Was Flash a boy or a girl?

[Scott]

I just watched one episode where Luke was curled up in the back of Roscoe's car with Flash. When Roscoe got out and left, so did Luke. Luke said "Good girl" to flash. I'm lost. I was thinking Flash was a dude. Maybe Luke lifted the tail farther than we did....

[Cedar_Creek_Duke]

Flash was both a girl and a boy. I believe the first Flash died at some point(the boy) and was later replaced by the girl Flash. Somewhere I saw James Best talk about it. I think that they were his dogs in real life as well.

[Jamanda]

Flash was just one dog. It was James Best's idea that Rosco should have a police dog and the producers thought he meant a doberman or a German Shepherd but Jimmy Best thought Rosco should have a dog that reflected Rosco, a Basset Hound. Flash was found at an animal shelter and was actually fairly sick and they had to nurse her back to health while she was trained by Alvin Mears, who also owned her.

In the show, she was originally called a "he" but it was later changed to "she" to reflect the real gender of the dog. It's not unlike Col Potter's horse in MASH going from "he", when Radar gave it to him, to a mare named "Sophie" People just generally call animals "he" until they find out for sure, like Rosco's double did in "Too Many Rosco's" and had to be corrected by Daisy.

Much of Flash's history is cleared up on some of the special features of the box sets (forget which season/either 3 or 4).

[Scott]

'Preciate that. I actually believe I am officially confused now. Like, my mom has a cat and doesn't know its' sex. Big, black, hairy and really mean. I'm even afraid to lift the tail. Our betting pool says it's a boy though.

[Jamanda]

It's harder to tell on cats. The Flash in the movie was very obviously a boy, another reason I didn't like it. But the real Flash was a girl.

[Dukesfan70]

When I Met James Best he said Flash was his real dog

[deesgirl]

rosco allways called flash a good girl

[GADuke01]

Actually, there were (2) different dogs used as Flash. You can definitely tell the two dogs apart from episode to episode as one of the dogs had a lot more gray and was much older than the other dog. The older dog is the one that I believe "Jamanda" was speaking of in her post.

GADuke01

[Lukas_KD]

Yes, there were two dogs used in the series. The first was the Flash rescued from the animal shelter; I'm not sure of the story on the second, younger dog which was in the last two or three seasons. I think she may have actually belonged to James Best but I may be wrong. I believe he did end up with bassets.

Both dogs on the show were very much female, however. I believe they were only even calling Flash "he" for a few episodes, in fact... four or five. But because of the song "Flash" on the soundtrack released during this short time, which refers to Flash as "he", the matter of Flash's gender has been more confused than need be.

~Lukas

[Paul Stafford]

Last episode on disc 3, season 4, Roscoe definitely says, " Good boy!"  And in the same episode, Luke is curled up with Flash in Roscoe's patrol car and when he exits says, "Good girl!"

So there you have it!  Flash was called a boy and a girl in the same episode!  But in keeping in the spirit of things, one could surmise that that cluttered brain of Roscoe was a might confused about the sex of his own dog, since he seemed to go back and forth between episodes, and maybe, just maybe, he had confused everyone else in Hazard County about his dog's sex!

[RogerDuke]

Welcome to the HazzardNet Paul. It's nice to have a new person in town. We sure hope you stay a long time. Hoss will be able to shed more light on this subject when he sees your post. I knew there was some question about this but never knew that Flash was called a boy and a girl in the SAME EPISODE. You learn something every day on the HazzardNet!. 

[HossC]

2 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

Hoss will be able to shed more light on this subject when he sees your post.

I saw the post already as I was the one who moderated it!

In my DVD set, the last episode on disc 3 of season 4 is 'Miz Tisdale on the Lam' (my discs are double-sided). I had a quick flick through the episode, but failed the hear the "Good boy"/"Good girl" lines. I'll watch it through properly when I have time. What I did hear was when the mail inspector asks Rosco if he always rides with Flash, he replies "I didn't use to. Cletus used to, but she has a higher IQ, you see."

Flash first appeared in 'Enos Strate to the Top', and was male in that episode. Flash's velvet ears first get mentioned in 'Coltrane vs. Duke', when Flash is female. Velvet Ears doesn't become a name until 'Bad Day in Hazzard'.