I live in Doncaster which is not the most cosmopolitan area of the country but I am amazed over the years the number of rare breeds I have seen.
When I first moved back here 13 years ago I bought a Manchester Terrier and since then I have seen a Bloodhound, Spinone, two Spanish Water Dogs (one lives in the next street), 2 Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers and an Elkhound. I am sure there are others which I have forgotten

In Pets At Home today I saw a Komondor. At first I thought it was an unkempt Labradoodle until I heard the owner say what breed it was. I would imagine this is the most unusual dog I have ever seen - I still can't decide if I like them or not!

When I was a kid virtually the only pedigree dog you saw in Doncaster was a Whippet and most of those were not registered. It is good to see different breeds, I am getting fed up of seeing Staffies and non-descript hairy little dogs

Things definitely have changed. When I was a kid (I'm 40) you used to see a couple of westies, and apart from that mostly Labrador's, retrievers, collies and collie crosses.

Then in my 20's you started to see cocker spaniels, cavaliers, and still Labrador's, westies, golden retrievers, collies and crosses.

Today I went to the park and saw, 4 huskies, an Alaskan malamute, 2 Trevurens, a Red Malamute, Norfolk terrier and Norwich, a Coton de Tulear, a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, St Bernard, Border terriers, 3 Soft Wheaten Terriers, (20+ various types of oodles and yet no actual poodles)... and after never having seen a Bassett Hound my whole life..3 bassett hounds.

Times have definitely changed. Guess cultural diversity has hit the pets people have as much as the population in general.

Of the 215 or so breeds recognised and registered by the kennel club the lest popular 100 breeds make up less than 2% of registrations, and the top 20 popular breeds account for 72% of the total dogs registered with the KC.

This study shows the figures: http://beta.cgejournal.org/articles/10.1186/s40575-015-0014-9

I personally believe that if the general public supported the less popular breeds they would probably find better breeders.

After all the puppy farmers are most likely to concentrate on the most popular breeds that gather them potentially 72% of the market for pedigree dogs.

The rarest I've seen (I think as I'd never even heard of it) was a couple of weeks ago, a Ratonero Bodeguero Andaluz in English a Andalusian wine cellar rat hunting dog

Other than that I see a woman who has 2 Otterhounds. We also see Mexican hairless, Glen of Imaal Terrier and a gorgeous Irish Wolfhound who has learnt that if he sees a small dog coming towards him, if he lays down they come and say hello. If he stays standing most are very wary and wont say hello. My boy stands on his back legs with front paws on his shoulders so they can sniff noses, very sweet. I actually saw a parti standard poodle about 6 months ago.

One thing I do come across is black / chocolate Labradors with bad temperaments towards other dogs, and I've heard other owners of non Labradors have the same experience. Very sad

> One thing I do come across is black / chocolate Labradors with bad temperaments towards other dogs, and I've heard other owners of non Labradors have the same experience. Very sad

Sadly the same, but as this breed make up a huge percentage of all dogs bred I suppose a few bad ones from uncaring breeders will be bound to occur.

> One thing I do come across is black / chocolate Labradors with bad temperaments towards other dogs, and I've heard other owners of non Labradors have the same experience. Very sad

Thought it was just me, I've become quite wary of labs though in many cases their owners have the same temperament.

It could be thAt more people are wanting something diffrent, that was one of the reasons I went for my breed I didn't want the common place lab, spaniel or collie. I don't know how some owners don't lose there lab among the other labs running about.

Also with the internet so commonly used by so many more people I guess that more people know that other breeds exist and how to find more breeders, as otherwise all you have is the local paper adds which will be full of the local common breeds.

>>The rarest I've seen (I think as I'd never even heard of it) was a couple of weeks ago, a Ratonero Bodeguero Andaluz in English a Andalusian wine cellar rat hunting dog>>

I really thought you were joking Until I Googled it!

It's fun being a dog geek...
I love it when I spot an unusual breed, and ask is it a   .....?

Of course if it get it wrong, I have to then find a hole to crawl into.
But the look on the owner's face when I get it right, is priceless.

Makes up for almost a decade of owning "Alsatians" (not!) and being similarly thrilled when someone gets the breed right. It really can make your week.

I live in Lutterworth which seems to be the land of the unusual dog, in fact its quite rare to see a Staff; I know of four in the entire town.

We have a Norwegian Elkhound, Gordon Setter, Pointer, German Wirehaired Pointer, Alaskan Malamute, 2 Wire Fox Terriers, Norfolk Terrier, Hungarian Vizsla, St Bernard, Beagles, Bassett Hounds, 3 Standard Poodles, Irish Red and White Setter, Dalmatian, Bearded Collies, Pharaoh Hound...

The list is endless; I am usually more surprised if I see a Staffie than any of the above

Today after having our Welsh Terrier nearly two years Someone actually guessed her breed correctly!! Haha!! Otherwise she is the eternal Airedale puppy or a Lakeland (which is odd as they are meant to be be "rarer" yet people know them quite well!).

We wanted a Terrier and went for the welsh as my husband is welsh - so wanted to keep it in the family :P But had no idea how "rare" they are! Big in America but we've not met another here unless showing (champs shows only!) or at the annual Welshie get-together!

Guess cultural diversity has hit the pets people have as much as the population in general.

I think it's more to do with the onset of the net than that.
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I love seeing the more unusual breeds and confess I'm a bit of a dog breed geek myself.

We're in Suffolk at the moment which is quite a doggy area and all sorts turn up. Came across a German Longhaired pointer the other day which I hadn't seen before.

I'm quite enjoying it!  Round here we have all the usuals - your labs, spaniels, shih tzus and lhasas and a million doodles and various husky types, but occasionally other things pop up: we have three irish terriers that I know of, a small herd of english toy terriers, some wire haired fox terriers, couple of min pins, an absolutely beautiful blue roan english setter with totally the wrong owners sadly, and some gordon setters and GSPs.  I also helped train a young St Bernard last year.

However, my old isabella dobermann remains the rarest and he never did get correctly identified in the 7 years he was up here with me!  Only one person ever got him right and that was an isabella enthusiast up in Scotland when I took him on holiday.

I did see a pair of isabellas a few years ago at a boot fair - the owner was absolutely gobsmacked that I knew what they were

> Of course if it get it wrong, I have to then find a hole to crawl into. <br />But the look on the owner's face when I get it right, is priceless.<br />

I do that!  When I saw the Trevuren for the first time I made a wally of myself by saying "oh my god, hairy malinois?"  The lady with them however was absolutely fantastic lovely lady and we spent nearly 30 min chatting about all things doggy after that!

And I thought it was only in and around Bude that we saw all the more unusual breeds!!   I'm happy to know that PUREBRED dogs are still alive and kicking - and it's not all about 'doodles!!

We just came back from going out in the headland with our Basset (one T) and Whippet and somebody coming into the carpark almost crashed his car, spending so much time looking at our Basset in the back of the car

ps   You don't see many Bassets in 'civilised' places because most of us keep numbers and tend to head out across fields and woods!!   We stopped traffic when out down the lanes with our small pack...... happy days

ps   When we hit a rough period, and I took to cleaning houses, I got a job once when I recognised the dog coming to the door with his owner - a Spinone.

> ps   You don't see many Bassets in 'civilised' places because most of us keep numbers and tend to head out across fields and woods!!   We stopped traffic when out down the lanes with our small pack...... happy days<br /><br />ps   When we hit a rough period, and I took to cleaning houses, I got a job once when I recognised the dog coming to the door with his owner - a Spinone.

To be honest the first time my eyes landed on a Bassett I nearly tripped over my own dogs staring - I hadn't realised how big they were (long obviously not tall!!) or how stunning their markings looked close up - let alone the faces.  My westie boy is absolutely obsessed now he has seen one particular bassett a few times in a week - in love I think - the Bassett seems to be enamoured with him too.

I always think when I see chocolate brown Large sized Labradoodles...... if that is the look of dog that appeals to owners .... why isn't there more Spinone's around?

We've just bought a new papillon puppy and the breeder also has 2 x spinones. She was thrilled that I knew what they were and I got to play with them and get slobbered on by them!

She was even more thrilled when I put her onto Thornit powder for plucking their ears :)

I often see a pair of bassets at the beach I go to. Allthough they never have an owner with them they wander around by themselves but never when the dog warden would b working. I think either someone drives them there and just lets them out or one of the houses just opens the door for them.

Being in Carmarthenshire were puppy farm central as well as working farms so we have tones and I mean tones of working bred follows (borders and welsh) and Jack russels. Then the labs and springers then often the common puppy farmed breeds and crosses like westy, mini shnouser, chi, Cavs, mini dachshunds, doodles and poos ext are quite common to see

My white miniature schnauzer who's stripped so has a lovely wheaten colour to his back, gets a lot of attention from people recognising the schnauzer shape but the colour throws them

Millions of beagles and cockapoo typees round here

Turns out Lutterworth has a Welsh as well, I drove by it on my way back from a Carboot sale

I've just got back from a sailing holiday from Sweden to Poland via Denmark, and it was very interesting to see the variety of breeds over here, mostly perfectly recognisable. I only saw one dog that might have been a cockerpoo, and a few terrier crosses. Otherwise they were all pedigrees - saw a Japanese Spitz, a few Chihuahuas, a Rough Collie, a Malamute, a Whippet, some Westies, a Min Pin (or ETT, sorry still have trouble telling those apart!), and my personal highlight, a black & tan Cavalier. :-)