Abstract
We investigate the relationship between characteristics of dog breeds and their popularity between years 1926 and 2005. We consider breed health, longevity, and behavioral qualities such as aggressiveness, trainability, and fearfulness. We show that a breed's overall popularity, fluctuations in popularity, and rates of increase and decrease around popularity peaks show typically no correlation with these breed characteristics. One exception is the finding that more popular breeds tend to suffer from more inherited disorders. Our results support the hypothesis that dog breed popularity has been primarily determined by fashion rather than function.
Highlights
The popularity of dog breeds shows, over time, the kind of large and apparently whimsical fluctuations that are usually considered the hallmark of fashions and fads [1,2]
Popularity Data The American Kennel Club (AKC) encourages dog owners to register their dogs in the AKC database
The AKC has provided us with registration data from 1926 to 2005, totaling over 50 million dogs from,150 recognized breeds. These data can be represented in matrix form, with pi,k the number of dogs of breed i registered with the AKC in year k (1926ƒkƒ2005)
Summary
The popularity of dog breeds shows, over time, the kind of large and apparently whimsical fluctuations that are usually considered the hallmark of fashions and fads [1,2]. Theoretical models of cultural dynamics have viewed such fluctuations as the result of either chance [1,5,6] or of shifts in population preferences that occur when many individuals imitate a few influential cultural models [7]. Both explanations deny that the intrinsic characteristics of breeds which would presumably make for good pets, such as their temperament or longevity, play any role in determining which breeds are popular at any given time. This claim may appear paradoxical given the important place that dogs hold in the life of many, and is as yet untested
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