DEL.ICIO.USBad dogs audition for new reality show at Atlantic Station
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/14/08
Aslan may not have been the baddest dog to show up Saturday at Atlantic Station for a casting call for a new reality TV series about bad pets and their conflicted owners.
But he was certainly the biggest.
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| Brenda Carlton pulls away while her dog Aslan, a 170-pound Leonberger leans forward to lick her during their audition. | ||
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A breed known as a Leonberger (German for hairy, burly, strong and as single-minded as an ox), Aslan weighed about 170 pounds.
His owner, Brenda Carlton, said his main issue is separation anxiety, which is characteristic of the breed known for craving human attention almost as much as it craves groceries.
"He's fine in public, but at home he's covetous," Carlton said. "If you close a door he'll scratch the door down to get to you. I want to break him of that."
So she was one of dozens of Atlanta's dog owners who showed Saturday – many with their misbehaving pets, some with only their disturbing pet tales – hoping to land parts in the series that starts production next month in Atlanta.
Ten hour-long episodes will be shot here. They will air on a cable channel that the production company, Richochet Television (Producer of the show, "Supernanny") is not at liberty to disclose yet, said casting producer John Magennis. "There are still legal issues."
The company also won't identify the animal psychologist, a woman, from Britain, who will perform the bad dog intervention, coming in to the owners homes, diagnosing the bad behavior – of the pet and its owners – then dispensing advice.
A crew will document the behavior of the pets and the owners after the pet psychologist leaves for a few days. Then at the end of the segment, the psychologist will return and see how things have turned out.
The key to starring in an episode – for which you are not paid, but you get free advice from a pet psychologist – is that both the dog and the owners have problems.
"We're looking for couples who have problems between them over how to deal with the pet," said Magennis. "We want that tension, too."
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