We’ve all seen the dogs in Hollywood films. Often they go unnoticed as they simply play a background role, but in some films, the dogs in Hollywood play a more upfront role. Today we’re going to introduce you to some of the smartest dogs in Hollywood of all time.
Whether you’re a dog lover or just interested in Hollywood films, today you’re going to learn more about those furry actors that have created a significant name for themselves in Hollywood!
Toto
This dog’s real name is Terry. Terry, a Cairn Terrier, was guided by Spitz who had experience training military dogs in World War 1. Terry was shy at first but eventually came out of her shell showing her ability and interest in learning.
Terry, the dog we’ve later grown to know as Toto, had her first role in a 1934 comedy film that was unedited. From here, Terry went on to earn the role in Bright Eyes because she won the heart of the child actor, Shirley Temple. This interesting dog started life off as an abandoned dog that was best known for peeing on the carpet due to anxiety, but Spitz trained Terry and opened her heart up to be a more outgoing dog.
Terry was interesting as a dog actor in Hollywood because she was a female dog playing a male dog role, she earned $125 per week which was higher than most human actors during the time, and she lived a long life on 10 acres with home fed meals every day until her final resting day at age 12 in 1945.
Beethoven
The trainer Carl Miller had nearly given up on finding the right St. Bernard to play Beethoven until Chris walked into his life. This two-year-old St. Bernard was able to be taught to be untrained. For example, the St. Bernard breed isn’t typically rambunctious nor are they an overeater, but Chris has to learn to play this role in the Beethoven film.
While Chris became a rather successful dog and easy to train by Carl Miller, this beautiful pooch only played the key role in the film for the first and sequel of Beethoven. Chris passed away shortly after the filming of Beethoven 2. There was an additional eight dogs who played as a stunt double for Chris during the filming of this movie. To make Chris look larger, as he only weighed 156 pounds, they filmed with Chris in the foreground to make him appear larger.
Turner and Hooch
This film featured the dog breed, Dogue de Bordeaux as the main Hollywood dog in the movie. Beasley is the real name of the dog that won the role in Turner and Hooch. This 17-month old puppy only had five months to train for the role in this film, and if you’ve watched the movie Turner and Hooch then you should be impressed right now!
Beasley wasn’t the first pick, they looked at 50 different breeds until they met this intelligent pup. Beasley was easily taught to open the can of beer, as part of the scene in the movie, but they had to replace the beer with chicken soup to make it appear that Beasley was a beer-drinking dog. Beasley never did play another Hollywood role, this was his first and final movie to ever appear in.
These are just some fun facts about the smartest dogs in Hollywood. Each of these stories show that dogs can learn new tricks and become amazingly talented when someone sees something beyond the surface of the dog.