Why Did Certain Breeds Become Popular?

I think that a lot of the breeds you listed just arnt popular in the states.
Other reasons a breed may become popular is due to the media or if they use that particular breed in a ad campaign or television show.
 

Absolutely....the media....including famous books or movies from said books. Many dogs are not popular anymore.."movie breeds"....like the Irish Setter, OES, Corgi, Great Danes...even the Collie are less popular than they once were.
 
Eventually after the initial surge reality and bad breeding set in and it retreats...lol! The times it doesn't abate, well it's likely because at the root of it all...the breeds really ARE good pets and relatively easy to live with, despite their quirks....like Beagles, Cockers, Yorkies, Pugs, Labs, Goldens, etc.
 
Remember the Chinese Shar Pei in the Neiman catalog? selling for thousands? Uniqueness, newness, catchy names or characteristics always seem to snag interest. Another thing is "non threatening" appearance...baby like round faces, small size, limpid eyes, etc.
 
Obscurity is a boon to dog breeds.

The ONLY breed you mentioned that I've ever even heard of is the Saluki, I have no inkling as to the names of the others or what they look like. [] If that was a question on Millionaire, I would have never guessed one of them being a dog breed. Yes, I'm from the States... ofcourse. [] Thank you for expanding my knowledge. [8|]

I just wondered why such similar breeds had such differences in popularity.  I meant to mention the Labrador Retriever and the Curly Coated Retriever, which are similar in purpose and in general conformation, but often if you live in the states, you'll see hundreds of Labs in your lifetime, but only a handful of Curly Coated Retrievers. 
 
The poor Shar Peis never had a chance once the fad breeders got to them.  Breeding healthy Shar Peis requires quite a bit of knowledge and patience, two things that the ones just making a quick buck did not provide. 

Ahhh I getcha!
 
I will say.."glamour" and or "simplicity of care"
 
Lab coats are simpler to care for than Flats or Curly's and you have to "like" curls to like a curly!
 
Bernese have glamorous coats and size...the GSwiss has size but no pretty long coat...the others are smaller.
 
Collies? Glamour wins that one!

you'll see hundreds of Labs in your lifetime, but only a handful of Curly Coated Retrievers.

 
I have to think it's also supply and demand, availibility, pricetag, etc...Some of the more obscure breeds that many people might love to own aren't that easy to come by.  Then, when you find a decent breeder, it's thousands of miles away and they cost a small fortune.
 
Whenever I see another OEM around town, I feel compelled to ask the owner where they got him!  Not many reputable breeders around for these guys.  Therefore, you don't see many of them around town in the first place.  When I do have Kato out, it's a spectacle.  Everyone wants to know what he is, do we "ride" him and what does he eat. 
 
I do know that certain breeds are much costlier to breed and therefore less prevalent in public.  Any of the breeds that must deliver by C-section come to mind.  I have never seen an English Bulldog in person.  Many people own them, but I've never seen one.  Petsmart is always full of Labs and Retrievers.  I guess people stick with what they know.....  

The poor Shar Peis never had a chance once the fad breeders got to them.  Breeding healthy Shar Peis requires quite a bit of knowledge and patience, two things that the ones just making a quick buck did not provide. 

 
I had two shar-peis growing up, (this was early 90's...I'm only 19. []) One was from a pet store, and one was from a BYB. (I know, but we didn't know better.) The first one had to have a series of surgeries to fix inverted eyelids...for some reason they never could get it right and she ended up having 5 or 6 surgeries before it was fixed. She died at a year and a half of age while being boarded at a vet's office of parvo...which she had been vaccinated for. The second shar-pei, from the BYB, just suddenly snapped at about a year of age. She was a very sweet puppy, but for some reason she became incredibly aggressive, to the point where she would attack anyone who got within biting range. She ended up finding a home out in the country with one of my dad's friends as a guard dog. I think my parents figured that was a better fate for her than euthanasia.
 
Either way, I have yet to meet ANY well bred shar-peis in my lifetime. Every single one I've come across is snappy and standoffish, and most of them have serious skin and eye problems.   

ORIGINAL: fuzzdomestic

I was just on the Bernese thread and it got me thinking.  How did it happen that some breeds got so much more popular than others, even when they are very similar?  If you ask someone who knows a little bit about dog breeds, they usually know what a Bernese Mountain Dog is, but very few know what an Entlebucher is.  Why are Salukis popular, but you never hear about the Tazi, which is similar in conformation?  Does anyone have thoughts or reasoning on the matter?  I'm stumped. 

 
Partial explanation of popularity is AKC registry.  People look to the AKC to provide registry for dog breeds.  If a dog is not registered, and thus cannot be shown, very few persons, other than a parent club, will be exposed to these dogs.  Less exposure equals less popularity, and thus the dogs aren't well known.
 
When you say that Salukis are popular, you must mean in comparison to Spanish Galgos or Cirneco's.  Because if you compare litter registries of Salukis to just about any of the sporting/working/terrier/non-sporting group litter registries you'll see that there are very few.  In fact I think Salukis are in the bottom dozen breeds in reference to litter registration.
 
Also, sighthounds in general are not as popular as say sporting dogs.  There are many reasons for that- a large part due to the misconception that sighthounds are dumb and aren't trainable that was made popular in past eras.  The truth is that they are very bright dogs but they are not motivated by traditional methods and they require a trust relationship with the owner/handler.  Sighthounds are ALWAYS hunting.  This high prey drive makes it somewhat difficult for the average Joe Q. Public owner and the dogs end up in shelters.  Because of past tendencies like that, most sighthound breeders will breed very rarely and are tremendously selective of who gets their dogs. 

I was comparing the Saluki to the Tazi, which very few have heard of.  I wasn't as clear about that as I could have been.  Off-topic:  You've just mentioned the two breeds I wish I could meet!  If only the Galgo Espanol was more popular...
 
Back on topic:  It looks like it all comes down to aesthetics, ease of care, and whether the breed was featured on T.V. or in a movie.  Perhaps the registry plays into it as well.  It's too bad that people are so apt to believe what they saw on T.V. or heard from a friend of a friend what a breed is like.  I guess it's often a good thing though, for the people who breed those dogs.  Even though the gene pool is smaller, it's usually got better quality than many popular breeds and you don't have as many eople trying to get a dog from you because they heard it's a great breed.  It's a bad thing for people like me though, who have a 50 breed list of dogs they wish they could meet and an incredibly small budget for all the flights that would require. 

I think that it's also that once a breed gets moderately popular (for all the reasons originally mentioned--ease of care, ease of training, glamor, bad-assery, keeping up with the joneses, etc.), it kind of snowballs from there. Once people start seeing a certain type of dog everywhere, people just imprint on that as "dog". When they think of themselves owning a dog, that is the type of dog they think of. They meet people all the time with the same kind of dog and develop a familiarity with that particular breed and then seek that breed out without doing much research as to if there might be another breed out there that would be a better fit.
 
Sometimes people automatically think every dog should be like a lab or a golden, because those are really the only types of dogs they've ever spent any significant time around. And when they get a dog that isn't a lab or a golden, they think it's defective when it doesn't act like a lab or a golden.

And when they get a dog that isn't a lab or a golden, they think it's defective when it doesn't act like a lab or a golden.

 
You cannot be speaking of a hound now, could you?[]  Why they're the easiest dogs in the world to own....[sm=rotfl.gif]

Speaking of the Tazi, isn't that another name for the Afghan Hound? If that's the case, I would say Afghan's are more popular than Saluki's.
 
Anyways, I think the media plays a major part in breed popularity. Between the 1920's and the 1950's, Boston Terriers were extremely popular. They were the #1 AKC registered breed for many years. They were also used heavily in advertising as evidenced here...
 

 

 

 

 
Not to mention that because the breed was developed in the United States, it's development was well documented and a lot of magazines wrote articles about the Boston Terrier. This magazine article was from "Country Life in America" and it was written in 1905. It's about the "new breed" called the Boston Terrier...
 

 

 

 
I can imagine that this type of advertising had a major boost in the Boston Terrier's popularity. It's interesting to note that the Boston Terrier lost it's popularity to the Cocker Spaniel... because of Disney's Lady and the Tramp which was released in 1955. []

I was referring to the Ottoman(Turkish) Tazi.  It's an old sighthound breed that looks a lot like a Saluki.  I've noticed that Afgans are sometimes called Tazis, I wonder if they're related... 
 
I didn't even think about the role advertising plays in popularity.  That's a very good point.

ORIGINAL: Ratsicles


Either way, I have yet to meet ANY well bred shar-peis in my lifetime. Every single one I've come across is snappy and standoffish, and most of them have serious skin and eye problems.   

I've met many Shar Pei like you're describing that have extremely bad temperaments. But I used to have a Shar Pei who is now at the rainbow bridge and he did have a good temperament. He and his sister were dropped off at the animal shelter I was working at. They would both greet me with crazy tail wags and snuggles when I visited them in their kennel. I could only adopt one of them, so I took the male. He was about 1 1/2 years old. He also had to have surgery for entropion (his eyes) and had some skin issues and chronic ear infections. He started getting episodes of swollen hock syndrome and familial shar pei fever a few months after I got him. There was nothing the vet could really do other than supportive treatment and he ended up dying of kidney failure when he was about 3 years old. [] Anyway, my Pei was independent with a stubborn streak, but loving and very stable. He never had to be muzzled in his life. I could trim his nails, clean his ears, bathe him etc. and he put up with it. Of course he'd run and try to hide when he saw the grooming equipment, but once I got him he was cooperative. The vets were always amazed at what a good boy he was. This was a few years ago and I still miss him and have dreams about him. I definitely have a soft spot for Shar Pei and I want to own one again eventually. Anyway, sorry to get so sidetracked as usual!