Those with Mountie-like faculties will have noticed that Diefenbaker appears to suffer from a rare genetic disease: he changes form and shape (and sometimes sex!) seemingly at will. There’s a Real Life (how tiresome!) reason for this metamorphosis.

Diefenbaker is referred to casually as a ‘wolf’ but, when pressed, Fraser admits in Red, White or Blue that his faithful friend is a cross between a wolf – an Arctic wolf, which in turn is actually just a strain of the timber wolf, not a separate breed – and a Siberian husky. The dogs that play Diefenbaker, on the other hand, are all true Siberian huskies with the exceptions of the Malamutes, Frankie and Newman in The Pilot.

Two Malamutes (or Malamute crosses) played Dief in The Pilot; Newman and Frankie. Newman was what I would consider to be the main performer for the simple reason he has more scenes; it looks to me like Frankie was mainly used for distance shots. Lastly, it is always Newman in the Toronto-shot scenes.

Newman was named after film star Paul Newman because he shares the same (well, not the same!) blue eyes. He looks very wolf-like with his rough grey coat and piercing blue eyes. He has whiter ears and a very white face and snout. As I say he has the wolf’s share of scenes. That’s him in the plane – and therefore on the opening credits, getting intimate with Ray at the quarantine station, at the bar and at the cabin’s shed when he ‘hears’ a noise. Which Dief was lying injured is more taxing but I think it was Newman.

Paul Gross in the IRC interview was asked why Dief was changed between The Pilot and the series and he replied he didn’t know but possibly the dog was too expensive. Other rumors about the dog’s acting abilities abound but possibly the better explanations is distance: Newman lives in California.

Frankie was the distance dog. Frankie is shaggier, with darker fur but the biggest difference is the ears and snout. Frankie has very dark hairy ears and has quite a bit of grey on his snout. There’s a picture of Frankie in Tibballs’ Companion. Key scenes for Frankie included bounding around in the snow looking for clues surrounding Bob’s murder – he’s having a great time wagging his tail and barking – and rushing over to Gerrard. He also appears with Fraser as he approaches his cabin for the first time though by the time he has entered the cabin, Newman has taken over.

When a fan thinks of Dief, they invariably think of Lincoln. This pure bred Siberian Husky has coarse white fur with splashes of red along his back and sides and a reddish nose. That’s him on the back cover of The Pilot video. Lincoln was the ‘actor’ Diefenbaker, the dog who had the most screen time and who provided the reaction shots and the emotion. When the series was resurrected for the third season fans assumed Lincoln would be reprising his role. However the new executive producer fired him in favor of Draco.

Despite his good looks and winning whimpers, Lincoln did on occasion prove difficult to work with. Both Paul and David have spoken out about his inability to act on cue – understandably – and the story about Dief falling on top of the bad guy Claude in A Cop is now legendary.

At the time of the first season Lincoln was only a juvenile doggy with immature bones so he was not able to perform difficult stunts. Instead two other stunt dogs took Dief’s place which is why in the early episodes particularly a lot of scenes are non-Lincoln ones.

Chinook was Lincoln’s main stunt double. He has a shorter nose and more fur around the neck. He also has a much much whiter coat and is missing the tell-tale Y mark on the face. His nose looks blacker too. In essence, if it is a close up shot of Dief, it won’t be Chinook!

Kaery-Ann performed some stunts as Dief but also did some acting and was the primary photo double. This is where it gets tricky because she looks astonishingly like Lincoln! In fact, it took me ages staring at two pictures to see any differences at all. She is smaller in height that Lincoln and fluffier and is a girl dog. Lincoln looks to have quite short fur whereas Kaery-Ann’s is just that bit longer, especially around the neck. They both have a similar mark running down from their foreheads to just above the eyes. Lincoln’s looks like a Y but Kaery-Ann’s is more like two lines that do not meet. She also has brown tips to her ears. Unfortunately during some action shots you see the dog for mere seconds – and at a distance – so guessing which dog it is is nigh on impossible.

Let’s take Free Willie as a good episode for Dief-spotting. Lincoln can be seen running up the stairs to Benny’s new apartment and growling at Willie in the flying boyscout scene. That’s Chinook climbing the wire fence and doing the barking and growling when the Riv is broken into. I think he’s also the Dief watching the bad guy in the postal depot (it’s definitely not Linc). As to the hunt for the bonds in the trash scene – I dunno. I don’t think it’s Linc because the dog is quite small; if I had to make a guess I’d go for Kaery-Ann as the coat had red and the dog has a marked face. if anyone knows fur sure, lemme know!

Again in Dief’s Day Off, I don’t think it’s Linc jumping through the dog catcher van but it is Lincoln being caught in the snare. In Manhunt I think it may be Chinook doing the jumping at the door and racing across the roof. Take a look and see if you can tell the difference.