Stealing the limelight since 1939, Toto from The Wizard of Oz is one of the most famous dogs in Hollywood history. This small and scruffy dog became the unsung hero of the film, trotting happily alongside Judy Garland and Co. before using his pesky pup energy to draw back the emerald curtain, revealing the true and shameful Wizard of Oz.

Toto was an icon of his era. But nearly 100 years on, some viewers are still left baffled by one question — What is Toto’s dog breed? Join us as we dive into the vibrant history of this celebrity canine and get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all.

Toto the Terrier

With 14 books in the original Wizard of Oz series, you’d think the franchise’s author L. Frank Baum would be able to pin down Toto’s dog breed. In the original book, The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz from 1900, Toto’s breed is never mentioned, but its illustrator, W.W. Denslow, depicted the soon-to-be star as a tiny, untidy looking black-brown Yorkshire Terrier. Though this decision could likely be due to the fact Denslow owned a Yorkie himself!

However, by the time Baum had finished off writing the 13 sequels to the original book, Toto is described as a Boston Terrier: a black and white breed which looks absolutely nothing like the Yorkie, barring its miniature size.

For the 1939 film, a young dog was picked who bears more resemblance to Denslow original illustrations, but it certainly wasn’t a Yorkie. It was a Cairn Terrier, who went by the name ‘Terry.’

Terry, the Real Toto

Toto was played by the purebred Cairn Terrier, Terry, a poor pup left abandoned at her dog school in 1933 and welcomed into its owners’ home, where she was trained to be a Hollywood movie star.

When it eventually came to casting the dog for The Wizard of Oz, the franchise’s author Baum left almost no concrete evidence of what breed Toto was really meant to be, leaving producers, studio execs and the like with the freedom to find the best Toto for the job, regardless of what sort of Terriers came through their audition doors.

Terry the Cairn Terrier ended up being an almost spot-on match for the scruffy pup first seen in Denslow’s illustrations, excluding the fact that Terry was female and playing a male dog. She made $125 a week on the film set, while the 124 actors who played the Munchkins were paid a shameful $50 per week (don’t worry, some Munchkins later went on to form the Little People of America activist group, who to this day campaign for equal rights and awareness for Americans with dwarfism).

Terry allegedly spent two weeks living with the film’s leading lady, Judy Garland, who adored the pup so much she tried to buy Terry from her owner, Carl Spitz, who refused to part ways with his star.

While Terry’s greatest role undoubtedly came as Toto, she also starred in Bright Eyes alongside Shirley Temple, as well as 21 additional, uncredited roles in Hollywood spanning from 1934 to 1945. She reached such dizzying levels of Hollywood fame that she was eventually signing autographs with her pawprint!

One of the saddest facts of Toto’s life came years after her death. Just over a decade after being buried on the grounds of the dog school she trained to be a movie star at, Terry’s grave was obliterated for the construction of the Ventura Freeway, the school relocating everything except Toto to their new Hollywood location. Film fans can now pay their respeects at her memorial marker at Hollywood Forever Cemetary

Toto and the Traits of a Cairn Terrier

The Toto we all know and love from the silver screen was played by a purebred Cairn Terrier. But how good a match was this breed to the personality of the dog in The Wizard of Oz?

Cairn Terriers are a Scottish breed, originating in the Isle of Skye and the Scottish Highlands around the 1600s and adopted by man to hunt small vermin such as mice and rats.

Rugged, loyal and protective, despite their tiny size, the bold personality of a Cairn terrier might be exactly what you need to fend off witches and flying monkeys with a crafty sense of mind. These persistent dogs can scavange between rocks to catch their vermin, sneaky and brave and assertive. Other than a huge guard dog (who wouldn’t have been able to scoot past the cast to craftily pull back the Wizard’s curtain), Dorothy couldn’t have asked for a better pup.

Why are Cairn Terriers so Rare in the 21st Century?

If you’re wondering why you’ve never seen a Toto dog in real life, it may be because the breed is, shockingly and unfortunately, on the cusp of exctinction, in its native UK at least. In 2013, over one thousand Cairn Terriers were born and registered in the UK; but by 2022, those numbers had fallen to 492.

Bill Lambert, spokesman for The Kennel Club, told the Telegraph in 2023, “While the cairn terrier can make a great pet for the right owner who understands their traits and working instincts, they are becoming a forgotten breed as they are just no longer seen in the country’s streets and parks.

“They had their heyday in the early 1900s, but with the influx of celebrity culture and ownership of smaller, more fashionable breeds, like chihuahuas and pugs, in the 2000s, these somewhat more exotic breeds instead became the fashionable choice.”

He added, “The public is perhaps now more easily influenced by the dogs that they commonly see on social media, with many other breeds getting overlooked or even forgotten.”

The Legacy of Toto and the Cairn Terrier

Bill Lambert’s interview might seem like a sad end to the story of the Cairn Terrier. But regardless of what lies in the future of this super cute dog breed, at least the world has Terry’s adorable legacy to help immortalise these Scottish dogs for future generations.

We’re animal lovers here at Clever Rabbits, and would love to see the numbers of these special critters reclaimed. If you’re a dog lover with some extra space at the end of your bed, a Toto of your own might be the next step forward!