Local filmmaker puts dogs on Netflix

MIDDLEBURY — Except for stars like Lassie, Rin Tin Tin or Benji, dogs are generally barred from movie theaters and sports arenas.

But on Saturday, Aug. 10, humans will take a backseat to their best friends at Middlebury’s Memorial Sports Center, where dogs will scamper down a red carpet for the screening of a pooch-related documentary called “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” directed by local filmmaker Andy Mitchell.

And if the Memorial Sports Center does in fact “go to the dogs” to the tune of 220 or more hounds for the Aug. 10 mutt-stravaganza, Middlebury will grab a Guinness world record for “most dogs to attend a film screening.”

Attendance should be good, considering Mitchell’s pedigree and track record. He’s a four-time Emmy Award-winning film director, cinematographer, producer, writer, storyteller and underwater cameraman. During his more than 25-year career, Mitchell has documented a wide variety of films on subjects that include rock stars, great white sharks, natural disasters, Buddhist monks, music, reality, science, Sasquatch, dolphins, diamonds, dingos, gorillas, celebrities, mosquitos and countless more subjects.

One of seven honorees at this year’s Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, Mitchell has amassed more than 100 film credits for National Geographic, Disney+, Netflix, Nat Geo Wild, Discovery, Animal Planet, Smithsonian, POV and PBS. He has filmed on every continent and in every ocean, and finally gets to enjoy some limelight in his backyard, with “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” which will be released on Netflix on Aug. 9.

Narrated by actor Rob Lowe, the much anticipated “Inside the Mind of a Dog” documentary is Mitchell’s follow-up to “Inside the Mind of a Cat,” which came to Netflix in 2022. Mitchell worked with Red Rock Films for both productions.

“We’ve had it in our mind to do this since the first one,” Mitchell said. “The ‘Cat’ movie over-performed for them; it did way better than anyone thought it was going to, which was great.”

How great? It ranked top 10 nationally on Netflix the week of its release.

Now Garfield is giving way to Fido, and the viewership numbers should be even better this time around, if animal ownership stats are a good harbinger.

According to Forbes Advisor, 44.5% of U.S. households own at least one dog, compared to 29% for cats.

“The whole time we were doing ‘Cats,’ we were thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be so great if we could also do this with dogs?’” Mitchell said.

And they did.

ANDY MITCHELL’S NETFLIX documentary “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” which will be screened in Middlebury Aug. 10, explores the ancient and complex human-dog relationship. The film follows several canine main characters, including a lovable rescue mutt.
Graphic courtesy of Netflix and Red Rock Films

Here’s the movie tease from Netflix:

“Explore the ancient and complex human-dog relationship, reveal cutting edge research and offer at-home tips for dog owners everywhere. Following our main characters — a brilliant, super trained border collie; a precocious pug; and a lovable rescued mutt — our team of elite canine experts from across the globe, dive deep into our best friend’s hidden mind, to answer everyone’s biggest canine questions.”

Red Rock and Netflix gave Mitchell and his team immense freedom in researching and filming “Inside the Mind of a Dog.”

It involved far more than a crew simply pointing a camera at four-legged friends in dog parks and other places where canines congregate. The 74-minute documentary took 15 months to film at around seven locations, stretching from Santa Rosa, Calif., to Long Island, N.Y. Oh, and they also took in-flight footage of some extremely cute puppies headed from Santa Rosa to Duke University.

Mitchell & co. worked with behavioral scientists from Duke, Harvard, the Universities of Pennsylvania and Arizona, among others, who are finding out what makes dogs tick.

Among them was Brian Hare of Duke, a professor in Evolutionary Anthropology, Psychology and Neuroscience. He runs a lab on campus that researches the “evolution of cognition” through the study of domestic dogs.

“There’s this burgeoning science community around dogs and cats, and things they used to think they couldn’t learn anything from. But they’re realizing they can learn a lot from dogs’ brains,” Mitchell said. “What’s cool is we’re learning a lot about ourselves through them.”

One of Mitchell’s favorite aspects of the movie is how it showcases, and celebrates, the relationship between humans and dogs — the origins of that successful pairing and why the former gets so attached to the latter.

“An underlying theme of the movie is, ‘Survival of the friendliest,’” a beaming Mitchell recounted. “Especially in this day and age, (the human-dog bond) needs to be out there more.”

The team followed an entire class of 18-month-old training dogs and saw one of the graduates get placed with a family.

“The through-line of the movie is how a service dog is trained,” Mitchell said.

And the “backbone of the movie,” according to Mitchell, is its work with a service dog company called “Canine Companions.” With multiple locations nationwide, Canine Companions trains and provides service dogs to adults, children and veterans with disabilities, and facility dogs to professionals working in healthcare, criminal justice and educational settings,” according to its website, canine.org.

PUPPY KINDERGARTEN

Mitchell and his crew also filmed at a “puppy kindergarten,” the brainchild of the aforementioned Brian Hare. It’s a classroom in which scientists study the puppies’ minds and behavior as they mature, flagging young dogs that would make particularly good service dogs or police dogs.

Another of Mitchell’s movie angles: Following a group of performing dogs from a Maryland company called “Mutts Gone Nuts.” The dogs travel with their human handlers, regaling humans with tricks and antics.

“We spent a number of weekends with them, using a phantom high-speed camera, throwing Frisbees and capturing amazing footage,” Mitchell recalled. “That was super fun.”

“Inside the Mind of a Dog” seeks to educate, but there are also several outrageously cute, “aww!” moments with pups whose special talent is dispensing unconditional love.

“We did a number of sessions where we would rent out an Air BNB and got everyone we knew in the area to swing by with their dogs,” Mitchell said.

The product is now polished and ready, and Mitchell is pleased “Inside the Mind of a Dog” will have a local screening as part of its rollout.

And who came up with the idea of using a world record attempt as a promotional tool for the Aug. 10 viewing at Memorial Sports Center?

“Our 13-year-old son, Billy,” Mitchell said.

Turns out Billy had noticed the existing world record of 219 dogs at a movie screening had been set last fall at a Los Angeles showing of “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie.”

“He said, ‘You should beat that, dad,’” Mitchell said.

ANDY MITCHELL’S NETFLIX documentary “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” which will be screened in Middlebury Aug. 10, explores the ancient and complex human-dog relationship. The film follows several canine main characters, including a lovable rescue mutt.
Graphic courtesy of Netflix and Red Rock Films

Time will tell. If you live in the Middlebury area with a dog that gets along well with others, see the accompanying story for info on registering for the Aug. 10 showing.

Homeward Bound, which has been a supporter of Mitchell and this film, will get a portion of donations made at the screening. Homeward Bound’s Hanna applauded MiddleburyUndergrounD for the creativity behind this even.

“It’s not every day that people, or dogs for that matter, have the chance to try and set a world record!” Manley said. “We traditionally have 100 dogs at our Woofstock: Walk for the Animals event, so I think it is very possible to gather up 220 or the movie screening.”

Michael McAuliffe is a leader of the nonprofit Friends of Middlebury Hockey group, which oversees that sports center. He noted the founding mission for the center was that it serve as a multi-purpose facility for the community, beyond its use as an ice skating and hockey venue during the winter. With that in mind, the Memorial Sports Center this summer has hosted the Middlebury Parks & Recreation Department’s Camp Kookamunga, Middlebury Union High School reunion ceremonies and other activities.

“A movie about dogs provides one more opportunity to engage with our community and provide a service, and that’s what we’re all about,” said McAuliffe, who has two dogs — Sonora and Luka.

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].