The Friend (2025)

In the scene where the actress goes to a animal shelter and they bring out Apollo (the hero dog) on a leash, prior to filming we worked with the trainer to make sure everything was sanitized. Throughout the day I assured all areas where production dogs would work were sanitized beforehand. We also made sure production dogs were kept separate from shelter dogs. On action, an actor led Apollo through the hallway of the animal shelter and handed it to the actress.

For all the scenes where we see the actress in a cab with the dog, trainers brought dog to car and sat him in the backseat. They filmed him in stationary cab. Whenever they drive with the dog inside, the trainer was also in the car leaning down next to the dog.

In the scene where the actress tries to pull the dog out of cab but he resists, and she finally pulls him out, the streets were cut off to the public by production. The dog’s trainer was off-camera cuing Apollo with hand signals.

In the scenes where the actress enters lobby with Apollo and walks him upstairs, the trainer was always off-camera, letting the dog know he was safe.

In all the scenes that take place in the actress’ apartment, the set was located in the apartment that was built on a stage. The action took place in the living room and bedroom portions of the apartment. Production filmed different pieces of the dog’s action across multiple set-ups so that the dog only had to do one specific part of the action at a time. For all the action like the dog jumping on the bed, grabbing the shirt out of the actress’s laundry basket, or walking from A to B, the trainer was off-camera cuing the dog.

Whenever we see Apollo eating from bowl we made sure the food was healthy and matched his diet. In the scene where Apollo is on the ferry, trainers made sure he wasn’t intimidated by being on the boat or feeling sick from the waves. For any shots of the dog walking along the pier with the actress, props set up a tent at their start and end mark and put down rubber matting along their path.

In the scene where Apollo is at the vet’s office, production wanted him to stand on an exam table as an actor playing a vet examines him and the actress stands nearby also. At one point in the scene, the vet would cue dog to sit on the table. We talked with trainer about actions the vet can take and where he can/can’t touch dog prior. The dog is a show dog and very comfortable being touched anywhere, but our CASR confirmed that when the vet uses an otoscope to look into dog’s ears he not actually insert it.

In the scene where the actress walks dog in Central Park, prior to each scene we discussed the animal actions with handlers. We checked all park paths and had them swept. We made sure the PAs lock paths to prevent outside dogs from entering the location. We also communicated to production that for the dog park scene there would be no dogs working off leash as there were various safety concerns.

Whenever we see the actress walk through city crowds with dog on leash, we made it clear that due to the large amount of pedestrians and cars, they could only cross the street when they had the right of way.  We also made sure that people in the shot were aware that this was film production.

In the scenes where the actress gives dog a bath, we made sure they used non-toxic bubble bath.

In the scene where actress is on the train with the dog, trainers made sure dog was acclimated to the trains the depots.