Ever wonder which large dog breeds pet people are most interested in learning about? We certainly were, so we dug through the thousands and thousands of searches on vetstreet.com since the beginning of 2015 to see which giant breeds our readers had typed into our search box most often.
No. 10: Leonberger
The Leo's name is derived from his lion-like appearance. He's not only very large but also typically very active, both as a puppy and as an adult, so he requires plenty of daily exercise.
No. 9: Irish Wolfhound
Her name might indicate ferociousness, but the Wolfhound is usually quite a gentle breed... and an expert-level counter surfer. She's also known as the Big Dog of Ireland, Greyhound of Ireland and Great Hound of Ireland.
No. 8: Great Pyrenees
The Great Pyrenees was originally bred to protect sheep and other livestock from predators like wolves in the Pyrenees mountains of France and Spain. These days, he's more likely to spend his time as a beloved member of the family.
No. 7: St. Bernard
Known to be sweet, shy and sometimes stubborn, the St. Bernard doesn't actually carry a brandy keg around her neck as depicted in popular art. She was, though, used by the monks at the hospice of St. Bernard to seek out and rescue lost travelers in the Swiss Alps in the 19th century.
No. 6: Bernese Mountain Dog
Named for the Swiss Canton of Bern, where he earned his kibble as a farm dog and watchdog, the Berner now tends to be a dog who's devoted to his family and loves spending time with his humans.
No. 5: Akita
The Akita is considered a national monument in her home country of Japan. You may be familiar with the story of a particularly loyal Akita named Hachiko, who, after his owner died, kept vigil at the railway
station where they had always met at the end of the day.
No. 4: Newfoundland
The Newfie might best be known for the role Nana in Peter Pan, but he also has quite a history as a working dog on fishing boats in Newfoundland, Canada.
No. 3: Cane Corso
A member of the Mastiff family, this Italian breed is typically extremely devoted to his family and suspicious of strangers. The Cane Corso is also generally more athletic and agile than other Mastiffs.
No. 2: Great Dane
The Great Dane's impressive size might intimidate onlookers, but she's generally a truly gentle giant with a fairly calm demeanor and a lot of love for her family.
No. 1: Mastiff
While sorting through the searches for "Mastiff," there was an enormous variety: Spanish Mastiff, Tibetan Mastiff, French Mastiff, Bullmastiff, Neapolitan Mastiff and many, many more. So for the purposes of this article, we grouped all searches containing "Mastiff" together, which ended up being more than double the number of searches found for "Great Dane."
Interestingly enough, Mastiff alone still landed at No. 1, while Bullmastiff came in at No. 3, Tibetan Mastiff was No. 11 and Neapolitan Mastiff earned the No. 14 spot.
For each breed above, we included all obvious varieties of the breed name: misspellings, nicknames and abbreviations. We also included any searches for the breed name in conjunction with other information. So, for example, "What’s the life span for a Leonberger?" counted as a search for that breed.
However, any searches for a breed along with another breed ("Leonberger Poodle") were not counted, nor were any designer mixes or other mixed-breed nicknames ("Leodoodle").
Finally, to be considered, breeds had to have an average top weight of at least 115 pounds.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out more about which breeds are most highly searched on Vetstreet!
