Prison Dog

"Now, where's that dog with the keys?"

The Prison Dog was a canine owned by Captain Edward Teague. Through unknown circumstances, the dog ended up in Port Royal, where he was employed to hold onto the jailer's keys at the Fort Charles prison in Port Royal. He was highly loyal to the jailer, and was not swayed by prisoners' attempts to steal the keys, except for Captain Jack Sparrow who almost succeeded, though he was ultimately lured away from his post by Pintel, who escaped the jail with Ragetti. The dog was usually referred to as the "dog with the keys", and was once called "Poochie" by Pintel. Around the War Against Piracy, the dog became the chief of the Pelegostos, which was shortly lived as he escaped and returned to his original master.

Biography

Shipwreck Island

"That's Teague's prison dog. He keeps the keys to everything, including the dungeons, for Teague. I grew up with that mutt...it was one of my chores to feed him. Dog has a taste for rum—but only the good stuff."

―Jack Sparrow to Esmeralda^[src]

This dog was an animal employed by Captain Edward Teague to keep the keys to everything, including the dungeons of Shipwreck City. When he was a young boy, one of Jack Sparrow's duties was to feed the dog. Unlike other dogs, this one had a taste for rum.^[5]

A few years later, Jack's friend Christophe-Julien de Rapièr was accused of being one of the infamous rogue pirates who broke the Code of the Pirate Brethren. He and his whole crew were imprisoned in the dungeons of Shipwreck City and sentenced to hang. To help Christophe to escape, Jack and his friend Esmeralda sneaked into Teague's cabin on the Troubadour, and stole the keys from the dog.^[5]

Port Royal Prison

"Come on, doggy. It's just you and me now. It's you and old Jack. Come on. Come on. That's a boy. Good boy. Come get the bone. That's a good boy. Come on. A bit closer. A bit closer. That's it. That's it, doggy. Come on, you filthy, slimy, mangy cur. No, no, no. Don't do that. No, no, no, no, no! I didn't mean it. I didn't..."

―Jack Sparrow to the Prison Dog^[src]

Through unknown circumstances, the dog ended up in the British colony of Port Royal, Jamaica. The dog served at Fort Charles prison around the time of Jack Sparrow's incarceration. Jack took one look at his doggy jailer and decided that he was no more likely to hand over the keys than a human guard.^[6] Desperate to avoid the hangman, the seedy prisoners tried to coax the Prison Dog, who held a ring of keys in his mouth, to their cell. One prisoner held a loop of rope and another waggled a bone, while the dog just sat and cocked his head. "The dog is never going to move." Jack told his fellow prisoners as they tried to lure the hound within reach with a bone. Jack's criminal companions were desperate to avoid the hangman. Though they couldn't tempt the Prison Dog, a cannonball set them free.^[1]

As the Prison Dog cowered under a long bench, with the key ring still in his mouth. Jack then picked up the bone from the other cell, and tried coax the dog to him. The dog crawled out from under the bench as Jack continued to coax him closer. The key ring was nearly within Jack's reach, when the dog's attention went to the door into the cell block and dashed away as the door burst open. Two pirates, Koehler and Twigg, stepped in looking for the armory.^[1]

Governor Weatherby Swann later inquired as to the whereabouts of the Prison Dog (and the keys he carried) when seeking an audience with his daughter during her imprisonment in a cell at the Fort Charles prison.^[2]

Pelegosto

"Well I say it was Divine Providence what escaped us from jail."
"And I say it was me being clever. Ain't that right Poochie?"

―Ragetti and Pintel^[src]

When Pintel and Ragetti were held in the prisons following the battle at Isla de Muerta, Pintel used a trick that allowed him to gain possession of both the keys and the dog, who accompanied them to Pelegosto Island. There, the dog was left behind by the crew of the Black Pearl, though the Pelegostos made him their new chief. It was customary for the Pelegostos to consume the flesh of their chiefs, in the belief that it would release their divine spirit from its fleshy prison.^[2]

Escape to Shipwreck Cove

"That can't... How did..."
"What?"
"Sea turtles, mate."

―Ragetti, Pintel and Teague about the Prison Dog^[src]

The Prison Dog somehow managed to avoid this grisly fate, and joined the Brethren Court at Shipwreck Cove, where he provided Captain Teague with the key to the Pirata Codex. Pintel and Ragetti were baffled as to how the dog could have escaped the island, though Teague's only explanation was that it escaped with the help of "sea turtles"—an excuse commonly favored by his son. The pirates appeared satisfied with this answer.^[4] His further fate is unknown.

Behind the scenes

"You can keep doing that forever. The dog is never going to move."

―Jack Sparrow to the seedy prisoners^[src]

The Prison Dog first appeared as a beloved character in Walt Disney's original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Twister portrayed the role in the first film based on the ride, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, before enjoying a well-deserved retirement after years of film and television work. Chopper portrayed the role for the back-to-back production of the sequels Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.^[7]
In portraying Prison Dog, Chopper was handled by animal coordinator Boone Narr.^[8] Chopper was also handled by Mark in the 2011 "Pirates Marathon" in the El Capitan Theatre, where Mark incorrectly stated that Chopper appeared in all three films.^[9] A short feature on Chopper appears as an easter egg on the Two-Disc Special Edition DVD release of Dead Man's Chest.^{[citation needed]}

The scene of the Prison Dog with the keys in a prison in The Curse of the Black Pearl is a reference to the same scene from the original Disney ride. As noted in the "Spirit Of The Ride" feature in The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD, Jack's statement that "the dog is never going to move" is also a reference to the fact that the dog never moved in the ride.^[10]
The scene was redesigned in the Shanghai Disneyland attraction Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, where the dog and the pirate inmates are dead, with their skeletons standing forever in the same position.^[11]
Despite appearing in At World's End, the Prison Dog was absent from the Brethren Court scene in the third film's junior novelization.
A leaflet inside the At World's End DVD says that the Prison Dog did indeed escape from the Pelegostos using sea turtles.^[12]
The Prison Dog may also have appeared in Jack Sparrow: City of Gold, the seventh book of Jack Sparrow series, where there is a similar dog in the prison of New Orleans.^[13]
In A. C. Crispin's 2011 novel The Price of Freedom, it is revealed that Captain Edward Teague was the dog's owner, though Jack suspected that it was a different dog than the one he grew up with.^[5]
In the non-canonical LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, the dog was named the "Guard Dog". The dog is also never seen carrying the keys to either prison cells or the Code book.^[14]
In the non-canonical Ghost Gallery story by Walt Disney World cast-members in the 1990s, the prison dog was the ancestor of the Caretaker's Dog from the Haunted Mansion, the dog Rover from Carousel of Progress, the Hellhound in the Haunted Mansion, and the dog seen on Tom Sawyer's Island.^{[citation needed]}