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Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

The French Bulldog’s popularity has grown exponentially over the past decade. They were the #14 most popular breed in 2012, and since then, registrations have gone up 1,000%, bringing them to the top of the breed popularity rankings.

The AKC says that the American Hairless Terrier, Gordon Setter, Italian Greyhound and Anatolian Shepherd Dog also grew in popularity between 2021 and 2022.

The French Bulldog was famous among America’s upper class around the turn of the 20th century but then fell out of favor. Their resurgence is partly based on several celebrities who have gone public with their Frenchie love. Leonardo DiCaprio, Megan Thee Stallion, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Reese Witherspoon and Lady Gaga all own French Bulldogs.

The breed earned a lot of attention as show dogs last year when a Frenchie named Winston took second place at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and first in the National Dog Show.

The breed made national news in early 2021 when Gaga’s dog walker was shot in the chest while walking two of her Frenchies in a dog heist. He recovered from his injuries, and the dogs were later returned.

They’ve also become popular because of their unique look and personalities.

“They’re comical, friendly, loving little dogs,” French Bull Dog Club of America spokesperson Patty Sosa told the AP. She said they are city-friendly with modest grooming needs and “they offer a lot in a small package.”

They are also popular with people who live in apartments. According to the AKC, Frenchies don’t bark much and do not require a lot of outdoor exercise.

The French Bulldog stands out among other breeds because it looks like a miniature bulldog but has large, expressive bat-like ears that are its trademark feature. However, their popularity isn’t without controversy. “French bulldogs can be a polarizing topic,” veterinarian Dr. Carrie Stefaniak told the AP.

american kennel club, french bulldog, most popular dog

An adorable French Bulldog

via Pixabay

French Bulldogs have been bred to have abnormally large heads, which means that large litters usually need to be delivered by C-section, an expensive procedure that can be dangerous for the mother. They are also prone to multiple health problems, including skin, ear, and eye infections. Their flat face means they often suffer from respiratory problems and heat intolerance.

Frenchies are also more prone to spine deformations and nerve pain as they age.

Here are the AKC’s top ten most popular dog breeds for 2022.

1 French Bulldogs

2 Labrador Retrievers

3 Golden Retrievers

4 German Shepherd Dogs

5 Poodles

6 Bulldogs

7 Rottweilers

8 Beagles

9 Dachshunds

10 German Shorthaired Pointers


This article originally appeared on 03.17.23

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Family

They said no one would read a novel about dads — I wrote one anyway.

Nearly 80 percent of all books are bought by women

Evan Porter

The first time I sat down to write a fictional story (about 13 years ago), I wrote a screenplay jam-packed with stuff a 20-something year old guy thought was cool.

There was a bank heist gone wrong. Guns. Bad guys. Car chases. Explosions!

Since then I've become a father to two amazing girls, and for a long time my writing career was put on the backburner.

(Turns out, you suddenly have a lot less free time as a parent.)

But in early 2021, after many long months of COVID lockdown, I wanted to try writing something straight from the heart, something that better reflected who I am now — nostalgic, sentimental, both excited for and terrified of watching my girls grow up — and I wanted to try it as a novel.

So I came up with the idea of a bunch of dads trying (and hilariously struggling) to connect with their daughters at a weeklong summer camp retreat.

There was just one problem. 'Heartfelt novels by and about dudes' wasn't exactly a thriving literary genre.

There are plenty of books written by and mostly for men, of course.

But those are usually confined to genres like military or historical fiction, or SciFi. Basically, anything with weapons and/or spaceships and possibly murder.

Men also read somewhat prominently in biography and memoir.

But books about family and relationships and (gasp) love from a male perspective? That seemed to be fairly uncharted territory.

So where did that leave me and my idea to write a book that was funny and heartwarming and all about fatherhood?

I wasn't sure. But I knew the story I wanted to tell and I knew that I wanted to take great TV dads like Bandit from Bluey, Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, Carl Winslow from Family Matters, Alan Matthews from Boy Meets World and so many others — and see them represented on the page.

So I wrote the book anyway.


Holding an early draft of the manuscript in 2022Evan Porter

As I went along, I kept searching for more books like what I hoped to write. Generally, they were few and far between, but I was eventually heartened to find that they did exist.

Authors like Jonathan Tropper, Nick Hornby, Matthew Norman, and Richard Roper were doing amazing things in male-centered fiction that didn't involve guns and aliens, but rather focused on emotion and relationships and even romance.

Still, even with those guys blazing the trail, that didn't make things any easier when I started pitching my finished novel, Dad Camp, to literary agents.

A lot of them told me they just weren't sure what the market was for a book like mine. Who's going to read this? It seemed unfathomable that actual dads would read it, so surely it had to have crossover appeal to the childrens market, or it needed a strong romance element to draw in female readers.

Many even liked the story a lot but just didn't know how to pitch it to publishers.

It's easy to see why my book, Dad Camp, was a hard sell. Men just don't read in large enough numbers.

You can hardly go anywhere on the Internet without running into the "why don't men read" discourse.

That's because the facts are inescapable:

Around 80% of book sales come from women. Every study and survey and data set you can find shows that boys read less than girls starting in childhood and the gap only gets worse and worse as they get older.

Why don't men read more? Well, there are a lot of theories.

A lot of men report finding reading fiction to be a waste of time, that they have to be productive with their 'downtime' instead — which would explain why men are actually big readers of non-fiction, which is deemed more useful.

(Weirdly, that mindset doesn't seem to stop men from watching movies or television or spending tons of time gaming.)

Other theories say that men's brains just aren't wired as well for inhabiting the mind of different characters and empathizing with them.

And then there is the self-fulfilling prophecy of it all. Since men don't read, boys don't have as many good reading role models, and the cycle continues on and on.

The proven benefits of reading for men

Us dudes with our "linear thinking brains" like hard data, right? Well it's difficult to argue with the science behind reading fiction. It's extremely clear cut.

When you read fiction, you exercise your brain's Theory of Mind, or its ability to understand that other people are thinking and feelings and experiencing different things than you are.

People who read fiction frequently display more creativity, more empathy for others, and more skill in social relationships.

I'd like to see a non-fiction or self-help book that can achieve that.

And get this, some data even shows that readers live longer than non-readers!

So instead of spending a fortune on reducing your biological age and doing things like having young people's blood injected into your veins, just try picking up a $17.99 paperback novel.

In the end, I was lucky enough to find an agent and publisher that believed in Dad Camp as much as I did.

Novels on a bookshelfSeeing Dad Camp on shelves at the bookstore for the first time was a pretty special feelingEvan Porter

And I'm really excited that it's out there in the world finding its audience of, not just dads, but moms and daughters and anyone who knows or loves a dad.

One last point from my research that really stood out was that men are apparently extremely reluctant to pick up books from female authors — a perspective, you could argue, we desperately need!

I'd like to hope that, one day, my book could be something of a bridge, and show more men that it's actually good and fun to read about relationships and family and romance.

Once you cross that bridge, there's a whole world of amazing books and storytellers waiting for you — and the positive impact those stories have on your brain and well-being will be well worth the effort.

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Health

Here's why you're probably waking up right at 3 or 4 in the morning and how to make it stop

It happens to just about everyone.

via Polina Kovaleva/Pexels

A woman with her eye mask on in bed.

Do you often wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. with an intense feeling of anxiety? Do you get stressed that you’re awake and begin making a mental laundry list of everything you need to do the next day? Do you start thinking about fights you once had with your spouse or ponder how you have let yourself down in the past?

If so, you’re not alone. It’s common for people to wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. regularly and there’s a reason why we choose this time to catastrophize and worry. The good news is that there are some steps we can take to get through that awkward phase of the night so we can wake up refreshed.

Why do I wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. every night?

Many of us reliably wake up in the middle of the night because after we’ve had a good chunk of sleep, our bodies start to slowly prepare us for the day by reducing melatonin, the hormone that puts us to sleep and increasing levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

That biological phase of sleep is why we start to feel stressed.

sleep, nightmares, cortisole A woman wakes up in the middle of the nightvia Oscar Calstrom/Pexels

After the big hormone release at 3 or 4 in the morning, if you are dealing with stress in your life, you are more likely to wake up. If your life is calmer and you don’t already have a stress baseline, you will probably wake up, fall asleep quickly and forget that it happened.

Why do I wake up feeling stressed in the middle of the night?

If you’re already experiencing stress in your life, that extra cortisol kick is going to cause you to wake up with a feeling of anxiety. The problem is that when we’re lying in bed in the middle of the night, we are in a vulnerable position. “Around this time in the sleep cycle, we’re at our lowest ebb physically and cognitively. From nature’s viewpoint, this is meant to be a time of physical and emotional recovery, so it’s understandable that our internal resources are low,” Greg Murray, a psychology researcher with expertise in mood, sleep, and the circadian system, writes in The Conversation.

“But we also lack other resources in the middle of the night – social connections, cultural assets, all the coping skills of an adult are unavailable at this time,” Murray continues. “With none of our human skills and capital, we are left alone in the dark with our thoughts. So the mind is partly right when it concludes the problems it’s generated are unsolvable – at 3 a.m., most problems literally would be.”


At this moment, when we’re stressed and feeling vulnerable, stuck in bed with no way out, we can begin to spiral. This is when we ruminate on why we forgot to feed the dog that one day in 1994 or contemplate why things went bad with your first significant other at 21. It’s when we start recalling a disagreement with a friend and plotting out what we’ll say the next time the issue arises.

At this point, if we don’t stop spiraling, we’ll be up until 5 a.m. and will feel like garbage when it’s time to go to work.

The good news is that there are ways to get back to sleep and stop the downward anxiety spiral.

Make a list

Dr. Jade Wu says that if you wake up and feel stressed about things you need to take care of, walk out of your room (so you don’t associate it with stressors) and make a list to read in the morning. This will free you of your worries, because you know you can care for them when you are awake.

Pay attention to your breath

Murray says you should redirect your attention from your thoughts to your breath, which is a form of meditation. “I bring my attention to my senses, specifically the sound of my breath. When I notice thoughts arising, I gently bring my attention back to the sound of breathing,” Murray writes in The Conversation. This works in 2 ways: first, it takes your attention away from your spiraling thoughts and second, the breathing exercise helps you relax.

Have a bite to eat

Sometimes, we wake up in the middle of the night because we’re hungry and our blood sugar is dropping. “The first question I ask [my patients] is, ‘When was the last time you ate?’” Michael Breus, Ph.D. psychologist specializing in sleep disorders, told Sleep.com. “Often, they’ve finished their last meal at 7 p.m.; now it’s 3 in the morning — that’s eight hours later — so guess what? They’re out of fuel.” If you’ve woken up because of a drop in blood sugar, experts recommend eating a small snack that includes protein and fat, like peanut butter.

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The most compelling argument for students keeping their phones in class is also the worst one

It's utterly ridiculous that guns have to be part of this conversation.

Photo by RDNE Stock project/Pexels

Students don't need their cell phones in class. But is that always true in the U.S.?

Should students be allowed to have cell phones with them in class? This question has been plaguing schools, teachers, parents and students for the past 15 years, with little consensus. It's as if we've been conducting an experiment of sorts with kids and teens, as smartphones can be both powerful tools and problematic distractions.

There are arguments to be made on both sides, one argument in favor of letting students have their phones in class is particularly compelling. It's also particularly disturbing.

What if a school shooting happens?

It's a ridiculous question that parents and students have to ask—not because it's not possible, but because it is possible. We all know it can happen because we've watched mass shootings play out in American classrooms, hallways, libraries and cafeterias over and over and over. Kids in this country know exactly what to do if a person with a gun opens fire in their school. And yet all those active shooter drills and all the thoughts and prayers after each shooting hasn't prevented it from happening again.

Do other countries ban cell phones in classrooms?

Other countries have had to have the cell-phones-in-class conversation, but other countries don't have "What about our regularly scheduled school shootings?" as a legitimate argument in that conversation. Parents in the U.K., Italy, Japan—they don't ask "What if a school shooting happens?" because they're too rare to even consider.

Here's an eye-opening statistic: From January 1, 2009 to May 21, 2018, the U.S. had 288 school shootings where at least one person, not including the shooter, was shot on school grounds. During that same time frame, the other G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K.) had five school shootings. Not five each—five total between all six countries.

And since 2018, we've kept right on going. We've already had 45 school shootings in 2024 alone. Most shootings in schools don't make national news—just the "mass" shootings, which happen way too often. When the citizens of a country can easily rattle off school shootings like they're listing football teams—Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, Virginia Tech—we have to admit we have a problem.

And that problem influences our lives in more ways than we realize. A seemingly straightforward question—"Should kids have cell phones in class?"—is absurdly complicated by the reality of gun violence in America. In a reasonable world, the answer would be "No, of course they shouldn't have cell phones in class." England, France, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, China, Australia, Greece, Russia, Ghana, Uganda and other nations have established prohibitions against cell phones in classrooms, with Sweden even banning them during breaks between classes. It definitely can be done.

School is the one place where they're supervised and surrounded by peers, so there's really no need for students to have a phone on them during school hours. Generations of people survived entire childhoods and teenhoods without carrying a phone, and even if they need it to coordinate rides after school or whatever, it's not a necessity during class.

Unless, of course, there's an emergency. One that's immediate and life-threatening, but doesn't allow them to evacuate. One that traps kids inside their classrooms with just enough time to text their parents while waiting to see if they and their classmates are going to be killed or have to watch one another die.

In most places, that kind of an emergency would be so unlikely it wouldn't even be considered as part of the conversation. In the U.S. it's a real possibility that must be taken into account.

What are the chances of experiencing a school shooting?

The chances that a child will be killed in a school shooting is statistically pretty small, even with the number of shootings we have. And yet, it's astronomically higher in the U.S. compared to other countries. And that risk has risen dramatically over time, with the American College of Surgeons reporting that school shootings have quadrupled since 1970.

The most damning statistic when it comes to kids and guns is that gun violence has been the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 18 in the U.S. since 2020. More children and teens are killed by guns than by any illness or accident in this country. Johns Hopkins calls gun violence a public health epidemic, and the U.S. surgeon general has declared it an "urgent public health crisis." And it's not getting better.

Those statistics are only talking about deaths, though. Gun violence entails more than just the people being shot to death. What about life-altering injuries that result from gun violence? What about the lifelong impact of witnessing your friends, classmates and teachers being shot? For every kid killed by a firearm there are many more who are seeing and experiencing it and having to live with that trauma.

Students know this. Parents know this. That's why so many are hesitant to have kids store their cell phones during class time. There are solutions that would keep call phones nearby but not allow them to be a distraction in class, but that doesn't change the fact that we have to talk about guns when we're talking about student cell phone use—nor does it change how ridiculous it is that guns are any part of that equation.

Cell phones in classrooms are a real problem, but when compared to a gunman shooting up your kid's classroom, that problem seems trivial and unimportant. We're losing the ability to solve problems on so many levels because we refuse to treat a crisis like a crisis. The answer to "What if a school shooting happens?" in response to "Should students have cell phones in class?" can't be, "Eh, don't worry about it." American families already are worried about it. We can't address the cell phones in class issue without also addressing the gun violence crisis issue, because for students in U.S. schools, the two are intertwined whether we like it or not.

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Celebrity

Colts tight end Kylen Granson explains he wants to set good example with the ‘Guardian Cap’

“You’re not soft for wearing one.”

Mark Susina|Flickr and Erik Drost|Wikimedia Commons

Colts Kylen Granson explains why he wears guardian cap

One of the big concerns about American football is head-to-head contact. Even though the players are wearing helmets, slamming into another players helmet or being thrown to the ground during a play can cause significant trauma to the brain. While the NFL has banned helmet-to-helmet contact out of safety concerns, it can still happen and nothing can stop a player's head from contacting the hard astroturf or grass covered field.

Hits to the head whether it's from another helmet or from being tackled can cause concussions which not only inhibit the player from continuing in the game but can cause the player to develop a condition called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). According to Indiana University School of Medicine, "CTE is a progressive degenerative disease affecting people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries, that may occur in some athletes and others who have been exposed to concussions and repetitive head impacts."

That's where the "Guardian Cap" comes in.

The padded cap slips over the hard shell of a football helmet to add additional padding to the players head in hopes to reduce traumatic brain events caused by contact during football.

More high schools have been interested in using the caps after the tragic deaths of students who sustained head injuries while playing football.

The caps have made their way to the NFL as optional use but Colts tight end Kylen Granson is determined to set a good example for his peers, youth and his future children. The tight end took to social media to explain why he still planned to wear his Guardian Cap during the regular season though the NFL made it optional.

"This is a Guardian Cap. All it is, is essentially a little extra padding on the exterior of the helmet. This was something that was first introduced last year and most of the offensive line, defensive line were mandated to wear it during practice," Granson explains before adding that other positions had the option to keep wearing it.


File:Colts vs Patriots 2011 01.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

The professional football player says it was essentially an experiment to see if the caps actually reduced concussion rates, finding that it reduced the rates significantly.

Since the reduction in concussion incidents was so steep, the players were mandated to wear them during training camp with the option to wear them during the preseason games, which Granson and a few others did. After the success of the reduction in concussions during training camp and preseason, the NFL gave players the option to wear them during regular season according to the tight end.


Super Bowl Football GIF by DraftKingsGiphy

"For me it was a no brainer. I just said, 'yes I want to wear it the whole season.' I've never really had a problem with the Guardian Caps, they don't really limit vision. They don't add any extra weight that's noticeable. Why would I not add a safety measure onto my helmet," Granson asks.

He further explains that any thing that adds safety for him as the player, especially when it comes to mitigating long term effects takes precedent for him.

Granson shares that he also believes "that it's part of my duty to advocate for my own health and safety and try to encourage others to also make the choice to continue wearing these.

There's no amount of aesthetic that can outweigh what a TBI (traumatic brain injury) could do to you."


Football: Falcons end season on a sour note with 38-21 loss to BYU ...www.af.mil

While the player goes on to explain the small hits add up, comparing the human brain to "a jello inside of your head," he's also taking this safety measure to be an example to younger players and his future children.

"As someone who wants to have kids someday, I want them to also know, hey dad isn't just telling you to be safe, he also is safe when he played. He did everything that he could to protect his head, to protect his brain, to protect his longterm health. I want to inspire kids to think that health and safety is also cool. You can do cool things out on the football field and still wear a Guardian Cap," Granson expresses that it goes beyond the football field to include children wearing bicycle helmets. "There would be no amount of cool that would be worth walking into a hospital room and your child is in a vegetative state because they weren't wearing a helmet. Because they didn't look dumb."


File:Hassan Hall (53141821467) (cropped).jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

The heartfelt, well thought out message was well received with commenters praising Granson for continuing to wear the Guardian Cap and speaking about his reasonings online. Fans and professionals alike came to support the player in his comments.

"As a fan, if it keeps your team's star player on the field instead of on concussion protocol why wouldn't you want them wearing it," one person questions.

"As a speech therapist who has worked with traumatic brain injuries, I was happy to see the guardian caps! Thanks for speaking on this," another writes.


@thekcg83 You’re not soft for wearing one the hits are just as hard you’re just minimizing the repercussions of those hits. ##nfl##nflfootball##nfltok##nflnews##nfltiktok##sportsnews##guardiancap##guardiancaps##colts##coltstarting##coltsfootball##coltsnation##coltsoftiktok ♬ Last Hope (Over Slowed + Reverb) - Steve Ralph


"Fans will come around. Everyone hated the the F1 Halo until it started literally saving lives and now we're all down. We fans can be a little slow but we'll get there," a different commenter reminds others.

"I want you to remember that you helped put a new practice into place without stigma to help other players be safer and do what they love longer," one woman shares while another commenter says, "I'm a TBI researcher. Thank you for advocating for things like this that will increase player safety."

It may take a little longer for the entire league to either opt to wear them or be mandated to wear the caps, but Granson is making the argument simple. Wear the Guardian Cap–increases safety.

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