Rescued by Chuck Jones from the Warner Bros. character pound where he had been abandoned, Charlie Dog had first appeared in Bob Clampett’s 1941 Porky’s Pooch.   Jones, however, had found an altogether different dog upon his release from the ‘pound’ and it is this dog that debuted in Jones’ Little Orphan Airedale of 1947.

“Charlie Dog is one of my favorite characters.  I don’t understand him, but I do like him.  He is so unquestionably a dog.  Charlie is merely trying to find a master and a home, which are perfectly natural ambitions for any dog.  Comedy is always concerned with simple matters such as this.”—Chuck Jones, Chuck Reducks, Drawing From the Fun Side of the Life

Filmography, all directed by Jones:

• Little Orphan Airedale (1947) with Porky
• The Awful Orphan (1949) with Porky
• Often an Orphan (1949) with Porky
• Dog Gone South (1950) with Colonel Shuffle and Belvedere
• A Hound for Trouble (1951)

Although foreshadowed in Little Orphan Airedale, it wasn’t until Often an Orphan that Charlie Dog produced his greatest sales pitch, to be whatever you need him to be.  Whether it’s 50 percent Pointer (pointing), 50 percent Boxer (boxing), 50 percent Setter (setting), 50 percent Spitz (into a spittoon, no less!), 50 percent Pinscher (ouch!) or 100 percent Labrador Retriever!  He says, “If you doubt my word, get me a labrador and I’ll retrieve it!”  Best of all, Charlie Dog is 100 percent “Saint" Bernard (with the emphasis on saint.)