behind every great cinematic dog is a trainer who made the dogs performance possible that's Theresa and Miller the animal coordinator and lead dog trainer for the film the art of racing in the rain a movie told entirely from one dog's perspective I'd later learn it was called a television to get dogs ready to give convincing performances takes a special set of skills and a hefty amount of treats Miller got her start working with her father animal trainer Carl Lewis Miller who was known for his work on everything from the 1960s TV series The Beverly Hillbillies to the 1983 horror movie Cujo she trained dogs in white god and a dogs way home and she's worked with other animals like cats on cats eye and pigs on babe for the art of racing in the rain for dogs played the main character Parker and Butler were the main stars here parker plays young enzo and butler plays him in old age as a newborn puppy enzo is played by rupert a fourth dog named orbit stepped in for a couple of shots that involves spinning frantic barking and snarling the most difficult thing for an animal to do is nothing in a scene because they're looking for a reason why they're there what they should be doing and there's a difference between training older and younger dogs puppies are sponges I mean they pick up stuff really quick kind of like kids but with a more adult dog they pick up more in the repetition and they have the capacity to handle a little bit more complicated scenes for this movie Miller had eight weeks before shooting started to get the dogs ready a shorter period of time than normal training starts out with basic commands they would build up to more complicated moves like a scene in which actor Milo Ventimiglia lifts up in older Enzo they also had to train the dogs for the many scenes in which Enzo picks objects up with his mouth such as a remote and a pile of papers for this Miller would have the dogs pick up an object and drop it off into a target in this case a box and help the dogs learn this trick much quicker than just grabbing an object as it gave them a place to go with it for the scene in which Enzo tears up papers they first trained for the trick with a small towel and treated it like a game of tug-of-war treating training like it's playtime helps keep the dogs both active and engaged and it helps for dogs that have scenes where they have something to do like the scene where Enzo unwraps a gift and gets a squeaky toy as a reward on and off set she used conditioned response training a way of getting an animal to do a particular action and then signaling when that action is done correctly a few different items were necessary for this first off there was a clicker clickers are used for training a lot of animals for movies and TV shows while clickers are generally used just on puppies Miller found it helped get the grown dogs ready quicker while helping to maintain their attention the click lets the dog know that they're doing something correctly Miller used it when training for the paper tearing scene Miller would let him tear up the paper and then click after just a few seconds it should a good start goodness he knew that meant to stop then she would have him repeat the same action but wait even longer to click good shredded scene oh good good good good good cat up boy good this can help conditioned dogs for longer scenes another challenge on set is getting the dogs to focus and look in the right direction Miller used what she called a feed stick which has a bright green ball in it that makes it easier for the dogs identify a target and of course there's usually a treat attached to it and what this allows us to do is to be able to get his look stay from this position all the way over to this position good without us having to move our physical position because a lot of times we have problems with lights and shadows and and movement on the floor surface or what have you and so that's the benefit of having the feed stick it's giving them a point to focus on then I can get a look to one actor then back to another actor or even up high and him speak the head up to four trainers on set at one time some scenes required Enzo to do more than one action so multiple trainers were needed to guide the dog most scenes required three trainers others required all four at once plus a representative from the Animal Protection Agency was on set every day to ensure the dog safety the set was also altered for the safety and comfort of the dogs and the seamer Enzo rides in the racecar the car actually never went faster than 20 miles per hour they used giant fans and shot in slow motion to create the effect of speed meanwhile windows on the sets were lowered so the dogs could see out of them easier many scenes were shot to make it seem like we were seeing the world from a dog's point of view few things are more important for your canine actor than how they act alongside their human companions early on they get the dogs comfortable with walking around without a leash on and of course the actors need to build a strong bond with the dogs they do scenes with this eventually helps the dogs focus on who they're acting with rather than on the trainer during a given scene Oh treats help with that - have we mentioned treats yet and speaking of food Miller advises actors not to have food on them or even on their hands or else you'll have a distracted dog sniffing and licking your hands dogs overall are uniquely fit to be on the silver screen you've got a huge advantage with a dog because he does want to do something for you he wants to be good he wants to be a part of your life and he wants to participate in your daily activity whereas the pig would rather be rolling in the mud and a chicken would rather be pecking in the field and every other animal has their purpose and their desire but it's based more on nature and what they were bred and developed and created to do where the dog is really the only animal that has that desire to be a companion with humans you can do so much with just praise and encouragement with a dog that a pig wouldn't really care for like that like it I loved it both needing homes unwanted animals and now they've got an amazing career and future and resume and one sleeping Parker good boy Butler