Analysis / Dog Stereotype

Dog Breed Gender Stereotypes

Fluffy, little, or lithe, sleek-looking dogs are more readily assumed to be female and large, beefy, muscular, or athletic-looking dogs are more readily assumed to be male. Some breeds of dog are more readily assumed to be female than others, particularly if they're delicately-built, have long, flowing, feathery hair, or are elaborately groomed.

Sometimes, dog breed gender stereotypes are based on famous movie or television dogs that share the breed.

Sometimes, dogs belonging to a given breed who are the opposite gender of the gender their breed is usually stereotyped as. These should be listed as aversions or, if they they portray the breed stereotypes otherwise, as subversions.

Breed Gender Stereotype Examples:

Stereotyped as Female

Poodles (whether standard, miniature, or toy)

• Subverted with poodle Fifi from Open Season 2 as even though he portrays poodle stereotypes, he is male.
• Subverted in Angela Anaconda; Nanette's purebred poodle who likes to roll around in mud and garbage, Ooh-La-La, is male.
• An episode of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! has Scooby crushing on a Poodle actress.
• A Subaru commercial has a family of dogs where the husband is a Labrador Retriever and the wife is a Golden Retriever. The wife gets annoyed when her mate stares too hard at a female Poodle walking by.
• The female dog Hot Dog falls for in the "Jingle Jangle" video from The Archie Show is a Poodle.
• Subverted with a Poodle in The Secret Life of Pets. He also avoids stereotypes by enjoying Heavy Metal music.
• Fifi from All Dogs Go to Heaven is a spoiled, literal Alpha Bitch.
• Harriet from Animal Crossing is a Poodle who is in charge of the local hair salon, Shampoodle
• Averted in Martha Speaks. There is a spoilt, male poodle named Francois, a non-stereotypical male poodle named Cisco, and a non-stereotypical female poodle named Estelle.
• Fred Basset: Fred's girlfriend is a poodle named Fifi.

Afghans

Salukis

• Rita from Oliver & Company is The Heart of the main group.

Bichon Frises

Malteses

• Sunshine from Survivor Dogs is a pampered but sweet female Maltese.

Shih Tzus

• Averted with Shokora from Massugu ni Ikou, who is a male.
• Starting with New Leaf, the Series Mascot of Animal Crossing is the mayoral assistant Isabelle. Averted with her twin brother Digby.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniels

• Trope Codifier: Charlotte’s dog, Elizabeth Taylor from Sex and the City: Because of Elizabeth Taylor, Cavalier Kings Charles Spaniels are stereotyped as female.
• Zoe from Littlest Pet Shop (2012) is a fashion-savvy female Cavalier.

Yorkshire Terriers

• Averted with Sebastian from Massugu ni Ikou. Despite his effeminate appearance he is a male.

Cocker Spaniels

• Lady from Lady and the Tramp is a female English Cocker Spaniel. Her Cocker-looking daughters from Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure should look like mutts but inherited her Cocker Spaniel looks. Zigzagged in the earlier Scamp, where one of the puppies is male.

Spaniels

• Sasha from All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 is a female Spaniel in contrast to the male German Shepherd protagonist.
• Dixie from The Fox and the Hound 2 is a female Spaniel who also wears a bow. She is a singer in a band of stray dogs.

Collies

• Lassie is female, even though she's played by males.
• Averted with the titular Mr. Pickles, who's a male Border Collie Hellhound Villain Protagonist and a Right-Hand Attack Dog.

Pomeranians

Stereotyped as Male

Saint Bernards

• Trope Codifier: Beethoven: Saint Bernards are usually stereotyped as male anyway, but Beethoven has reinforced this Saint Bernard stereotype.
• Averted with Nana from Disney's Peter Pan as she is female and doesn't really play to her breed's stereotypes apart from being friendly.
• Brennus from Doglands is Furgul's mentor and Parental Substitute.

Mixed Breed Dogs or Mutts

• Tramp from Lady and the Tramp is a wire haired mutt. In the sequel movie his only son is the one who looks like a mix, though his daughters are technically mixed breeds despite looking like purebred Cocker Spaniels. The Scamp comic that predates the sequel averts this by having one of the Cocker-looking puppies be male.
• The main character is the Benji series is a male mutt.
• Dodger from Oliver & Company is a street-smart mutt who looks like he might have some terrier in him.
• Zigzagged with Skye from PAW Patrol. On one side she is a mix so she subverts the stereotype that they're male. On the other hand she is a Poodle/Cocker mix, and both breeds are stereotyped as female in fiction. Rocky, on the otherhand, is a male mutt.
• The protagonist of Massugu ni Ikou is a mix breed dog named Mametarou.
• Averted in Martha Speaks: It has Skits, a male mutt, but also Martha, a female mixed breed, who is the protagonist.
• The main three mutts in Doglands are Furgul (a lurcher/greyhound mix), his dad Argal (a lurcher), and Skyver (a mongrel). They're all male. Furgul also had three sisters, but two died in the first three chapters and the other disappeared in the beginning chapters as well.
• A Dog's Purpose: The main protagonist begins his first life as a stray mutt on the streets with his siblings and mother until they are captured and taken in by a kind woman who takes care of them in a big open yard. Somewhat Averted in the sequel, when he is reincarnated as a Cocker Spaniel/Poodle mix, his gender is revealed to be female. As mentioned before, both Poodles and Spaniels are usually stereotyped as female breeds.
• Averted in A Dog's Way Home. The narrator, Bella, is a large female mutt. It's mentioned tha she could be a pitbull/staffordshire terrier mix, a mastiff mix, or a rottweiler mix. All three are normally stereotyped as male.

Dobermans

• Alpha and Beta from Up are both male.
• Roscoe and De Soto from Oliver & Company.

Rottweilers

• Nugent from Over the Hedge is an overly friendly Rottie.

Labrador Retrievers

• Main character Brian Griffin of Family Guy is a Funny Animal Labrador Retriever.
• Krypto The Super Dog is a Labrador-looking dog however is technically an alien breed.
• Subverted with Daisy from Dog's Life. She is a Proper Lady Damsel in Distress instead of the typically goofy, or heroic, male.
• Clifford the Big Red Dog is a giant, red-colored Lab.
• Doglands: Pace is a minor character. He's a seeing-eye dog Labrador.
• Max from The Last Dogs who is heroic and noble and The Determinator.
• The Incredible Journey. Luath, the young, wise and energetic red-gold Labrador.
• Zuma from PAW Patrol is a chocolate Labrador Retriever puppy who works as a water rescuer and helps sea animals from underwater emergencies.
• Labby from Where the Dead Go to Die is a Labrador Hellhound.

Pit Bull breeds

• Carface from All Dogs Go to Heaven is a villainous Staffie mob boss.
• The original Team Pet Petey from The Little Rascals is either a Staffordshire Terrier or an American Pit Bull Terrier depending on the source.
• Cyril, a minor character in Doglands, is a not-so-smart but well-meaning pit bull.
• Bodger, the wise yet goofy Bull terrier in The Incredible Journey who has a knack for putting up a good fight when he wants to just for the fun of it.

Bulldogs

• One of the narrators in The Gingerbread Girl is a male English Bulldog.
• Chance from Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is a young American Bulldog who formerly lived on the streets.
• Booker from Animal Crossing is an English Bulldog that work as in the police force (as a town guard in Wild World).
• Rubble from PAW Patrol is an English Bulldog puppy who works in construction and is a frequent source of the shows humour.
• Kinnear from Doglands is a male English bulldog.

Hound breeds

• Droopy, the laid-back, heroic white Basset Hound.
• Huckleberry Hound, the tone deaf, relaxed, well-intentioned banjo-playing Coonhound who speaks in a Southern drawl.
• Pluto is a yellow-orange Bloodhound with black ears. He also has the iconic large wisdom bump on his head that Bloodhounds are known to have.

Jack Russell Terriers

• The titular protagonist of Wishbone is a Jack Russell who loves reading.
• Max from The Secret Life of Pets is a Jack Russell Terrier.

Boston Terriers

• Feast is a short about a male Boston Terrier with Big Eater qualities.

Pugs

• Percy, the high-class spoiled Pug from Pocahontas.
• Frank the Pug from the Men in Black series. He's actually an alien, but his true form is revealed to still resemble that of a Pug's.
• Puppy Dog Pals: Bingo and Rolly are two fun-loving Pug puppies who enjoy going on adventures, traveling, chewing on things and eating food.

German Shepherds

• The titular character of Bolt is (supposedly) a White Shepherd.
• Charlie from All Dogs Go to Heaven is a German Shepherd who died but gets to go back to Earth.
• Chase from PAW Patrol is a German Shepherd puppy who works with the police force, although his coloring and markings doesn't exactly look much like a German Shepherd's.
• The heroic titular German Shepherd from Rin Tin Tin.
• Averted with Dervla from Doglands. She's Furgul's Love Interest and is a German shepherd.

Beagles

• The most common dog in Story of Seasons is a Beagle whose Canon Name is "Koro". His gender is rarely stated in-series but he's meant to be male.
• The titular dog in Shiloh is male.
• Snoopy from Peanuts is officially a Beagle despite his looks.
• Captain Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise owns a male Beagle named Porthos.
• The Beagle Boys in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe are Card Carrying Villains with Dogfaces resembling those of beagles. Averted with their queenpin Ma Beagle, who's a female beagle and is as much as villainous.

Great Danes

• Scooby-Doo is probably the Trope Codifier. He's a Cowardly Lion Great Dane meant to subvert everything a Dane should be, according to the Breed Standard.
• Marmaduke is one of the more popular depictions of a Great Dane in fiction. He's clumsy but lovable.
• The eponymous Hound in many live-action adaptations of The Hound of the Baskervilles is a Great Dane trained to emulate the Hellhound traits and to murder the Baskerville family members.

Either/Or

Daschunds

• Sora from Massugu ni Ikou is a short tempered Dachshund bitch.

Chihuahuas

• Papi and Chloe from Beverly Hills Chihuahua, the latter being a Hot-Blooded heroine.

Dalmatian

• Pongo, Perdita and their puppies from 101 Dalmatians.

Golden Retrievers

• The entire Retriever family from the Subaru commercials. The mom is depicted as a Golden Retriever while the dad is a Labrador, but sometimes the roles will reverse with the dad being a Golden Retriever and the mom as the Lab.

Huskies

• Everest from PAW Patrol is a Husky puppy who lives in the snowy mountain and uses a snowmobile to clear snow blocking the way.
• Maya, the pack leader from Eight Below.
• Jenna in Balto is a fluffy red and white husky who wears an orange bandanna around her neck.

Dog Coat Color Stereotypes

Unlike cat appearance stereotypes, dog appearance stereotypes focus on breed rather than coat color or pattern. However, there are a few dog coat color, pattern, and texture stereotypes.

Black, Dark Brown, or Black and Tan Fur

Often portrayed as an Angry Guard Dog or a Hell Hound. Dobermans and Rottweilers, which are often portrayed as Angry Guard Dog's, are normally black and tan.

Examples

• Alpha the Doberman and Beta the Rottweiler from Up are antagonistic.
• Cerberus, the three-headed Hell Hound is portrayed as black in Hercules
• Fluffy the three-headed dog in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (inspired by Cerberus) is very dark brown. The Black Dog is considered a portent of bad luck and evil, but the one that shows up is not evil at all. Fang the Boarhound (played by a Neapolitan Mastiff) from the same movie is a subversion, as he is large and scary-looking, but he's actually a Big Friendly Dog.
• Black and tan Angry Guard Dogs are the origin of the well known Discworld saying "Never trust a dog with orange eyebrows".
• The Doberman Pinchers in Oliver & Company, Rosco and Desoto, are Sykes' Right Hand Attack Dogs.
• Subverted with Nugent the Rottweiler in Over the Hedge as he is just enthusiastically playful.
• Subverted with Gaspard, the black dog in Gaspard And Lisa as he is a good natured protagonist. The other black dogs in his family are also generally good natured.
• Killer from Dog's Life is the Diabolical Dog Catcher's dog is a Doberman who is constantly chasing Jake and trying to capture him.
• Subverted with Den from Fullmetal Alchemist. She's a large, mostly black colored dog but is very sweet.
• A group of savage dogs attack ThunderClan in Warrior Cats. They're described as large, black-and-tan dogs.
• The Fierce Dogs from Survivor Dogs are a pack of ex-guard dogs predominantly made of Dobermans. The White Sheep who was raised in the Wild Pack instead is Storm, who has a brown fur tone.
• Double subverted with Dervla from Doglands. She's a black German shepherd who Furgul falls in love with at the park with his owners. They part, but later she appears again as an Angry Guard Dog. She was kidnapped and forced into becoming a duo of thieve's guard dog. They beat her into a Broken Bird who will kill without flinching. Despite this, she's still a nice dog deep-down and doesn't hurt those who don't hurt her back.
• The brown/tan and black Bella from A Dog's Way Home is an aversion. She's a sweet Big Friendly Dog.

Yellow, Brown, or Light Brown Fur

Often portrayed as an average Joe, a mutt, on the side of good, or protagonist dog. Villainous examples border on Scavengers Are Scum territory. More often male.

Examples

• Max, who is the protagonist of The Last Dogs, is a Labrador retriever who's mentioned to have golden-yellow fur. He's also an average pet who's determined to cross the country to find his owners.
• Luath, one of the protagonists in The Incredible Journey. He is a reddish-gold Labrador who also the average pet like his two companions who are trying to make it across the country in the wilderness to find their humans. Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and its sequel has Shadow, the wise and noble reddish-gold Golden Retriever.
• The Fox and the Hound and the film loosely based on it have contrasting takes on a brown dog. In both cases, Copper is a protagonist, but his book incarnation is a bloodhound-mix and his portrayal leans heavily on his Jerkass streak and his Green-Eyed Monster personality, and the fact that he's a dog and doesn't have the same perspective or morals that a human would, to the point that he comes across as a Villain Protagonist to some readers. The Disney version of Copper, a purebred bloodhound, is instead a more straightforwardly heroic hound who is childhood friends with the titular fox, Tod.
• The Subaru commercials sometimes have either a dad as the Labrador Retriever or the mom.
• Mr. Peanutbutter in BoJack Horseman is a relentlessly peppy Golden Retriever. While a celebrity, he's known for his public image as a down-to-earth and loveable Nice Guy. He's also The Ditz.

Mostly or Completely White Fur

All-White or Mostly White, Non-Powderpuff-Looking Fur

Often portrayed as an intelligent, on the side of good, or protagonist dog. Most often Male. If mostly white, the dog usually has black ears or less commonly a black patch on its back as well, but is otherwise all-white.

Examples

• Mr. Peabody, protagonist of the Mr. Peabody & Sherman segments of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a very smart, all-white dog.
• Brian Griffin of Family Guy is a smart, snarky, all-white Labrador Retriever.
• Krypto The Super Dog is a heroic all-white Labrador Retriver from the planet Krypton.
• The titular dog of Bolt is a naive, but heroic white German Shepard.
• Hemlock Holmes the white Bulldog, one of the five main characters in The Dick Tracy Show, is heroic and an aversion of Bully Bulldog.
• Lisa the white dog in Gaspard and Lisa is a good natured protagonist and her family is also pretty nice and kindly.
• Snoopy the smart Beagle in Peanuts is white with black ears and a black patch on his back. He is often a protagonist in the Peanuts franchise.
• Dudley Puppy of T.U.F.F. Puppy is white with black ears. He isn't that smart, but he is on the side of good and fights evil.
• Ahnuld the dog from Tiny Toon Adventures is arrogant and egotistical, but technically good as his job as a "security guard".
• Hanako from Massugu ni Ikou is a white Kishu and the caring mate of the mutt protagonist.
• The titular protagonist of Fred Basset is a male Basset Hound with white fur and brown markings. He's intelligent and snarky.
• The protagonist of Doglands, Furgul, is implied to be a predominantly white lurcher male.
• Loona from Helluva Boss is a white wolf-dog Hellhound with black accentuations. A subversion of "good, heroic white dog" stereotype, she has the mean and angry Jerkass streak of both the savage wolf-dog and the Hellhound.

All-White, Powderpuff-Looking Fur

Often portrayed as a showy, cute, or feminine-looking Poodle, Bichon Frise, or other dog of similar appearance. Often Female, but can be male. Can be on the side of good like the aforementioned white dog stereotype.

Examples

• Snowy from Tintin is the titular character's pet dog and sidekick.
• Big Fido from Men at Arms is a subversion/parody: he's a small white poodle with Killer Rabbit tendencies.
• Gidget the spunky white fluffy Pomeranian from The Secret Life of Pets.

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