I remember as a young boy in the 1950s being shown a dog made out of Woodbine cigarette packets, similar to the one pictured below. Unfortunately, I was never shown how it was made and have wondered ever since how it was done.

John Hewitson

Mixed cigarette packets. Card ears added. UK

This seems to be another one of those crafts that is dying out. Possible reasons for this was the introduction of the flip-top cigarette packet (less material was available to use) and the legislation forcing manufaturers to add Health Warnings. The text type health warnings introduced in 1971 wasn’t too bad but the  graphic type health warnings cover most of the packet and aren’t very nice to look at. (1)

Over the years I have seen many Cigarette Packet Dogs and none of them have been exactly the same. The basic method of joining the strips together is the same but the design of the dogs does vary slightly from person to person. Some have longer/shorter legs, tail, neck, body and some add separate ears. This gives each dog a character of its own. (2)