Lab remains top dog

The UK’s top two gundogs are on the up, while the English springer could slip in the rankings. David Tomlinson crunches the numbers

- David Tomlinson

I’VE ALWAYS thought that the phrase “lies, damned lies and statistics” sums up brilliantly the world of the statistician. It’s a quote widely attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, but it seems unlikely that he ever said it, let alone coined it.

For anyone fascinated by statistics, the past 12 months have been exceptional, as we have been given daily statistical updates on the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths. What we haven’t heard so often is that the average age of death in the UK from COVID-19 is 80.4 years, a statistic that reminds us that it’s a disease that has much of its greatest impact on the elderly. Despite this, we have all been locked down, whether we liked it or not.

I enjoy a bit of statistic crunching and have been doing exactly that with the Kennel Club’s annual figures for dog registrations. There was a great surge in dog ownership last year, but this didn’t benefit the Kennel Club as much as you might expect. It seems that many of the puppies that found homes in 2020 were cross-breeds, such as cockapoos and labradoodles. As a result, there were not nearly as many registration fees paid into the KC’s coffers as you might expect.

However, overall, the Club did have a good year. Labrador registrations went from 35,347 in 2019 to 39,905 last year, ensuring that the breed retained its slot as our most popular breed of registered dog.