The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever is ranked by the American Kennel Club as the 89^th most popular dog breed in the world. This goes to show that the Toller is not as popular as other Retriever-type of dogs such as the Golden Retriever and Labrador Retriever. In fact, the Toller is considered a rare breed and is recognized mostly only by avid hunters or fans of the breed. For this very reason, there are not much references to the Toller in pop culture works. Perhaps the most memorable Toller that was ever featured in pop culture is “The Laughing Dog”, from the old classic video game called Duck Hunt.

Duck Hunt is a Japanese shooter video game that was created by Nintendo and first released in Japan in 1984. It was made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console and was subsequently released, and then in North America in 1985 before being released in Europe 2 years later, in 1987. In the game, the player would have to use the NES zapper, a light gun that comes with the console, in order to shoot the ducks that show up on screen. Typically, one or two ducks will appear at any given time and the player is given three chances to shoot them down. Each duck that is shot is equivalent to a certain number of points. Once a player collects the amount of points required in the round, the player moves on to the next round. Otherwise, the game will end. The game gets more and more difficult as the player advances to a higher round, wherein the targets move at a faster pace.

“The Laughing Dog”, or simply “The Dog”, is an infamous character in the Duck Hunt game. In the original version of the game, The Dog is simply there as a display. At the start of each game, The Dog will show up and sniff on the ground before jumping and hiding in the grass. Whenever a player fails to shoot a duck, The Dog will slowly emerge from the grass and start laughing at the player. Likewise, if the player successfully shoots down a duck, The Dog will appear with a duck in his hand. The laughing sound The Dog makes has become iconic and is remembered by almost anyone who has ever played the game. In the later versions of Duck Hunt, the dog can be shot when he starts laughing.

Although it has been years since Duck Hunt was first released, it remains to be a timeless video game. Along with the game’s popularity comes The Dog’s notoriety, who happens to be the game’s most famous character.