Every Dog Has His Day Trivia Quiz

Answer: Diphtheria

The beginning of an outbreak of Diphtheria in 1925 led to this 1,085 kilometre mercy dash across Alaska to get the vaccine from Nenana to Nome - the serum was able to be taken by train from Anchorage to Nenana.

The journey took five and half days and involved 150 dogs and 20 mushers. Balto was the lead dog on the final leg into Nome which led to his hero status. He did not, however, cover the longest or most hazardous leg - this was undertaken by a dog called Togo who travelled nearly twice the distance of any other team.

Answer: Buddy

In 1927 Dorothy Harrison Eustis was an American dog trainer living in Switzerland. Being an admirer of the working ability of the German Shepherd dog she began to breed them to be trained as police dogs.

After hearing of a school outside of Berlin that was training the dogs to work with German WWI veterans (who had been blinded with mustard gas) she went to visit and wrote an article about the program for a popular magazine

Morris Frank, a young blind man in Nashville, read the article and sent a letter to Eustis saying that if she would train him with a dog that he would set up a training school in the US. Eustis agreed and spent 5 weeks teaching Morris and Buddy to work together. A year later Morris kept his word and the "The Seeing Eye" was launched.

Answer: St Bernard

Barry actually predates the official name of the breed. The Great St Bernard Hospice had begun to selectively breed a dog for rescue work in the mountains in the 17th century. Barry, who was born in 1800, was a lighter build than the breed today and the dogs were often called Kuherhunds (cowherds' dog). After his death in 1814 the breed was referred to as 'Barry hounds' until 1965 when they were officially named the St Bernard.

Barry is known to have saved at least 40 lives, urban legend has it that he died on his 41st rescue but this is untrue. He retired at the age of 12 to live out his retirement with a monk where he lived for another 2 years. One dog at the hospice has always been called Barry in his honour since and when a foundation was set up in 2004 to take over the breeding of the dogs it was named 'Foundation Barry du Grand Saint Bernard'.

Answer: Red Dog

It is believed that Red Dog, a Kelpie/Cattle Dog cross, was born in Paraburdoo in 1971 and that he was brought to Dampier by his original owner. He then adopted another owner, John Stazzonelli, who was a driver for Hamersley Iron and who took Red Dog with him on his drives from Perth to Port Hedland and everywhere in between.

John died in 1975 and Red Dog began his famous walks among the Pilbara region in Western Australia (an area of 502,000 kmē) believed to be looking for his master. He was known in many different towns by many different names and he stayed for short periods with lots of different people but always kept travelling onwards.

He died on the 21st of November 1979 by deliberate strychnine poisoning. A movie was released in 2011 depicting his life story.

Answer: Laika

Laika (Russian for 'Barker') was one of several strays that were trained for flight in the Sputnik 2; she was believed to be about 3 years old. Albina and Mushka were the two other dogs that were trained with her while Oleg Gazenko was the scientist that choose her for the flight.

Although both the USA and USSR had sent animals on suborbital flights, neither had developed the technology to de-orbit so there was no expectation of her survival thus she also became the first animal to die in orbit.

Sputnik 2 was launched on the 3rd of November 1957. Although it was claimed that she was euthanized before running out of oxygen on day 6 it is now known that she probably died within a few hours of the launch.

Answer: Swansea Jack

Swansea Jack lived near the dock area with his master William Thomas from 1930 to 1937. He is famous for responding to any cry for help from the water and is reported to have saved 27 lives in his own short life.

A London newspaper named him as the 'Bravest Dog of the Year', the National Canine Defence League awarded him two bronze medals (animal equivalent of the Victoria Cros), the Lord Mayor of London presented him with a silver cup and he was named 'Dog of the Century' in 2011 by an organisation that trains dogs for aquatic rescue.

His exact breed is unknown, he was rumoured to have been born in Newfoundland so that was what he was known as but photographs show him to be much smaller with the looks of a black retriever.

Answer: Marley

John Grogan was a journalist who documented the life of his yellow Labrador Retriever from puppy to death in "Marley and Me". Marley was a powerful, destructive, boisterous, uncontrollable, neurotic dog who had many 'behaviour' issues.

He was also loving, loyal and devoted to Grogan and his growing family. The book is most often humorous as it follows Grogan's attempts to train him for 13 years but heartbreaking at the end when Marley finally dies.

Trixie is Dean Koontz' famous Golden Retriever, Isaac Newton owned Diamond and Blondi was the German Shepherd belonging to Hitler.

Answer: South Korea

Snuppy, who was born on the 24th April 2005, was an Afghan hound created through research at Seoul National University. His name was derived from the universities initials (SNU) and the word 'puppy'.

Hwang Woo-Suk led a team of 45 scientists in this mammoth task. 123 surrogate mothers were used with a cell from the ear of his 'father'. Only 3 mothers produced puppies and the other two later died.

The team took this one step further in 2008 when they inseminated two cloned female dogs with Snuppy's sperm. The result was 10 puppies which are the first known successful offspring of two cloned dogs.

Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are all classified as South East Asian countries

Answer: Appollo

Appollo and his handler, Pete Davis, belonged to the NYPD K-9 unit. They were the first search and rescue canine team at the site, arriving only 15 minutes after the attack.

The Dickin medal is the equivalent of the human Victoria Cross and was awarded to Appollo as a representative of all the search and rescue dogs that worked at the Trade Center and Pentagon. Salty and Roselle, two guide dogs who led their owners safely out of the World Trade Center, also received the award.

Appollo was a German Shepherd born in 1992. He graduated from the NYPD Canine Special Operations Division in 1994 and worked with Pete in many different areas. He died in November 2006.

Answer: Edinburgh

Bobby was a Skye terrier who belonged to John Gray, a nightwatchman for the Edinburgh City Police. After Gray's death and burial in Greyfriars Kirkyard, in 1858, Bobby spent the next 14 years sitting on his master's grave.

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers, paid for a license for Bobby in 1867 when it was suggested he should be put down and he became the City council's responsibility.

Bobby himself died in January 1872 and was buried just outside the gates of the Kirkyard as he could not be buried inside in consecrated ground.