The 10 Most (And 10 Least) Popular Dog Breeds in the U.S.

The Labrador retriever’s 31-year streak as America’s favorite dog breed has finally come to an end at the hands—or paws, rather—of the French bulldog.

Each year, the American Kennel Club (AKC) analyzes its registration data to rank breeds by popularity. Frenchies have been a recognized breed since 1898, and they’ve recently become quite the fad; according to AKC, registrations have skyrocketed by more than 1000 percent in the last decade. It was enough to land them in second place on last year’s list, and now they’ve finally unseated the reigning champ.

The Labrador didn’t fall far, though—it’s now the runner-up, with golden retrievers, German shepherds, and poodles rounding out the top five. All in all, the most popular breeds are pretty much what you’d expect. But there are some surprises farther down the list. For one thing, a couple newly recognized breeds are there for the first time. In 150th place is the Mudi, a rare Hungarian hunting dog; and six spots ahead of it is the Chihuahua-like Russian toy.

The AKC also pointed out a few breeds that made impressive leaps from one spot to another. American hairless terriers, for example, went from 135th to 120th; Gordon setters climbed from 113th to 99th; Italian greyhounds from 73rd to 63rd; and Anatolian shepherds from 88th to 79th. Could one of these trending breeds overtake French bulldogs in 31 years? Only time will tell.

Foxhounds, on the other hand, don’t seem to be very trendy: English foxhounds came in dead last—199th place—and American foxhounds outpaced them by only three spots. Those weren’t the only two kinds of hounds in the bottom 10. You can see the rest below, along with the top 10, and check out AKC’s complete rankings here.

Most Popular Dog Breeds of 2022

1. French bulldogs
2. Labrador retrievers
3. Golden retrievers
4. German shepherds
5. Poodles
6. Bulldogs
7. Rottweilers
8. Beagles
9. Dachshunds
10. German shorthaired pointers

Least Popular Dog Breeds of 2022

1. English foxhounds
2. Norwegian lundehunds
3. Sloughis
4. American foxhounds
5. Belgian laekenois
6. Azawakhs
7. Harriers
8. Sussex spaniels
9. Cesky terriers
10. Pyrenean shepherds