Jonathan Swift. And yet some seem to have more days in the sun than others. Breeds spring in and out of fashion. And stereotypes are not always right: the French demonstrate a striking preference for the Australian shepherd over the poodle, the country’s national dog.
Pure-breed puppies are certified by national kennel clubs to make sure they meet certain ancestral and aesthetic requirements. To determine what shapes tastes, The Economist examined historical data on 86m dog breed registrations in nine countries: America, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden.
Some countries are particularly nationalistic in their choices. Breeds of German origin represented 83% of registrations in the top ten breeds in Germany over the past ten years compared with 33% on average in the other eight countries. Colonialism seems to leave a mark: New Zealand and South Africa disproportionately favour British dogs. And nationalism can interact with history. German shepherds were co-opted as emblems of Germany in first world war propaganda, which torpedoed their popularity in America and the rest of Europe.
Elsewhere practicality carries more weight. In Japan, three breeds—the toy poodle, the chihuahua and the dachshund, none of them Japanese—account for 50% of registrations over the past ten years. They are, however, all small, useful in a densely populated country filled with tiny apartments.
Germany
America
Britain
Finland
Japan
South Africa
*99% of poodles registered in Japan were toy poodles.
Some countries’ tastes are more fickle, driven by fads and cultural capital. Winning the American Kennel Club’s Westminster dog show is a reliable driver of popularity: it increases the odds of a new puppy registration of that breed in a country by, on average, 67% in the year the breed wins, and by 93% two years later. But it is far from the only thing that can shift the public’s dog-buying habits.
In 1970 the poodle was the fifth-most-popular breed in France. But popularity led to overbreeding which in turn led to snappy pooches and its popularity subsequently tumbled. Still, according to Stanley Coren, a psychologist who writes about the intelligence of dogs, poodles are the second-smartest breed (bested only by border collies). That blend of brains and beauty may explain their ten victories at the Westminster dog show.
In 1955 just four chihuahuas were registered in Japan. Then in 2002 a chihuahua named Qoo-chan, dressed in a suit and tie, appeared in a tv advert. Japan went mad for the diminutive pups which are the smallest recognised dog breed. It is now the second-most-popular dog in Japan; only the toy poodle is more beloved. Two American films, Legally Blonde and Beverly Hills Chihuahua, further raised the breed’s profile.
When Disney’s “101 Dalmatians” was released in 1961, 2,300 dalmatians were registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC). Re-releases of the movie in 1969, 1979, 1985 and 1991 unleashed a surge in demand and registrations peaked as a share of registrations at 42,621 in 1994. As awareness of their high energy-levels grew, interest waned. By 2006 registrations had plummeted to 820 though the breed is rising in popularity in Germany.
Across the countries we analysed, some patterns leap out from the past decade of dog registrations. A small number of breeds make up an overwhelming share of registrations. Compare that to Sweden where the top ten breeds barely cover 30% of registered dogs. The Rottweiler is an international favourite, making the top ten in five countries, but it is most popular in South Africa. Labradors reign not just in America, but in four other countries. Only in space-conscious Japan do they fail to make the top ten; their popularity is still on the rise in the Nordic countries. Top dog.
Finland
Sweden
Germany
France
New Zealand
South Africa
America
Britain
Japan
Note: Different countries don’t always agree on if a dog qualifies as a breed, how to differentiate between related breeds and which are mere varieties or distinct breeds. And countries sometimes call the same breeds by different names. The same country may even spell names in more than one way, depending on the year. For this piece, we cleaned the data to make it consistent across countries and time as much as possible, while still leaving distinctions where they are important.
Sources: American Kennel Club; Box Office Mojo; Centrale Caniche; Encyclopedia Britannica; German Kennel Club (VDH); Finnish Kennel Club (Kennelliitto); IMDb; Japan Kennel Club; KUSA Kennel Union of Southern Africa; New Zealand Kennel Club; Rotten Tomatoes; Swedish Kennel Club (Svenska KennelKlubben); The Kennel Club; Westminster Kennel Club; Dog movie stars and dog breed popularity (data) by Stefano Ghirlanda, Alberto Acerbi, and Harold Herzog, PLoS ONE, 2014; thesmartcanine.com/canadian-dogs; The Economist
Illustrations: Stephen Cheetham