Did you know that it was the 1987 Super Bowl ad for Bud Light Beer that made the bull terrier Spuds MacKenzie a household name? Spuds was a sly ladies-dog and his real name was Honey Tree Evil Eye. There was much controversy after Spuds sensational rise to fame when people found out that Spuds was actually a female dog and not a male. Although Spuds died on May 31, 1993 from kidney failure, there are many urban legends about how this bull terrier died.
Here are some other little known facts about the breed:
Did you know that in the novel The Incredible Journey, an old white bull terrier named Bodger is a major character?
Did you know that originally there were toy, miniature, and standard bull terriers? There are now only the miniature and standard because the toy bull terrier fell out of favor.
Did you know that in the Academy Award winning CGI feature film Toy Story, released by Walt Disney Pictures, there is a bull terrier named Scud in the movie?
Did you know that in 1981, Rick Springfield's music album Working Class Dog featured a picture of his pet bull terrier named Ronnie?
Did you know that in the early eighteen hundreds they crossed the white English terrier, which is now extinct, and the bulldog to create a more agile, fearless bull-bating dog in this popular sport? This produced the Bull Terrier, known then as the Bull and Terrier. By the eighteen-fifties, the white-coated bull terriers became popular, fashionable pets of the aristocrats.
Did you know that the famous American illustrator and author of children's books, Chris Van Allsburg, owns a white and black bull terrier named Fritz that appears in every one of his books?
Did you know that in Juneau, Alaska, a stone-deaf bull terrier named Patsy Ann (1929-1942), had an unerring sense of ships approaching the harbor long before they came into sight and ran to the wharf to greet them? Dubbed Official Greeter of Juneau, Alaska by Mayor Goldstein in 1934, Patsy Ann, although born stone deaf, could somehow sense or hear these ships and even which pier the ships would use. Patsy Ann had no fixed address but everyone loved her, looked out for and fed her and it was very common to find her in hotel lobbies and beer parlors between ships visits. In 1992, they installed a bronze statue of Patsy Ann on the Juneau wharf where she still greets hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Did you know that in Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, the original Bullseye was a bull terrier?
Did you know that it is a myth miniature bull terriers have locking jaws? Many people mistakenly believe that once a miniature bull terrier bites, it cannot let go, which is not true. No dogs, regardless of the breed, can lock their bottom and top jaws together.
Did you know that some movies featuring a bull terrier include Babe Pig in the City, A Dog's Life, Derailed, Frankenweenie, and Patton?
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