Is your dog named Buddy?
Special report in Sunday Reader reveals city’s favourite puppy breeds and monikers
Inthe eyes of her owners, Molly the 15-year-old Shih Tzu is one in a million. In the eyes of Edmonton, she’s one in 6,585.
The Journal analyzed the city’s database of licensed pets and discovered that the Shih Tzu is the top breed in this city. The small, short-nosed dog accounts for about 10 per cent of more than 68,000 licensed canines. To wit: one in every 10 dogs licensed in Edmonton is a Shih Tzu.
Molly’s owners, Eric Tremblay and Amy Wong, aren’t the least bit surprised.
“I understand why a Shih Tzu would be very popular,” Tremblay says. “They’re a mixture between cats and dogs. They’re the best of both worlds. I find them very low-maintenance. They just like the company.”
“They have a nice temperament,” Wong adds. “They’re easy to take care of. Molly is your perfect little lapdog.”
Shih Tzus are “distinctly arrogant with a character all their own,” according to the Canadian Kennel Club’s breed standards, which also note the breed is good natured, affectionate and intelligent.
“I feel smart to have Molly,” Tremblay says. “She’s so easy to have, easy to carry around, very patient in the car. And she was so small we could put her in the canoe.”
CKC spokesperson Andrew Patton says he’s surprised by the Shih Tzu’s dominance in Edmonton.
“I see them a bit more like cats,” Patton says from Ottawa. “You don’t need to walk them as often. They’re not as active as a Lab.
“It’s interesting that that shift is happening, that people are looking more for companionship in the home, as opposed to having a dog to be more active.” By that, he means people who get a dog because they want to get more exercise. Sometimes, that works out; sometimes not.
Edmontonians like active dogs, too. Labrador retrievers (Labs) — the most popular dog breed in the world, according to the CKC — come a close second in terms of popularity, with 5,905 Labs registered in this city. Third are shepherds, with 4,524 licensed dogs; nearly 85 per cent of those are German shepherds. Fourth on the list is the bichon frise (3,457 licensed dogs), while the border collie, heralded as a highly intelligent breed, comes in fifth (2,998 licensed dogs).
Patton says there’s a clear split in Edmonton between companion dogs and active dogs. Of the top 10 dog breeds in the city, lapdogs win against big dogs, but only marginally. Fifty-four per cent of the top ten dogs are smaller breeds (Shih Tzu, bichon frise, chihuahua, Yorkie, Pomeranian and poodle, which doesn’t include the standard poodle) while 46 per cent are larger, more active breeds (Lab, shepherd, border collie, golden retriever).
You’d think residents in a cold, snowy perch like Edmonton would choose larger, more robust breeds that can better withstand the elements. Tremblay says the Edmonton winter suits Shih Tzus just fine; they don’t need to burn off as many calories outdoors as more active breeds like border collies. “When you leave them in the house, they’re happy to have a rest,” Tremblay says. In colder weather, “they’re like, ‘Hey hey, why don’t we go back inside? I was OK in there!’ ”
Then again, maybe the beloved Shih Tzu can hack our frigid winter as well as a husky. According to CKC breed standards, Shih Tzus are “surprisingly hardy” and “well suited to both city and country living.” Perhaps their alleged roots in Tibet, a high-altitude country known for a harsh climate and thin air, toughened the species.
Patton says he pictures a Shih Tzu not in Edmonton but “in some little condo in Vancouver, English Bay.” But Edmonton is a big city, too, with lots of condos. The Shih Tzu clearly suits the urban Prairies as much as the West Coast: “they’re not too aggressive, not highly active, they’re medium-bright but they’re sweet.”
Shih Tzu mania is distributed evenly across Edmonton, from the highdensity city centre to the sprawling suburbs. Shih Tzus are the No. 1 licensed dog breed in nearly two-thirds of the city’s 38 forward sortation areas. (FSAS are the first three characters of a postal code that indicate the general area where the mail is going.)
And in every FSA, Shih Tzus are one of the three licensed top breeds. Labs were the top licensed breed in one-third of FSAS; shepherds tops in two FSAS. (Five FSAS were excluded from this top dog tally because they are industrial or commercial areas with very few homes.) Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a
Dog, a New York Times bestseller, says Shih Tzus and other small dogs are popular for a reason.
“As brachycephalic breeds, with short noses and large eyes for their face, they look ‘cute’ to us,” says Horowitz, who teaches psychology at the prestigious Barnard College. “Humans seem to be predisposed to see large eyes and other facial features as cute (as on babies).”
Many researchers, she adds, have pointed out that short-nosed breeds, like the Shih Tzu, often have more retinal cells in the centre of their eyes, meaning that, like humans, they can focus better on something close to them. “That means they can sit on your lap and gaze into your eyes meaningfully. We like that.”
Like fashion and food trends, dog breed popularity fluctuates. “Put a Jack Russell terrier in a movie and suddenly the breed jumps to the top of the list,” Horowitz says. “Breed preferences are extremely fluid.” That two major films from 2011 — Begin
ners and The Artist — feature a Jack Russell may indicate a trend to come. Or maybe not; there’ve been no Shih Tzu stars in any films or TV series in recent memory.
The Edmonton Humane Society says buying a breed of dog based solely on pop culture is a bad idea. Unfortunately, it happens a lot.
“People aren’t doing their research,” humane society spokesperson Allyson Mclean says. “They’re just watching the movie and thinking how cool it (the dog) is.”
After the film Beethoven (1992), the animal shelter saw a spike in surrendered St. Bernards.
“You need a specific lifestyle to take care of a dog like that,” Mclean says. “It’s important that people research the breed they want before they bring a new family member home, so they find the perfect fit.”
The shelter did not see a particular breed come in more than any other in 2011, though some years it does happen. Last year, dogs of mixed breed were the most surrendered canine in Edmonton, Mclean said, many of those strays or reserve dogs.
Mutts — including animals classified as mixed breed, crossbreed or unknown — account for one per cent of all licensed dogs in Edmonton. But since pet owners do not need to show certification papers to license their dogs as a certain breed, and since many did not specific the breed of their dog, that number could be much higher.
“I vote for mutts,” says Horowitz, whose book features many anecdotes about her own mutt, Pumpernickel (Pump, for short).
Back to Molly the Shih Tzu. She’s darn cute, but a lot less extraordinary than her owners think; at least statistically.
You see, it’s not just Molly’s breed that’s hugely popular. It’s her name, too. According to the city’s pet database, Molly is the third most popular name for licensed dogs in this city. We have 681 licensed dogs named Molly,
a name that’s also popular with our cats. (Find out the top 10 names for Edmonton cats Monday in The Jour
nal.)
Most popular dog name in Edmonton? Buddy. A whopping 869 licensed dogs have been christened Buddy, and that doesn’t include the name’s many variations like: Bud, Budders and Buddy Boy.
Max came second, with 745 licensed dogs; after Molly come Bailey (658 licensed dogs) and Bella (620 licensed dogs).
Like opera, you either love the name Buddy, or you hate it. Some praise the moniker as simple and sweet; others condemn it as unimaginative and outof-date.
Mary Gainor’s six-year-old rescue dog, Buddy, came with his name. Gainor says it suits the border collieblue heeler cross.
“It’s a great dog name, especially for a dog like our Buddy,” Gainor says. “He’s a Buddy. He’s a dog’s dog. He gets into trouble, he digs, he bur- ies bones. He’s so spirited. He’s the epitome of a dog. He’s not one of those fluffy poodles.”
Gainor isn’t a fan of what she calls “ridiculous” pet names. (She cites Pinot and Chanel as examples.) And she likes that everyone knows her pet’s name at the dog park. “Any dog is Buddy when you don’t know his name. He thinks everybody’s his best friend.”
Kirstin Larson, who works in admitting at the Edmonton Humane Society and names all the pets who come in to the shelter, says she’ll never christen an animal Buddy.
“Everyone that surrenders their dog, it’s Buddy,” Larson says. “It gets tiresome if you have a lot of Buddies. It’s easy, it’s like ‘Hey Buddy’ when you don’t know an animal’s name.”
Larson thinks giving an animal an original name will help them get adopted. If a dog has already been named Buddy, she won’t change it. But the common name isn’t doing them any favours when it comes to finding a new home. “I try to avoid that name.”
“You’re old-fashioned dog people,” says name expert Linda Rosenkrantz of Edmonton’s penchant for naming their pooches Buddy. Rosenkrantz is co-author of baby name books including Beyond Jennifer and Jason and co-founder of nameberry.com, which gets one million hits a month. She says the name Buddy is more unusual for dogs because it’s not something people tend to name their children. And these days, people love to give their dogs popular baby names.
Buddy “defies the trend, which is away from the classic dog names and a very strong move toward human names,” says Laura Wattenberg, celebrated author of the smash hit
The Baby Name Wizard. “Around the world, Max is No. 1 everywhere: the U.S., Australia, England. I’ve yet to see (a list) where Max is not the top dog name.”
Max is popular with kids and dogs alike, as is Bella, Rosenkrantz says, in part to humanize in, it’s taken
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Wattenberg says there’s a certain category of (human) names most used for dogs: “old-fashioned cuddly names: Lucy, Max, Rosy.” She calls these the
Guys and Dolls names. “Those are also the top names for picture book characters. No coincidence there. It’s not just cute and warm, there’s that intersection that is very relatable.”
Preppy names like Bailey, Spencer and Tucker are also popular with babies and pets, she says. “What you don’t see are the people names. You never meet a dog named Kenneth, or Michelle.” (Actually, Edmonton has three licensed dogs named Michelle.)
Baby naming urges may be satisfied through a pet, Wattenberg says: “I do hear from parents who will say, my ultimate favourite name was Cordelia, but I couldn’t quite pull the trigger, so I gave it to my dog.”
Or there can be conflicts, either tussles between a dog in one house and a baby boy in another, or people who want to use a name for their pet and their child. Wattenberg says it’s OK to repurpose a name, assuming the pet has perished before the baby’s arrival. “Your family will laugh at you for about six months and then they won’t care.”
Edmonton’s most popular licensed dog names follow the bigger trends across North America. In its annual survey of popular pet names, the Veterinary Pet Insurance Company says that Molly was the fifth most popular name for dogs in 2011. Bella came tops for dogs (as well as cats), followed by Bailey and Max. Buddy made the cut, too, in sixth place.
John Considine, who teaches English at the University of Alberta, says pop culture plays a huge role in our pet name choices. “People give cats and dogs names which are consistent with their image of themselves,” Considine says.
Pet names can show off a person’s sense of humour (Considine, for example, has a black cat called Snowball). It might be clever, something you have to “get,” showing off a person’s intelligence. It might reflect their taste in music (Edmonton has five Bonos), literature (we have six Shakespeares) or food (we have 15 Sushis, 10 Tofus, nine T-bones and one Yogurt).
It might simply be a two-syllable name that’s easy to call in public (a bad example of this would be Hitler; there are two licensed dogs with this name in Edmonton). And people copy other people’s likable pet names, which Considine says can cause a fad.
Max, he suggests, might be the result of the cult classic The Grinch Who Stole
Christmas. Max is the Grinch’s better half, a patient canine who serves as the foil to his nasty green master.
The best thing about pet names is that you can get away with so much more, Considine explains. “It would be mean to call your son Sauron,” Considine says, referring to the villain in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. “But you can call your cat Sauron if you think your friends will appreciate the joke. The cat won’t care.”
Most Edmontonians aren’t that adventurous, though there are definitely some oddballs, including Q-tip, Megabyte, Dumpster, Sexy, Kyrie eleison, Highway, Brain and Prince Harry.
At 15, Molly the Shih Tzu has cataracts and can barely see her paw in front of her snout, let alone browse through top dog name lists. The dog’s owners overlook her challenges, and her ubiquity —as a Shih Tzu, and as Molly — in Edmonton. Says Wong: “She’s an oldie but a goody.”