In Trainer's World, Every Dog Has His Debut

You can take the dog out of the hunt, but even one of the theater world's most in-demand pet trainers can't always take the hunt out of the dog.

The ill-fated show was an early-'90s New York preview of "Nick and Nora," and actress Joanna Gleason's character was sporting a fox stole. As the dead animal's beady eyes stared right at the production's wirehair fox terrier, it wasn't long before the onstage canine attacked its furry target. The audience laughed, the actors smiled, and Gleason -- an anti-fur person -- happily surrendered the stole.

The animal trainer in question, Bill Berloni, remembers the story fondly. Over several decades of working with "drama dogs," he has learned to roll with the pooches.

Berloni is now in town for twin traveling productions: "The Wizard of Oz," which runs through Sunday at the Warner Theatre, and "Legally Blonde," which comes to the Kennedy Center Dec. 16.

Berloni is sitting with Princess, the 11-pound cairn terrier who plays Toto in the touring production of "Oz." It's midmorning, but "Toto" is dozing. Princess is a theater dog and, as Berloni remarks, these types just aren't morning people.

Princess, who's nearing retirement age at 8 1/2, is a puppy-mill dog who was rescued by the trainer. Berloni is also the man behind a Chihuahua named Frankie, who plays Bruiser, beloved pet of law student/sorority queen Elle Woods, in "Legally Blonde." (There's also China, who plays the bulldog Rufus in "Blonde," and all these dogs, we should note, have understudies.)

The key to putting pooches onstage, the trainer says, is "acclimating them to the theatrical condition" -- from backstage noises to laughter from 1,000-plus people. Plus, "it takes me a long time to find a cairn terrier who's calm," Berloni says. Nor, he adds, is it easy "finding Chihuahuas that think they're Great Danes," which playing Bruiser requires.

Early in the development of "Legally Blonde," Berloni says, "we had this very outgoing Chihuahua" named Chico. The little guy made his big entrance in San Francisco. "When the overture began, [all the tween and teen fans] started screaming." The pooch, says Berloni, "hit the deck." He eventually did what he was supposed to do onstage, "once he figured out nobody was gonna hurt him," says the trainer. "We just altered the learning process."

Another issue at "Legally Blonde" performances has been girls bringing itty-bitty dogs into theaters in carriers a la Elle Wood. Not good. The dog onstage would bark on cue and hear a distracting (never mind illegal) chorus of replies from the audience. Now theaters screen for clandestine canines.

Not that this was the career Berloni always had in mind; rather, like a lost mutt with a keen sense of smell, this career seemed to find him.

Thirty-two years ago, at 19, Berloni was a young acting student working over the summer at the legendary Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. Because no one else wanted to do it, he was assigned to find and train a dog to play Sandy in a new little show called "Annie," based on the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie."

He found his Sandy at a pound, a lanky mutt slated for oblivion. He saved the dog, and through hit-and-miss efforts and lots of treats, got Sandy to do what needed to be done. Berloni and his employers realized he had the knack.