Being an Extra on the movie Marley & Me

One day when Cirque was about 14 weeks old, I received a forwarded copy of an email from an animal talent agency in south Florida looking for puppies to be extras in the movie Marley and Me which was currently being filmed in South Florida. ( http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=36484 Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Kathleen Turner, Alan Arkin.) It sounded like fun, and it did mention money for those selected, so I went ahead and supplied the photographs requested of Cirque and myself. I also contacted Cirque's breeder because so many of his relatives are working in the movie industry. She promised to do what she could. Time went by and I pretty much forgot about it. But one day when Cirque was 17 weeks old, I received an email saying Cirque and I had been chosen and filming was the following week.

Filming would be at a park along the Miami River. We were told to report at 6:30 am which meant leaving my home in the Florida Keys at 4:30 AM. Not being familiar with that part of Miami, I plugged the address into my trusty navigation system in my Honda Odyssey. It faithfully led me into a parking lot of a construction site underneath an overpass of I-95. Daylight was just breaking as I looked around trying to figure out where I was supposed to go. I could see what appeared to be a park on the other side of some very tall fencing. There was a big gate but it was closed and locked tight. About that time a couple other cars loaded with dogs and dog gear pulled in. They must have had the same navigation system. Fortunately one of the drivers did know where we were supposed to be. The problem was that the only open entrance to the park was too far to walk and carry crates, etc. I offered to ferry us around in my van so we piled dogs and gear on top of what I already had.

We drove around a lovely neighborhood in Miami (Not!) to find the entrance. Once there, mass confusion reigned. Huge semis, motorhomes and other official looking vehicles, abounded. Strange looking equipment was actually in the park. A crane of some sort had what appeared to be a huge net filled with greenery attached to it and was being moved around. Lots of other big and strange looking things were scattered about.

I was allowed to pull my van into the entrance so we could quickly unload dogs, crates and gear onto the lawn. Leaving Cirque with my new found friend, a dog trainer named Raoul from Key West, I decided that the original parking lot was a good place to put my minivan for the day. That turned out to be the best decision I made all day because once the back gate was opened, I actually ended up with the closest parking space when it was time to leave.

We were initially told to set up right there on the lawn by the entrance. But about the time we did this, we were told to move across the park underneath a pavilion. Although, a pain to move, I was thrilled because that meant our dogs would have shade. I knew once the sun was full up, it was going to get hot fast on that lawn with no trees. Raoul helped me move Cirque's heavy wire crate (with a teething puppy, I didn't dare use a soft crate). Once moved, we were sent to a large tented area outside the park a couple of blocks away to get our paperwork. There we were told that wardrobe would be meeting with us back at the pavilion to determine if our clothing was appropriate for the scene. We'd been requested to wear pastel or neutral colors and styles appropriate to the 1980's. We were also told not to leave without getting our paperwork signed off at the end of the day.

We relaxed in the pavilion and got to know each other. There were about thirty dogs and puppies I would guess. All breeds, colors and sizes. I found one lady I knew from agility trials. I met a lot of really great people including a woman from a rescue organization with a rescued dalmation puppy. Wardrobe found us. I was told my pale peach shirt was not appropriate for the 80's. I didn't mention that I'd chosen it because I bought the thing in the 80's! My jeans, which had been purchased a month prior, were fine. I was given another shirt to wear. There were some grumbles around me about the outfits provided but I was fine with my shirt.

It seemed to take forever to set up the first scene that was planned for the day. The puppies weren't needed for this so there wasn't much to do but sit. The main scene was pretty far from the pavilion so it was difficult to even watch what was going on. Eventually someone came and told us that we'd have to move out of the pavilion because it was going to be in the background of the shot. We found ourselves outside behind the pavilion. There was one small tree for shade. Fortunately, I'd brought shade cloth and other things to protect Cirque. And there was plenty of lawn to walk the dogs on that would be safely out of the way of the main work going on.

We tried to watch some of the filming from afar. I did see the stars, Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in the distance. Later Owen Wilson thrilled us by riding a bike through our area. The sun rose and it got downright hot. They had several people whose sole function in life that day was to hold umbrellas over the stars in between takes although I saw Owen Wilson take the umbrella from his human holder and hold it himself. From afar, he was seeming like a pretty good guy.

It wasn't until afternoon before Cirque's puppy class was called into action. We were very much in the background of the main scene being shot, behind a little white fence, one of three other background "classes" taking place. From what I could gather, the main scene was of Marley breaking away from the instructor (Kathleen Turner) and Owen Wilson and running toward us. The yellow lab "Marley" looked very convincing from what I could tell, pretty much pulling Owen Wilson across the area. I don't think he was having to "act" too hard. But in reality, the lab was in a big hurry to get to the waiting handler who was just off camera holding out what must have been a fabulous reward.

While these scenes were being shot, re-shot and re-shot some more from every angle, we were walking our puppies in a circle doing little obedience things like sits and downs under the direction of our "instructor" and a man off camera who would call "action." Cirque was a little dream puppy. At 18 weeks of age, I really didn't know what to expect of him with all the distractions but he couldn't have been easier to handle. Nothing bothered him. And fortunately, because it was so hot, in between takes, Nancy, the wonder woman from Trademark Animals, would bring water and cool wet cloths to wet the puppies down and keep them comfortable. I felt bad for the "extras" in the main scene which was the "Hero Dog Class." They were working with their dogs pretty much the entire day. You can read about that at: http://clickertraining.com/node/1830 park

Eventually, they told us we could go back and crate. Then they let us move our crates back into the pavilion which was very nice. By now it was going on 5:30 pm and we were getting anxious to leave. However, we were told by those who'd done this before that we couldn't leave until the day had been officially declared "a wrap." So we waited and watched the filming of another scene - this time with Marley and Jennifer Aniston who spent probably an hour repeatedly running across the lawn screaming "Marley, no!" I fed Cirque his dinner while we waited and watched. Puppies, dogs and owners were getting pretty restless by this time.

Eventually a young man appeared and told us that he would sign us off at the pavilion so we didn't have to make the hike back to the tent. And finally, at 7pm, we heard the magic words "That's a WRAP!" I was one of the first in line with Raoul to get signed off. We packed up, I had a crate dolly and this time, with Raoul's help, I put the whole crate with Cirque in it on the dolly. I piled my chair, cooler, and dog gear bag on top and pushed the whole rig down the walk and out the back gate right to my van. Cirque looked like quite the little prince sitting in his crate being wheeled along and I regret not having taken a picture.

A few weeks later two checks arrived in the mail. One for me and one for the lease of Cirque. So that's how it's done. Not very glamorous but a very interesting and an unusual way to spend a day with a puppy. And I'm guessing that perhaps if you get a magnifying glass and stop the movie during that scene, you might see a tiny little black and white dot of a puppy and a female in a green shirt... probably postage stamp size. That would be us.