Dogs You Know/own In Ads

[Bully]

Pele, the aged 4 months was in the SA Lotto ad, as one of many dogs. She had to run past the camera. In the ad if you blinked you'd miss her, then they had a shorter version of the ad and cut her scene out

Even got paid!!!!! The best part was that Pele went home and slept all day

Is that the add where the guy wins the lotto and lets all the dogs out of the pound? Off to Youtube to have a look

That's the one Think from memory Pele runs past the camera just after a shot of a beagle sniffing a trash can. Don't blink

[KnucklesDutchnUs]

My old dog Thorn was in the movie 'Candy' with Heath Ledger. My dad had to walk him back and forward as Heath did a drug deal in the park.

And Ruthless's baby Chopper is the 'face' of a marketing book coming out later this year

[Bisart Dobes]

One of my dogs was filmed years ago - take after take for a Triple M add years ago and it never made it to air (still we got paid ).

Another was filmed for 3 days for a music video - have never seen it come to light either (still we got paid ).

I just love the add for a toilet paper (couldn't tell you which one though) - with the really ugly (no offence if its anyones dog) dog that pops up from under the toilet paper pile with a huge grin on his face - god its cute and it makes me laugh everytime I see it.

[Guest Clover]

My old dog Thorn was in the movie 'Candy' with Heath Ledger. My dad had to walk him back and forward as Heath did a drug deal in the park.

And Ruthless's baby Chopper is the 'face' of a marketing book coming out later this year

Oh i must pull the DVD out and watch out for Thorn. I think i remember a dog in the park scene.

[perrin]

I just love the add for a toilet paper (couldn't tell you which one though) - with the really ugly (no offence if its anyones dog) dog that pops up from under the toilet paper pile with a huge grin on his face - god its cute and it makes me laugh everytime I see it.

God that ad cracks me up. The first time i saw it i couldn't stop laughing.

[RallyValley]

A WA agility competitor owns the Kelpie that will be in the upcoming TV series of Cloudstreet that will be on cable.

[dasha]

My now passed border Collie did:

Home and Away (scruffy)

An Ice cream ad for Japan

A car ad for another country.

My older Kelpie did:

Powerade - where she takes the ball from a soccer game and hides under the car with it.

Sultana Bran

Farmer wants a wife ad (howling dog)

Medicare ad

My younger Kelpie did:

CASe IH in the country areas for machinery.

True Blue Dog food - Her pic is on the bags

Another ad for country areas but can't remember it. I think Drontal

Commonwealth Bank

A car ad for Japan

My young border collie did Farmer wants a wife ad as a pup.

My horses have been on X factor, Murder Call, some other ads too.

Cat is about to come out on the new advocate ad too. As a gangster

[rastus_froggy]

Oh yeah I also met the border collie who was in the butcher ads - where he stood up at the window.

[The Spotted Devil]

My dearly departed ACD was in an ad for BankWest in WA. She had to do a backflip and they superimposed it on a paddock of wheat with the farmer jumping for joy. It was funny and a bit corny

[BIG-DOG-LOVER]

So many famous doggies, anytime I see a dog in an advert I always wonder if it's a DOL one

How does one break into tv - is there a doggy modelling agency or something?

[dancinbcs]

To those wanting to know how to get into ad work, there are animal agents and you need to register your interest with one. It doesn't cost anything to register with them but the dogs that get the most work are those that are the most highly trained. For TV ads especially your dog must have an iron clad "stay" in any position no matter what the distraction. It must be physically fit, able to repeat a sequence over and over, sometimes 20 or 30 times and it must be happy to work with a whole lot of strangers.

As the owner you have to be available to travel to the set wherever it may, at whatever time you are needed and be available sometimes for several days. If you take the dog to auditions it is no use getting upset if they don't choose your dog. The ad agency and director will have a definite idea of what they want and will keep looking till they find exactly that. When they see the dog that fits the idea in their head, it will be chosen.

The money is better these days but I did a TV ad for Lucky Dog way back in 1994. For my $300 at the time I had to attend an audition in the city (an hour away) and my dog had to be able to stay with his front feet up on a counter, bark on command and growl on command. I had the only dog that would do the growl so my BC Danny got the job. The next day we had to go back into the city for a couple of hours to train the actor that would be working with Danny, so he could handle him. Then a couple of days later I had to be on the set nearly 2 hours away, at 6am with Danny and his son as understudy. We then filmed for 13 hours to make a 30 sec commercial.

The set had about 30 people milling about, cameras, lights and cables everywhere and Danny had to work amongst all this without being distracted. With TV ads they do many takes from different angles, with different lighting, etc and the dog must keep on performing no what. The production costs are enormous so they do not react well if the dog does not get it at least 99% right. There seems to be more tolerance for the the human actors to make mistakes than the dogs. The Directors assistant we had told me his last dog food ad was with Saints and it took three days to film because the dogs would not take direction and every time they set up for a close up, there would be a head shake and slobber all over the lens. So slobbery dogs are not popular with ad makers.

At the time Danny was 10 and it was his first commercial. The producers of Babe had wanted him a few years earlier but didn't want me to go with him so that was a no go. After trying fo several highly trained dogs and meeting the same response from the owners, they put the filming back a year and bought and trained their own dogs. About 6 months after filming the TV ad I had an offer for Danny to do a another movie, but sadly I had lost him suddenly to cancer a few weeks before the offer came.

I have many friends that have done ad and TV work and one friend that works full time sourcing animals for ad work. Several of her own animals appear in an assortment of ads. The stories I have heard from all these people about the unrealistic demands of directors are unbelievable. It is interesting work but you need time, patience, a very well trained dog and the ability to work with people who know nothing about dogs.

Edited because I forgot to mention that in NSW there is a TAFE short course run occasionally at Hawkesbury where you learn the basics of animals in advertising over a weekend.

Edited June 13, 2010 by dancinbcs

[zoozoo]

That Hermes add is impressive!! Was it taken in Australia?

[ophnbark]

OH's little old cross breed Jessie did the Victorian Responsible Dog Ownership ad many years ago. She was the little scruff that the kids were blowing their party things in her face.

[Clyde]

My old Saint Bernard, Victoria, is used in some Nature Vet products.