Ever since Rin Tin Tin saved Warner Brothers from financial ruin in the 1920s, dogs have been darlings of the silver screen.

Adoring fans marvelled at the antics of Benji and laughed at Eddie on Frasier. And the Emmy award-winning Lassie was one of the longest-running shows on television. “Could my dog be a star?” you wonder to yourself. “Could he earn a living?”

Toronto animal wrangler and stunt man Bryan Renfro got his start in the business working for his uncle at Universal Studios in Hollywood. “He handled the birds for Birdman of Alcatraz and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds,” Renfro says. “I started out cleaning cages.” Renfro worked his way up, eventually handling all the animals for Little House on the Prairie and becoming head trainer for the Universal Studio Tour. After relocating to Canada, he spent five years handling German Shepherd Dog ‘Ike,’ who played the part of police dog Rudy on Katts and Dog.

“It’s important to use a lot of positive reinforcement, and to know what motivates the dog,” Renfro explains. For an episode of Wind at My Back, the Baileys’ dog Pal – played by Renfro’s Border Collie ‘Casey’ – needed to play dead after being shot by a neighbour. “Casey had to lie immobile, covered with a blanket, while the kids cried,” Renfro recalls. The dog’s reward after the director called “Cut” was to grab the blanket and run off with it. “Whatever makes them happy, that’s what you give them,” Renfro says.

Major productions use professional wranglers to acquire, train and handle their canine stars, and though some of those dogs belong to their handlers, many are rented from their owners. When producer Richard Boddington was scouting for a Bulldog to play the lead role in the upcoming kids’ movie The Dogfather, every handler he approached told him it couldn’t be done. Then he contacted Bonnie Judd, owner of Canine Co-stars of Canada in Aldergrove, B.C. “People ask nothing of the dog and they get nothing back,” she laments. Judd rents 75 per cent of the dogs she uses, and her search for the perfect Bulldog led her to ‘Gabe,’ a top obedience dog from the U.S. who possessed both looks and brains. The movie, starring Saturday Night Live’s Chris Parnell, was filmed in Toronto last fall.

Gabe and his double ‘Porkchop,’ a female Bulldog from B.C., learned to sneeze, wave, go to their mark and perform several other tricks for the production. “If the dog plays a major role, the handler will be provided with story boards that show exactly what will happen,” Judd explains. This includes the location of the camera, lights and props.

Judd breaks down the scenes into separate exercises to start, then gradually blends them together, adding in props so that her training hall eventually looks exactly like the real set. “That way, everything will be familiar to the dog,” she says.

On the day of the shoot, Judd goes in ahead of the dog to make sure everything is set up correctly. “We’ll take a first run-through with me playing the dog’s part so everyone will know what to expect.” The director usually gets what he needs in a couple of takes, and the dog is off the set in under 10 minutes. “The director and crew don’t have a lot of patience,” Judd explains. “You go in, get the shot and get out.”

Georgina Bradley, owner of Dog Stars in Vancouver, B.C., has been providing animals to the entertainment industry since 1995. Her credits include Air Buddies, 101 Dalmatians and Homeward Bound 2. In addition to working as a handler, Bradley also offers obedience classes that teach behaviours commonly required on set, such as going to a mark, waving, crawling, taking a bow and scratching on command. “The dog needs a high level of training,” Bradley explains, “and should have a strong sit-stay, down-stay, stand-stay and recall.”

Dog Stars has supplied dogs for movies, television, commercials, and fashion magazines, but lately Bradley has been providing a lot of animals for theme parties – like a team of sled dogs that posed with a Mountie and brought in the master of ceremonies for an event promoting the upcoming 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Her best advice for owners with stars in their eyes: training and socialization are critical – and don’t expect to retire on your dog’s income.