The high price of film fame

Unrealistic portrayals of dogs lead to surging sales -- and then a dramatic rise in abandoned animals

You can't turn on the television without seeing trailers for the new movie "The Shaggy Dog." It's got all the signs of a Disney success: big-name stars, a huge advertising budget and an adorable bearded collie as Tim Allen's alter ego. And that has people who love bearded collies worried.

Mary Lott of Salem lives with three bouncing, busy "beardies," as the breed is called by its fans. She's afraid that people will see the trained dog on the screen -- and the puppets that play the dog -- and buy these shaggy dogs on impulse.

Paul Glatzer, the national coordinator for the rescue program of the Bearded Collie Club of America, is blunt in his criticism. "We hope the movie fails at the box office. We pray for failure," says Glatzer, who lives in Smithtown, N.Y.

The worst fears of the bearded collie lovers have come true for other breeds when movie or TV dogs became popular. Chihuahuas became hip after the Taco Bell dog made "Yo quiero Taco Bell!" a household phrase. Eddie, the Jack Russell terrier on "Frasier," is widely credited for the breed's popularity -- and for the many Jack Russells that ended up abandoned by people who weren't ready for the small breed's big-dog personality. And then there were the "Beethoven" movies about a loveable but clumsy Saint Bernard.

"We've suffered badly because of those movies," says Carol Varner Beck of Trail. She's the president of the Saint Bernard Rescue Foundation, a national rescue organization for the breed.

Within two years of the original "Beethoven" movie's 1992 release, American Kennel Club registrations for Saint Bernards had increased nearly 25 percent, from 5,000 to 6,500. About 1,200 dogs a year -- some registered with the AKC, but most not -- were making their way into Saint Bernard rescue.

The problem, Beck says, is that Hollywood doesn't exactly show a realistic view of life. "In movies, women can be traipsing across the desert and wake up in the morning with all their makeup on. They still look perfect. That's how they make the dog look," she says.

"101 Dalmatians": The real story

It's easy to understand why the people who love bearded collies want to tell every single negative aspect of their breed, just to counteract the well-coifed, well-trained, well-mannered manufactured image of the dog on the screen. The mantra is that no one wants to repeat the experience of "101 Dalmatians," the 1996 live-action remake of the animated Disney classic.

Rescuers will tell you that this movie created a glut of Dalmatians and that shelters across the country were chock-full of spotted dogs.

But the reality of "101 Dalmatians" is dramatically different, according to Patti Strand of Portland. Strand is a longtime Dalmatian breeder and is on the board of directors of the American Kennel Club. She bred the Dalmatian that was one of seven finalists for best in show at the Westminster Dog Show in February.

Surprisingly -- and contrary to popular belief -- the release of the movie coincided with one of the most stunning declines in breed popularity in the history of dogdom.

Before the movie came out at the end of 1996, Dalmatians were America's ninth-favorite breed, with nearly 43,000 AKC registrations in 1995. After the movie, the decline in registrations was dizzying: 33,000 in 1996; only 9,700 in 1998. Last year, the breed had barely more than 1,000 dogs registered and ranked 77th in popularity. Dalmatians sustained an incredible 98 percent decline in registrations in a decade.

Strand blames a too-effective campaign highlighting the negative aspects of Dalmatians without explaining the good sides of the breed. "We tried to prevent the wrong people from getting our breed. We went out with one negative message after another. We've ruined its reputation," she says.

She hopes that bearded collie fanciers will show a balanced view of their breed, explaining the personality, care requirements and families that fit it best. That's not a negative or a positive; it's a rounded picture.

Strand recommends that anyone interested in getting a purebred dog go to the AKC Web site (www.akc.org) and click on "breeds." That will link to the parent club for the breed. "The parent clubs are the guardians of the breeds," she says. The parent club Web site will give a complete picture of the breed, including its history, health issues and temperament. Breed clubs usually list breeders who subscribe to a code of ethics and also give information about finding rescue dogs of the breed.

Beardies: bundles of energy

The movie version of a bearded collie teaches Tim Allen to meditate. A real one would be more likely to teach him to levitate. These bouncing dogs are always in the air; the laws of gravity don't seem to apply to beardies.

The right person for this breed is someone who will channel all that energy; beardies are a lousy match for someone whose idea of a good time is watching TV.

Every week, Mary Lott's dogs go to herding lessons, competitive obedience lessons and agility lessons. That doesn't count the hours of training during the week and the competitions on weekends. Touch under all the fur, and these dogs are buff from all the work. "They do have buns of steel," she says with pride.

Owners who aren't committed to keeping their beardies busy end up in trouble. "If you're not doing something with them, they're creative and will think something up," Lott warns. A bored, unsupervised beardie can destroy a room.

This breed is usually very friendly with people and generally gets along well with other dogs. While they are usually good with children, their energy level is too much for little ones. "A responsible breeder won't sell a puppy to families with children under age 3," Glatzer says.

These dogs have a lot of hair, which requires about three hours of grooming a week.

Beardies move sheep by barking at them -- and that translates into dogs that are "verbally gifted." A bored beardie is a noisy beardie. Unlike the Disney dog, beardies don't live to be 300 years old. The life span is about 12 to 14 years.

For more information about the breed, go to the Bearded Collie Club of America Web site, www.beardie.net/bcca.

There is no movie comedy as delicious as the play and laughter of a well-matched human and dog. Conversely, there is nothing funny about a dog that was an impulse buy and is never really loved and embraced by its people.

Reference: www.oregonlive.com

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