The Australian Shepherd is still the favorite dog of the French in 2020

Australian Shepherd races ahead

In 2020, it was again the Australian Shepherd who took first place in the largest number of registrations in the L.O.F or French Book of Origins which lists all purebred dogs in France. The beauty and dynamism of this dog with distant Basque origins once again won over the French for the 3^{th year in a row. It recorded 16,782 LOF registrations in 2020, i.e. 2,045 registrations more than in 2019.}

The Australian Shepherd thus becomes the first breed to exceed the 15,000 registration mark since the German Shepherd in 1996. A new record has now been established for this breed which belongs to group I, the group of sheepdogs.

An inversion on the podium

If the top 5 dog breeds have not changed between 2019 and 2020, there has still been an inversion among the silver and bronze medalists. In 2020, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier thus narrowly took second place in the ranking from the Belgian Shepherd with 12,221 registrations in the LOF, against 12,144 registrations. The Staffordshire Bull Terrier, affectionately nicknamed Staffie, thus progresses by one place and 906 additional registrations compared to 2019.

The German Shepherd remains in the top 5 favorite dog breeds of the French, but its number of registrations continues to decrease by around 2% compared to 2019.

The dog breeds that the French prefer: the complete top 20

• 1^{er Australian Shepherd (16,782 listings)}
• 2^{th Staffordshire Bull Terrier (12,221 entries)}
• 3^{th Belgian Shepherd dog (12,144 entries)}
• 4^{th Golden Retriever (12,060 registrations)}
• 5^{th German Shepherd (9785 entries)}
• 6^{th American Staffordshire (8206 entries)}
• 7^{th Labrador Retriever (7813 entries)}
• 8^{th Cavalier King Charles (6827 entries)}
• 9^{th Beagle (6536 entries)}
• 10^{th English Setter (6046 entries)}
• 11^{th English Cocker Spaniel (5198 listings)}
• 12^{th French Bulldog (5572 registrations)}
• 13^{th Brittany Spaniel (5198 entries)}
• 14^{th Chihuahua (5185 entries)}
• 15^{th Cane Corso or Italian court dog (5055 registrations)}
• 16^{th Siberian Husky (4129 entries)}
• 17^{th Dachshund (3664 entries)}
• 18^{th Yorkshire Terrier (3555 entries)}
• 19^{th Shih Tzu (3488 listings)}
• 20^{th German Spitz (3428 entries)}

In 2020, the Bernese Mountain Dog left the top 20 and the Shih Tzu joined it, directly in 19^{th position. If the breeds listed in the top 20 have not changed much between 2019 and 2020, this could well change in the years to come. The Société Centrale Canine has indeed noted a growing interest in group V dogs, in other words Spitz and Primitive type dogs, which have 1,532 more registrations in 2020. This increase is explained by the success of the Siberian Husky but also by the growing enthusiasm for other breeds such as Shiba (+13% registrations in 2020), Eurasier (+22%) and Akita (+12%).}