South of the border they had Lassie, and sure, that collie was kind of a big deal. Benji had his run, and even the Shaggy D.A. was comedy gold. But in Canada, our canine hopes and dreams were personified in a crafty and anonymous German shepherd, star of the long-running TV show The Littlest Hobo.

The show first aired in 1963, although the story actually dates back to a 1958 American film. The plot is pretty straightforward: a dog wanders from town to town getting into mischief, rescuing folks and solving the odd caper.

It was such a success, that it aired in 80 countries. And if it isn’t currently available somewhere on the dial, most episodes can be found on YouTube.

The original series that ran in syndication from 1963 to 1965 was shot in British Columbia. It starred a dog by the name of London, but many other four-legged thespians were used from time to time, all of which were trained by Charles Eisenmann.

CTV brought the show back in 1979, and it ran again until 1985. During the show’s six seasons, many Canadian stars made appearances including Leslie Neilsen, Michael Ironside, Chris Makepeace, DeForest Kelley, Mike Myers, Al Waxman and Peter Spence.

This dog even rescued a pint-sized Megan Follows from a poisonous snake and an earthquake in one episode.

Over the years, our Little Hobo famously aided a supermodel under a hypnotic spell, stole a painting out of a crime boss’s safe and even helped a woman stuck in the woods and about to give birth.

Could Lassie do that? Doubtful.

But the greatest adventure could be the old Hidden Room episode from 1981, which is summarized as: “Hobo comes across an old farmhouse where a young nonverbal girl and her father are being blackmailed into conducting fake seances. By cleverly investigating and manipulating the mechanics of the ruse, Hobo is able to break the blackmailers’ hold, stop the fraud and free the father and daughter.” Aw, attaboy.