It's the actual dog who was used as an 'inspiration'. We're living in a weird times is all I can say.
Especially because I have at least 4 shib's in my neighborhood that are on the regular dog walking circuit and from what I can tell they're all nearly identical. Some are fatter, longer, or shorter but not much else is different.
I'm just waiting to see this article on Coindesk
"Loss of the Dogecoin dog has erased 500 billion of crypto in a major blow to the Dogecoin ecosystem"