Dakota Beacon

I have been envying neighbors and passersby who have been out during the shutdown, walking their dogs.  One lady walks her long-haired dachshund - he’s really cute - and then there are a couple of girls who walk two big dogs, both dogs are black and white, one seems like a collie of some sort, so beautiful!  And a guy will be biking along leisurely, his dog trotting happily along at his side.  I miss my dogs!  Sadly, we have been without a dog for about seven years now.  

Our kids grew up with dogs - my husband and I had a dog before our eldest child was born and until seven years ago our home was never without one, usually two and sometimes three dogs.  Dogs are a part of the human story - they’ve been our guardians, our companions, our helpers and our entertainers.  It’s hard to be really sad with a dog.  So I thought today I would post something about dogs in movies.  

We all remember Lassie.  Most of us grew up watching “her” on her own TV show.  But actually, Lassie was a male collie.  The Lassie tradition began as a short story - “Lassie, Come Home”, but grew into a novel by Eric Knight.  It came out in 1940 and by 1943 she was discovered by the movies - and we had the beginning of yet another tradition.  Lassie was incredibly brave, extremely smart, like most dogs, and would take on bears or wolves or any varmint that came her way to protect her beloved human boy.  Lassie has been the lead character in 10 more movies and, of course, the television series, since then, the most recent in 2005.  Here’s a clip from the 1994 movie, Lassie:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUNArJgkB2U

Then there was RIn Tin Tin.  Remember him?  He was a German Shepherd and the constant companion of Corporal Rusty, an orphan boy who found a home with the U.S. Cavalry.  The original Rin Tin Tin actually was rescued from a battlefield during World War I.  The American soldier who rescued him and brought him home found him a job - as a star in silent movies.  He acted in 27 movies.  The original Rin Tin Tin lived until 1932.  But he was a beloved character and tradition and by the 1950s a successor, “Flame”, played the iconic hero.  Here’s a complete episode of Rin Tin Tin, the series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVZM6gg9eZ4

And who could ever forget Benji?  He was the creation of film director Joe Camp.  Benji was a mutt - a lovable, mixed-breed dog who appeared in 11 films and starred in at least 7 of them.  Benji was adorable and very smart.  Then there was Beethoven - well, adorable, anyway.  We have so many great stars in the canine world - Marley, from Marley and Me.  Maybe one of the most endearing was Uggie, a little Jack Russell Terrier who played the hero, “Jack” in the great black and white silent classic (made in 2011), The Artist.  He actually played a movie star.  Another famous Jack Russell was Eddie from Frazier (played by Moose).  

There were those denizens of the far, frozen north, “Yukon King”, the companion of Sergeant Preston of the Mounties.  He was an Alaskan Malamute but he played a Siberian Husky.  “Diefenbaker” (one of the cute names concocted to reference Canadian history) was the companion by chance of Mountie Benton Frazier in Due South.  He was supposed to be a wolf, but was played by six different Huskies.  He had an off-and-on attitude toward Benton and was independent much of the time, but in the end, always loyal, even if grudgingly so.  

There were two dog legends whose very essence was loyalty:  Hachi, from A Dog’s Tale, and Greyfriars Bobby, respectively an Akita Inu in Japan and a Skye Terrier in Scotland, both of whom waited everyday for their masters to return on the train, even after the masters had died and would never return.   

There was the heartbreakingly tragic Hooch, of Turner and Hooch, a valiant Dogue de Bordeaux who was Tom Hanks’ sidekick in Turner and Hooch.  And then there were the delightful depictions of dogs in the world of animation - Lady and the Tramp and all of their friends at the pound, the mournful Russian Borzoi and the sassy little Pekingese, Peg and of course, Trusty (a bloodhound) and Jock (a Scottie).  There were Scooby Doo and Peanuts, the 1001 Dalmations, Odie (from Garfield), Droopy McPoodle (Warner Brothers’ foil for Tom and Jerry), a whole troupe of dogs in Oliver and Company and many, many more.  

Not that long ago I saw A Dog’s Way Home, with a couple of lovable dogs, a pit bull named Bella, discriminated against because she was a pit bull and outlawed, and a mutt in the wild called “Chance”.  I have missed many more dog movies than I’ve seen - A Dog’s Journey, Homeward Bound - the Incredible Journey,  in the tradition of Milo and Otis (Otis was a little pug).  Maybe you have some fond memories of your own pets and/or heroes from the silver screen.  Like Toto or the “Ugly” Dachshunds, the Shaggy Dog, the sheepdog from Don’t Eat the Daisies.  

Here, in case you need a fix, is the entire film, Greyfriars Bobby:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n1Ifad-4YI

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