Saturday, June 14, 2008

Lassie in Shanghai!

We bumped into a beautiful Lassie ... oops Collie ... whilst in Shanghai. The owners let us play with her for a while :-)


ps - Did you know? Wikipedia says so ... But read the 'comments' feedback, there may be some incorrectness in the below!
The Lassie looks of sable coat with a white blaze, large white collar, and four white paws is legally trademarked. The collies are also intentionally bred oversized so that the males selected can work with older child stars.
All collies playing Lassie have been male, playing a female dog. The female collie loses her coat at least once a year, making it unsuitable for use year-round. Also, the male is larger and a child actor can play opposite the dog for longer before outgrowing him.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lassie's markings are not legally trademarked. Every sable and white collie born has the potential to carry the markings that Lassie carries. It would be impossible to trademark something that can occur naturally in collies.

The Lassie line is not bred to be oversized. Bob Weatherwax strives to keep the Lassie line within the collie breed standard and that does not allow oversize collies. Some of the past collies portraying Lassie were larger than others, but they were always within the breed standard.

Julian Si said...

Ah hah , thanks for the information ... hmmm, guess WIKIPEDIA needs some correction!!

Anonymous said...

Wikipedia has much wrong information on Lassie. I corrected it and put in the right information but the author of the wrong information went right back in and put the original wrong info right back in. It was going to esculate into a daily battle and I didn't have the time. So, yes, the Wikipedia info is very wrong.