Finding a new four-legged companion can be tricky because there are dozens of K9 qualities to choose from. Some dogs are overly energetic, while others are detached or aggressive. Depending on your allergies, you may need to find a hypoallergenic dog, or seek out a breed that doesn’t shed. Some dogs require a backyard, while others are happy in small apartments. The search can be exhausting!
At PetBreeds, we wanted to make the process a little easier by finding the friendliest dog breeds in America. Using the latest available doggie data from Animal Planet, we created an index of four criteria that make a dog breed friendly:
Affectionate or Very Affectionate
Friendly Temperament in General
Friendly or Very Friendly Toward Other Pets
Friendly or Very Friendly Toward Strangers
We found 23 dog breeds that meet the criteria, and then turned to the American Kennel Club’s 2014 popularity data to rank the breeds. It is important to remember that all dogs are a product of their environment, and personalities will vary from dog-to-dog. This list only aims to find dogs that are most often associated with the above traits.
Without further ado, we present the 23 friendliest dogs in America, who are sure to make a wonderful new addition to your life:
Here are two dogs that deserve to take a bow-wow-wow.
In an amazing video making its way through YouTube, a black Labrador retriever comes to the rescue of his two furry friends who are stranded on a canoe in a swift, swirling river.
The video starts with two dogs whimpering aboard a human-less boat as they drift downstream. The location is unidentified but believed to be somewhere in the U.S.
Barks are exchanged between the dogs on the canoe and the Lab, who is offscreen. Then a man yells, "Go in," and the Lab jumps quickly in the water.
The Lab, whose breed is comfortable in water, swims directly to the canoe, which appears to be caught on something.
A man calls out to the Lab, named Robbie, encouraging him as he swims upstream to the canoe and grabs the tow rope with his mouth. Towing the canoe, Robbie swims back to shore.
As the canoe approaches the shore, the other two dogs jump off and all three are greeted by cheers and pats from people on the riverbank.
If that touching tale makes you pause in amazement, here's another feat of canine intuition.
Golden retrievers Baily and Baxter, who are brothers, ran away from their owner, Penny Blackwell of Sandwich, Mass., on Sept. 26, WBZ Boston reports.
The dogs, connected by a double leash, went missing, and a distraught Blackwell put up notices on
social media sites asking for help finding her beloved pooches.
After two weeks passed, Blackwell told the television station, "I'd pretty much given up hope that they would come home."
Then she received word from someone who had seen her post and had one of her dogs, Baxter.
Amazingly, Baxter's first concern was Bailey. Blackwell said the returned dog was on a mission.
"Baxter kind of led me off the side through the woods. I had twigs in my eyes and leaves in my hair," Blackwell said.
Baxter pulled and dragged Blackwell to where Bailey was—tied to the leash, which was wrapped around a bush.
"He was jumping on me and jumping on Baxter because he was so happy to see us," Blackwell told WBZ Boston. She thinks both dogs were trapped together until Baxter somehow got free.
"Baxter's a hero for taking me there," said Blackwell, who noted that the dogs endured cold and rainy nights when they went missing.
Hero dogs Robbie and Baxter each deserve a big blue ribbon—for Best of Show.
A British shorthair cat is seen during a carnival dress show, part of the World Zoo exhibition, in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk January 10, 2010. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin
A British shorthair cat, dressed in a harlequin's costume, is seen during a carnival dress show, part of the World Zoo exhibition, in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk January 10, 2010. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin
A Turkish Angora cat, dressed in a rabbit costume, is seen during a carnival dress show, part of the World Zoo exhibition, in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk January 10, 2010. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin
In this photo taken Thursday, Nov. 15, 2009, Ariel, a Leonberger dog owned by Paul and Mary Ann Smith of Powell, Wyo., lies happily surrounded by her brood of 18 puppies, 9 males and 9 females. Ariel's litter, born in late October, set a new worldwide record for the number of surviving Leonberger puppies in one litter. (AP Photo/The Powell Tribune, Ilene Olson)
Maltese Terrier pup "Scooter" is seen with its owner Cheryl Mcknight at home in Gisborne in this July 7, 2009 handout photograph obtained on September 4, 2009. Scooter, measuring only 8cm (3.15 inches) tall, was set to officially become the smallest dog in the world when it turned one in a few months. However, the dog died from health complications arising from stomach ulcers caused by the medication it was given for its broken leg. REUTERS/The Gisborne Herald/Rebecca Grunwell/Handout (NEW ZEALAND ANIMALS SOCIETY)
A woman walks with a bichon frise and a poodle both coloured with various dyes on a street in Wuhan, Hubei province July 11, 2009. Amid China's current pet boom, dog owners are flocking to pet beauticians to pamper their pets with everything from shampooing to hair trimming, and nail care to hair-dye, local media reported. Picture taken July 11, 2009. REUTERS/China Daily
Pabst competes in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 26, 2009, in Petaluma, Calif. The toothy 4-year-old Boxer mix won top honors.(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Miss Ellie celebrates her win in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest's pedigree class at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 26, 2009, in Petaluma, Calif. She is a blind 15-year-old Chinese Crested Hairless.(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Miss Ellie competes in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 26, 2009, in Petaluma, Calif. The blind 15-year-old Chinese Crested Hairless won the pedigree category.(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Six fifteen-day-old Saint Bernard puppies sleep in a box at the breeding kennel of the Barry Foundation in the south-western Swiss town of Martigny June 4, 2009. In 2005 the non-profit Barry Foundation took over the breeding kennel from the Hospice at the Great Saint Bernard mountain pass (2473 metres/8114 ft. altitude) to continue the 300-year-old tradition of breeding the famous dogs, which return to their origin on the mountain pass during the summer months.REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann (SWITZERLAND ANIMALS SOCIETY ENVIRONMENT)
Baby and Bessi : Female dachshund Bessi lays in a basket with a five-day-old baby tiger at the wild animal park Ismer in Stroehen, western Germany.(AFP/DDP/Philipp Guelland)
