Animal Insting

We have been getting a ton of snow here for the last couple of days, so Mom and all of us dogs and cats have been staying inside where it's warm and dry.  Well, except sometimes we have to go outside to potty. And Mel and Barry like to snack on some poop while they are out there.  And Nicky likes to run around, looking for squirrels.  But when I go out, I don't stay any longer than I need to.  And the cats don't go out at all because they have litter boxes.

So anyway, besides sleeping a lot, which is an excellent thing to do on a snowy day, I have also been looking around online at some interesting stuff about dogs, and I thought I would put some of it in my blog.

First of all, last week the AKC came out with their list of Most Popular Dog Breeds for 2010.  Here are the top 20 breeds, and if you want to see the entire list, you can go here:  http://www.akc.org/reg/dogreg_stats.cfm

  1.  Labrador Retrievers

  2.  German Shepherd Dogs
  3.  Yorkshire Terriers
  4.  Beagles
  5.  Golden Retrievers
  6.  Bulldogs
  7.  Boxers
  8.  Dachshunds
  9.  Poodles
10.  Shih Tzu
11.  Rottweilers
12.  Miniature Schnauzers
13.  Chihuahuas
14.  Doberman Pinschers
15.  Pomeranians
16.  German Shorthaired Pointers
17.  Great Danes
18.  Siberian Huskies
19.  Shetland Sheepdogs
20.  Boston Terriers

The first 3 breeds on the list have the same place that they did last year, but beagles have moved up from 5th to 4th, which means they traded places with golden retrievers.  Bulldogs moved up from 7th to 6th, and they have come all the way up from being #21 in 2000.




Basenjis, sadly, are at #89 on the list, which is one point lower than in 2009.  In 2000, basenjis were #70, so they are really getting to be less popular.  This is kind of a tragedy, if you ask me, because basenjis are pretty much the best dogs ever!

Greyhounds are really, really not popular.  They are #139, which is down from #140 in 2009 and #118 in 2000.  English Foxhounds are still at the very bottom of the list, right after American Foxhounds.

The new breeds that were recognized by the AKC in 2010 did pretty well.  The Leonberger was 33rd, the Cane Corso 51st, and the Icelandic Sheepdog was 82nd.  Which means that all of these breeds were more popular than basenjis, even though a lot of people haven't even heard of them.

Havanese

During the past 10 years, the dogs that got more popular fastest were the French Bulldog (went from 71st to 21st), the Havanese (86th to 31st) and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (54th to 23rd).  Also it seems like more people want to have big dogs such as Great Danes, Mastiffs, Newfoundlands, Bernese Mountain Dogs, and Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs.  Oh, and bully breeds like Bull Terriers and Stafforshire Bull Terriers are also more popular.



So that's one list.  And here's another one, which is the 10 most popular dog names of 2010.  This list was put together by the Veterinary Pet Insurance Company, so it probably just has dogs on it who are covered by that kind of insurance.  It's not divided by boy names and girl names, but it's pretty easy to tell which names are which.  And most of these names are the same ones I already complained about to you before because they are used way too often, in my opinion.


  1.  Bella
  2.  Bailey
  3.  Max
  4.  Lucy
  5.  Molly
  6.  Buddy
  7.  Maggie
  8.  Daisy
  9.  Charlie
10.  Sophie



Okay, now here's a list of the Top 10 Most Dangerous Dogs, and it was put together by a company that is selling obedience training, so I think they are trying to scare people into buying their classes.  But they say the list was made using research from the American Veterinary Medical Association and also using dog bite statistics from the Humane Society of the United States.

  1.  Pit Bulls
  2.  Rottweilers

Presa Canario

  3.  German Shepherds
  4.  Huskies
  5.  Alaskan Malamutes
  6.  Doberman Pinschers
  7.  Chow Chows
  8.  Presa Canarios
  9.  Boxers
10.  Dalmations




And finally, here is a list of the most expensive dogs ever sold.  Well, okay, it's only two dogs, but I guess you could call that a "list."

Lancelot Encore

The first most expensive dog is named Lancelot Encore, and he was the world's first commercially cloned puppy.  The couple who owns him had him cloned from samples they saved from their original yellow lab, Lancelot.  They won the chance to have the cloning done by bidding highest in an auction, and they paid $155,000.  The new puppy looks just like the first Lancelot, and his owners hope he will turn out to have the same temperament, too.

Tibetan Mastiff

The second most expensive dog turned out to be even more expensive than Lancelot Encore.  He is a black Tibetan Mastiff named Yangtze River Number 2.  This dog was bought by a Chinese millionaire named Ms. Wang in Qinghai Province for the price of $582,000.  Then when Yangtze arrived at the airport in Xi'an, he was met by a motorcade of 30 luxury cars and a crowd of spectators.  I guess if you are the world's most expensive dog, you deserve that kind of thing, but personally, I would be happy with just a warm, cushy bed and some yummy dog food!