Ready, set, bark!
Show dogs are stars on and off the competition floor
NEW YORK — They’re show dogs with star power.
Sprinkled through the more than 2,800 dogs competing at this year’s Westminster Kennel Club show were furry faces that viewers might have glimpsed in movies and TV shows, stage productions, magazine pages and ads for everything from phone services to pharmaceuticals.
Magneto, for instance, is a strapping, 180-pound looker billed to play opposite his fellow Leonbergers at Westminster on Tuesday. He’s a grand champion in the show world, has appeared in theatrical productions including “Annie” and “Peter Pan” and has strutted in a fashion show.
His Leonberger housemates also have stage and screen credits. Two of them, including former Westminster competitor Mr. America, appeared alongside Denzel Washington and Bill Pullman in the 2014 action movie “The Equalizer.”
As canine performers, “sometimes, they blow me away,” owner Morgan Avila says.
Equally at home in show business and the show ring, some Westminster dogs have racked up résumés many a human actor might covet. Just a sampling from the reels of Christina and Taylor Potter’s four dogs, which competed Saturday in agility:
Hudson the golden retriever barked along with “Live from New York, it’s … !” as thenpresidential candidate Mitt Romney’s dog on “SNL” in 2012 and added to the comic relief in the 2011 Paul Rudd film “Our Idiot Brother.”
Morgan, a Chinese crested, served as a design inspiration on a 2006 “Project Runway” episode. Chester, a Berger Picard, has lent his shaggy brio to commercials for MasterCard, Verizon, Conair and QVC.
“We thought it would be something just fun to do, and then it turned into a second job,” Christina Potter laughs.
But it’s worth it: “Any training you do with your dog is bonding,” says Potter, a federal court interpreter who lives in North Bergen, N.J. And when the dogs perform like stars, “you feel proud of them.”
A German shepherd named Rumor won Best in Show on Tuesday night.
Dogs have long played a part in the entertainment industry, though it’s been scrutinized recently after video leaked of a frightened German shepherd being forced into churning water during the filming of the movie “A Dog’s Purpose.”
American Humane, the group responsible for animal safety on the set, says an animal cruelty expert found the video was misleadingly edited and the dog suffered no lasting stress or harm. The organization acknowledged the handling should have been gentler in one scene, however, and suspended the safety representative who was on set.
Owners of Westminster’s show-biz dogs, who often train and handle their own pets for entertainment work, emphasize that they make sure the animals are safe and comfortable with what’s asked of them.
A dog can make $800 to $1,200 for a day of filming, but owners say the money isn’t the point. Nor are credits on the screen or plaudits in the show ring.
Rhonda-Lynn DiMatteo’s puli Ethan has plenty of both. He won best of his corded-coat breed at Westminster in 2015, and he’s done a fashion magazine shoot, local theater and a children’s birthday party in Easton, Pa.
“But that’s all secondary,” she says, “to the companionship he’s given me.”