Top dogs revealed: A look at Connecticut’s most popular dog breed

Olivia Mel­lo
UConn Newswrit­ing
Octo­ber 2024

Dog lovers across Con­necti­cut are com­ing togeth­er in sup­port of one breed they just can’t get enough of. 

Con­necti­cut has decid­ed that bull­dogs are the most pop­u­lar dogs to own. Along with 8% of oth­er Amer­i­cans, res­i­dents of states like Illi­nois, Mis­sis­sip­pi, Mis­souri, North Car­oli­na, South Car­oli­na, Utah, and West Vir­ginia have ranked bull­dogs as their top choice Accord­ing to Forbes Advi­sor.  

So, what is it that makes bull­dogs so pop­u­lar? There are a few fac­tors that Forbes Advi­sor found that explain why bull­dogs are the it dog. The top three being pre­vi­ous or cur­rent own­er­ship of the same breed (52%), have good com­pan­ion­ship (50%), and cute­ness of the dog breed (48%). 

While those are some of the fac­tors on why peo­ple are get­ting bull­dogs, they are a breed that has been known to have a large amount of health prob­lems. Despite their pop­u­lar­i­ty, bull­dogs live just 7 years on aver­age. the most com­mon caus­es of death are heart dis­ease (12%), can­cer (11%) and brain dis­or­der (9%) accord­ing to the Roy­al Vet­eri­nary Col­lege.

Lau­ren Mas­co­la, a vet­eri­nar­i­an at Pet­Care Vet­eri­nary Clin­ic in West Hart­ford, said that many bull­dogs’ health prob­lems stem from their facial struc­ture, which can lead to issues like corneal ulcers and breath­ing prob­lems.  

Mas­co­la not­ed that due to their health issues, bull­dogs can be expen­sive to care for. She men­tioned that acquir­ing a bull­dog can cost over $1,000, and ongo­ing main­te­nance and vet­eri­nary bills can total hun­dreds of dol­lars.  

Although bull­dogs may be the over­all favorite in Con­necti­cut, does that trend hold true in indi­vid­ual towns across the state?  

Ani­mal Con­trol Offi­cer Rachel Leek of Mans­field believes that poo­dles or any poo­dle mix (also called doo­dles) are the most pop­u­lar dog in town. Leek has worked as an ani­mal con­trol offi­cer in Mans­field since 2017 and has seen the doo­dle pop­u­la­tion con­tin­ue to grow. 

A large part of Leek’s job involves encour­ag­ing peo­ple to reg­is­ter their dogs for a license. The license gives the town and her a bet­ter insight into what kinds of breeds peo­ple are get­ting. When asked if dog licens­es are pub­lic infor­ma­tion, Leek said no. 

Ani­mal Con­trol Offi­cer Kim Guli­no of West Hart­ford said that doo­dle mix­es are pop­u­lar. Guli­no has been with West Hart­ford ani­mal con­trol for the past five years. In those years She has seen a rise in the pop­u­lar­i­ty of this type of mixed breed. Though, she men­tioned a close sec­ond would be the Cav­a­lier King Charles Spaniel. 

Like Leek, a large part of Gulino’s job is reg­is­ter­ing the dogs in town and again when ask­ing for any records she was unable to share any doc­u­ments with me. 

It’s inter­est­ing that mix­ing with the poo­dle breed is so pop­u­lar, giv­en that the poo­dle breed has ranked near the bot­tom as some of America’s least favorite dog breeds, with 2.3% of Amer­i­cans say­ing they don’t like poo­dles.  

So, is this the rise of the doo­dle mix? With the doo­dle mix tak­ing over both towns’ dog pop­u­la­tion it is impor­tant to know more about their health his­to­ry. Is there a rea­son this mix of dog breed is so pop­u­lar?  

Of the poo­dle mix­es both Leek, Mas­co­la, and Guli­no said that the gold­en­doo­dle is the mix gain­ing all the pop­u­lar­i­ty. 

Nation­wide looked at Gold­en­doo­dles have a life expectan­cy of 10 to 15 years and are 75% less like­ly to have insur­ance claims sub­mit­ted for can­cer treat­ment com­pared to their par­ent breeds, Gold­en Retriev­ers and stan­dard poo­dles. Which is a big deal con­sid­er­ing that one in four dogs get can­cer no mat­ter what breed it is.   

When exam­in­ing can­cer claims among all dog breeds, Gold­en­doo­dles are near­ly half as likely—47% less likely—to have such claims than oth­er dogs. In fact, Gold­en Retriev­ers and stan­dard poo­dles are four times more like­ly to sub­mit can­cer claims than Gold­en­doo­dles. 

As the pop­u­lar­i­ty of bull­dogs remains strong in Con­necti­cut, the rise of poo­dle mix­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly Gold­en­doo­dles, high­lights a grow­ing trend among dog own­ers. With their longer life expectan­cy and low­er like­li­hood of health-relat­ed insur­ance claims, Gold­en­doo­dles offer an appeal­ing alter­na­tive. 

Anoth­er pos­si­bil­i­ty of the ris­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty could be due to the recent spike in peo­ple adopt­ing dogs. Dog adop­tion is cheap­er than buy­ing a dog from a breed­er. Mans­field dog adop­tions range from five dol­lars to nine­ty-five dol­lars and West Hart­ford is about fifty accord­ing.  The most recent Ani­mal Pop­u­la­tion Con­trol Pro­gram had dog adop­tions total­ing 1354. The most pop­u­lar breed of dog adopt­ed was the mixed with 674 adop­tions. Pit bull/pit bull mix fol­lowed in sec­ond with 314 adop­tions. 

This shift in pref­er­ence sug­gests that while bull­dogs may hold the title of the state’s favorite, many res­i­dents are being drawn to adopt­ing dogs. Because of this the pure breeds, like bull­dogs, may see a slight decline in pop­u­lar­i­ty in the com­ing years. Peo­ple are drawn to breeds that promise both affec­tion and longevi­ty, which may result in reshap­ing the canine land­scape in towns across Con­necti­cut. 

Lau­ren Mas­co­la Pet­Care Vet:
Over the phone inter­view: (401)339‑7927 or lmascola@petcarewh.com

Kim Guli­no: Ani­mal Con­trol West Hart­ford
Over the phone inter­view: (860)930‑1660 kgulino@westhartfordct.gov

Rachel Leek: Ani­mal Con­trol Mans­field
Over the phone inter­view: (860)487‑0137 aco@mansfieldct.org