What dog & cat values should you choose?
When you’re listing pets for adoption online or in your animal shelter software, what breed, color, and age group values do you choose – are you thinking about how those will impact that pet’s chances for being seen online and adopted?
For some pets it’s an easy choice — if you have an all-black cat, you select black for their color. But what about pets who’s color isn’t exactly described by one of the colors on the list, or who might be a mix of several breeds? For age group, do you choose kitten/puppy or young? While always being truthful, you may want to consider using the closest match to one of the top searched-for values if it fits as well as a lesser-searched-for value. More people seeing your pets means more chances at a great home, so check out our 2020 lists below!
In 2020 Adopt-a-Pet.com made some seemingly small but statistically significant changes to how potential adopters search for pets for adoption on our website. Our goal is always to help increase adoptions. You may have noticed the changes in your pet statistics. The biggest change our stats showed in 2020 is that now more people using Adopt-a-Pet.com do NOT search by breed. Only 31% of dog searches and 12% of cat searches selected a breed. Compare to 2019 when 63% of dog searches and 50% of cat searches selected a breed. For cats, the 38% change is likely due to cat breed selection moving from the initial search module to the results page filters. Dogs is likely due to the filter design allowing users to easily unselect dog breed checkboxes to run another search to see more pets matching their other criteria.
The goals of the changes are for all pets for adoption to benefit from getting seen by more adopters who are likely to want to adopt them.
Adopt-a-Pet.com Pet Search Statistics
January 1, 2020-February 4, 2020
| Type of Pet | # of searches |
| dog | 14,020,328 |
| cat | 4,319,867 |
| small animal | 117,488 |
| rabbit | 93,761 |
| bird | 55,744 |
| reptile, amphibian, and/or fish | 38,331 |
| farm-type animal | 29,308 |
| horse | 22,080 |
| Total | 18,696,907 |
| Top 20 Most-Searched Dog Breeds | |
| 1 | German Shepherd Dog |
| 2 | Labrador Retriever |
| 3 | Chihuahua |
| 4 | American Pit Bull Terrier |
| 5 | Golden Retriever |
| 6 | Australian Shepherd |
| 7 | Dachshund |
| 8 | Yorkie, Yorkshire Terrier |
| 9 | French Bulldog |
| 10 | Husky |
| 11 | Goldendoodle |
| 12 | Beagle |
| 13 | Shih Tzu |
| 14 | Corgi |
| 15 | Bichon Frise |
| 16 | Boxer |
| 17 | Maltese |
| 18 | Poodle (Miniature) |
| 19 | Pomeranian |
| 20 | English Bulldog |
| Top 20 Most-searched Cat Breeds | |
| 1 | Maine Coon |
| 2 | Siamese |
| 3 | Bengal |
| 4 | Sphynx |
| 5 | Ragdoll |
| 6 | Domestic Longhair |
| 7 | Balinese |
| 8 | Russian Blue |
| 9 | Munchkin |
| 10 | British Shorthair |
| 11 | Siberian |
| 12 | Persian |
| 13 | Domestic Shorthair |
| 14 | Abyssinian |
| 15 | Calico |
| 16 | American Shorthair |
| 17 | Scottish Fold |
| 18 | Norwegian Forest Cat |
| 19 | Himalayan |
| 20 | Birman |
The below color and age filter data was compiled from 2.2 million Adopt-a-Pet.com search filter changes since the start of our new search experience for potential adopters in September 2019 through February 2020:
| Dog color | % filters |
| No color | 86% |
| Black | 2% |
| Brown/Chocolate | 2% |
| White | 2% |
| Tan/Yellow/Fawn | 2% |
| Gray/Blue/Silver/Salt & Pepper | 1% |
| Red/Golden/Orange/Chestnut | 1% |
| Tricolor (Tan/Brown & Black & White) | 1% |
| Brindle | 1% |
| Silver & Tan (Yorkie colors) | 1% |
| Merle | 1% |
| Total | 100% |
| Cat color | % filters |
| No color | 54% |
| Gray or Blue | 4% |
| Orange or Red | 4% |
| Gray, Blue or Silver Tabby | 4% |
| Black | 4% |
| White | 3% |
| Cream or Ivory | 3% |
| Orange or Red Tabby | 3% |
| Black & White or Tuxedo | 3% |
| Calico or Dilute Calico | 3% |
| Spotted Tabby/Leopard Spotted | 2% |
| Brown or Chocolate | 2% |
| Brown Tabby | 2% |
| Tiger Striped | 2% |
| Tabby | 2% |
| Tan or Fawn | 2% |
| Tortoiseshell | 2% |
| Tan or Fawn Tabby | 2% |
| Total | 100% |
| Dog size group | % filters |
| No size | 59% |
| Small 25 lbs (11 kg) or less | 19% |
| Med. 26-60 lbs (12-27 kg) | 13% |
| Large 61-100 lbs (28-45 kg) | 6% |
| X-Large 101 lbs (46 kg) or more | 3% |
| Total | 100% |
| Dog age group | % filters |
| No age | 24% |
| puppy | 35% |
| young | 28% |
| adult | 11% |
| senior | 2% |
| Total | 100% |
| Cat age group | % filters |
| No age | 28% |
| kitten | 41% |
| young | 21% |
| adult | 8% |
| senior | 2% |
| Total | 100% |
Curious how 2020 compares to prior years? Check out Most searched-for dog and cat breeds for the data from 2019 and 2016 too!