Not sure if you've noticed, but French Bulldogs are a bit of a 'trend' right now. Pretty much everyone who's anyone in dog ownership land has one: Leonardo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon, Kim Kardashian, Martha Stewart. That smug, tattoo-clad couple sitting on the table next to you at Yellow Bird? They have one. (His name is Rocko, he likes long strolls in the park and he's tied next to your fixie on the street pole outside whilst you all enjoy delicious breakfast burritos.)
Last month the French Bulldog even made its way
into a Hungry Jacks commercial, so it's suffice to say that the craze has well and truly hit the mainstream. It's now only a matter of time before the early-adopters start revolting and countless numbers of these miniature, awkward and abnormally large-eared dogs join the ranks of abandoned dalmatians, Paris Hilton's Pomeranians and black Mytiko leggings.
So, what's next? Trend forecasting admittedly isn't easy. It takes numbers, and possibly a clipboard and some highlighter textas. Luckily, we think we have the solution. Keeping in mind that dogs are in fact living, breathing, feeling ANIMALS (not the latest designer handbag), here's a mathematically derived answer to ensure you don't accidentally go buy yourself a chocolate Labrador.
JACK RUSSELL
This lovable, yappy breed just won a Golden Globe AND an Oscar by proxy of Uggie from The Artist. He can sing! He can play Nintendo! He can give redcarpet interviews with Ryan Seacrest! Uggie's clan has got a substantial amount of pop culture precedents, too: Milo from The Mask, Eddie from the TV show Frasier, and most recently a pooch (also played by Uggie) in that doozy love story, Water For Elephants. All in all, the Jack Russell looks like an easy winner. Almost too easy...
Celebrity Owners: +3
Pop Culture Kudos: +10
Impracticality: -5
Likelihood To Trend: 8
ROTTWEILER
According to
some woman on MSNBC, this breed recently entered the Top 10 list of popular dog breeds in the US. Blue chip celebs are already onto them: Elton John, that actress who played Princess Leia, ummm... Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Anyways, this large guard dog is an easy trade-up from the French Bulldog craze: it's also stocky and butch looking, is "great" with kids, and apparently doubles as a cyborg detective. That sounds like winning all round.
Celebrity Owners: -1
Pop Culture Kudos: +4
Impracticality: +6
Likelihood To Trend: 9
SIBERIAN HUSKY
Global warming is really starting to kick off these days, so it's almost guaranteed that rich people will soon start buying the most unpractical thing they can to muster to display their lavishness: an animal naturally suited to the Arctic. For now, this breed is flying under the radar, but just you give it six months. By then, the globe will have officially missed those pesky 2012 Kyoto Protocol targets, and people will be begging Siberian Huskies to bobsled them out of melting polar ice-cap puddles.
Celebrity Owners: -4
Pop Culture Kudos: 0
Impracticality: +10
Likelihood To Trend: 6
QUEENSLAND WILD DOGS
Currently
one of Australia's prominent upper Queensland livestock districts is experiencing a wild dog "plague", with calls to remove Quilpie's 60,000 sheep population because they keep getting eaten (and not in the form of tasty marinated lamb skewers). We see only three solutions: families start adopting sheep, wild dog skin coats become tres fashionable, or these feral canines get domesticated en masse lest they face euthanasia/a hillbilly's shotgun. Have a heart, guys...
Celebrity Owners: +1 (Let's assume Bob Katter is a fan.)
Pop Culture Kudos: 0
Impracticality: 0
Likelihood To Trend: 1
DACHSHUNDS
Sausage dogs have all the requisite attributes of a potential dog breed craze: they're weird looking, have the cutest puppies *EVER*, and look like a tasty processed snack food. They've been receiving some interesting mainstream press recently too, but it mightn't all be positive: Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence revealed last week on Letterman that her two brothers used to bully her with them. "They would get our dachshunds and put peanut butter all over my face,” she says “The dogs would go crazy licking… And then they’d shut the door, [and] lock me in the basement with dachshunds.” Um.
Celebrity Owners: +4
Pop Culture Kudos: +9
Impracticality: -2
Likelihood To Trend: 11
CARDIGAN WELSH CORGI
Who wouldn't love a dog that can dress itself? Registrations for this breed, which is a fave of the British Royal Family, soared by 130% in the UK after that whole Royal Wedding thing last year. That craze hasn't significantly reached Australia yet, but a strategically timed Kate Middleton pregnancy and some Woman's Day frontcovers are likely all the Cardigan Welsh needs to start sparking local Royalist's interests.
Celebrity Owners: +2
Pop Culture Kudos: +2 (for the elderly)
Impracticality: +2
Likelihood To Trend: 6
SHELTER DOGS
As we speak, thousands of abandoned dogs languish in Australian shelters (the RSPCA alone received 67,000 in 2011); where they wait to be adopted or for that illustrious green dream to be injected. Diametrically, our obsession with pedigree "designer" dog fads
is linked to puppy farms, backyard breeding, and animals reared in shitboxes for overseas export. For anyone with sanity, the solution looks pretty clear. Of course, Kim Kardashian doesn't have a stray in her Gucci handbag yet, so..
Celebrity Owners: 0
Pop Culture Kudos: 0
Impracticality: -100
Likelihood To Trend: -100