Pet Breeds Scraper

Scrape dog breed reference data from the open dog.ceo API — every recognised breed and sub-breed with sample photography. List all breeds, filter by breed name, or pull a photo set for a specific breed. HTTP-only, no auth, no proxy.

Cat breeds are currently unavailable. The upstream cat source (TheCatAPI) began requiring an API key, and its breed endpoints now return 403 Authentication required. Runs with species: "Cat" return no records and report this in the run status. Dog coverage is unaffected.

What this actor does

• Dog breeds via dog.ceo: every recognised breed, fully open and key-free
• Three modes: search and breeds return breed records; images returns photo sets
• Breed filter: narrow to a partial breed name, e.g. labrador, terrier
• Sub-breed expansion: records list every sub-breed (bulldog → boston, english, french) with a count
• Empty fields are omitted

Output: per dog breed (species: "Dog", mode search / breeds)

• breedName — display name, e.g. Bulldog
• breedSlug — dog.ceo identifier, e.g. bulldog
• species — Dog
• subBreeds, subBreedCount — recognised sub-breeds
• imageUrl — a sample photo of the breed
• breedUrl — dog.ceo image endpoint for the breed
• dataSource — dog.ceo
• recordType: "breed", scrapedAt

Output: per cat breed (species: "Cat") — currently unavailable

These fields are what the actor emits when the cat source is reachable. It is not reachable at present (see the note at the top), so species: "Cat" returns no records today.

• breedName — breed name
• breedId — TheCatAPI breed code, e.g. siam
• species — Cat
• temperament — comma-separated temperament keywords
• origin — country of origin
• lifeSpan — expected life span range in years
• description — breed summary, trimmed to 400 characters
• isIndoor — whether the breed is considered indoor-only
• affectionLevel, energyLevel — 1–5 trait scores
• weightImperial — weight range in pounds
• imageUrl — breed photo
• wikipediaUrl — Wikipedia article
• breedUrl — TheCatAPI image search for the breed
• dataSource — The Cat API
• recordType: "breed", scrapedAt

Output: per image (mode images)

• imageUrl — direct photo URL
• imageId — image identifier (cats)
• breedName — breed shown, detected from the image where available
• species
• width, height — pixel dimensions (cats)
• searchBreed — the breed filter used, when one was set
• dataSource
• recordType: "petImage", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / breeds — breed records; images — photo sets
species	string	Dog	Dog (dog.ceo, working) or Cat (TheCatAPI, currently returns nothing)
breed	string	–	Partial breed name filter, e.g. labrador, siamese
location	string	New York, NY	Tag only — copied to searchLocation on each record, does not filter results
maxItems	int	20	Hard cap (1–500)

Example: every dog breed

{
  "mode": "breeds",
  "species": "Dog",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: filter to one breed family

{
  "mode": "search",
  "species": "Dog",
  "breed": "terrier",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: photo set for a breed

{
  "mode": "images",
  "species": "Dog",
  "breed": "labrador",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Use cases

• Pet apps and directories — populate breed pages with names and photography
• Breed-matching quizzes — group breeds by family using sub-breed relationships
• Training datasets — assemble breed-labelled dog imagery for classification work
• Content and blogs — generate illustrated breed roundups
• Autocomplete and taxonomies — seed a breed picker with canonical names and sub-breeds
• Chatbots — ground dog-breed questions in a structured reference

FAQ

Where does the data come from? Dogs from dog.ceo, an open dog-breed and image API that is free and unauthenticated. Cat data came from TheCatAPI, which has since made its breed endpoints key-only, so cat coverage is currently offline.

Is this affiliated with either API? No. This is a third-party actor built on their public endpoints.

Do I need an API key? No.

Does this return adoptable pets I can adopt? No. This is breed reference data — names, traits, and photos. It does not list individual animals available for adoption and has no shelter inventory.

What does the location field do? Nothing to the results. It is copied onto each record as searchLocation for your own tagging. Breed reference data is not location-specific, so setting it does not filter or change what you get back.

What's the difference between search and breeds? Nothing — both return breed records, and the breed filter applies to either. Use whichever reads better in your task config.

Why do dog breeds have fewer fields than the cat schema shows? The two sources differ. dog.ceo publishes breed names, sub-breeds, and images only. TheCatAPI additionally published temperament, origin, life span, and trait scores — those fields are documented above for when cat coverage is restored.

What are sub-breeds? dog.ceo groups related breeds under a parent — bulldog has boston, english, and french. subBreeds lists them so you can expand a family into its variants.

Can I hotlink the images? Yes. dog.ceo serves images from a public CDN without referer checks.

How fresh is the data? Breed reference data changes rarely. Images are drawn live at run time, so photo sets differ between runs.