I should have known it was Birkrant since it looked similar to the more recent Play Along Club pets.
I googled and found this really interesting page: http://www.melbirnkrant.com/toys/a_puppy.htm
I'm sad Mattel basically took this person's idea and made it less interesting, lol. I probably would have played more with mine if it had been like the prototypes - they were very cute, and I liked mine, but it was a doorstop more often than anything else, I'm sorry to say. Mostly because you had to really smack it on the back of its head for it to "bark" and I felt like that was cruel ><
I can't help but think that the amount of articulation the original had wasn't very cost effective. Sometimes Birkrant's ideas were "too good" if you get what I mean. Too bad tho that Mattel couldn't have met things halfway and had knee joints too. Sometimes just a small thing would have made a big difference.