The Year of the Dog Trivia Quiz

Answer: German Shepherd

Although Rin Tin Tin is well known for his appearances in books, television and movies throughout the 20s and 30s; the real Rin Tin Tin was actually found as a pup in France near the end of World War I. He was named after a French puppet that was given to American soldiers for luck. After the war he performed in dog shows before landing a movie role, as a wolf.

Answer: Toto

Toto was Dorothy Gale's pet dog in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", a children's story by L. Frank Baum (1900). Toto's breed was never actually given, but the description in the book reveals him to be a small terrier.

In the 1939 movie adaptation, a Cairn terrier played Toto, and in the sequel "Return to Oz", he was a Border terrier. Toto also made an appearance in Cornelia Funke's novel "Inkheart", when Meggie accidentally read him out of a book.

Answer: George Clooney

George Clooney bought the pig back in 1988, as a gift for his then girlfriend Kelly Preston (later John Travolta's wife). The 18 year old, 300-pound pig died of old age in 2005.

Answer: Snoopy ("Peanuts")

Snoopy made his first appearance in the comic strip "Peanuts" in October 1950, although he wasn't given a name until almost a week later. Snoopy evolved more than any other "Peanuts" character, according to his creator Charles M. Shultz. Snoopy became more anthropomorphic as the strip developed, to the point that even Snoopy thought he was a human. Among his famous alter-egos were the famous war pilot, Joe Cool, Attorney, and figure skater. He was often pictured playing baseball with the neighbourhood children and attempting to write a novel, although he never got past "It was a dark and stormy night".

Snoopy was also the mascot for several different corporations, including the Apollo Program, the Sonoma County Airport, and a division of the United States Air force.

Answer: Lady and the Tramp

The Disney animated movie "Lady and the Tramp" was first released in 1955. Although critics initially panned it, the film was a box office hit and has become an all-time classic.

Answer: Lassie

Eric Knight first created Lassie in a 1940 short story, which then evolved into a full-length novel. Titled "Lassie Come Home", it was made into a movie by MGM in 1943. "Lassie" the television series aired from 1954 to 1973, with several television specials made in the years following. The first star of "Lassie" was a dog called Pal, who starred in seven "Lassie" movies.

Answer: Horse

Dog Lake in British Columbia is situated along the Okanagan River in the Okanagan Valley. It was originally called Luc Du Chein but historically has been known as Dog Lake. In 1930, officials renamed it Skaha in keeping with the Okanagan word for Dog.

This is where the problem arises, as the local Okanagan Indians say Chokowapee is their word for Dog and Skaha actually means horse. Dog translates to Skaha in the Shuswap language.

Answer: World War II

During the Second World War, many private citizens donated their dogs into service, and this is how Chips of New York joined the army. During his time, Chips served in North Africa, Sicily, France, Germany and Italy. Despite earning the medals through bravery and service, Chips was later stripped of his medals, because the Army policy did not allow dogs to be formally commended.

Answer: Bo Shin Tang

Dog in Korea is very much like beef to the western countries; it is bred on special farms purely for the cooking pot. To the locals, however, catching a stray dog for dinner is much the same as catching rabbits or fishing off the jetty. Many sites on the Internet (the closest I'm getting to the research on this subject) claim that the stew is delicious and very much like lamb or mutton in taste, although the smell is something else entirely.

Answer: Cerberus

Cerberus is the dog from Roman and Greek mythology that guards the gates of Hades. He is usually depicted as having three heads, but some sources give him only one head, while others as many as fifty.

Answer: White Fang

Jack London's "White Fang" was first published in a magazine in 1906 and told the story of the domestication of a wild wolf dog. It was the companion novel of "Call of the Wild" (1903), which featured a previously domesticated dog who, after being dog napped and sold as a sled dog, escaped into the wild.

Answer: The Adventures of Milo and Otis

"Milo and Otis" was first produced in Japan in 1986, and then later adapted in English in 1989. The story of a kitten and a puppy raised on a farm won the "Young Artists Award" (1990) and became a favourite movie of children. The film, however, was plagued by animal cruelty allegations, despite having American Humane Society approval.

Answer: Swamp Dogg

Swamp Dogg, aka Jerry Williams, began his music career in 1954 going by the name Little Jerry. In 1970 he renamed himself Swamp Dogg, and released "Total Destruction to Your Mind" in 1971. The album cover was panned by critics who called it "the worst album cover of all time". Swamp released his Christmas CD in August of 2009, but he originally penned the title song in 1966 for Otis Redding, who never recorded it.

Answer: Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II has had Pembroke Welsh Corgis as pets since she was given her first, Susan, on her 18th birthday. Since then, her Majesty has had over 30 of the dogs, many descendents of Susan. She has usually had four dogs at any one time.

Answer: Goliath to David (1 Samuel 17:43)

The Battle between David and the Israelites and Goliath and the Philistines is described in I Samuel. David, without armour and armed with only his slingshot and five pebbles, defeats the mighty warrior Goliath with a single fatal blow between the eyes.

Answer: Ivan Pavlov

In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov was researching the gastric and digestive systems using dogs, when he stumbled upon the idea of "conditioned reflexes". He carried out his experiments in the 1900s and published his findings in 1927. He found that by ringing a bell (or using a metronome, whistle or tuning fork) and then feeding a dog, the dog would associate the noise with the arrival of food.

It didn't take long before the dogs automatically started salivating at the given sound, even without the appearance of food.

While many believe Pavlov rang a bell, there is little evidence to support this theory, but it sounds good.

Answer: Canterbury-Bankstown

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs were admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League premiership in 1935. They were a force to be reckoned with in the early days, winning their first premiership after just four years in the competition. In the 1990, during the time of the Super League war, they went by the name of the Sydney Bulldogs.

Answer: Astro

Astro first appeared in the fourth episode of "The Jetsons" (1962) when son Elroy found him and took him home. A later episode discovered that Astro was the long lost pet of zillionaire J.B. Gottrockets, and his real name was Tralfaz--or as Astro used to say, "Tralfaz. Blech". Astro was always able to speak, albeit with too many "Rrr" sounds in place, very much like Scooby-Doo in the later animated series of the same name.

Answer: Sam

Sam is a six feet tall talking dog who wears a police uniform, and his sidekick Max is a three feet tall rabbit type animal. Together they are New York freelance police and solve crimes together.

Steve Purcell first created "Sam and Max" in comic strip form for the weekly newspaper of the California College of Arts and Crafts. His brother actually created Sam and Max while they were younger, but signed the rights to the characters over to Steve in the late 1970s. "Sam and Max" became a video game around 1990 when Steve began working for LucasArts. The first version released was titled "Sam and Max Hit the Road" and was released in DOS format in 1993. Since then they have been released on X-Box, PC, PS3 and Wii formats.

Answer: Diphtheria

Nome in 1927 suffered a severe outbreak of Diphtheria when the port city was isolated due to winter ice. With supplies of Diphtheria vaccine insufficient to protect the population of Nome, serum needed to be shipped to the town. Due to the cold conditions, aeroplanes could not be used, so the serum was transported to Nenana by train. From there it was up to the sled dogs to ferry the serum through blizzard-like conditions to the city of Nome along the Iditarod Trail.