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 A Dog of Flanders A Dog of Flanders is an 1872 novel by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée published with her pseudonym "Ouida". It is about a Flemish boy named Nello and his dog, Patrasche and is set in Antwerp. In Japan and Korea the novel has been a children's classic for decades and was adapted into several Japanese films and anime. Since the 1980s, the Belgian board of tourism caught on to the phenomenon and built two monuments honoring the story to please East-Asian tourists. There is a small statue of Nello and Patrasche at the Kapelstraat