Santa's Little Helper realistic dilemma faced by many families who own dogs. Other episode ideas come from popular culture. For example, Santa's Little Helper fathering 25 puppies in "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" is a parody of the Disney film "One Hundred and One Dalmatians", and Mr. Burns' technique of brainwashing him into an attack dog in "Dog of Death" parodies "A Clockwork Orange". Susan McHugh, who teaches theories of animals, literature, and culture at the University of New England, wrote in her 2004 book "Dog" that, "remaining loyal to his unlikely saviours, the boy Bart and his father Homer, this greyhound has
Brother's Little Helper which Homer and Marge go to see. Homer says that, since taking Focusyn, Bart has gone "from Goofus to Gallant", a reference to the characters Goofus and Gallant from the children's magazine "Highlights". When Lou sketches Bart based on Homer and Marge's description he ends up drawing Dennis from the comic strip "Dennis the Menace". A shirt at the military base Fort Fragg reads "I Went to the Persian Gulf and All I Got Was This Lousy Syndrome", a reference to Gulf War syndrome. In its original American broadcast on October 3, 1999, "Brother's Little Helper" finished at no. 51