In the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes’s dog is named Gladstone.
Gladstone appears as a pet associated with Holmes and Dr John Watson. The dog is used in the film’s energetic, comedic interpretation of the detective partnership, which stars Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson.
The name is a nod to British history: William Ewart Gladstone was a prominent nineteenth-century British statesman. In the film, however, Gladstone is an animal rather than a political character, and the name helps establish the period flavor of the story.
This dog is not the same as Toby, the tracking dog Holmes uses in Doyle’s The Sign of the Four. Toby belongs to the original literary canon, while Gladstone is associated with the 2009 film adaptation. The distinction matters because the film combines original material with details inspired by Doyle.