Sparkledog is a term for an animal character, popularly a wolf or dog, which has unnatural colors, strange, usually clashy markings, lots of fluff and often a large amount of accessoiries like piercings, bandanas and collars, which it could not possibly apply to itself since it has no thumbs.
Usually used as a Fursona, they generally tend to have human
intelligence and
personality, although they are
pretty much always quadrupedal.
Most have a backstory, which is usually rather
complicated. A commonly used backstory is that the creature is an escaped lab animal. A style of backstory which is often used to explain its less realistic traits.
Sparkledogs tend to be drawn in a fuzzy and long-legged style, they usually do not closely resemble real dogs and may have additions like human hairstyles, retractable claws or wings.
There are generally two kinds of sparkledog: one kind is usually black or dull tones, evil or emo and has lots of spiked or 'gothy' items and usually a hairstyle which covers one or both eyes.
The other kind is more colorful, often incorporating
rainbow colors in their design and commonly of magical origins. Those tend to be rather happy-go-lucky.
The term is generally used in a derogatory sense, since sparkledogs are often seen as trying too hard to be original. It can be misspelled for effect. If the animal is not a wolf or dog it can either be called a sparkleanimal, or 'dog' can be replaced by whatever species it is.
