Labs & pits are together more than 40% of the dogs offered for sale or adoption
The data from the 2026 edition of the most comprehensive annual survey of the U.S. dog population done anywhere by anyone is in––and what it shows is not good news for the shelter and rescue community.
Once again the numbers clearly confirm a runaway pit bull population, overwhelming shelters and rescues, with no end in sight short of mandatory pit bull sterilization, since pit bull owners are clearly not doing the job voluntarily.
Twenty times now, ANIMALS 24-7 has conducted a midsummer survey of dogs advertised for sale or adoption: three times retrospectively, searching the newspapers archived at Newspapers.com, and 17 times, beginning in 2010, searching U.S. online media at the approximate peak of canine availability: after the spring puppy birthing season, when the year’s pups are ready to find homes.
Few breeds reach 1% of dogs
Our first survey covered the entire time frame from 1900 to 1950. Our second covered the decade of the 1970s. Our third covered the decade of the 1980s.
These three surveys, taken together, showing considerable consistency among the most popular dog breeds over a 90-year time span, offer a baseline providing perspective on the trends of the 21st century.
Because there have always been many dozens of widely recognized dog breeds, for as long as dog breeds have been identified, the odds have always been against any one breed exceeding 1% of the total canine population offered for sale from breeders.
Both Labs & pits break records for availability
Only the most popular breeds have ever amounted to more than 5% of the dogs in commerce. Only six times before 2026 has any one breed or category claimed a 10% market share: all northern breeds combined in 2010, all hounds combined in 2011, large retrievers in both 2014 and 2022, and all pit bulls combined in both 2022 and 2025.
Only once before 2026 has a breed or category exceeded 11% market share; large retrievers reached 14% in 2022.
In midsummer 2026, however, large retrievers claim an unprecedented 23.4% market share, distantly followed by pit bulls at 18.4%.
Rolling average yields population totals
Essential to realize is that this does not mean more than 40% of the U.S. dog population are either large retrievers or pit bulls. Each annual ANIMALS 24-7 classified survey shows what dogs are currently promoted, but trends in dog breeding and acquisition fluctuate widely from year to year. Large retrievers, for instance, were only 2.3% of the dogs offered for sale in 2019, and pit bulls were 2.7% in 2020.
To estimate the total U.S. population of each surveyed dog breed or category, ANIMALS 24-7 uses a rolling average, 2010-present. This provides a much more stable picture than the data from any one year alone.
90 million dogs in U.S.
That rolling average is then converted into an estimate of the number dogs by breed category, based on the conventional assumption that the total U.S. dog population is circa 90 million, as projected by both veterinary and pet industry surveys.
Among the estimated 90 million dogs in the U.S., about 6.9 million appear to be large retrievers; six million are pit bulls; 4.5 million are hounds; and 3.6 million are small terriers.
Rounding out the top five, northern breeds including huskies, Akitas, and Malamutes, among several others, add up to 3%.
“Used dogs”
Surveying the dogs offered for sale shows, more-or-less, how many puppies of what breeds are born in any given year. This, however, does not provide a complete picture of dog supply-and-demand.
As of midsummer 2026, 42% of the dogs available for acquisition are “used dogs,” offered for adoption by animal shelters and rescues after having flunked out of at least one previous home.
The same breed types––the most numerous––tend to cluster near the tops of each list.
Their numbers relative to each other and to other dog breed types, however, is very different.
Pit bulls in the “used dog” market
Currently, 22.8% of the “used dogs” offered for adoption are acknowledged by the “used dog” agencies to be pit bulls. Another 10.7% are acknowledged pit bull mixes.
16% –– the greatest number of dogs offered for adoption after pit bulls––are not identified by breed at all. Spot-checking photos of dogs promoted for adoption via social media, but not identified by breed, suggests that more than 95% of these dogs are also pit bulls or pit mixes.
49.5% of the U.S. shelter & rescue population
In short, while pit bulls including pit mixes amount to about 6% of the total U.S. dog population, pit bulls and pit mixes are circa 49.5% of the U.S. shelter and rescue population.
This does not include the percentage of pit bull intake at animal shelters who are euthanized due to dangerous behavior, instead of attempts being made to rehome them.
Altogether, pit bulls are represented in the “used dog” market at 8.25 times their dogs-for-sale market share.
Labs high among “used dogs” too
Large retrievers––Labradors and golden retrievers––are together about 13% of the “used dog” population, represented at nearly twice their representation of 6.7% among the U.S. dog population at large.
This is of concern, but may be a one-year fluke, since in 2025 large retrievers were 4.0% of the dogs offered for sale, five times the percentage of large retrievers offered for adoption from shelters and rescues.
The three next most abundant “used dogs” available from shelters and rescues are all relatively large breeds with high energy, including cattle dogs, pointers, and German shepherds, with Chihuahuas the most numerous small dogs, making up 3% of shelter dog availability.
The historical record
Looking back through the columns of data to the half century 1900-1950 demonstrates that even though dogfighting was legal in most states for most of that time, pit bulls were never actually a popular breed type before the 1980s, when they came into vogue to guard illegal drug operations in inner cities and marijuana plantations in the Pacific Northwest.
The list of most popular dogs in the 1900-1950 time frame began with sled dogs, still heavily used for light transportation such as mail delivery in the upper snowbelt states plus Alaska, then not yet a state. Northern breeds together made up 9.2% of the dogs offered for sale.
Northern breeds came up again to 10.2% of the dogs offered for sale in 2010, but that was in a single year, not a trend sustained for half a century.
Hunting dogs
Hunting dogs were next in popularity from 1900 t0 1950, with hounds at 8.8%, setters at 8.7%; and beagles at 6%.
Herding dogs also ranked highly, especially collies at 8.2%.
Dogs kept primarily as companions were evident in the 1900-1950 time frame, especially poodles at 7.7%, boxers at 7.6%, and spaniels at 6.7%, but in general a dog then was expected to work for a living, and the varieties of dogs bred to be companions first and foremost were markedly fewer.
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