10/10/2025
I am geeking out over this, and I hope you can too! 🧠
🔎 What you’re looking at
Each “flower” is one breed. Every petal is a behavior/temperament trait from a validated guardian survey (C-BARQ)—things like trainability, fears, excitability, chasing, separation issues, and different types of aggression. Longer petals = higher average scores for that trait in that breed. This panel shows the 10 most popular AKC breeds in the dataset.
📚 Where it comes from
This figure is one small piece of an extensive, long-term study published in PLOS ONE (Ghirlanda, Acerbi, Herzog, Serpell, 2013). The researchers combined 80 years of AKC registration data (1926–2005) with behavior scores for thousands of dogs, plus published health and lifespan data, to ask: Do “good behavior” or longevity drive breed popularity?
📌 What the study found
• Popularity didn’t track with behavior: across 14 traits, there wasn’t a reliable “more popular = better behaved” pattern.
• Popularity didn’t track with lifespan either.
• Popular breeds tended to carry more inherited disorders (a warning sign when trends outpace thoughtful breeding).
💡 Why this matters for everyday dog people
• Don’t shop the trend. A popular label won’t guarantee the behavior you want. Look at the individual dog in front of you—their history, environment, health, and daily needs.
• Training starts with welfare. Many behaviors change when we adjust sleep, routine, outlets for species-typical needs (sniffing, chewing, movement), and stress.
• If you’re seeking behavior help, choose humane, evidence-based support that looks at the whole picture, not breed stereotypes.
• If buying from a breeder, ask for real, condition-specific health testing and transparency. If adopting, lean on the rescue’s behavior notes and follow-up support.
Source: “Fashion vs. Function in Dog Breed Popularity,” PLOS ONE (open access).
