Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.
The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.
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 The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.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.
The French Bulldog's complicated past took them from brothels (yes) to royals.
— American Kennel Club (@akcdoglovers) March 16, 2023
Listen to their full history and more in the Uniquely Urban podcast episode of Down & Back: https://t.co/Jx2jPNCVMbpic.twitter.com/wBQd9fsRlt
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.
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
Nurse explains how babies breathe in utero and the internet is amazed
A new mom asked how babies practice breathing, and Nurse Jen delivered an answer that's blowing people's minds.
Nurse explains how babies breathe in utero.
There are so many questions out there that we don't realize we want to know the answers to until someone else asks. Once the question is in the vicinity of our ear holes, suddenly we're like, "Oh, yeah. How does that work?" That's pretty much how this TikTok video went for a lot of viewers, myself included.
I have had four (yes, four) children exit my body, and it never dawned on me to ask further than the initial question of how babies breathe in there. It's a question that most new moms either don't think to ask or ask only once and get a similar answer to the one I received, which is that they take in oxygen via their umbilical cord connected to the placenta, so they don't need to breathe in the traditional way we think of until after birth.
But when a new mom asked the people of the internet how her unborn baby was able to practice breathing without drowning, Jen Hamilton, an OB nurse, decided to answer in a video.
Hamilton starts off her response by guaranteeing she's about to blow the mom's "motherforking mind," and I can tell you from reading the comments, she's a promise keeper. Minds were blown. She explains that babies are covered in a thick waxy substance called vernix that protects their, "skin from falling off," while they hang out in amniotic fluid for months. But it's her explanation of how hiccups help babies practice breathing and how babies know it's time to breathe air that makes you appreciate how amazing the process is.
"Under your baby's lungs are a muscle called the diaphragm. Hiccups are a spasm of the diaphragm," the OB nurse explains. "Whenever we get hiccups it sucks air into our lungs really quickly, which is what makes that sound when air passes through our vocal cords." She goes on to explain that when babies get hiccups the spasm is expanding their lungs by filling with amniotic fluid, which is how babies practice breathing.
Hamilton continues her explanation of how babies know when to breathe on the outside while not needing to breathe on the inside.
"While your baby is inside of you, there are two vessels. These vessels bypass the lungs cause it's getting all of its oxygen from you," Hamilton says.
She isn't done leaving the internet with its collective mouth agape. Hamilton tells the mom about a nerve in the face of babies that helps them to know when to breathe. That is the most fascinating part, but you have to see her explain it because writing it out just wouldn't do it justice. Watch her brilliant explanation below.
@_jen_hamilton_ #stitch with @Cori
Crying fan embraced by Drew Barrymore explains why the moment was 'super special'
"Like myself, Drew has had a super hard life," she said.
Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.
Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.
Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS.
On May 25, the show’s Instagram page posted a touching video of an off-the-cuff moment between Barrymore and a fan during a taping of her show. In the clip, Barrymore realizes that someone in the audience is crying. So, instead of ignoring the fan, she jumps to action to see what is the matter.
The fan is Olivia Radford, 21, who recently moved to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City, Utah.
“Are you OK? Did anything happen? Whose a** do I have to kick?” she said while approaching the audience member. The crying fan’s friend clarified things for Barrymore, saying she loves her. “Oh, thank God, it’s nothing bad,” Barrymore exclaimed.
“I was like, ‘Tell me who they are, and I will take them down.’ Who made you cry?” she joked.
“You’re just, like, my childhood idol. I don’t want to be that person to cry,” Radford admitted. Then Barrymore assured her that emotional outbursts are acceptable and encouraged in her studio.
“Oh, screw that! Be that person!” Barrymore said.
"I really love you. I'm sorry," the fan said as she was handed a tissue. The talk show host then sat on Radford's lap and comforted her. “I have the urge to do this," Barrymore said as she held her.
“This is such an honor for me to meet you. I’m sorry I have dumpling breath,” Barrymore told Radford. “It’s so funny that you would say you don’t want to cry here,” she continued. “I cry here all the time.”
Radford told Upworthy that her "all-time favorite movie growing up" was "50 First Dates" starring Barrymore and Adam Sandler. "As you can tell from the video, I'm quite an emotional person," she told Upworthy. "I cry every single time I watch that movie. It’s extremely inspiring. I’m a huge fan of Adam Sandler as well!"
Radford feels a kinship with Barrymore that goes even deeper than her films.
"Like myself, Drew has had a super hard life," Radford said. "Drew is an extremely loving person, despite all the hardships she’s had to overcome. At the taping, she told me that there was a reason we met and that she sees herself in me, which felt super special."
Radford was able to briefly speak with Barrymore after the taping, and the talk show host wished her luck on her new life in Los Angeles. She hopes to make the experience permanent by getting Barrymore's words of advice tattooed in her handwriting because "she told me to always 'Be that person.'"
The tender exchange between Barrymore and Radford shows that the talk show host is just as sweet and caring off-camera as she is when she does her show. They always say you should never meet your heroes, but it’s probably a good idea if yours is Drew Barrymore.
Mom goes on strike after teenage son said he'd be better off without her. Did she go too far?
Her mother-in-law called her "petty."
A mother with a megaphone goes on strike.
Every parent knows that sometimes their kids, especially teenagers, can say things in the heat of the moment they don’t really mean. But the mother at the center of this story took her teenage son’s outburst seriously and turned it into an opportunity to teach him a lesson. The question is, did she go too far to make a point?
A 35-year-old mom wanted to learn if she had been too hard on her 14-year-old son, so she shared her story on Reddit’s AITA subforum (we've abbreviated the forum's name to avoid printing foul language). AITA is where people vote on whether the poster was right or wrong in how they handled a situation.
“Lately, he has been acting out a little at home and school, so I decided to sit him down to try and figure out what was happening,” the mother wrote in a post that received over 800 comments. She said that the boy had been cursing out his parents as well as his teacher.
“He is my only child, and his dad and I are still together. I tried to sit him down and ask why he was acting out…but he wouldn’t budge," the mother wrote. “I asked him whether there were any issues going on at school because if there was, I would be more than happy to help him.”
But all the boy could muster was that “all 14-year-olds should act out a little.”
When the mother pressed her child for an answer, he blurted, “My life would be better if I didn’t have a mother.”
The mother was immensely hurt by her son’s words, so she decided to show him whether his life was, in fact, better without her around and she went on strike.
Spoiler alert: His life wasn’t better.
That night, the mom made dinner for herself and her husband. “When my son smelt food, he came downstairs and asked where his was,” the mom wrote. “I responded, ‘I made dinner for myself and your dad. Since life is easier without a mom, there’s some heatable food in the freezer.’”
The next day when he got up for breakfast, there was none to be found. “Where’s my breakfast?” the son asked. “Your mother would normally do that for you,” the mom responded. “But if life is easier without one, you’ll need to prepare your own breakfast. Also, take the bus to and from school.”
After “a few swears,” the teen made cereal and hopped on the school bus. The mother believes the teen may have complained about his mother’s strike to her mother-in-law, who called her, saying that she was “a horrible mother” who was “starving my child” and “being petty.”
To see if she did the right thing by going on strike, the mom posted her story to AITA, and the commenters overwhelmingly said that she was right in the situation.
"It’s not like you actually deprived him of anything," Shrimp-34 wrote in the most popular post on the thread. "He still had access to food and a way to get to school. It was definitely petty, but he wasn’t harmed in any way, and maybe sometimes you have to fight fire with fire?"
"He isn't being starved, he's 14, he can feed himself,” bahahahahahhhaha wrote in a post that received over 2,300 upvotes. “He isn't being kept home from school, he's 14, he can take the bus. [You would be wrong] if you kept this going for weeks, but doing it for a couple of days to help him realize all the things you do for him and appreciate them better is actually a really good life lesson—and its natural consequences. He doesn't want a mom? You are letting him have his wish."
A few commenters thought the mother should have taken the high road.
"I know it's hard, but you can't take that stuff personally and then retaliate like a teenager," Turbulent_Cow2355 wrote. "You have to model the behavior that you want to see in your kids, and that means taking the higher road, even when don't want to. You are being petty. Don't teach your child that pettiness is a good idea for conflict resolution."
The good news is that the mother and son were able to patch things up, and the teen’s realization helped him avoid further trouble.
“My son had a half day, so I texted him asking if he would like me to pick him up or the bus,” the mom wrote in a story update. “He texted back, saying he wanted me to get him. So I did. In the car, he immediately apologized for what he said, and he said that his friends were acting out, so he wanted to fit in. His friends got suspended today for something they did, and they wanted my son to join. My son did not, and he said he was sorry for how he was acting. I also apologized for my actions.”
Dad 'gentle parenting with malicious intent' is making people laugh and sparking a new parenting technique
"The worse your attitude, the more mom's going to blush."
Dad gives a how-to on "gentle parenting with malicious intent."
By now, everyone has heard of gentle parenting. Even if you're not quite sure what it is, you've heard the phrase. Parents that use this style of parenting set boundaries with their children but with thorough explanations and a focus on healthy emotional development. One dad decided to spin the gentle parenting trend by implementing "gentle parenting with malicious intent" for his older children.
You may be wondering how one gentle parents with malicious intent. No worries, the dad uploaded a now-viral clip to TikTok, where it has over 4 million views, to explain. In the clip, "Ginger Jack" has the camera on himself as he talks to his kids about completing their chores without attitudes…and that's where the twist comes in.
"New rule. Whenever one of you starts giving me attitude, I'm going to start hitting on mom," the dad says before speaking to his partner. "Hey there. sugar. How you doing, baby girl? How do you feel about another child? I could rub your ankles real good." He then makes what can only be described as an attempt at a sexy cat noise.
Ginger Jack's children were having none of it. You could hear them in the background groaning in disgust over their dad's exaggerated advances toward their mom. His wife also sounded a bit embarrassed by his antics, but that didn't stop him from adding new rules to avoid the sight of two parents loving each other.
Eww. Gross. At least that's what most kids think once they reach a certain age. Parents are only supposed to be two adults that live in your house, whose babies were dropped off by a stork with a really strong neck.
This method of gentle parenting with malicious intent was a hit for everyone but his children, who could be heard protesting off-screen with every kissing noise they heard. He wasn't actually kissing their mom, just kissing the air, but the idea of parents kissing was enough to set off their gross-o-meter. People in the comments thoroughly enjoyed his shenanigans and some confessed they would also listen if the consequences were parental affection.
"At that point, I'd deep clean the house, my soul and this Godforsaken world," one person wrote, complete with three crying emojis.
"As a 34-year-old, this would absolutely still work on me," another wrote, ending it with a sweating emoji.
"Since I'm single can you call and flirt with me to get mine to clean," one woman asked.
"Now we see why the Addams family is so well-behaved," someone commented.
Maybe Gomez was onto something with all of his excessive hand kissing. The secret to parenting has been right in front of our eyes this entire time, and we just didn't know it. Watch his brilliant execution of gentle parenting with malicious intent below.
@bbebard Ultimate #dadmoves #gentleparenting #Comedy
Pediatrician shares two simple tips that could save a child's life at a pool party
"The more folks present, the safer the pool is, right? Wrong."
If there's a body of water anywhere, a designated adult needs to have their eyes on it.
It's that time of year when the weather across the country is warm enough for families to enjoy outdoor barbecues, picnics and pool parties. That means it's also the time of year when tragedy will strike a certain percentage of families who get blindsided by how quickly and easily a child can drown in a backyard pool, even when they're surrounded by people who care about them and their safety.
We've all been at a gathering where adults are coming and going, chatting, setting up food, taking trips to the bathroom, all while kids are busy playing in the water. In such scenarios, it's easy to assume that someone else is keeping an eye on the pool.
But as pediatrician Diane Arnaout has shared, the harrowing reality is that the more people there are at a pool party the more likely it is that a child could slip into the pool or become distressed in the water without anyone noticing.
In a Facebook post that has been shared more than 77,000 times, Dr. Arnaout wrote:
"The more folks present, the safer the pool is, right?
Wrong.
The more people present, the more DISTRACTIONS or ASSUMPTIONS.
Do not assume someone is watching over your kid.
Do not assume that older kids will help out smaller kids.
Do not assume that there is a commotion with drowning.
Do not assume your small child is hanging out inside the house (they wander outside, and to the pool).
Drowning is silent, quick, and devastating. There is no splashing. There is no crying out. There is no screaming."
When people picture someone drowning, they often imagine flailing arms and splashing in the water, and maybe someone crying out for help when they get their mouth above water. But that's not how it looks at all. It's calm, quiet and easy to not notice if someone isn't watching for it.
That's why Arnaout suggests two prevention tips that can increase the chance of catching a kid in trouble in a pool before the situation becomes dire.
"If you or your friends are getting together this summer and a pool is involved (EVEN A LITTLE TODDLER BLOW-UP POOL, OR A WATER SLIDE WITH A COLLECTION POOL AT THE BOTTOM), you MUST assign a person to watch the kids.
My friends and I have come up with two plans:
1) everybody chips in $10 and we hire a lifeguard for the party
2) We are all assigned the WATER WATCHER BAND - you can get these at my office or make one of your own. The person who wears it is in charge of watching the water at all times. Trade it out with someone else every 15-20 minutes.
This assures the kids are observed constantly!"
The Water Watcher bands she has pictured are something her facility gives out, but she explained that people can make their own. And it doesn't have to be a bracelet—just anything that signifies a specific person as a designated pool watcher.
"Please remember that this concept could be something as easy as a scrunchie on the wrist, a rubber ball or toy to hold, or a plastic lanyard around the neck," Arnaout wrote in a comment. "The point is—the person wearing or holding it is committed to being completely distraction-free: no phones, no conversing with others, and completely focused on the pool. Remember the LAYERS of protection you can give your kids: education by talking to them about pool safety, swim lessons, lifejackets (US Coast Guard approved), and observation!"
The no distractions part is huge. A pool watcher should be watching the pool. Adults can take turns in 15 or 20-minute increments even, as long as someone is tasked with the job is watching the water.
Comments on Arnaout's post are filled with the loved ones of children who have drowned or nearly drowned in pools, and their stories are devastating. It happens much more easily than people think, which is why it's vital to take proactive precautionary measures and not assume that because a group is full of responsible adults someone will notice a child drowning. It happens too fast and too quietly, even when adults are nearby. A designated person to watch the pool and know what to look for is one of the best ways to prevent such tragedies from occurring.
SafeKids.org has a Water Watcher Card you can print yourself: