No doubt spurred on by the famous Best in Show wins of My Own Brucie in the early 1940s, accompanied by this handsome dog’s likeness appearing on the cover of Life, the Cocker Spaniel became the country’s number-one dog. The breed enjoyed the number-one ranking for sixteen years, from 1936 to 1952. Although the Pekingese […]

The Collie, on a continual climb since its number-seven position in the 1880s, became the number-one breed of the first decade of the new century. The breed ranked in the top ten breeds for seven decades of the 20th century. The number-two breed of the decade, the Boston Terrier, became the first small companion dog […]

Dogs and people have been living and working together for thousands of years. In fact, our canine companions were some of our earliest hunting partners. Over the years, we've developed many breeds to help us hunt, each of which has specific skills that can help us find and secure several types of game. These hardy […]

The American Kennel Club recognizes many breeds, and each possesses a purpose-bred set of physical and behavioral characteristics. Purebred dogs within each of the seven AKC breed groups are expected to conform to a particular breed standard. One of the more identifiable elements of a canine breed standard is temperament. Temperament has been defined as an animal’s […]

The Boston Terrier became the first breed to enjoy the number-one position for two decades, though the breed fell to the number-two position in the 1920s after its initial reign atop the list in the 1910s. The records of the Boston Terrier Club of America show that the breed was number-one or number-two for every […]

Accepted in 1908, the German Shepherd Dog overtook the Boston Terrier in 1925 and became the number-one dog of the 1920s. The breed then disappeared from the top ten until after World War II, when it reemerged as the number-six dog of the 1950s and has remained among the most popular breeds to the present […]

The sleek and graceful Saluki has hunted with humankind for thousands of years. Because the history of this ancient sighthound reaches back long before the invention of breed clubs and written records, the breed's origin is veiled in mystery. Here are 10 interesting facts about this beautiful breed. 1. The Saluki Is One of the […]

No doubt you've seen a Whippet or Italian Greyhound. These absolutely adorable dogs look like Greyhounds that have been blasted with a shrink ray. Thanks to their size, it's easy to see that they are not actually Greyhounds, but the trickier question is, how do you tell these two breeds apart? The larger Whippet is […]

The Boston Terrier, a top-ten breed for six decades of the 20th century, has reached the number-one position twice, including in the 1910s. The Airedale Terrier reached the number-two position, the highest the breed would ever claim, appearing in the top ten for three consecutive decades and then never regaining its national popularity. The decade […]

The country’s top breed of the 1990s, the Labrador Retriever, continues in its popularity to this day. The Rottweiler, accepted by the AKC in 1931, makes its first appearance in the decade’s top ten as the number-two breed, the highest ranking of any first-timer on the list (since the Boston Terrier in the 1900s). The […]