a starter pack of twenty films with iconic canine co-stars • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Every dog has its day, but August 26 marks International Dog Day—which, as you can imagine, signifies a wider global appreciation of our most loyal, enthusiastic and emotionally perceptive pals. (With all due respect to all the cats of our lives, whom we love equally.) And why not? Whether dogs are greeting us with tails wildly wagging, eagerly chasing balls across the yard, bounding free through the outdoors, curling up beside us on the couch, begging for scraps from under the dinner table or looking up with the kind of unconditional devotion that instantly warms our hearts, any dog owner knows full well the joys of canine companionship. 

At the movies, there is a long, storied history of dogs stealing the spotlight from their human co-stars. Of course, one problematic trope of endangering our cherished puppy pals on screen has led to the creation of an entire publication to ward off emotional turmoil; still, we tend to believe the moral arc of the universe is long, but bends towards dogs living happily ever after. Consider this list of twenty canine companions from cinema to be a mere starter pack to guide you on your valiant, worthwhile mission to seek out every good movie dog in existence.

Of course, to embark on such a foolhardy undertaking is to acknowledge that limiting our scope to just twenty very good boys and girls from cinema necessitates leaving off some broadly beloved favorites. Ironically, some of the films populated primarily by furry, four-legged friends—such as One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Best in Show (2000), Eight Below (2006), Pick of the Litter (2018) and Isle of Dogs (2018)—were eliminated simply because we could not select an individual dog from the kennel’s worth these films had on offer.

Furthermore, we cannot say Jed, the mutt who smuggles a shape-shifting alien into the Alaskan research camp in John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) is exactly beloved; similarly, we contend the St. Bernard of Cujo (1983) is no man’s best friend. There is a separate starter pack to be made for exclusively animated dogs, but we have limited those selected here as well; sorry to fans of Scooby-Doo (2002), Bolt (2008), Frankenweenie (2012) and The Secret Life of Pets (2016). But don’t worry—a few favorites from that roster are still represented below, along with some potentially lesser-known furry friends from international cinema that we hope you’ll welcome into your watchlists, presented in chronological order.