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We’re creatures of habit when it comes to dogs. Some folk like terriers, others swear by black Labradors. But this comes with a downside. The top 10 breeds in the UK, including the Lab and cocker spaniel, account for more than 60% of annual puppy registrations, meaning some of our characterful rarer breeds are getting left out in the cold.

In 2025, for example, just 15 Sussex spaniel puppies were registered in the UK, down from 24 the previous year. It’s a cause Emily Scaife takes up in this issue, arguing that many of our native British and Irish breeds are at risk of disappearing – often because people simply don’t know they exist.

Elsewhere, new Countryside writer Bethany Stone looks at a subject close to our heart: pubs. But not any old pubs. Pubs with dogs! Many hard-pressed rural pubs are positively embracing – rather than merely tolerating – visitors with a faithful hound at heel, and there are now websites and books devoted to dog-friendly pubs to visit. The Jervis Arms in the Peak District even has its own canine gallery of good boys and girls who have visited over the years. You can read all about it on pages 90-93.

And, in a rather charming feature on pages 110-111, author Jeremy Butterfield talks about his new book – entitled, appropriately, ‘The Metaphor Zoo’. With characteristic humour, he describes how animal references have been used in the English language to illustrate traits and emotions for centuries. Often we use these expressions as shorthand to convey a more complicated thought or emotion, relying on our conversation partner to instinctively know what we’re talking about.