Opinion: Naming dogs for presidents --2 George Bush, 20 Bush and 37 Reagan

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One of the great joys of the Web -- and, we hope, of The Ticket -- is the serendipity, never knowing exactly what you’ll find to read or watch as you beachcomb online.

Bet you didn’t expect this item on dogs. Los Angeles County dogs. But stick with us, there is a political angle.

LATimes.com database producer Ben Welsh has done an incredible of researching L.A.’s Top Dogs registered in the county. What breeds are most common, what names, all searchable by ZIP code? How common is your dog’s name or breed in the county, or your own neighborhood?

All right, it is embarrassing that the most common dog registered in the county is the Chihuahua. But a real close second are real dogs, Labradors.

Anyway, it’s fun reading. There are pit bulls named Angel and poodles named Rocky. What do you think is the rarest dog in the county? (The Alaskan klee kai, which is a miniature husky. There’s only one here.)

But the politics part involves all the dogs named for presidents. There are, for instance, 81 Arthurs, 20 named Bush, two named George Bush (a chow and a pug), eight Grants, a couple of Hardings, 37 Reagans and 388 Madisons, the most popular presidential moniker.

There’s one miniature schnauzer named Donald Rumsfeld. There are 419 dogs named Elvis, which could go over on the pet blog, L.A. Unleashed, or maybe better yet over on Soundboard, the music blog. And 1,020 dogs named Kobe. But they no doubt belong over on the Lakers blog.

Oh, and the county has one dog named Barack. He’s a Rottweiler. And he belongs right here on The Ticket.

-- Andrew Malcolm