His appearance and name change drastically between the two films. In Old Yeller, he was named Young Yeller and was a Labrador retriever. However, in Savage Sam, he was named Sam and was a Bluetick Coonhound, as he was in the original book. It is currently unknown why this change happened, however in the original book he was always a Bluetick Coonhound; he inherited his colors from his mother, Miss Prissy. He was never named Young Yeller in the book.