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It's Me or The Dog - Casting Call

Now casting dog-owners from the Tri-state area for season three of Animal Planet's It's Me or The Dog.

The show, from the producers of Supernanny and The Real Housewives of New York, are seeking owners of one (or more) out-of-control dogs. Is your pooch an obedience school drop-out? Then we want you! The casting team is currently seeking dog-owners with a variety of backgrounds, which are ready for the ultimate doggy boot camp!

Click here for more details

Super Bowl XXXIV Commercial. Budweiser. The Dog Star.

With the Super Bowl coming up, here's a classic Budweiser commercial

Doggie Surfing! Filming for Dog Movie "Marmaduke"

She is as happy in this frothing ocean as a Thoroughbred at the racetrack. She adheres to the surfboard as if her feet are made of Velcro.

How does an Australian Kelpie, bred to be a hardworking ranch hand, do an about-face and become an aimless surfer dude?

Easily, says her owner, Michael Uy. She has many talents, only one of which is herding sheep. The girl also enjoys mountain biking and rock climbing.

"But surfing is her No. 1 love," says Uy, 39, a software program manager in San Diego. "We surf together almost every day after I get off work."

Abbie girl is front and center in a dog-surfing craze spreading along California's beaches. These coastal canines fuel the real-life action scenes in the film Marmaduke, due in theaters June 4 from 20th Century Fox.

One of the story lines about the popular comic-strip character centers on the Great Dane being pressured to enter a surfing contest after his family moves to Southern California. Lee Pace, William H. Macy and Judy Greer are human stars in this live-action comedy in which the dogs speak. Owen Wilson is the voice of Marmaduke, an awkward teen Dane who is a very reluctant surfer up against champions such as Abbie.

Abbie got the nod to be a film extra (and earn $400) when the professional animal trainers who work with the Great Dane that plays Marmaduke saw Abbie surf in a contest, Uy says. Several of the other surfing dogs cavorting in the rough water with Abbie and Uy this particular day also will be extras in the film, which Uy says will show dogs surfing some spectacular waves.

Dog surfing is mostly recreational, but Uy and the dedicated followers bouncing up and down in these San Diego-area waves are taking it to new heights. Five competitions, up from two the year before, were held in California last year, drawing hundreds of dogs and thousands of spectators. The number of surf classes for dogs also is growing.

[Source: USATODAY]

Rising Stars in front of and behind the camera!

When Christine Mahaney’s friends sent her information about the “Petco Stars” competition in 2007, she knew her border collie Toula had a shot at winning.

She never dreamed that would be the catalyst for film industry careers for both her and the dog.

After winning the nationwide competition, the pair worked together on “Public Enemies” with Johnny Depp and an upcoming movie called “Highland Park,” but Mahaney worked sans Toula on the made-in-Michigan film “Youth in Revolt,” which opens today.

“Michigan’s tax incentive has been instrumental in my career and putting Michigan on the map,” Mahaney said, referring to the 40 percent tax credit moviemakers receive for filming in Michigan.

For “Youth in Revolt,” the 41-year-old Mahaney, of Plainwell, was an assistant animal trainer, helping train Oscar, a terrier mix rescue dog from Los Angeles, for his role as Albert, the furry companion of Sheeni Saunders. Saunders, played by Portia Doubleday, is the love interest of main character Nick Twisp, played by Michael Cera.

“It was absolutely wonderful working with (director) Miguel Arteta,” Mahaney said. “Michael Cera is such a nice guy, he truly loved Oscar. Oscar didn’t lack any kind of love or attention on set.”

The movie was shot all over Michigan, despite the California license plates seen in it, Mahaney said. Filming was done in Metro Detroit, Ann Arbor, Ludington, Frankfort and Lake Leelanau. Lake Michigan on a sunny day easily passes for the California coast, Mahaney said.

In addition to dogs, Mahaney has also had the opportunity to train a six-point buck on the set of “Red Dawn,” several chickens for an upcoming Rob Reiner film and a large mouth bass for a student film at the University of Michigan. She attributes her seemingly preternatural skills for training animals to patience, respect and understanding for the creatures.

“Food is also a pretty good motivator for any animal,” Mahaney said.

“But I always think of them first as a pet and second as an actor. You never put them in jeopardy and you respect them.”

[Source: MLIVE.Com]

Animal Planet Goes to the Dogs

Saturday nights on AP are canine heaven with a new season of 'Underdog to Wonderdog" and "It's Me Or The Dog" beginning Saturday, January 2, at 8 PM (ET/PT).

Each Saturday, viewers can catch these back-to-back series as they change the lives of dogs and their owners forever. In "Underdog", the Wonder Team rescues the most unlikely of shelter dogs to turn them into well groomed and trained pets for their forever homes.

Then, renowned dog trainer Victoria Stilwell works miracles with families, who are at their wits end with their dogs’ horrific behavior. Without yelling or raising a hand, Victoria helps owners take back their homes and lives from their canines using positive training techniques.

“Underdog To Wonderdog and It's Me Or The Dog are literally transformative television,” says Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager. “These series have proven themselves to be entertaining pet programs, but more than that, they teach an important lesson. No situation is hopeless—every person and animal deserves a second chance. It’s that message that makes these each episode so powerful.”

At 8 PM (ET/PT) on Underdog, the Wonder Team takes their dramatic canine rescues to a new level. Led by rescue coordinator Ryan Smith, the team invests themselves into the rescue and rehabilitation of shelter dogs as they attempt to match them with the perfect family.

Smith is joined by professional dog trainer and author Andrea Arden; grooming and styling extraordinaire Ali McLennan; and the show’s canine carpenter, David Leon, who builds dream homes for the lucky new adoptees. Together, the team helps the dogs and their expectant families through each essential step of the transformation—from the initial rescue to the training and finally, the introduction into the family.

Then, at 9 PM (ET/PT), Victoria helps families overcome mind-boggling bad behavior, including a Pekingese named Princess, who has a history of vicious attacks against dogs and children, and an anxious Shepherd-mix named Sylvester, who gets out his energy by chewing all the furniture.

[Source: Monsters & Critics]

Nation's Cutest Dog Will Win A Million

Who is the cutest dog in the nation? That’s the question All American Pet Company hopes to answer with its $1 million Cutest Dog Competition, which kicked off Saturday and continues through October.

It could be Maxx, a Boston Terrier from Cumming cuddling with a stuffed gorilla in his photo. Or Skippy, from Boise, Idaho, wearing a red cape and blue swim goggles.

Or any of the other more than 4,000 cuddly, costumed dogs whose photos have been posted in the last two days.The deadline for submissions is Oct. 23, 2009.

The contest’s 12 weekly semi-finalists, judged by online public voting, will each win $500. From those 12 weekly winners, four finalists will be determined by the greatest number of votes and each will win $5,000.

Dog owners can enter the contest by filling out an online entry form and uploading a picture of their dog at cutestdogcompetition.com

Visitors to the site can vote by giving dogs a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

A panel of judges will choose from among the finalists and award the $1 million grand prize to the nation’s cutest dog on Thanksgiving.

[Source: The Atlanta Journal Constitution]

Richard Gere Talks Dogs in Tokyo

Richard Gere stars in a Hollywood remake of Japan's long-cherished story of Hachiko, a faithful dog that died at a train station waiting for its master. But "Hachi: A Dog's Story" is more about the dog than about Gere, the 59-year-old actor said Wednesday.

"On this movie, I was definitely second-class," he told reporters at a Tokyo hotel.

The movie premiered in the U.S. at the Seattle International Film Festival in June, and opens in Japan in August.

The story of Hachiko is a legend among Japanese, a pet-loving nation that honors self-sacrificing loyalty.

Hachiko, the story goes, always used to wait at Shibuya train station for its master, a professor at the University of Tokyo.

Even after the professor died, the dog waited every day at the station for a decade, until it died in 1935.

People were so moved they built a statue of Hachiko at the station, which remains a popular rendezvous spot for Japanese today.

The story of Hachiko was made into a 1987 Japanese movie. Gere's version transports that story to a station in Rhode Island.

Gere said the Japanese breed of dogs called Akita used in the movie are close to wild dogs and very difficult to train. In the beginning, Gere was instructed not to even look at the three dogs that played Hachi.

"They only do something because they want to. You can't really buy them with food," said Gere, last in Japan four years ago for another remake of a Japanese story, "Shall We Dance?"

Gere said the new film evokes the artistry of silent movies.

Often, the crew would film the dog for 12 hours, and take just 10 minutes to shoot Gere's segments, he said.

"We were capturing something that was organic and real that was happening between me and the dogs," he said.

Extra, Extra! Cesar Sunrise Wants You To Read All About It!

They say that the newspaper business is going to the dogs. A campaign for a new product has been making that sentiment come true, with humorous results.

The campaign is for a line of dog food from Mars Petcare U.S., a division of the giant marketer, Mars. The line is called Cesar Sunrise, part of the Cesar brand of offerings for small dogs, and it is being billed as “the first-ever gourmet canine cuisine breakfast.”

Marketers often refer to new products as providing “news” for consumers, assisting a brand to stand out in a crowded category. Mars Petcare U.S. and its agency, the BBDO West division of BBDO Worldwide, have taken that literally, by creating a make-believe newspaper to chronicle the arrival of Cesar Sunrise.

The newspaper, an eight-page broadsheet, carries the fanciful name of The West Highland Herald. There is an accompanying Web site as well, from which a PDF version of the paper may be downloaded.

An estimated 306,000 copies of the print edition of The Herald were distributed in a promotion that took place in eight major markets, including Atlanta, Chicago and Miami.

In two of those markets — New York and San Francisco — the free (fake) paper was accompanied by free (real) cups of coffee.

The jest behind the paper is that it was reported and edited by dogs for dogs. From the weather forecast (“It’s going to rain men and women”) to the classified ads (“For sale: Used stick. Hardly chewed. Has most of its original bark”), The Herald is completely canine-centric.

After all, if they say “Dog bites man is not news; man bites dog is news,” how newsworthy must it be when “dog writes newspaper”?

[Source: The New York Times]

Reality Show Teaches Old Dogs Extreme Tricks

Max the Border Collie can roll over on command, herd crowds and sit still on a table while his owners eat.

But Grace and Michael Ham want their dog to do more — like climb people's backs and then leap into the air to catch a Frisbee. So, they have sought the help of Zak George, a dog trainer made famous from YouTube clips who now is hosting a reality TV show aimed at teaching old dogs new tricks.

A crew for Animal Planet's new show — tentatively called "Fetch Me a Beer" — recently filmed Max while he was learning his new moves. The 20-episode series, scheduled to premiere in October, will show George teaching other dogs such skills as riding a bike and helping a helpless human land a date.

"The dogs are easy. It's the people who are more challenging," George says. "There's nothing we can't attempt to teach a dog."

Seanbaker Carter, executive producer of Powderhouse Productions, says viewers will see all sorts of skills from dogs they didn't think were possible, such as seeing a dog "literally fetching a beer out of a fridge" and bringing it to its owner.

"It's the one trick we probably all need to happen," says Carter, whose company is producing the show for Animal Planet.

To read the full story, head on over to msnbc.com

Jon + Kate + Puppies

I fully realize that I have way too many reality television addictions going on. But despite all that, Jon & Kate + 8 + Puppies = ridiculously adorable.

Casting For Canines

Do you have a four-legged star roaming your home? Time to brush that coat out, get those canines pearly white and stick a bow in Fido's fur, because Disney is giving you an opportunity to make your pooch a star.

In celebration of the releases of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bolt and Space Buddies on Disney Blu-ray and DVD, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is hosting a special casting call to find one camera-ready canine for a bark-on role in an upcoming Buddies film!

The first audition, will be held at The Grove in Los Angeles, on March 7th, 2009, will feature dogs strutting their stuff on a catwalk, and auditioning in front of friends, fans, and furry creatures alike.

Auditions will take place across the country in seven cities and will be documented for Director Robert Vince to choose the final star.

For a complete list of audition dates and locations, check out MonstersAndCritics.com

PEDIGREE® Behind the Scenes 4 - Rhino Owner

PEDIGREE® Behind the Scenes 3 - Boar Owner

PEDIGREE® Behind the Scenes 2 - Ostrich Owner

PEDIGREE® Behind the Scenes 1 - Bison Owner

PEDIGREE® Super Bowl Commercial 2009

In Case You Missed the Puppy Bowl...

Hotel for Dogs. See the Movie. Help a Dog.

PEDIGREE(R) Food for Dogs is rolling out the yellow carpet today to announce its partnership with the upcoming film "Hotel for Dogs," from DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies scheduled to be released today by Paramount Pictures. With the film's release, the brand is encouraging everyone to: "See the movie. Help a dog."

The movie, based on the Lois Duncan book of the same name, is a family comedy adventure centered on two resourceful kids who transform an abandoned hotel into a magical dog-paradise for the dog they're asked to give up -- and eventually for all of his stray canine companions.

Because of the PEDIGREE(R) Brand's outstanding advocacy for homeless dogs through its annual PEDIGREE(R) Adoption Drive, a national awareness and fundraising campaign that began in 2005, and their shared belief that all dogs deserve a loving home, DreamWorks Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures partnered with the brand to help shine a spotlight on the cause of dog adoption.

Through no fault of their own, more than four million dogs end up in shelters and breed rescues each year and nearly half of those canines never find a place to call home, a trend that the PEDIGREE(R) Brand and "Hotel for Dogs" together hope to help reverse by rallying dog lovers nationwide.

Further, in the spirit of the PEDIGREE(R) Adoption Drive, the movie will act as a fundraising effort for homeless animals and as a result yields the motto: "See the movie. Help a dog." For every ticket purchased to "Hotel for Dogs," the PEDIGREE(R) brand will make a donation to help shelter dogs, up to $250,000.

Donations from the PEDIGREE(R) Brand will go to The PEDIGREE Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides funding to 501(c)(3) status animal shelters and breed rescues. Created by the brand in late 2007, by the end of 2008 the foundation will have distributed more than one million dollars to more than 500 shelters and breed rescue organizations nationwide.

Hitting theaters on January 16, 2009, "Hotel for Dogs," stars Emma Roberts, Jake T. Austin, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon and Don Cheadle in a smart, funny comedy adventure that shows how far love and imagination can take you.

[Source: PR Newswire]

Hotel for Dogs in Theaters Friday

If you know any kids who were traumatized by “Marley & Me,” the cure might be a stay at “Hotel for Dogs,” a movie that balances adorable dogs of all breeds and sizes with clever set design.

Oh yeah, there are some people in it, and they’re perfectly OK. But it’s not their movie.

Orphans Andi (Emma Roberts) and Bruce (Jake T. Austin) have been bounced around from foster home to foster home, but they’ve always managed to keep their always-hungry dog Friday on the sly. One day when Friday is on the run from animal control — I’m frankly surprised that the Dog-Catcher Anti-Defamation League isn’t already picketing this movie — he ducks into an abandoned hotel where he finds two other dogs hiding out in its crumbling splendor.

Andi and Bruce eventually find him, and even though Andi warns Bruce not to name the other two dogs, lest they become attached, soon the siblings are also taking care of Lenny and Georgia. (For adults who enjoy this sort of thing, “Hotel for Dogs” includes throw-away references to not only “Of Mice and Men” but also “Suddenly, Last Summer” and even Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct.”)

With the help of pet-store employees Dave (Johnny Simmons) and Heather (Kyla Pratt), as well as neighborhood kid Mark (Troy Gentile), the kids create their own surrogate family by not only taking in every stray they can find but also by turning the hotel into a canine paradise. Bruce’s proclivity for Rube Goldberg–esque devices allows him to create machines to handle all the dogs’ feeding and hygiene needs. (He even creates a simulator ride involving car doors, a fan and travel footage.)

The film also stars Don Cheadle (as Andi and Bruce’s compassionate social worker) and Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon as the duo’s moronic metal-head foster parents, but the real stars of “Hotel for Dogs” are the art department (with bonus points to propmaker bosses Marc Tantin and Marcel Worch for creating Bruce’s dizzying inventions), the army of animal trainers and dog wranglers, and the special effects artists who no doubt made all of the above look much slicker on the big screen.

The kids are all charming — I’ve enjoyed Roberts and Gentile more in other movies — but the script (adapted from the novel by Lois Duncan) gives all the personality to the four-legged actors and to the hotel itself — the building is a sprawling, old-school masterpiece of grand stairways, long banquet tables and velvet banquettes. Even the pee-and-poop solutions that Bruce devises fit in with the hotel’s grandeur.

If you’re the sort of person who checks out CuteOverload.com for pictures of puppy baskets, sleeping kitties and frolicking pandas, this is definitely the movie for you.

[Source: MSNBC]