Old Yeller: the true story behind the book and the dog

Part 1

Where the story of Old Yeller comes from

Fred Gipson published Old Yeller in 1956, and he later called it his finest work. The novel is set in the Texas Hill Country just after the Civil War, in the 1860s. It follows fourteen-year-old Travis Coates, who is left in charge of the family farm while his father is away on a cattle drive. A stray yellow dog shows up at the homestead, and the family comes to depend on him as he faces down threats from wild animals.

You can trace a lot of that world back to Gipson's own upbringing. He was born on a farm near Mason, Texas, in the same Hill Country where the novel is set. He worked a range of farming and ranching jobs as a young man before he became a writer. Gipson credited his father, an avid hunter and a skilled storyteller, as the source of his own gift for telling stories.

Part 2

The 1957 Disney film and how it changed the story

If you only know Old Yeller from the screen, the book came first by about a year. Walt Disney Studios adapted the novel into a film released in 1957, the year after the book came out. The dog on screen was played by a dog named Spike, a Labrador Retriever and Mastiff mix who was found as a puppy in a California shelter. Hollywood animal trainer Frank Weatherwax trained Spike for the role. The film kept the story's tragic turn, and one critic later called it among the best boy-and-dog films ever made.

Part 3

Is Old Yeller based on a real dog

You might wonder if a specific real dog sat behind the character, the way some famous dogs in history did. His earlier novel Hound-Dog Man drew on the life of a real Hill Country acquaintance named Charlie Sanders.

Part 4

What breed is Old Yeller meant to be

In the book, Old Yeller is described as a yellow cur, and some sources point to a Black-mouthed Cur in particular. His name plays on two things at once: the color of his coat and the sound of his bark, which is compared to a human yell. On screen, Spike the dog actor was a Labrador Retriever and Mastiff mix, which does not match the book's description. Spike's golden coat has also led some people to guess he was a Carolina Dog, but that is not the case.

Part 5

Why the ending still resonates with readers

You likely remember how the story ends, even if you have not read it in years. Old Yeller is bitten while defending the family from a rabid wolf. Fearing the dog will become rabid himself and endanger the family, Travis is forced to put him down. The threat of rabies in the story reflects the era's limited medical knowledge and the real dangers of frontier life. Old Yeller has been hailed as a cultural icon.

Part 6

Old Yeller's legacy in popular culture

Gipson wrote a sequel novel, Savage Sam, published in 1962, which Disney also turned into a film in 1963. A second sequel, Little Arliss, was published after Gipson's death in 1978. The dog that inspired Savage Sam was Gipson's own family dog, which was later found clubbed to death. Old Yeller itself received a Newbery Honor, along with the William Allen White Children's Book Award and the Young Reader's Choice Award.

• The novel was published in 1956 and won a Newbery Honor the following year.
• The Disney film followed in 1957, with Spike playing the title dog.
• The sequel Savage Sam reached screens in 1963, after the 1962 novel.