After Frenchie, the most common breeds registered were Labs, golden retrievers, German shepherds and poodles. Then came dachshunds, bulldogs, beagles, Rottweilers and German shorthaired pointers.
All were also in the top 10 in 2022. A decade ago, Yorkshire terriers and boxers were in the group. Go back a half-century, and the third most popular breed was the Irish setter — now 76th.
Pooch preferences shift for reasons ranging from media exposure (social and otherwise) to changing lifestyles as more Americans have moved to cities.
The statistics have limits. Registration is voluntary, the AKC releases few raw numbers, and the popularity rankings measure only the club’s roughly 200 recognized breeds. They don’t include doodles, other deliberate hybrids or everyday mixed-breed dogs, though those can be registered as “all-American dogs” for such sports as
THE FRENCHIE MALAISE
Nearly 98,500 French bulldogs joined the AKC pack last year, after a whopping 108,000 in 2022.
The small, solidly built, push-faced dogs have a penchant for comically pensive expressions and often take city living in stride. “They’re interesting little beings,” says Naneics Bucci, who has owned and shown them for decades.
The breed also is now a lightning rod for canine controversy and cultural critique.
There are the foreshortened snouts that can result in labored breathing, gagging, difficulty with exercise and other ills — concerns that prompted the Netherlands to ban breeding certain individual dogs with muzzles deemed too short. There are pet-store heists and violent robberies, at least one of them deadly. There’s a proliferation of Frenchie with unusual coat colors and textures, which have Frenchie folk squabbling over longtime standards.
And there’s concern among long-timers that the hot market for puppies is incentivizing people who are in it for greed, not the breed. To Bucci, “it’s a very scary time.” As a “preservation breeder” who follows AKC standards and conducts a battery of internationally recommended health tests before her dogs reproduce, she dreads that breeders who don’t do likewise may lead to crackdowns on everyone. And as a founder of Nevada French Bulldog Rescue, she also sees “all of the underbelly of the people who breed indiscriminately. “Every time we take in a Frenchie that’s in terrible condition, yes, I get angry,” says Bucci, who lives near Reno. “But at the same time, I don’t want to be punished for trying to do it right.”
- DACHSHUND REDUX
Among other breeds, the unmistakable, low-slung dachshund is riding high at No. 6, its highest ranking since 2004. The dogs ranked as high as third at times in the 1950s-70s. FILE – A long-haired dachshund competes during the 140th Westminster Kennel Club dog show, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, at Madison Square Garden in New York. Frenchies remained the United States’ most commonly registered purebred dogs last year, according to American Kennel Club rankings released Wednesday, March 20, 2024. After French bulldogs, the most common breeds registered were Labs, golden retrievers, German shepherds, and poodles. Then came dachshunds, bulldogs, beagles, and others. (AP Photo/Mary Altafferh File) Their combination of sprightly cuteness, small size and determination — they were originally bred to roust badgers — endear them to many. They also have a full-sized bark and a tendency toward stubbornness. “Even though they’re small, people have to remember: They are hounds,” says Carole Krivanich of Milton, Delaware, whose nearly 15-year-old dachshund Mo is an agility and show champion. A longtime Rottweiler owner, she’s found dachshunds to be “very versatile” and good companions The dogs are praised as protective, trainable and attached to their people. But the strong breed is “not for somebody that doesn’t know how to control a dog,” AKC spokesperson Brandi Hunter Munden says.
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