I have a question for the dog people.

[TheLightSideOfTheMoon]

Can you use dog breeds to guess the era of a movie?

So, I’m good at guessing the era of a movie by the decor. DP does it by the technology.

Since various dog breeds have been in and out of fashion I wondered if you could do the same.

Legally Blonde is obviously 2000s because of Elle’s little handbag dog.

The dogs in the Titanic movie somehow looked convincingly 1910s. Or is that just clever filming?

At the moment the XL Bullies seem to be in fashion.

I don’t know much about dog breeds, but I wondered if the dogs in period pieces were ‘correct’.

Or is a dog just a dog and they don’t really lend themselves to trends.

As a cat person I genuinely have no idea. I’m intrigued.

I haven't paid a lot of attention to dogs in films, but farm animals are almost always incorrect for period in films

Can’t say I’ve noticed any xl bullies in films?

I know a lot about dog breed history. It’s quite often inaccurate in period films, but is indeed a good guide for films that were made when they were set. Dogs in films sometimes set trends, too: Rin Tin Tin in the 1920s fed a craze for what we now call German Shepherds, for example.

also many breeds now look very different from how they did in the past, making accuracy tricky for historical films even if the producers are aware of this. Great question!

Definitely makes sense about films influencing dog choices. The cairn terrier became popular after the wizard of oz and is now quite an unusual dog. I remember the papers saying Dalmatians became more popular after the live action Disney film.

How?

Do farming trends change?

Domestic and farm animals have changed massively over the last 1-200 years so nothing put on screen now is truly authentic for any era. I'm very good at picking up plot holes in period drama based on the architecture and clothing.

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon its not so much trends (though there are in conformation over the years but that is more tricky to critique in a general film), but many breeds in the UK will have a firm 'first import' date or first recognised as a breed as they were developed by crossing

I’m great at church and liturgy. Priests are almost always wearing the wrong robes/vestments, and period dramas in which they’re using the version of the marriage service that wasn’t written until the year 2000 are surprisingly common. Dogs is probably a lot more interesting, though!