Ohio Close to Naming Official State Dog — Michigan Should Beat Them to It

Ohio is looking to become the 13th state to recognize a specific breed as their official state dog, but Ohio sucks and we should totally steal their thunder by doing it first.

As it has for several generations, the rivalry between Michigan and Ohio rages on and shows no signs of stopping. You might be wondering if I listed Michigan first intentionally. Yes, I did. That's because we're better than Ohio and everyone needs to know that. Unfortunately, everyone doesn't know that, so we need to do things to make that clear from time to time... this is one of those times.

According to CNN, Ohio is just a few steps away from officially naming the Labrador Retriever as its official state dog. Ohio Republican House Representative Jeff Rezabek introduced the bill to add a bit of "fun" to his final term, adding that he chose that breed because he "saw that the Labrador retriever really embodied all of what Ohio was about."

Not to side with Ohio here, but this is actually a pretty cool idea. That's why we should totally beat them to it and name our own state dog before they can get theirs on the books officially.

It would be a pretty cutthroat move to steal their idea for Labrador Retriever too, but do we really want to start borrowing Ohio's ideas? I mean, Ohio ideas are what lead to Ohio becoming Ohio. However, Labrador Retrievers are the most popular breed in Michigan, so maybe this is a more calculated move by Ohio than we thought. Either way, here is a list of the currently spoken for breeds by state:

• Alaska: Alaskan Malamute
• Delaware: Golden retriever
• Louisiana: Catahoula leopard dog
• Maryland: Chesapeake Bay retrievers
• Massachusetts: Boston terrier
• New Hampshire: Chinook
• North Carolina: Plott hound
• Pennsylvania: Great Dane
• South Carolina: Boykin spaniel
• Texas: Blue Lacy
• Virginia: American foxhound
• Wisconsin: American water spaniel

So the question is, what kind of doggo should be the official Michigan state dog? We've added the 9 most popular breeds in Michigan that are not already spoken for as our poll options, but feel free to add your own choice to the comments.