Playing fetch — Search of records reveals the most popular pet breeds and names

Alison Memmott of Draper says her family quickly fell in love with Max, a Labrador retriever, when they saw him caged and homeless at the Salt Lake County Animal Shelter.

"He was just the calmest, sweetest, lovable dog," although he later perked up a lot, she said. "I grew up with a Lab, so I wanted one. I had done some research, and it said Labs are good family dogs. We chose Max for a name, because it's the name of the Grinch's dog — and that's what the kids wanted."

Max happens to be the most popular dog name overall in Salt Lake County, and the Labrador retriever is by far the most popular breed. So Max is a two-fer example of both in one dog.

The Deseret Morning News used open records laws to obtain dog and cat license data from Salt Lake County Animal Services. Besides using it to identify the most popular breeds and names, it also found many creative, weird and even sometimes downright mean names that owners give to pets — from Hitler to Lucifer, or Cleocatra for a cat to Semper Fido for a dog.

The newspaper sorted data from 55,000 pet licenses the agency has issued since 2005 in Salt Lake City, unincorporated Salt Lake County, Cottonwood Heights, Herriman and Taylorsville.

The Labrador is so vastly popular here that one of every five pet licenses — more than 10,000 — went to a Lab. Three times more licenses went to them than the No. 2 breed, the German shepherd.

Barbi Carroll, founder of Utah Lab Rescue, which has found homes for 3,200 homeless Labs statewide in the past four years, says the breed is popular because people hear it is good with children and other pets. But she urges caution before choosing the breed, or at least Lab puppies.

"They are like 80-pound toddlers until they are about 4 years old," she said. During those young years, she said they tend to be a bit hyper. "They knock people down and chew on the walls. It ends when they are older. But too many people lose patience. That is why you will find a lot of Labs in any city pound in the state."

Behind the Labrador among favorite Utah dog breeds are the German shepherd (2,897 licenses), pit bull (2,237), border collie (2,124), golden retriever (2,028), poodle (1,957), Australian cattle dog (1,537), Australian shepherd (1,459), terrier (1,455) and shih tzu (1,401).

Among cats, the domestic shorthair is most popular (with 697 licenses issued) followed by the Persian (325), domestic longhair (172), the domestic midhair (92), Siamese (79), Maine coon (77), Russian blue (47) and Himalayan (43).