Columbo's Dog

I was never a big fan of Columbo, although I do confess to having seen a few episodes in the 1970s. Not enough to remember the dog or its name; but of course we do have the Internet nowadays to help with such issues.

I've done some research, which has led me to the conclusion that Columbo's dog does not have a name. And this is not the same as being called Dog. Bear with me; I'm not just being pedantic here.

Some sites (e.g. Globalclue.com - a site that solves crossword clues) claim that the dog was called Fang. According to this answer on Yahoo!, 'On the NBC produced episodes, Columbo's dog was originally called Fang'. Earlier in the same answer, we are told that 'the Lieutenant at first considered a number of names like Fido, Jet, Munich and Beethoven, but eventually, he just settled on Dog because as he once explained "He's a dog so we call him Dog."'

I haven't been able to find this quote, but in a compilation on Vimeo entitled The Best of Columbo's Dog, Columbo says, "he doesn't have a name, my wife and I we could never agree on one. We just say hey, or dog, or whistle. Doesn't make any difference, he don't come when you call him anyway."

Earlier in the same compilation, a vet suggests the name Fido. Columbo looks unimpressed.

These are the only two references to the dog's name (or its lack of one) in an eight-and-a-half-minute compilation of the Best of Columbo's Dog. This, along with a lack of conclusive evidence elsehwere, is why I conclude that Columbo's dog does not have a name.

And here's why I'm not just being pedantic. If I'd answered "he doesn't have a name" to this question, I don't think I'd have been awarded the points. I strongly suspect that any question asker (after passing it over to the other side, if they hadn't already had a go) would say "no; his name is Dog", because this is what the question (or rather, the required answer) asserts.

And yet Columbo said it himself: "he doesn't have a name".