Dulux dog loses its gloss as breed falls out of favour
PET owners have fallen out of love with the old English sheepdog – prompting fears the breed could be on the brink of extinction.
The Kennel Club has warned registration numbers of the shaggy, long-haired pets, known as Dulux dogs for their starring role in the paint brand’s adverts, have fallen to a record low.
The sheepdog has lost ground to a TV rival, the lupine Alaskan malamute, which owes its growing popularity to its resemblance to the ferocious ‘dire wolves’ in Game of Thrones.
The Queen’s beloved corgi has also reportedly benefited from screen stardom. Its numbers are on the rise, in a trend credited to the breed’s appearance in Netflix series The Crown.
The Dulux dog, which first appeared in 1961, still features in the brand’s campaigns today. It was once one of the most popular animals in TV advertising, along with the Esso tiger, Andrex puppy and PG Tips chimps.
However, old English sheepdogs, which first rose to prominence in the 1800s, require a lot of attention and are prone to separation anxiety. The breed has been put on the Kennel Club’s ‘at watch’ list after the number of puppies registered in the first three months of this year fell to just 98, down 16 per cent on the same period last year.
If the decline continues, the breed will enter the Kennel Club’s ‘vulnerable native breeds’ list, designed for dogs that have fewer than 300 annual puppy registrations.
Caroline Kisko, secretary of the Kennel Club, said: ‘The old English sheepdog is one of our most iconic dog breeds. But you rarely see one now in our streets and parks, so the historic lows we’re currently seeing are particularly worrying. We would expect the numbers to have declined over the years to a degree, as a result of lifestyle changes – it is a breed with a good temperament that can make a lovely family pet, but it needs a lot of grooming and exercise and so is not suitable for fast-paced urban lifestyles.’
She added: ‘Sadly it seems TV, celebrities and advertising campaigns, rather than responsible research, are the guiding force behind our choice of dog breed.’
French bulldogs, whose celebrity owners include Hugh Jackman, Reese Witherspoon and David Beckham, have seen a boost in numbers despite their many health problems.
Registrations of old English sheepdogs have fallen by twothirds over the past 20 years, with the lowest ever number of puppies recorded last year.
Puppy registrations of the Alaskan malamute tripled from 30 in the first three months of 2018 to 90 this year. The Dogs Trust warned in April that the number of ‘wolf-like’ dogs being handed in to rescue centres had risen fivefold in a year.
The Pembroke Welsh corgi, kept by the Queen from 1944 until last year when her last pure-breed corgi died, jumped by nearly 20 per cent, while the number of lesser-known cardigan Welsh corgis rose by almost two-thirds.