A friend had a Shar-Pei years ago that had a skin biopsy done for some reason. She showed me the pathology report and I read it; three pages single spaced describing what was seen. After reading the report several times, I realized that there was no pathology actually noted. All the weirdness was considered normal for breed.
What about spitzes? They even weren’t popular anymore during my lifetime (I’m 53), but some time back they must’ve been a popular breed, at least in Germany. They still have the reputation of somehow difficult and awkward dogs. I’ve also haven’t seen a fox terrier in a long time. My aunt and uncle used to have at least two of them in succession, both were asshole dogs.
I have three wiener dogs.
Afraid of nothing !
That’s not how I’d characterize mine. Sure, he puts on the tough guy act, barking and chasing, but it very much seems like he does so because he’s afraid.
Unfortunately, we didn’t socialize him much when he was younger, other than with our other dogs. And his first dog mates were a Cocker Spaniel who chased him (and who died before we could fix that problem or have to decide between them), seeming to think he was some other animal, and a chihuahua who was scared of people and men in particular, seeming to have picked it up from his previous owner (who we know).
We don’t have any dog parks or anything like that, and none of us knew how important that sort of socialization was. Our experience was with outdoor dogs, who would seem to learn on their own. So Reese remains a great dog who only likes “his” people and only ever liked the dogs we brought in.
Which included a chihuahua puppy, who we rescued. That’s part of why I say he is scared when gets aggressive. He never once was frightened of her, as she was much smaller than him. He was a bit wary of her at first, but no freaking out and barking like crazy.
The other reason is that he makes a big show of it, but always stays well out of the way, backing up if they don’t back down. It very much seems like that tough guy who is afraid to back down, not a dog without fear.
I hope yours are more like my neighbor’s old doxie, who was just the gentlest guy. He wasn’t scared, in that he didn’t really react much to anything.
My grandmother ran a poodle-breeding business out of her home for many years, and we had a couple of miniature poodles when I was growing up, so I probably have a distorted notion of how popular poodles were during the 1960s. Nevertheless, reading the thread title made me realize that I can’t recall the last time I saw a poodle.
There’s a photographer who hangs out at our dog park (“Bow Wow Beach”) and he just posted a link to his album, which I’ve never seen before. My dogs didn’t make the cut I don’t think - they’re not usually doing anything athletic, just smelling and peeing - but if you want to see a bunch of photographs of dogs owned by people in the Akron area of Ohio, here ya go.
I forgot how many huskies are at the beach. Soooo many huskies. When we go there’s guaranteed to be a husky and a german shepherd there.
I live in a walking town now and walk daily. We see a lot of dogs and a lot of breeds. There are several poodles in town but they are outnumbered by poodle mixes. Golden Doodles are very popular.
There is at least one Great Dane, a St Bernard and a couple of different mastiffs on the larger size range. 2 Dobies, one cute (still has floppy ears and a nice disposition) and one a little scary (Ears are cut and acts far less friendly).
Several Aussies, a sheltie or 2 and at least one Border Collie.
There are a lot of mutts, great to see. A good number of Labbies & Retrievers or Lab mixes and Pits. I recall at least one Boxer. I’m pretty sure I saw one English Setter.
No Dalmations, or Old English Sheepdogs or Standard Collies. (Lassies).
I don’t recall any Greyhounds either.
The dog “rescue” racket is getting absolutely ridiculous. Before I got Kosh I was looking through Petfinder for ACDs (Shoga is an ACD mix of some sort, I think crossed with greyhound or whippet) and I wanted another similar size dog with similar characteristics so I did what I’d done for almost 40 years and I went looking for a rescue.
Well, first off, every goddamned ACD advertised as being within 100 miles of Portland was actually somewhere in the Houston area–I guess Texans don’t spay and neuter much and there are a LOT of ACDs and mixes from the area–and every one of them came with a price tag of AT LEAST 400 bucks and that didn’t count the airfare to ship them to Portland. So they’re expecting people to shell out a shit ton of money for some completely unknown animal that you can’t meet ahead of time or see if they get along with your other dogs and no thanks to THAT. I tried every local rescue and the gatekeeping there was insane–multiple home visits, contracts that you have to return the dog to them if at any time you can’t keep them, shit tons of money and even then they’ll arbitrarily decide they want to give the dog to someone else.
So I said fuck that shit and went and found a local breeder with a litter ready to go, I wanted a male and there were two left, Kosh was exactly what I was looking for and so for about the same as a “rescue fee” I had an AKC registered dog where I’d met both parents and knew just what I was getting. Yeah, the neuter and shots were over and above that but pricewise it was damned near a push and Kosh came to me a blank slate 8 week old all ready to learn how to be a part of THIS family. No weird abandonment issues or separation anxiety or aggression problems, just normal puppy stuff. I don’t like buying when there are rescue dogs needing homes but then again I’m tired of being the one who pays through the nose and deals with the poor training and temperament and abuse issues of an unknown rescue–I didn’t junk breed and dump those dogs so I’m not going to feel bad about having ONE dog in forty years that I picked out and bought outright.
This recent Newsweek article says that poodles are still the #2 breed of small dogs, but if that’s the case, it’s not consistent with what I see. When I was a kid, miniature and toy poodles seemed to be the default “lap dog” breed, but I rarely, if ever, see them anymore – instead, I see French bulldogs, pugs, corgis, chihuahuas, etc.
(I have two friends who have standard poodles, but again, that seems to now be an uncommon breed, overall.)
We’ve worked with a rescue on St Martin for many years. There are people in the US who want a coco-mutt, or island dog, and are willing to pay.
There are veterinary fees incurred prior to entering the US, air fare plus expenses for any drivers who do airport pickups and 100 - 500 mile drives or short fosters. Then there’s the donation, which is set high because of the cost of care/feeding of the shelter dogs.
We got a puppy a month ago from a local shelter, but my gf was close to pulling the trigger on a St Martin pup. Saved a small fortune.
ETA: while researching prior to getting Kizzy, I learned that my gf has sponsored two long term St Martin shelter dogs for the past five years (different dogs due to attrition, always two).
People like to use this, but it’s basically no more true for the AKC than any other breed/livestock registry. In dogs alone in the US there are also the CKC (Continental Kennel Club) and UKC (United Kennel Club), Canada has their CKC, the UK has their registries. There are breed registries for cats, cattle, horses, and any other breed of domesticated animal you can think of.
AKC is not just dog shows. They’re also performance events for working dogs, and a ton of research into dog health/genetics that wouldn’t probably be known otherwise.
The fault lies with unscrupulous breeders who breed for a few traits that will make them winners, with no thought to other traits that are detrimental. Has a bad temperament? Who cares, look at the head on that dog. Bad hips? So what, it wins. Dog doesn’t even look like its breed? I’ll live with it, the dog is a screamer in the bird hills. It’s the breeders who take things to the extremes, not the registry. As the owner/handler/trainer of German Shorthaired Pointers, English Pointers, and Parson Russell Terriers for over 25 years, and an AKC member for that long, active in dog shows, hunt tests, field trials, I know where the trouble lies, and it’s the same with any registry. Folks like to spout it’s the AKC’s fault because they’re an easy target, when really, it’s the people that breed without the whole dog in mind that are really to blame.
And who sets those list of traits? The AKC. Does it set requirements for health or brains? No. Just looks and the more extreme the better. The breeders are just giving the AKC what it wants- dogs that fit to a extreme list of appearance traits. Dogs that can’t breath is 100% Ok as look the nose looks really extreme.
Mine are all bark.
They bark because they seem to like it. 
Very alert, so they will bark at the slightest sound.
They love people. The girls have a thing for people with moustaches probably because I sport one.
The girls are good mousers and spend all their time digging in summer.
The boy lives for fetching. He will bring whatever he wants to fetch to you and then wait expectantly.
If there is no one to play with he will drop a ball down the stairs and run down to fetch it.
They love fish and spicy food . : )
Some good shots there.
This is it.
Unless a breed is rocketing upward on the AKC list (French Bulldog), it is probably plummeting in registration numbers. We went puppy hunting starting in 2019, and have a wonderful 14 month old Sheltie from a show breeder who called us when she had what she thought was a “good puppy for an older couple.” No repeats in the pedigree until the sixth generation AKA not inbred. And the breeders we met all seemed about as old as we are.
The AKC recognizes far more breeds (197) than when I was young. If the romance of rescue continues this way, many will go extinct.
As for mixed breeds, if the product of two purebreds, there could be real hybrid vigor. Then, how do you know they aren’t the product of littermates?
P.S. I think the whole dog show/breeder hobby is in decline. If demand was crashing, the prices of purebred dogs would be declining. I think not. Supply is crashing.
I used to see Boston Terriers all the time as a kid. Haven’t seen one since then, and I’m in my 50’s now. Those were nice little dogs.
As long as there are beauty contests for dogs, the dogs that win them won’t be the ones who are awesome working dogs. There are reasons for this that are set in concrete, both by the system that creates beauty contest winners and laws of genetic selection. Any more than Miss Nude Universe also is an Olympic pole vaulter.
I’ve heard that canard about the ‘bad apple’ breeders for fifty years now and it is no more the real truth now than it was then. The system and its rigid rules for success are vastly more powerful an influence than any breeder’s ethics. You play by those rules if you want to win, and it is all about winning no matter what you like to think.
I’ve been around dog breeding my whole life. There is nothing like it in the registered livestock world, except with horses and that very partially. That is because farming is not a hobby, it’s a business. Livestock breed registries, at least in commercial breeds, are set up to evaluate and track breeding stock, which are a commodity sold to farmers to upgrade their herds, which are not necessarily registered at all. It’s not about show rules and ribbons.
The idea of closed stud books and “pure” breeds is psuedo-science from the 19th century.
I recognize that the AKC has put money into researching genetic health, but since they won’t allow the one thing that would save so many genetically-compromised inbred breeds, which is to open studbooks so that heterozygosity can once more be possible, it’s mostly pointlessly spent, as far as I can tell.
Bostons are making a comeback.
I’m with you on this except I just saw one a couple of days ago. It stood out to me because I think the last time I saw one was in the mid-80s.
Reminds me of my mini schnauzers. When I tell people I have (well, had*) two mini schnauzers the first thing almost everyone says is “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mini schnauzer”, at which point I tell them that mini-schnauzers are probably the only ones they’ve seen. Standard schnauzers are actually pretty big (think Labrador sized) and giant schnauzers are absolutely enormous (like 70 pounds enormous).
Those 15 pound dogs most people think of when they hear ‘schnauzer’ are mini schnauzers (and often mistaking like called scotties).
*But I have a very visible tattoo of a schnauzer so I still get asked about it a lot.