National Dog Day: Want to find your new best friend? A guide to canine companionship

 National Dog Day: Want to find your new best friend? A guide to canine companionship.

National Dog Day, held annually on August 26, is a great time to start researching whether or not you should adopt a furry, four-legged bestie. But which is the perfect pup for you? Experts say it depends, but here are 2024's top dog breeds. 

Rover.com, an online market for pet care, teamed up with Ancestry to find out which dog breeds are the most popular across the country and what their personalities are like. It's the sixth time they've conducted the survey.

Dogs are our companions from the time we learn to crawl to the time we take our last breaths, so it's no wonder that around 65.1 million Americans own a dog, making them the most popular pet in the country, according to Forbes.

"Almost anyone who has had a dog knows the joy of getting home at the end of the day and being greeted by a wild wagging tail," Phil Tedeschi, a professor at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver who runs a program focused on human-animal connection, told USA TODAY. In July 2024, Rover surveyed 1,000 U.S. pet parents to learn more about which dog breeds are popular and what personality traits each breed is likely to show.