Curlies are exploding in popularity

Every year about this time, the Kennel Club of England releases its list of "vulnerable breeds". According to the Kennel Club, these are breeds native to England with fewer than 300 dogs of that breed registered annually IN THE UK. When some people see this list, they grow very concerned the curly-coated retriever will become extinct. There are even breeders who have used this as a plea to buy curly-coated retriever puppies, telling buyers they could be saving a breed from extinction if they buy a puppy. Never fear: the Curly-coated retriever is exploding in popularity. Any breeder who says the breed is in danger of extinction hasn't done the necessary homework. Here is the population chart of the curly-coated retriever taken from the curly database. This is the worldwide population, starting in 1930 and ending in 2022. It is impossible to represent a population database to the exact number but this is a pretty good picture. (Thank you to the dedicated, caring, foresighted breeders who started this database.)

Look at this explosion of population. I got my first curly in 1977. You can see that between 1971 and 1981 the breed population began jumping at a rapid rate. The breed population worldwide has increased by 300 to 400 percent since the 1970s. The curly-coated retriever might be a vulnerable breed in the United Kingdom, based on numbers registered there, but it continues to increase in numbers in other parts of the world. Of course, the number of dogs registered has nothing to do with the genetic diversity of the breed. A breed can have a huge increase in the number of dogs born but experience a decrease in the genetic diversity of the breed (something that has happened to curly-coated retrievers.) Don't worry about the curly going extinct--for some reason, the curly-coated retriever hasn't steadily increased in population every year in the UK but it certainly has exploded in registrations and the number of dogs in the rest of the world.