Chances are you’ve seen or heard of Lassie, one of the most well-known dogs in media over the past few decades, if not the most famous. The highly intelligent and adventurous Lassie originated as a fictional character in a short story by Erik Knight. Although Lassie was later portrayed in TV shows and movies, many fans wonder what kind of dog Lassie was in the original stories and what breed later portrayed her in the movies. We’ve got the answers to both questions and more, so let’s dive in! The short answer is that Lassie was a Rough Collie inspired by a Scotch Collie. Here’s the story:
The Real-Life Lassie Dog
Erik Knight explained that he developed the fictional character of Lassie based on a dog that he had when he was younger. His real-life dog — named Toots — was an old fashioned Collie, sometimes referred to as a Scotch Collie. This variation of Collie was developed in Scotland and was bred for hunting and herding.
These dogs are known to be highly intelligent and hardworking, and these qualities certainly made their way into Lassie’s original character. Knight explained that his real-life dog was an extremely loyal and loving companion that would often wait for his return from school for hours, and it was this kind of devotion and connection that inspired the character and story of Lassie, a dog who is uprooted from her home and travels hundreds of miles to be reunited with her original owner.
However, while Lassie was based on a Scotch Collie, the dog’s actual representation in the short story and novel suggests that she was a different breed.
Image: PixabayLassie in Literature
The first Lassie short story, as well as the novel it was later developed into by the same name, Lassie Come Home, didn’t originally have accurate illustrations of the dog in the story. As such, it’s unclear as to exactly what kind of dog the original Lassie was.
We do, however, have textual descriptions that we can go off of that appeared in the longer novel. The author describes Lassie as a “tri-color collie,” referring to the standard coloration of the old fashioned Collie breed and its many variations: black, white, and brown. He also mentions that Lassie was of a “fine breed” with an “aristocratic” snout and a “rich, deep coat.” These clues all suggest that Lassie is a Rough Collie.
The standard coloration he mentions could describe any Collie variation, but the distinct mention of an “aristocratic” snout likely refers to the triangular muzzle found on a Rough or Smooth Collie. This snout differs greatly from that of the Scotch Collie which is much more square.
The “deep coat” mentioned in the novel further narrows down the possibilities, as Smooth Collies have short coats, while Rough Collies have longer, thicker coats. The likelihood, based on these descriptions, is that the Lassie that appears in Knight’s short story and novel is a Rough Collie with the standard black, brown, and white coloration.
Image Credit: No-longer-here, PixabayLassie in TV and Movies
While it may require some detective work to determine what kind of dog Lassie was in the original short story and novel, it only takes someone familiar with the breed to determine what kind of dog portrayed Lassie on TV and on the big screen.
The story of Lassie was adapted for a full-length movie in 1943 called Lassie Come Home, and finally, with the release of this movie, fans could see what kind of dog Lassie was. Lassie was portrayed in the film by none other than a Rough Collie named Pal! Pal had a long, thick, sable coat with the standard coloration of a Rough Collie: black, brown, and white. Sure enough, the movie version of Lassie had the triangular, “aristocratic” snout, and a “rich, deep coat.”
Pal continued to star in additional Lassie movies and even the TV series, Lassie, as well. The TV series started in 1954, and as Pal aged, producers replaced his part in future movies and the ongoing TV series with his younger relatives. Even after the original Lassie dog left the big screen, a Rough Collie was used to portray the famous canine character.
Why Was Lassie a Rough Collie?
Many fans of the book, movies, and TV series wonder why Lassie was described as and later portrayed by a Rough Collie if her real-life inspiration was an old-fashioned or Scotch Collie.
Knight’s original fictional character was a highly intelligent, loyal, and dedicated dog. While all of these traits also match the author’s actual Scotch Collie, Toots, Lassie was also described as being of a breed that was desirable by wealthy and well-off men.
The Scotch Collie was a working dog that was associated with a more middle-class way of life. In fact, the American Kennel Club renamed the more standardized descendants of the Scotch Collie the “Smooth Collie” and the “Rough Collie” to differentiate between the working-class Scotch Collie in Scotland and the more desirable and refined descendants which were imported into America.
It’s likely that Knight wanted his fictional character to be a more refined and desirable dog while still maintaining some of the characteristics of the Scotch Collie. Thus, Lassie was described more appropriately as a Rough Collie.
Lassie Dog Type: The Verdict
As a fictional character, it’s a bit difficult to say definitively what kind of dog Lassie is. The character was based on a Scotch Collie that was owned by the author of the original Lassie story and novel, Erik Knight. However, based on descriptions from the novel, Lassie better resembled a Rough Collie than the old fashioned variation of Collie that Knight owned. In TV and movies, Lassie was portrayed by a Rough Collie named Pal. Therefore, it’s safest to say that Lassie is a tri-color Rough Collie.
Featured Image Credit: Grigorita Ko, Shutterstock
Lassie is a fictional female Collie that is arguably the most recognizable and famous dog character of all times. There have been nine feature films, several television programs, books, and even a video game made about her. The question “what type of Collie is Lassie” is a good one and the answer has some interesting twists and turns.
Lassie originated in the short stories and a novel by Erik Knight who described her as a Collie. The dog who played Lassie in the movies was a male Rough Collie named Pal and later his progeny. Most people do not know that the character of Lassie was inspired by, not a Rough Collie, but an old fashioned type of Collie owned by Mr. Knight named Toots.
Lassie in the Books
In his 1940 book Lassie Come-Home, Eric Knight described Lassie as a “tricolor collie”, tricolor referring to the black, brown and white color pattern common in Collies. It was implied but not explicitly stated that Lassie was of a type similar to the modern show Collie as she is described as desirable to men who kept fine dogs.
Why, the whole village knew that not even the Duke of Rudling had been able to buy Lassie from Sam Carraclough – the very Duke himself who lived in his great estate a mile beyond the village and who had his kennel full of fine dogs.
Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight
Of the modern show Collies there are two types, the Rough Collie with a long coat and the Smooth Collie with a short coat. Lassie is described as having a “rich, deep coat” and so must be a representative of the Rough Collie breed.
He took the brush and cloth from his son and, kneeling on the rug, began working expertly on the dog’s coat, rubbing the rich, deep coat with the cloth, cradling the aristocratic muzzle carefully in one hand, while with the other he worked over the snow white of the collie’s ruff and artistically fluffed out the ‘leggings’ and the ‘apron’ and the ‘petticoats’.
Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight
Notice also in the above that Lassie’s nose is described as an “aristocratic muzzle” another clue that she is of the modern show Collie type. The long, “aristocratic” muzzle of the modern Collie was a development of Victorian age show breeders.
Eric Knight was very much a product of his time. In the mid twentieth century when he wrote Lassie Come-Home, the looks of the modern show Collie were considered a thing of great beauty and refinement. Such dogs were highly admired and sought after. At the same time however all the careful breeding for a specific look had produced a negative side effect in the Collie, a noticeable loss of intelligence compared to the old-fashioned Collies. So Lassie was a bit of a paradox combining the brains of the old time Collies with the looks of the modern Collies, more on that later.
Lassie in the Movies
When it came time to make the movie Lassie Come Home (1943) the part was won by a sable colored Collie named Pal who was owned by a professional dog trainer named Rudd Weatherwax. The part was first given to a female Collie and Pal was selected to do stunt work for the film, there are actually two stories about how Pal won the part from her. In the first they went out to film a flooding river where the female Collie could not be made to enter the water. So Pal was asked to fill in, he performed the part so admirably that the director decided that he should play Lassie in the film. The other story is that the female Collie went into heat and started shedding as female collies will do twice a year, so it became apparent that a male Collie was preferable because they never come into heat and therefore rarely blow their coats out.
Pal was a modern type Rough Collie who was deemed unsuitable for the show ring by his breeder because of his large eyes and white blaze on his face. This is a perfect example of the kinds of arbitrary breeding decisions that have produced the modern Collie. Collie breeders of the time did not like Pal’s looks but to their consternation they received many requests for a Collie who looked just like Pal after the success of the movie.
Pal’s owner Rudd Weatherwax had a contract to provide the dog for all Lassie movies until 2004. Pal starred in a total of seven Lassie movies and the pilots to the television program. Pal’s descendants continued his legacy after his retirement in 1954.
The Original Lassie
Even though the book and the movie gave Lassie the looks of a modern Rough Collie, there is more to the story. The author of Lassie Come-Home, Eric Knight had been inspired to write his story by a different kind of Collie. He had owned modern Rough Collies previously but this one dog was different, it was an old fashioned Collie, a type often called a “Scotch Collie”. This dog, which he named Toots, would spend hours waiting at the gate for Eric to come home, this devotion along with intelligence inspired him to create the Lassie character, first in short stories and later in a book.
Lassie showed the same devotion and intelligence that is commonly seen in Scotch Collies. Besides being inspired by Toots, Eric had probably encountered Scotch Collies in his youth growing up in Yorkshire, England. This was an area where working dogs like the Scotch Collie were valued and when Eric was a youth, (born 1897 and moved to the United States in 1912) it was before the Border Collie had taken over and the old fashioned Scotch Collies were likely still commonly used in this part on northern England. Living in Yorkshire at an impressionable age he probably heard stories of the loyalty, devotion and brains off the old fashioned Collies. Given all this there is little wonder that he based his fictional Collie story in Yorkshire.
So the point of all this is that although Lassie was portrayed by a Rough Collie on the big screen and was described as a fancy “aristocratic” Collie in the book, she was inspired by the Scotch Collie. So the real Lassie is as much Scotch Collie as Rough Collie.
Find Out More
If you are interested in the different types of Collie and their history check out this article Where Do Collies Come From?
If you are interested in learning more about the dog that inspired Lassie, read this article that I wrote called 10 Fact About Scotch Collies.
Related Images:
- historic collies
- scotch collie
- show collie