50 Fun Facts About Dalmatian

What colour are Dalmatian puppies when they are born?

Plain white: the famous spots only begin to show at about two weeks old. Any dark mark a newborn does have is a patch rather than a spot, and it disqualifies the dog from the American show ring.

Besides black, what is the other standard spot colour in Dalmatians?

Liver is the only other colour the breed standard accepts. A Dalmatian is spotted black or liver, never both, and lemon, blue or tricolour markings get a dog thrown out of the show ring.

In Dodie Smith's novel and Disney's 1961 film, the stolen puppies are held at which gloomy country house?

Hell Hall is the de Vil family's run-down country seat, left in the care of the bumbling Badun brothers. The rescuers break in to find not just their own litter but dozens of other puppies too.

The American breed standard sizes a Dalmatian's spots against which everyday objects?

Coins: the standard asks for spots between the size of a dime and a half-dollar, smaller on the head, legs and tail. Judges want each one round and distinct, and mark a dog down when they run together.

In Dodie Smith's novel, the schoolgirl Cruella de Vil was expelled for drinking what?

Ink: the young Cruella was expelled for it, as her old schoolmate Mrs Dearly recalls. Her tastes stay odd, and she later serves the Dearlys strangely coloured food that all tastes of pepper.

On the American 100-point judging scale for the Dalmatian, which feature is worth the most points?

Colour and markings carry 25 of the 100 points, while gait and temperament get 10 each. So a dog bred to trot for miles is judged far more on its spots than on how it moves.

In Dodie Smith's novel, Pongo's family lives on the edge of which London park?

Regent's Park: the Dearlys are lent a house on its Outer Circle. Their dogs look on the couple as pets, and let them believe they are the owners.

Dalmatians excrete uric acid instead of breaking it down further, a quirk shared with which other species?

Humans: most mammals break uric acid down further, but people, great apes and Dalmatians stop there. For many years virtually every Dalmatian inherited the mutation from both parents, so breeding within the breed could not reduce it.

Dalmatian clubs still hold 'road trials', in which a dog must follow what for miles, off the leash?

A horse: the dog trails a mounted handler while judges test its off-leash obedience, and the upper levels add endurance and speed. The event exists to show off the work the breed was built for.

A Dalmatian's inherited deafness is traced to a lack of which cells in the inner ear?

Pigment cells, the kind that colour a coat, also keep the inner ear's blood supply alive. Where the white-coat gene wipes them out there, the ear's sensory cells die within weeks of birth.

The British Dalmatian Club recommends only buying puppies screened for deafness by which method?

BAER, short for brainstem auditory evoked response, plays clicks into each ear in turn and records the brain's electrical reply. A deaf ear draws a flat line, so even a dog deaf on one side is caught.

Dalmatians with which feature are statistically more likely to be deaf?

Blue eyes and deafness both trace back to the gene that whitens the coat. The American show ring still accepts blue eyes, but countries whose breed standards bar them record less deafness.

A Dalmatian's unusually high uric acid levels make it prone to which painful problem?

Bladder stones form when the excess uric acid crystallises in the urine, and they often need surgery to remove. Almost all cases are in males, and a dog blocked by one is an emergency.

Dalmatian owners are advised to limit which dietary component to keep uric acid in check?

Purines break down into uric acid, so a diet low in them leaves less to crystallise. In practice that means going easy on offal such as kidney, and keeping the dog drinking plenty of water.

The 1973 Dalmatian backcross project to fix its uric acid problem outcrossed to a single dog of which breed?

English Pointer: geneticist Robert Schaible mated one champion Pointer to a Dalmatian, then bred every later generation back to pure Dalmatians. The line kept the spots but regained the gene the breed had lost.

The American Kennel Club puts the Dalmatian alongside the Standard Poodle and the French Bulldog in which breed group?

Non-Sporting is the official label, odd as it sounds for a dog bred for great endurance. The breed still competes in agility, tracking and lure coursing.

In Disney's 1961 film, the Colonel who helps find the stolen puppies is which breed of dog?

Old English Sheepdog: the shaggy Colonel runs his Suffolk farmyard like a barracks. In Dodie Smith's novel he ends the adventure by promoting himself to Brigadier General.

In Disney's 1961 film, the fleeing Dalmatians roll in soot to pass as which breed?

Labradors: a friendly black Labrador has found them a ride home in a van, so Pongo has the whole family roll in a sooty fireplace to match. Melting snow washes the disguise off just as they board.

An old English nickname for the Dalmatian likens its coat to which dessert?

Plum pudding: the dark spots on white reminded the English of the fruit flecking their Christmas dessert, and the breed became the Plum Pudding Dog. Spotted Dick was another of its nicknames.

In Disney's 1961 film, Sergeant Tibbs is first to find the stolen puppies; what kind of animal is he?

A cat: the scrawny tabby hears barking from the de Vil estate, slips inside to investigate and later hustles the puppies out under the crooks' noses.

After arriving in England, the Dalmatian became the breed of choice for what job?

Carriage dog: the spotted dogs trotted beside the vehicles of the wealthy to deter highwaymen and stray dogs. They looked so showy doing it that owning them became a mark of status in itself.

In Disney's 1961 film, the puppies' favourite television hero is a dog named what?

Thunderbolt stars in the Western serial the puppies watch each evening, chasing the outlaw Dirty Dawson. A Kanine Krunchies commercial cuts in, and its jingle is one of the film's three songs.

Why did early fire brigades send Dalmatians out running with their engines?

To clear the way ahead: the dogs ran in front barking like living sirens, so that people got out from under the hooves. At the fire they guarded the team and kept it calm amid the smoke.

Since the 1950s, a Dalmatian has ridden on the beer wagon that promotes which brand?

Budweiser: Anheuser-Busch added a Dalmatian to each of its Clydesdale hitches in the 1950s. Brewery dogs once guarded the wagon while the driver made deliveries, and today's simply ride up front beside him.

Beyond firehouses, Dalmatians' intelligence made them successful in what work?

Circus dogs: an old American Kennel Club history credits the breed's retentive memory with making it one of the most dependable clowns in the ring and on the stage.

Which British comic actor played Jasper, one of Cruella's bungling henchmen, in Disney's 1996 live-action remake?

Hugh Laurie played Jasper, with Mark Williams as his partner Horace. Disney's own synopsis calls the pair Cruella's hapless henchmen, and their theft of the puppies sets off a countrywide search.

In Dodie Smith's novel, an old bone comes sailing over the wall of the puppies' prison, scratched with which message?

SOS, which in this story means Save Our Skins. The trapped puppies fling the bone out themselves, and a passing dog carries it off to raise the alarm.

In Dodie Smith's novel, what is the name of Pongo's mate?

Missis is Pongo's wife in the book, while Perdita is a stray the family takes in to help nurse the litter. Disney folded the two into one dog and kept Perdita's name.

In Dodie Smith's novel, how do the dogs relay news across the country to track down the stolen puppies?

The Twilight Barking is a chain of barks that passes news from dog to dog. In Disney's film it is waved off as only a gossip chain, yet it finds the puppies after the police have failed.

A friend's chance remark gave Dodie Smith her plot: what did the friend say her Dalmatians would make?

A lovely fur coat, said the friend, and Smith had her villain. Her hero Pongo took his name from the first of the Dalmatians she owned.

In Dodie Smith's novel, the Dearlys' two nannies are named after which pair of household jobs?

Cook and butler: Nanny Cook is plump and Nanny Butler plumper, in Smith's own description. Disney's films fold the two of them into a single Nanny.

In Dodie Smith's 1967 sequel to her Dalmatian novel, the lord of which star invites every dog to leave Earth?

Sirius is the Dog Star, and its lonely ruler offers Earth's dogs an escape from nuclear war. Pongo and the rest decide they would miss their owners too much, and stay.

How many puppies are in Perdita's litter in Disney's 1961 animated film?

Fifteen puppies make up the litter, and Cruella has bought another 84 from pet shops. Add the two parents and the household comes to 101.

The 1961 Disney film kept costs down by using which copying technique to transfer drawings onto animation cels?

Xerography copied the animators' pencil drawings straight onto cels, where every one had previously been traced in ink by hand. In a film crowded with spotted dogs, that saved a fortune in time.

Which actor, soon to star in Hitchcock's The Birds, voiced Pongo in Disney's 1961 animated film?

Rod Taylor also narrates in character, and his Pongo introduces the songwriter he lives with as his pet. The actor had just made his name in The Time Machine.

Who played Cruella de Vil in the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians?

Glenn Close plays her as the head of a London fashion house, who sacks Anita for refusing to sell the puppies. Unlike the cartoon, none of the animals speak.

The 2021 film Cruella, starring Emma Stone, won the Academy Award in which category?

Best Costume Design went to Jenny Beavan, for a wardrobe Disney's own archive calls a major undertaking. The plot is a feud between two dress designers, so the frocks are the weapons.

Which actress plays the Baroness, whose Dalmatians knock Estella's mother off a cliff, in Disney's 2021 film Cruella?

Emma Thompson plays the fashion legend as the film's real villain. It flips the old story: here the spotted dogs are the aggressors, and their future kidnapper is the one with a grievance.

Which Dalmatian character in PAW Patrol serves as the team's firefighter?

Marshall is the clumsy one, forever losing his balance and tumbling in last while the other pups laugh it off. His vehicle, fittingly, is a fire truck.

What sets the dog's namesake bird, the Dalmatian pelican, apart from the world's other pelicans?

It is the largest of all the pelicans, and fishermen have shot it as a rival for their catch. Artificial nesting platforms are now helping its numbers recover.

In Disney's 102 Dalmatians, what is unusual about the puppy named Oddball?

She has no spots, and grows up self-conscious about it. A few small ones finally appear on her coat as part of the film's happy ending.

In Dodie Smith's novel, Mr Dearly is let off income tax for life after doing the government what favour?

Clearing the national debt is tossed off in one aside as a service he once did the Government. The tax break leaves the young couple, in Smith's words, rather unusually rich.

What is the recommended weekly grooming tool for keeping Dalmatian shedding under control?

A hound mitt or currycomb pulls away the dead hairs once a week, and that is about all the coat asks for. It sheds regardless, and the stiff hairs work into fabric and are hard to brush off.

What working use does the Dalmatian's international breed standard officially list for the breed?

Hunting is the use the world canine federation lists, and it files the spotted show-off beside the scenthounds. An old American Kennel Club history agrees: bird dog, retriever, and pack hound after boar and stag.

In Disney's 1961 film, which animals give the cold, hungry puppies a meal on their long trek home?

Cows in a dairy barn offer the puppies their own warm milk after a collie leads the family in from the cold. Dodie Smith's novel has cows do the same, inviting the pups to drink at the milk bar.

Which French film star plays Le Pelt, the fur designer who helps Cruella hunt puppies, in Disney's 102 Dalmatians?

Gérard Depardieu plays the furrier who helps a relapsed Cruella plan a spotted coat with a hood, which is why the sequel needs one puppy more. The chimes of Big Ben are what undo her prison cure.

In Disney's 1961 film, what finally ends Cruella's pursuit of the escaping puppies?

A car crash ends it, and her own men cause it: the Baduns' lorry swerves into Cruella's car and wrecks them both. The van carrying the puppies drives on to London.

Disney made its 1961 Dalmatian film fast and cheap after which lavish 1959 feature disappointed at the box office?

Sleeping Beauty was so lavish, and did so poorly, that the studio doubted animation could still pay. The cheaper spotted-dog film became the hit that kept the department alive.

Which writer of Home Alone wrote the screenplay for Disney's 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians?

John Hughes wrote and produced the remake, and brought it up to date: Roger, a struggling songwriter in the cartoon, now designs video games. Stephen Herek directed.

During which London music movement is the 2021 film Cruella set?

1970s punk rock suits the story: critics saw a young Vivienne Westwood in Estella, the grifter whose anti-establishment frocks are aimed squarely at fashion's old guard.