Dog Names Ending in ow

Movies can be great sources of information when you're interested in learning more about dogs in pop culture.  Our first pop culture dog whose name ends in "ow" is Shadow, one of the trio of animals from the Disney movie, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.  Shadow is a Golden Retriever, played by Ben, who is accompanied by Chance, an immature American Bulldog and Sassy, a Himalayan cat.  Shadow is portrayed as the oldest of the trio and feels the responsibility of caring and protecting his younger companions, whether they think they need it or not.  The trio belong to a woman and her children and, when the woman marries again and the newly formed family finds they must relocate for the husband's job,  they all travel several thousand miles to San Francisco. At some point after arriving in San Francisco, it becomes necessary for the human parents to temporarily leave their pets on a ranch in the care of a family friend.  Through a series of miscommunications, the trio is accidentally left alone on the ranch.  Thinking they have been abandoned, they travel through the wilderness and mountains, braving a variety of dangers, to get back to their home, where they happily reunite with their human family, who thought they'd lost them forever.

Unusual news events and stories are also great sources of information for learning about dogs in pop culture.  Our second pop culture dog whose name ends in "ow" is Arrow, a German Shepherd who is given the dubious honor of being the world's first anti-poaching skydiving dog!  The jump occurred in September 2016 from Waterkloof Air Force Base in South Africa, though it did not come to the attention of the media until December 2016.  While this was not the first time a dog jumped out of an airplane, Arrow did make his way into the Guinness record books by becoming the first dog to make a skydiving jump for purposes of preventing poaching.  You see, in South Africa, over 5900 Rhinos have been killed for their horns since 2008, with 1, 175 being poached in 2015, creating a serious survival issue for this species.  Arrow, chosen from puppy-hood,  was a natural for training for this type of operation. He first learned to descend from a helicopter on a rope while tethered to his handler and was progressively moved along until he was skydiving, strapped to the same handler.  Arrow is one of 200 canines who were bred and trained as part of the Paramount Group's Anti-Poaching and Canine Training Academy in Rustenberg, South Africa.   The Paramount Group is a manufacturer of weapons internationally which is based in South Africa.