_{“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.” Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red}

It’s been a grey, wet, windy day here, but made so much brighter for us by family … and a puppy.

We’ve had visits from two puppies recently, both only a few months old, with teeth sharp as razors, and bodies wriggling with happiness and curiosity. They’ve padded and explored, tested and tasted, chewed and chased.

Now they are gone, and the house settles back into the rhythm of adults. It is a good rhythm, but different. In the quiet since, I’ve done some looking and found out a few things about dogs and who owns them.

The YouGov Dog Ownership Report 2023, lists 56% of American households as having a dog in them, while an MDPI National Dog Survey 2023, reports that in the UK it’s 34%. The World Population Review 2023 puts that into numbers – 90,000,000 million dogs in the USA, and only 12,000,000 in the UK. The Kennel Club in the USA has given the nation’s most popular dog spot to the French Bulldog, while in the UK that spot has gone to the Labrador Retriever. 

And, of course, there is one piece of evidence that has never changed, at least it hasn’t so far – all dogs, wherever they are, begin as puppies, who play and grow … then suddenly they are tired.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023