Movies and popular TV shows are often blamed for increasing interest in a breed, especially by people who don’t do their homework before acquiring the breed for their families – but not always. Popular commercials featuring a Puli didn’t create a massive market for the breed following the release of Dr. Pepper or Budweiser ads.
But sometimes, they are to blame. In a research paper from 2004 entitled, “Random Drift and Large Shifts in Popularity of Dog Breeds“ the authors, Harold A Herzog, R Alexander Bentley, and Matthew W Hahn, wrote that, “after the release of the 1985 version of the Disney movie 101 Dalmatians, new Dalmatian registrations increased 6.2-fold, from 6,880 registrations in 1985 to 42,816 registrations in 1993, followed by a precipitous fall to 4,652 registrations 6 years later.”
The same authors wrote: “A remarkably useful way to study cultural change is to assume that individuals, confronted with many different choices, simply copy other individuals rather than make ‘optimal’ or ‘rational’ decisions.”
They may have been on to something. Whether Paris Hilton started it, or it was simply emblematic of an existing trend, toy breeds were on the ascendency through much of the first part of the 21st century. While hardly scientific, Screensavers.com (something of a pop-culture barometer) reported that of 20,958 downloads of 56 different dog screensavers, the two top breeds were the Shih Tzu and Chihuahua. The American Kennel Club confirmed that, and says that slowly, but steadily, small breeds have been gaining in popularity.
It’s interesting to note that historically, this is nothing new. At the beginning of the 15th century, little spaniels were immensely popular due to King Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I, and Queen Victoria in particular was hugely influential in increasing the popularity of severals breeds. Her tastes became England’s tastes making her perhaps the most significant cultural trendsetter of the era. Case in point: She owned a particularly small Pomeranian, and that lead to the popularity of small Poms. She also kept Skye Terriers and Collies (thought to have been Border Collies).
Image: Shih Tzu Color pencil drawing by Lena Auxier is available as a print, card, tote and more here.