Strongheart

Welcome to the Strongheart (the dog) dediation site.  While Strongheart was not the first canine movie star 9that honor belongs to Jean a.k.a. the Vitagraph Dog), Strongheart was clearly the first canine hero star paving the way for more well known canine hero stars such as Rin Tin Tin and Lassie.

Born on October 1, 1917 (as Etzel Von Oeringen) in Germany he was trained as a police / military dog. The owner later sold Etzel to Laurence Trimble (who owned Jean previously) to become the next canine star. Despite never had played ball or been with a family, Laurence's dedicated training turned Etzel the attack dog into Strongheart the hero that tens of thousands of people fell in love with.

Strongheart had the ability to look very mean, attack, take down, rip off his fellow actors' clothing, bite, maul, and even look like the actor was being killed all while not leaving a single scratch on the actor's body (the clothes, on the other hand, usually suffered a different fate).