Spike (dog) Spike (dog) Spike (1952-1962) was a lop-eared yellow Mastador (Mastiff/Labrador Retriever mix) and a dog actor best known for his performance as Old Yeller in the 1957 Disney film of the same name co-starring Tommy Kirk, Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, and Kevin Corcoran. Spike was rescued as a pup from a shelter in Van Nuys, California and became the pet and pupil of animal trainer Frank Weatherwax. Spike also appeared as Patrasche in 20th Century Fox's "A Dog of Flanders" with Donald Crisp and David Ladd in 1959 and as King in the 1956 film, "The She-Creature". In 1961, Spike
A Dog of Flanders open. The next morning, the boy and his dog are found frozen to death in front of the triptych. The novel shares a reasonable notability in the United Kingdom and the United States of America and is extremely popular in South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, to the point where it is seen as a children's classic. It inspired film and anime adaptations, including the 1975 animated TV series "Dog of Flanders" which reached an audience of 30 million viewers on its first broadcast. In Belgium the story is more obscure. Only in 1987 did it receive a Dutch translation;