The most obvious reasoning for this may be screentime.
Toto appears regularly throughout the film, Dorothy even delivers the film’s most famous line to the pup – “Toto… I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Another explanation is hazard pay, with the dog representing a crucial part of the film and major liability if something happened to her. She did her own stunts and even broke her leg when a Winkie guard stepped on her by mistake.
Before The Wizard of Oz, Terry the dog appeared in films such as Stablemates, Barefoot Boy, The Buccaneer and Fury. Following the hit 1939 release, the pooch’s handlers even renamed her to Toto in 1944 due to the success of the film.
She later appeared in projects such as The Woman and Tortilla Flat before passing away at the age of 11 in 1949. She was buried at Spitz ranch in Studio City, Los Angles. In 1958, her grave was sadly destroyed during the construction of the Ventura Freeway. In 2011, a permanent memorial for Terry was created at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in LA. On the memorial, it says: “There’s no place like home.”
