Dog Movies Create Ten-Year Spikes in Breeds' Popularity

After Top Gun came out, the air force saw a spike in military service applicants. After Brave was released, family vacations to Scotland began trending. When a blockbuster features a dog hero, according to new research published in PLoS One, that dog's breed enjoys a boom in popularity. The researchers analyzed data from 85 movies that featured canine lead characters and compared those films with millions of records from dogs registered with the American Kennel Club. As ScienceNOW reports, "The effect on dogs has been huge." On average, a popular dog movie can create an increased interest in that particular breed for up to ten years, the team found.