Black and Tan Coonhound over the USA
Despite an accurate and detailed census being at the core of most government functions, we only get one of those every decade and they are only a smidgen more modern now than they were a century ago. So when it comes to getting accurate measures of dogs in this country, the best data we have to go on are proxy measures.
First there are organizations that have a vested interest in this information and who publish it, namely the big dog registries like the AKC and UKC. Yet, we all know that these two registries capture a mere fraction of the dogs in this country and that some very popular breeds, like Border Collies, are not represented in significant numbers in any all-breed registry.
Still, it’s interesting to compare the regional appeal of the supposed Top 10 dog breeds boasted by the AKC and UKC. The maps below are based on normalized Google searches.
AKC’s Top 10 Breeds:
Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Bulldog, Yorkshire Terrier, Boxer, Poodle, Rottweiler, Dachshund
You’ll notice that the AKC’s breeds have good saturation across the country. Some states like North Dakota, Utah and Virginia seem particularly lacking in dog interest while states like Maine, North Carolina, Colorado, West Virginia, Montana, and Texas rank over multiple breeds.
UKC’s Top 10 Breeds:
Treeing Walker Coonhound, American Pit Bull Terrier, Bluetick Coonhound, English Coonhound, American Black and Tan Coonhound, Redbone Coonhound, Plott Hound, Beagle, Labrador Retriever, Rat Terrier
In contrast, the UKC’s top breeds seem to have very little representation in the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and South West regions of the country. The interest is highly concentrated in the South, Great Lakes, and a minor contribution from the Pacific Northwest. This is hardly surprising given just how many of the UKC’s top breeds are flavors of Coonhounds.
* * *
Comments and disagreements are welcome, but be sure to read the Comment Policy. If this post made you think and you'd like to read more like it, consider a donation to my 4 Border Collies' Treat and Toy Fund. They'll be glad you did. You can subscribe to the feed or enter your e-mail in the field on the left to receive notice of new content. You can also like BorderWars on Facebook for more frequent musings and curiosities.
* * *
I had a Bluetick for training a few years back & was walking her down my *very* country road in semi-rural South Carolina. Good ol’ boy in his beat up old Ford truck pulled up beside me & asked me if she was an Airedale. O.o First redneck I ever saw who didn’t know a Coonhound when he saw one.
The Hispanic family that lives behind me has Redbones, but they keep calling them Bloodhounds, regardless of the fact that they are most definitely Redbones in size, color, coat, temperament, & voice.
About a mile away is a guy who breeds & hunts Treeing Walkers. And two months ago I bought a used doghouse from a guy who used to breed Plotts.
So yeah, Coonhounds in their various incarnations are ubiquitous here.
The question I have is why so many breeds for essentially the same activity (not that we don’t see this in retrievers and shepherds)? But seriously, that’s a lot of variety for what are the same prey, no? Only one variety of Raccoon, yes?
Looking at the map, it appears that each flavor has a state that is uniquely its own most concentrated center. So maybe it’s that.
Except for the Redbone (1902) or Black and Tan (1900), coonhounds used to be all registered as English Fox and Coonhound (1905). However, during the 1920s and 1930s, people began writing articles articles about why their particular strain was superior or unique. During the 1940s and 1950s, the English Coonhound splintered into different breeds.
American Blue Gascon Hound splintered from Bluetick during the 1970s when breeders became disappointed with how competitive hunting changed the breed.
Dave recently posted..For One Allele
I’m surprised Plott hounds aren’t darker for Wisconsin. They’re quite popular for bear hunting here.
Raegan recently posted..Is Skinner the Koehler of Clicker?
Wisconsin is still the #3 state for Plott Hounds. It’s just that North Carolina drowns out everywhere else, specifically Raleigh-Durham. They have a street named “Plott Hound Lane” there.
Any statistics for the National Kennel Club? Yes, it is just a paper-registry and anyone can fill them out; however lots of hunters use the registry. So, I wonder what the story tells about the geography of the most popular NKC breeds.
Or perhaps not, since we probably will see where all abhorred puppy-mills are.
Dave recently posted..For One Allele
Well, the UKC doesn’t even publish their raw numbers. Just the rankings. These maps aren’t tied in with the registries, only the breeds. So, “Labrador Retriever” is the same map for both the AKC and UKC. It’d be VERY interesting to get their actual registration numbers by state and see. I once paid for the Border Collie data by state from the AKC and made a map like this, so they have the data. It’s just not free and published.
Very strange, though, almost all the coonhounds around here are Treeing Walkers.
What about the Redbone Coonhounds? The map seems to suggest that WV is the epicenter.
They don’t account for unregistered dogs.
Dave recently posted..For One Allele
Well the maps I made are not based on registration statistics! Sorry if that was unclear. I searched terms based on registration ranks (the top 10 from the AKC and UKC) but the colors on the maps come from Google Trend normalizing the search terms over the areas.
So it’s more like a measure of popularity of internet activity from IP addys in those states.
Did you do the searches Chris? I am impressed by the work!
Since 2010 the AKC has only published rankings of breeds, not numbers. This is deceptive because the popular breeds are responsable for the vast majority of dogs registered wth the AKC.
As to the proliferation of of “Coon dawgs”. These breeds arose often from very localized landraces bred sometimes by only one family or clan of Appalachian rural residents. A similar pattern can be seen today in the various lineages of working/racing sled dogs and “Alaskan” huskies.
The distinctions are maintained because people like diversity. Look at NASCAR races, it appears to me that all the cars are pretty much in the same performance category but there are still different models and brands represented on the race track.
As you mentioned with the racing sled dogs, the selection is for performance and then perhaps for some sort of recognizable trait. When I was working on my PhD with the dog locomotion project and I spoke to racing sled dog breeders, one mentioned that another one was trying to get tipped over ear tips in the dogs he sold so they would be recognizable when they were part of winning teams. Since these breeders were sometimes maintaining populations of almost 100 dogs it was possible to select for both working ability and cosmetic traits that did not effect working ability (color, minor ear morphology).
When breeding an animal for performance selection will establish a base type fairly rapidly and biomechanical constraints will limit improvement to tiny increments after the body form of most of the animals in competition reaches the optimal level. For example, to get race horses or high speed racing dogs to be much faster than they currently are, one would need to re-engineer the composition of bone to take greater stress without failure.
Both thoroughbreds and racing greyhounds can suffer injuries when hitting their hightest speeds which are around 40 mph.
Yes, lots of searching, screen caps, and cropping in Photoshop, followed by accurate file naming. These are also only the first ~20 maps. I’ve got a few more posts scheduled which will look at other areas and breeds of interest. Next up: The Bully Breeds.