Where the dogs are, redux

AARON LYNETT/TORONTO STAR

Link to the map

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This week’s map looks at dog ownership in the City of Toronto by postal code.

Information showing the breed of the dog and the first three characters of the postal code of the owner was released recently under access-to-information laws, and is current to mid-November.

This is the second time I have mapped Toronto dog ownership – breed-by-breed maps from the last iteration (using 2008 data) are here.

The map shows three areas where dog ownership is high:

The east end lakeshore generally, extending into southwest Scarborough, centred on the Beaches;

The Yonge St. corridor south of the 401;

High Park and areas of Etobicoke near the lakeshore and Humber Valley.

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The city generally north of the 401 has low dog ownership rates.

Here is a top 10 list, with a dog licence rate per 1,000 of human population:

M1N	Scarborough Beaches	66.4
M4L	Leslieville/western Beaches	66.2
M4E	Beaches	66
M8W	Long Branch	62.9
M8Z	Queensway	62.7
M4T	Mount Pleasant Cemetery area	61.9
M4R	Lawrence Park	61
M4G	Leaside	59.8
M4W	Rosedale	58.1
M6R	High Park/Roncesvalles	56.7

A smaller version of the map is embedded below - click on an area or zoom in for details.

Map of the Week: Where the dogs are (part two)

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR

Here is the second part of our dog map series - a series of maps, one for each of Toronto's top 20 dog breeds. (If you missed Part 1, which gives an overall picture of dog ownership in the city, click here.)

In 2008, these were:

You can start with our top-rated breed, Labrador retrievers, and work your way through all the maps, or use the links below to go to one directly.

Some breeds have clear patterns, while others don’t. Purebred Labs are centred in the high-income areas along Yonge St. south of the 401, while mixed Labs are spread out across south Etobicoke, Riverdale, the Beaches and part of the coastline part of Scarborough.

Pit bulls form a rough V across the city, with strong pockets around Bloor and Dufferin and Queen and Coxwell. (The ban on pit bulls seems not to have had much of an effect on their numbers over the last four years.)

As an aside, two dogs in the database are listed as a Siberian husky/wolf cross, one near Bathurst and Sheppard and the other near Brown’s Line. An animal described as a ‘wolf cross’ lives around Birchmount and Sheppard. Hopefully none of them have to live in small apartments.

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1:  Labrador retrievers | 2:  Golden retrievers | 3:  German shepherds | 4:  Parson Russell Terriers | 5:  Shih Tzus | 6:  Beagles | 7:  Pit bulls | 8:  Labrador retriever mix | 9:  Miniature schnauzers | 10:  German shepherd mix | 11:  Bichon Frise | 12:  Miniature poodles | 13:  Yorkshire terriers | 14:  Cocker spaniels | 15:  Siberian huskies | 16:  Border collies | 17:  Standard poodles | 18:  Soft-Coated Wheaten Terriers | 19:  Rottweilers | 20:  Boxers |

Map of the Week: Where the dogs are (part one)

Two maps this week, both based on a version of Toronto's dog licence database released by the City:

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BERNARD WEIL/TORONTO STAR

Toronto neighbourhood dog ownership map

Dogs, at least the ones known to the City's license system, cluster along the lake shore east of downtown and in the neighbourhoods along Yonge St. south of Hwy. 401.

The list is led by Lawrence Park (M4N), followed closely by the Beaches (M4E and M4L).

(Urban observation has it right on this one - there really are a lot more dogs in the Beaches than elsewhere in the city.)

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NATHAN DENETTE/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Where dog ownership is rising and falling, by Toronto neighbourhood

The dog ownership rate has generally risen across the city over the last four years. In absolute numbers, there were just under 49,000 licenced dogs in August of 2008, compared with 36,000 in 2004.

These numbers, of course, reflect the number of dogs which are properly licenced. It's hard to know how much of the change reflects better enforcement, and how much is due to an actual increase in animals.

The dog licence rate has fallen in 24 postal areas, and it would be interesting to know why. The strip of blue on the map running from the Beaches west through downtown and then northwest through the old city's west end looks very much like the pattern in the 2004 pit bull map.

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Thanks to  Andy Bailey, the Star's computer-assisted reporting specialist, for boiling down the spreadsheet to a manageable form.

Next week: maps of Toronto's most popular dog breeds.