March 2023

• The name Beagle first appeared in a 1475 English poem called "The Squire of Low Degree" by an unknown author who spelled it "begle.”

• Asta, a Wire Haired Fox Terrier, was a character in the Thin Man movie series popular during the 1930s-40s. The part was played by several dogs, but the most famous was a precocious pup named Skippy whose off-screen amenities included bone-burying pits, automatic vacuum flea removers, and mechanical cats to chase.

• Terry, the Cairn Terrier who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, was trained by Carl Spitz and Gabrielle Quinn.

• In 2004, Sally Pilly gave her husband, Dr. John Pilly, an eight-week-old Border Collie named Chaser for his 76th birthday. Dr. Pilly taught Chaser the names of 1,022 toys and she is considered to have the largest tested memory of any non-human animal. Chaser's story was captured in a best-selling book, Chaser, Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words. Dr. Pilly passed away in 2018, and Chaser passed away the following year.

• The Order of the Pug was a para-Masonic society that admitted male and female Catholics and was founded around 1740 in Bavaria. Initiates had to wear a dog collar, scratch at the door to be admitted, and kiss a porcelain Pug's backside while established members barked at them.