Starring Peter Breck, Peggy McCay, Carroll O'Connor, and Angela Cartwright, the film blends several of the short stories featured in the novel, with the heroic Lad winning a rigged dog show, saving a handicapped girl from a snake, and capturing a poacher who killed his pups and injured one of his owners.

Aram Avakian was initially selected to be the film's director, but when he continually refused to do a sentimental-type dog story, he was replaced by Leslie H. Martinson.

Lillie Hayward and Roberta Hodes wrote the screenplay for the film, adapting several of the short stories from the novel to create a single narrative, and adding in an all-purpose villain.

Though it has been praised by fans and modern reviewers, contemporary critiques felt Terhune's work did not translate well to film and it was considered a low-budget B-movie.

However, Glure is jealous of Lad's success and has rigged one event to have such specialized rules that he believes only his recently purchased high-priced, English-trained collie can win.

However, Jackson White (Jack Daly), a poacher Lad fought and chased off the property before, sets fire to barn out of vengeance.

Max J. Rosenberg, of Vanguard Productions, purchased the film rights for Albert Payson Terhune's Lad: A Dog from publisher E.P.

[1] Warner Brothers initially hired Aram Avakian, a "talented, aggressive young ex-film editor" known for his avant-garde tendencies, to direct the film.

The house, though similar to the real Terhune home, even including duplicates of the stone lions on the veranda, was built on a scale three times larger than the original.

Noting Terhune's frequent disdain for the Ramapough Mountain Indians, they named the film's villain Jackson White, a play on the nickname used to refer to those people.

White became the catch all villain of the film, who poaches deer, sets fire to the Tremayne barn, and break into the house to try to steal a gold trophy won by Lad.