| The name of the Taco Bell dog is Gidget.
Lassie wasn't the only fake "lad" in the animal entertainment world. The famous Collie, who starred in a television series that lasted (on and off) from the late 50s into the 70s, was actually a male Collie, because they have a lusher coat and are bigger, to make them seem more capable of some of Lassie's famous stunts.
One of the other fakes was the Taco Bell dog, a brief, barking flame in the world of t.v. advertising, hawking fast food snacks for the Taco Bell company from 1997-2000. The marketing company that came up with the concept, wanted to portray the hyper, Spanish speaking little dog, as a typical teenage male, with only food and girls on his mind. The only problem with that, is that the Taco Bell dog was a female, named Gidget.
Gidget was owned by Paul Calabria, the head of Studio Animal Services in California. She held the spotlight in most of the commercials, with an occasional love interest played by a dog named Dinky, who is often mistaken for the real chalupa. Dinky also served as a stand-in or back up for Gidget, as did Taco, another Chihuahua who was originally rescued from an animal shelter in Florida.
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