Dog Breeds
Our choice of dog breeds is a pretty emotive subject to be honest. Here at Gecko Designs we love all breeds of dog and we have created unique cut out artwork for a few dog breeds but every day we are being asked for another dog breed design that we have not yet created. We have a list as long as your arm of the dog breed designs that we need to do and we stupidly thought that by covering a few of the top ones we would satisfy a fair chunk of the market.
Currently we have Staffy Art, Pug Art, Dachshund Art and Chihuahua Art although we are launching a new range of handmade cards for most breeds which is rolling out in March and April 2016. But where do we start with the dog breeds because my list of what people want is growing every day.
To give me some set of guidelines I researched the top 10 breeds of dog in the UK. I am not sure what the criteria are for the lists that appear on Google, I guess it is dogs registered in that year or something, but it does not bear any relation to what we are asked for.
A recent poll for the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/pets/Britain-dog-breed-pets-animals/ shows a top 25 dog breeds as voted for but this bears little relation to the figures highlighted by other top 10s so I am not sure which is the best way to do this. For example the Staffy features highly in some recent figures for dog registrations but does not even get a showing in the Telegraph’s poll.
You can help us make our own list – use the Twitter hashtags #2016Top10 #DogBreeds and look at our tweets on dog breeds.
Dog Breed Loyalty
I don’t know what your views are on choice of dog breeds but people seem to be madly loyal to their choice of breed of dog. Although I think this is more to do with how a particular dog breed fits into their lifestyle and attitude profile rather than whether that breed is particularly loveable or not, because, let’s face it, they are all loveable. Sometimes our choice of dog breed is by habit, i.e. our parents had a particular breed and we were brought up with them, by design when we make a specific choice of dog breed and sometimes by accident. What I mean by accident is what I experienced a few years ago after losing my beloved Border Collie. We decided to rescue a dog and ended up with a bald, unhappy and terrified Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Diesel and we have never looked back. You can read about Diesel here: Dog Breeds – When a Staffy stole my heart.
But people are madly loyal to their choice of breed of dog. Once they have made the decision whether this decision is by design or by accident. Typically we go for breeds of dogs that our parents or family have had for years and we have got used to them.
Choosing Dog Types
Maybe we should choose our favourite Dog Types. Even when we are fairly open minded of the actual breed of dog 
we are looking for, perhaps we should be looking for particular Dog Types, or a dogs of a particular size that will fit into our lives. At other times it all happens by accident – for example a relative not being able to cope or an advert in the paper touches our hearts when it alerts us to a sweet doggy wanting a loving home.
Another force that is becoming very strong nowadays is the fashionable element. Generally, but not always, driven by minor or major celebrities choosing and being seen with particular breeds of dogs. Now the ‘fashion’ element is incredibly powerful and typically favours the small dog breeds, ones that you can take almost anywhere with you, and there are particular breeds that have become extremely popular in the last few years.
Often this results in the re-popularisation of specific dog breeds based on fashion and convenience but in my view provided the home and owner is loving and caring it does not matter really why anyone, famous or not, choses any particular breed.
The one that I am most pleased about seeing more of is the Dachshund. Now this is a hark back to my own childhood because from when I was born to only a few years ago when my father passed away, there have been Dachshunds in my life and that is over 50 years so I can rightly claim to have been familiar to this highly popular ‘fashion’ dog well before the current craze.
It is also the reason the second Dog Breed that we decided to create as art was the Dachshund. And whilst we were at it we produced the stretched ‘Sausage Dog’ too.
So Does it really matter?
No not really. Provided you are committed to providing a safe and loving home to any dog breed or dog type, the reason behind your choice of which breeds of dog you do for simply does not matter.
More Dog Breeds from Gecko Designs
At the time or writing we have Staffy Cut Out Art, Dachshund Cut Out Art, Chihuahua Cut Out Art and Pug Cut Out Art as wall art pictures and you can follow the links above to these pages. We have also just added our Dachshund Cut Out art picture in tan check to Etsy – Brows our Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/GeckoDesignsUK
As for other designs, we are rolling them out over March and April. To start with in greeting card format but using the same cut out formula as our unique and exclusive wall art pictures use just in a thinner card that can be used for greetings cards.
In a twist though, we are also going to offer a framed option for our cards which gives dog owners the chance to have a perfect dog breed piece of cut out wall art in miniature whilst our bigger Dog Breed Art Cut outs are created over the summer.
Watch out for our Greetings Cards – follow us on Twitter here: @GeckoDesignsUK, like us on Facebook Here or sign up to our newsletter below to get regular updates on what we have available.
#WeLoveDogs