Where our data comes from
What sits behind the numbers on this site — and where those numbers stop being reliable.
Breed traits and standards
Size ranges, coat type, grooming load, exercise needs and typical temperament are taken from published breed-standard documentation and long-standing breed club descriptions, then normalised onto a single 1–5 scale so any two breeds can be compared like for like. Where sources disagree — and for several breeds they do, particularly on weight ranges — we use the wider range rather than picking a side.
Health and hereditary conditions
Condition profiles are organised around the disorders each breed is documented as predisposed to, drawing on veterinary teaching-hospital material, breed health surveys and orthopaedic and ophthalmologic screening registries. Prevalence language is deliberately cautious: population-level screening data is patchy for most breeds, so we describe conditions as more or less common rather than quoting a precision the underlying data cannot support.
Ownership costs
Cost pages combine purchase or adoption price, first-year veterinary care including vaccination and neutering, food quantities scaled to adult weight, grooming frequency by coat type, and insurance premiums. City figures are adjusted for local veterinary and service costs. These are planning estimates, not quotes — your actual costs depend on the individual dog, your vet and your insurer.
Search and behaviour data
Which questions get answered first is driven by what people actually search for, measured through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for this site. That shapes coverage priorities only; it never changes a rating or a health recommendation.
A note on limits
Nothing here replaces a veterinarian who has met your dog, and no cost model replaces a quote. If a page and your vet disagree, your vet is right. Our editorial policy covers how these pages are written and corrected.