Beverly Hills Chihuahua - CIA - Thecia

CASTING CANINESWhen it came to casting the dogs, Alexander says he looked for dogs with really wonderfulpersonalities. “Outgoing and confident are the two most important qualities,” he says. “Thedogs had to learn a lot ofcomplicated behaviors, so weneeded thinking dogs. We neededdogs that had strong personalitiesand smarts. We like a dog that canlearn how to learn.”Gosnell had some experienceworking with animals, but says thisfilm is different. “Their journey is avery human one and their charactershave very human needs, wants andfailures. For a talking-dog movie,it’s a very humanistic story. They have human feelings and human emotions and human souls,but we’ve been very conscious not to push the envelope and make them Super Dog. These arereal dogs that do things that real dogs can do.”The pampered Chloe character called for a white Deerhead Chihuahua named Angel. Angelhad four doggie doubles who were trained to do specialty behaviors like swimming andrunning. Alexander admits that Angel is a bit snooty in real life, just like her character. “Youcan see it when you work her,” he says.Six German Shepherds make up the Delgado team with Samson starring as the face dog.Two of the Shepherds are from rescues in Los Angeles, one actually came from Germany, andanother from a man who trained police dogs in LosAngeles. Samson does the lion’s share of the workportraying Delgado, but since the role is very physicaland involves a lot of running, filmmakers had thelook-a-like German Shepherds standing by in caseSamson got tired.Trainers traveled to Serbia, Russia, Croatia,Hungary and Italy to find the four Dobermans toportray the villainous El Diablo, with Arad taking thelead. Originally a protection dog, Arad became soaffectionate with training that it was hard to believe hewas playing the baddie.Nearly 50 Chihuahuas with a wide variety ofappearances from the United States and Mexico Citywere called on to create the Lost City of Techichiscenes where a wild Chihuahua Nation lives inseclusion, and a team of 40 authentic Mexican streetdogs were recruited from a shelter outside MexicoCity to play Mexican street dogs in the film. Alexander says they were especially pleased withfinding the street dogs. “We found a guy who is a self-proclaimed spiritual savior of Mexicanstreet dogs and he had about 200 dogs living in a compound facility up in the mountains. Thisman truly loved these dogs and one of the reasons that I chose that particular facility is that he20