Best Dog breeds

2535 duels later, Bernese Mountain Dog is still #1 in the Dog ranking, with German Shepherd close behind.

Bernese Mountain Dog wins 68% of its duels and holds 1492 ELO points, establishing a 59-point lead over German Shepherd at 1433 points. Samoyed completes the podium with 1416 points after 151 duels, while Alaskan Malamute and Golden Retriever follow closely at 1408 and 1407 points respectively. The tight clustering in the top 5 suggests strong competition among these breeds, yet the 59-point gap between ranks 1 and 2 marks the sharpest divide in the upper tier. At the bottom, Poodle lands at rank 43 with 940 points and a 28% win rate, trailing Bull Terrier at 960 points and Airedale Terrier at 1011 points. The relegation of these historically popular breeds reveals a community preference for larger, fluffier dogs over terriers and traditional working breeds.

This ranking draws from 2535 duels across 43 contenders, built by 20 players who chose their favorite dog breed in head-to-head matchups. The results were last updated on 12 October 2026. VAINKEURZ invites you to join the vote and shift the standings: every duel adjusts the ELO scores and reshapes the ranking in real time.

Updated on October 12, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →