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Star Time for Charles County Canines
Price started taping. Hyson released the unwitting star from the kitchen. Chester ambled down the hall to the door and shook himself, not as interested in Guy as he was in Price's Betacam. Chester's focus problem was eventually solved by motivating him with bits of cheese, and the scene wrapped after a series of takes.
The heavies rolled in at 10:30 a.m. -- three corporals and a sergeant from the K-9 unit of the Charles County Sheriff's Office. Their squad cars rocked, vicious gnashing sounds coming from the German shepherds and Belgian malinois inside: Aris and Ozzy and Odie and Scooby and Brit and Karr. They all smelled Chester.
  Mail carrier Shawn Guy poses for Postal Service photographer Gerald Merna as Chester is lured to jump at a front door during a video shoot. (Linda Davidson - The Washington Post) |
The officers held coffee cups and watched the shooting of the "mail reception safety" scene: Four-year-old Gina DeLancey sprinted across Saunders's lawn toward Guy's mail truck, only to be sternly recalled by her mother, Toni, the Postal Service's community relations manager. (Never let your children race toward the carrier with the dog around: Spot could perceive the exchange of mail as a threat.)
In the day's final scene, Sgt. Vincent Weaver, bitten by more dogs than he cares to remember, played the innocent pedestrian who illustrates how to negotiate an attack: Don't run, put something between you and the dog, or curl up in a fetal position and cup your hands around your ears.
"I only want to do this once," Weaver said, as the officers laced a leather wrap on his left arm.
Price set up the camera on a neighbor's lawn, and Cpl. Renee Cuyler restrained Ozzy behind some landscaping. Weaver walked up the lawn, saying, "Take one, and only!"
Cuyler released Ozzy, who promptly latched his jaws on Weaver's arm, exerting 750 pounds of pressure per square inch.
Cut! The take was good, and the star was escorted back to his trailer.
Next-door neighbor Ruth Page wandered over. "I live right here," she said to the officers. "I just wanted to know if there was a reason to be concerned."
Squad cars, six snarling dogs, camera crew, reporter and photographer? No, ma'am, nothing to worry about.
