Balthisar - Yes, Whippets are called Whippets here. Here’s a Mexican kennel club page just in case your wife screams “¿Cite?” at you. 
Everton - I say “so-called” because I doubt they’re genuine Maltese dogs being called Maltese. They look more like a smallish standard poodle, except that they have spotty coats.
Well, as the link I posted shows, they’re not much like toy poodles let alone standard ones – they have a long, silky white coat, and certainly no spots.
To the OP: this site claims that the Brittany Spaniel is the second most popular French breed in France, presumably after the poodle, but the entry there for poodle doesn’t make that point.
Based on first-hand experience of European travel, there is a noticeable difference in the popularity of different breeds from place to place, but it’s hard to track down cites to describe the difference statistically.