Effects of winning the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on breed popularity

Objective—To determine whether winning best in show at the annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was associated with a subsequent increase in breed popularity. Design—Analysis of archival data. Study population—Breed-specific numbers of individual purebred puppies registered with the American Kennel Club between 1946 and 2002. Procedure—For breeds that had won the Westminster Show, the slope of the curve for number of new registrations per year for the 5 years prior to winning was compared with the slope of the curve for the 5 years after winning. In addition, the annual percentage change in number of new registrations for the breed that won each year was compared with the annual percentage change in number of new registrations for the nonwinning breed most similar in popularity to the winning breed. Results—For breeds that had won the Westminster Show, the slope of the curve for number of new registrations per year for the 5 years prior to winning was not significantly different from the slope of the curve for the 5 years after winning. Annual percentage change in number of new registrations for the breed that won each year was not significantly different from annual percentage change in number of new registrations for matched nonwinning breeds. Conclusions—Results do not support the view that being named best in show at the annual Westminster Show results in a surge in popularity of winning breeds