Pooch the Pup in The Lumber Champ 1933

Pooch the Pup is a funny animal cartoon character, an anthropomorphic dog, appearing in Walter Lantz cartoons during the studio's black-and-white era, and is the first recurring character to be made by Walter Lantz. The character appeared in 13 shorts made in 1932 and 1933. In 1931, Walter Lantz was encountering slight financial troubles. One way to cope with the problems was to conceive a new series featuring a new character, thus leading to the appearance of Pooch the Pup. While Lantz went on to direct the Pooch the Pup shorts, his colleague Bill Nolan would focus on the long-running Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. When surprised about something, Pooch would say “Heh!“ in a squeaky fashion. And when his girlfriend is in trouble, he pounds his chest and makes a Tarzan-esque shout before moving.