The popularity of unusual and continental breeds
is on the rise, so what does this tell us about the
changing face of dog ownership? Carolyn Menteith
takes a closer look.
ABOUT CAROLYN
Carolyn Menteith
DipCABT, KCAI, is
a dog trainer, writer,
and broadcaster.
She is a member of
INTO Dogs, the
Association of Pet Dog
Trainers (APDT), and
an accredited animal
behaviourist (ICAN).W
hen it comes to looking at dog
ownership, our habits have
certainly changed during the last
decade — at least as far as breed choices
are concerned.
Anyone who works with companion
dogs, whether as a trainer, behaviourist, vet,
day-care assistant, or dog walker will have
noticed this.
Even looking at my social media pages,
I can see lots of professionals posting things
like: ‘I have my fi rst ***** in my puppy class— does anyone have any experience of
this breed?’
At the beginning of the decade, we
pretty much knew what the breakdown
of any training class would look like
— mostly Labradors, retrievers, spaniels,
collies, a few other assorted gundogs,
maybe a terrier or two, and a sprinkling
of Staff ordshire Bull Terriers, Lurchers, and
the odd hopeful hound owner! While some
of these provided a training challenge, or
required some more creative thinking, few
were unusual.
As we go into the new decade however,
things have changed. First we have the
almost epidemic rise of the designer
cross-breeds. Every training class and
doggy day-care seems to have oodles
of doodles — a canine sea of curly,
shaggy dogs of all sizes, coat types, and
temperaments — from the incredibly sweet
to the apparently demonic, depending
on their breeding, background, and thesuitability of the owners, who suddenly fi nd
that their cute little ‘teddy bear’ of a dog is
unexpectedly demanding a vast amount of
their time and energy.
The other huge change however is in
owners’ — especially fi rst-time owners
— choice of breeds. It seems that ‘the
usual’ has fallen out of fashion, and
instead people want something diff erent,
something their friends and neighbours
don’t have, something that might be more
Instagram worthy, something that makes
them stand out rather than blend in.
When it comes to breed choices, we may
well be turning our backs on the traditional
UK breeds and looking further afi eld.
The Kennel Club has seen a defi nite rise
in overseas and more unusual breeds being
registered with them, and this seems like
just the tip of a much larger iceberg. Shifts
from 2015 – 2019 indicate that continental
breeds are an ever-more popular choice,
and of the 10 breeds that have risen inAll change!
The beautiful,
smiley Samoyed.There’s a good reason why Labradors
have been such popular family dogs.