Mike Ryersons dog?

I remember a thread on here a long time ago that talked about this. I think it has to do with preparing the way for Mr. Barlow, ritualistic in nature. The movie simply doesn't cover it at all, making the death of the dog a very left field scene with no meaning.

One site I Googled said about the novel:

Irwin ("Win") Purinton—The milkman, who's happy his unpleasant wife Elsie died two years before. His dog Doc is killed early in the novel by Straker because it has white spots over its eyes, which are dangerous to vampires. Win gets turned into a vampire late in the novel. He's Floyd Tibbets's uncle.

There was a dog that was disemboweled and placed at the top of a gate (was it the cemetary gates?) in the beginning of the book, after Straker first got to the Lot. That was the original desecration of the hallowed' ground that made it possible for Barlow to enter the Lot.

I would not characterize the dog's killing as a "sacrifice," at least not in the same sense as Ralphie. In the book, someone (I think it's Matt Burke) asserts that Straker probably saw the dog by chance and killed it because it had the special markings over its eyes that could drive a vampire away. I don't know how important this was - it's amusing to think of Barlow running away from an otherwise ordinary dog - but it doesn't seem that this was planned or part of a ritual. Straker just saw a potential problem for his master and eliminated it. I don't think that killing the dog desecrated the ground. On the other hand, Straker did sacrifice Ralphie inside the cemetery as well (not inside the house), and that may have had the effect of desecrating that ground. Again, it would depend on the ritual, I suppose.

I always saw it as a ritual sacrifice for the arrival of Barlow. The dog is also killed on Hubie Marsten's grave.