Labrador Retrievers tops Canadian Kennel Club’s list of most popular dog breeds

The Canadian Kennel Club has released its latest list of the most popular dog breeds in Canada, and Labrador Retrievers have taken the top spot.

Following closely behind is Golden Retrievers at number two, and German Shepherds taking the third spot, the same as last year’s top three.

The only switch in the top five comes between French Bulldogs moving up to the fourth most popular breed and Poodles falling to fifth.

The Canadian Kennel Club is the purebred registry for dogs here in Canada, which keeps a list of all the purebred registered dogs. Breeders will register anytime a female dog has a litter and all the individual puppies.

That data is then used to compile the list of the most popular breeds. Labrador Retrievers have been a top breed for several years running and it’s a breed developed in Canada.

“It’s kind of cool that our most popular breed is actually a Canadian breed,” said Ian Lynch with the Canadian Kennel Club.

He said they are so popular because they are such versatile dogs.

Labradors guide the blind, assist with search and rescue operations, they are drug-sniffing dogs, they’re obedience dogs, they’re rally dogs. Anything you want lab to do a lab can be trained to do it and they make fantastic family pets.

“What makes the Labrador Retriever, in my opinion, such a fantastic family pet is they’re not really one person dogs,” said Lynch. “The Labrador Retriever tends to spread the love around the family and they kind of basically love whoever is in the room at the time.”

Lynch also shared more on the origins of the increasingly popular French Bulldogs

“The French bulldog is fascinating. So what happened was way back in the day in England, they were breeding small bulldogs and they were very popular with people who worked in lace and textiles,” he explained.

“A lot of people from England moved to France when the jobs were scarce in England and what happened was they took these small bulldogs back in the day and they bred them with local terriers to get those signature bat ears we see on French bulldogs and they’ve been just charming ever since.”

He said these dogs were mainly companion dogs at a time when many had specific jobs.

“It wasn’t a guard dog, it wasn’t a hunting dog. It wasn’t a herding dog,” shared Lynch. “It was a sign of being rich that you have a dog you can feed and keep that’s just a companion.”

As for the popularity of French Bulldogs today, we may have Baby Boomers to thank for that.

“A lot of times it’s because the baby boomers are moving into smaller and smaller dwellings. They’re not as active as they used to be and they need a dog they can manage with a smaller size,” said Lynch.

“And the great thing about a French bulldog is while they may be small in size, they are full of personality.”

The American Kennel Club recently released their list of most popular breeds for 2023 and French Bulldogs topped the list. Lynch said despite their increasing popularity, he was surprised they hit number one.

“When you look at popular culture, we are seeing a lot of Instagram, a lot of social media now and people love to showcase their Frenchies … I can see why they’re popular because they are charming as the day is long.”

Rounding out the top 10 most popular dog breeds in Canada are the Australian Shepherd, Havanese, Shetland Sheepdog, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and Portuguese Water Dog.