Dog was owned by Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk), a seemingly incompetent homicide detective who always got his man. The choice of a droopy-eared basset hound perfectly matched the disheveled police officer who wore a dirty raincoat, drove a disheveled Peugeot and smoked cigars.

Columbo found Dog at the pound on the NBC MYSTERY MOVIE "Etude in Black." Dog made further appearances in the COLUMBO movies Catch Me, Forgotten Ladu, Make Me A Perfect Murder, and Now You See Him.

When it came to naming his pooch, the Lieutenant considered a number of names like Fido, Jet, Munich and Beethoven, but eventually, he just settled on "Dog" because as he once explained "He's a dog so we call him Dog."

Columbo's dog liked to eat ice cream, watch TV, swim in the neighbor's pool and visit the beach.

When Columbo sent his dog to obedience school hoping to improve the canine ("he just sits around the house and drools"), he was expelled because "he demoralizes the other students."

Ray Berwick owned and trained Dog who in real life was called Henry. Henry had also appeared on the medical drama EMERGENCY/NBC/1972-77 as the the mascot for Los Angeles County Squad 51 firehouse who just sat about and yawned.

TRIVIA NOTE: On the NBC produced episodes, Columbo's dog was originally called Fang. The spin-off series KATE LOVES A MYSTERY (MRS. COLUMBO)/NBC/1979 featured the wife of Detective Columbo, Kate Columbo (Kate Mulgrew) who owned a lazy basset hound dog named Whitefang.

Dog (a.k.a. "Higgins") was also the name of the family pet on the sitcom PETTICOAT JUNCTION/CBS/1963-70.