Trivia
Nearly 70 dogs were used for the making of this motion picture, many of which were actually rescued from the pound. Several of them were adopted by crew members after filming wrapped.
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Many different types of dogs can be seen in the film: Lenny is a Bullmastiff, Georgia is a Boston Terrier, Cooper is a English Bulldog, Shep is a Border Collie, Romeo is a Chinese Crested Dog, Juliet is a Poodle and Henry is a Beauceron.
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Most dogs were trained for two to three months, while the main dogs' training lasted nearly sixteen weeks.
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The actors found the film particularly challenging to shoot due to the dog trainers constantly jumping, whistling and shouting instructions to the dogs just outside the frame.
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Special effects coordinator Michael Lantieri found the making of the ball-throwing machine particularly challenging due to the many settings that had to be calculated and adjusted, such as the ball's weight, the synchronization between the hand's movement and the moment when the ball is thrown, etc...
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It took a long time to teach the dogs to use the feeding machine. Indeed, the first dog in line had to learn not to throw himself onto the fifty bowls of food passing in front of him, and so on.
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Thor Freudenthal's feature directing debut. He was previously a frequent collaborator of Rob Minkoff.
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The first Nickelodeon film to not be co-produced with Paramount Pictures or one of its divisions. The film is instead co-produced with Paramount's partner DreamWorks.
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The birds flying past the camera from behind at 04:04 were added digitally (mentioned in the commentary).
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Mentioned in the behind the scenes special features, Emma Roberts tripped and fell while shooting the escape from the shelter. As a result, she was run over and trampled by the dogs, but was unhurt. She apparently had paw prints all over her.
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