A Celebrity Dog: What Will Follow?

It’s known that every dog has a star-day. And there are times when a certain breed becomes the talk of the town. When a popular culture adopts such a dog, you will not fail to see them walking around the streets of major cities, not to mention making rounds on social media. And sooner or later, you will find large numbers of such dogs in your local shelter. Let us see how this happens.

Effects of screen popularity for dogs

• The Dalmatian Effect

One of the most famous instances is the Dalmatian, from which the ‘Dalmatian Effect’ was derived. After the release of the Dalmatians – an original Disney animation of 1961, the dogs grew in demand. They are very beautiful, white-coloured with black spots creatures. They came back more famous in 1996 with the live-action remake.

Later, people noticed Dalmatians appearing everywhere. This happened shortly after they became popular. But why? The cute puppies could not stay puppies forever. The adult Dalmatians required the experienced dog owner to handle, which many people with puppies did not have.

The dogs were originally bred for protection against bandits. They ran along-side horse-drawn coaches for miles, a job that gave them the title “fire dogs”. Many people cannot handle their high spirits, strong-will, and energy.

• The Husky Popularity

The whole world went crazy with the release of Game of Thrones. All its eight seasons featured yet another example of dog popularity. The Siberian Huskies were used in the series to depict the power and strength of these beasts with the fans going wild over them. The Arctic Wolf and Northern Inuit dogs acted as their major depiction. They rise as a cross-breed between the Huskies and the German shepherd.

With the exit of GoT in 2011, Google Trends discovered a steady increase in the search for the breed. The white husky becomes another huge search name because fans likened their dog to the Ghost, a dire white wolf from Jon Shaw. Before the release of the series, Huskies ranked number 22 on the AKC list of most popular dogs. In 2014, they rose to the 12th spot, and today they rank 14 on the list.

Just like the Dalmatians, this breed became popular across the globe, but only to those who could maintain them. They require high handling, including an hour of daily exercise. They yank leashes, dig a lot, howl, and great at escaping. They don’t like being lonely.

As they become a favorite for many, they started overpopulating shelters. Between 2013 and 2018, for instance, one shelter in a Californian state recorded a triple check-in for Husky mixes. It is not that the Huskies were already popular. They were already at no.14 on the list of 193 AKC’s popular breeds. However, people who took them did not take the time to understand them first. This turned out to be a bad idea for both – owners and their dogs.

Dire wolves have been in existence for a long time. The fantasy GoT only seemed to become more popular with the release of GoT.

• Media and Dog Trends

There is no doubt that people love dogs. This is why any movie starring a particular dog becomes very popular. In 2014, research from the University of Bristol, Western Carolina, NY, showed how movies and dog popularity has been a thing for more than a decade now. Many dogs have become popular from partly starring on small and big screens. You might have seen Old English Sheepdogs (The Shaggy Dog), Collies (Lassie), and Pugs from Men in Black.

Apart from movies, social platforms also play a vital role in influencer dogs. Stars and celebrities are often posting photos and videos posing with cute dogs on Instagram and other social sites. For example, Shiba Inu, a famous breed has gained a lot of attention through social media.

Another dog, Shiba-Bodhi, is the most stylish dog across the globe. It has more than 374 thousand views on social media, with followers coming to check how the dog is dressed.

Unfortunately, the number of Shibas has risen in shelters over the past few years. This is because they have a strong character, are highly energetic with some stubbornness. They require high maintenance, which many dog owners cannot handle.

Should You Get a Trendy Dog?

There is often a rise in adrenaline when some people see a beautiful dog on a popular show. They want to get it almost immediately. But before you do this, take your time to research and assess your financial status. It is important to get ready to be a dog owner because responsible dog ownership is an investment that requires proper planning.

Consider the Labrador Retriever, for instance. It is the most popular breed, as recorded in the AKC list for 28 years. It is one of the friendliest, lovable and easy to train breeds. However, it still requires a lot of attention and care.

The best examples are Pitbulls and PitBull mixes. They become quite visible in shelters, followed by Chihuahuas, Beagles, and Shepherds who are all popular residents at shelters and rescue centres.

Sometimes shelters and breed-specific rescues cannot determine the breed of a dog. In such cases, they call it a lab-mix, beagle-mix, or Chihuahua-mix.

Getting a designer dog in your house is not a problem. However, you need to be careful in your considerations. Many of these breeds are very costly. For instance, Dalmatians and Huskies require a lot of attention to high energy and training demands.

Having a trendy dog means you will have to dig deeper in your pockets to keep its standards. You need to keep tabs on their health. Information from Petinsurancefinder can be a good place to start. You must be in the know.

If you decide to settle for bulldogs, be ready to handle this breed’s chronic health problems. This dog has been popular for over 20 years, now appearing 4th in AKC’s list of popular dogs. Even so, we cannot deny the fact that they tend to start showing serious health issues from a young age, which may force you to pay huge vet bills. Those who cannot afford the handling often surrender them to shelters.

Designer Dogs

Most purebreds you see around have gone through a long period to evolution from designer dogs. They have been selectively crossbred to bring out or augment some features and traits, and this process can take place over the centuries.

The modern designer or hybrid breeds came in picture in the 1980s. Wally Conron, a popular dog breeder was the first person to deduce a Labradoodle. He combined a Labrador Retriever and a Poodle. His goal was to come up with a one-in-all beast that would guide without facing hypo allergic issues. Although his success was meritorious, he has no reason to celebrate because he sparked a global dog trend. Today, the results of his achievement are all over. The likes of Yorkipoos, Puggles, Goldendoodles, Puggles are part of the trend.

A decade ago, the AKC started a program to make mixed-breeds notable. They were allowed for training and competitions.

Designer mixes are beautiful dogs. However, their biggest disadvantage is that you cannot control the characteristics the puppies will have. In Labradoodles, for instance, a few puppies may have more Poodles than others. Some pups will come out with better characteristics, while others may have the worst. Besides this, unethical breeders produce breeds without proper testing, and this can be a problem.

The more designer dogs grew, the more they appeared in the shelters too. As anyone would predict, many became hard to handle, especially the puppies, forcing the owners to hand them over to shelters. In the case of the Puggles, for instance, owners wanted dogs with low-key characters, but they ended up getting energetic and aggressive ones.

Should you choose to go for a pure breed, consider who you are getting it from. Select a reputable breeder with proper knowledge of genetic and health testing. Head over to Pet Insurance Finder to choose the appropriate pet insurance company that will satisfy all your needs and give your dog a good life, creating lasting memories.

Final Thought

Dogs are beautiful and lovable, however, they are not a toy or part of your wardrobe, which can be easily thrown away when it becomes non-trendy. If you love dogs, you will not treat them like something that can be used and discarded at any time. Take your time to come up with a plan if you indeed want a dog - determine first if you are ready for the animal. Start by training yourself, for example, you can dog-sit for your friends and family members when they are out on vacation. Once you understand how to handle them, you will never see any need to surrender your dog to a shelter. You will live with your best friend, creating great moments and enjoy a happy life.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.