'Chihuahua' Star Discovered In Dog Shelter

When it comes time for the stars of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" to stroll down the red carpet at its Hollywood premiere Thursday night, chances are pretty good that most of the eyeballs won't be on Drew Barrymore and George Lopez, but on the four-legged actors they lend their voices to.

"With these kinds of movies, it's been my experience, at least, that people always love seeing the dogs," said Mike Alexander, the head trainer and animal coordinator of Birds & Animals Unlimited, a handler whose work has been instrumental to several films and television productions over the past 20 years.

The red carpet trip marks yet another amazing step for Rusco, the dog who plays Papi in "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." In an @ The Movies interview Wednesday, Alexander said his new canine star is the one who almost got away.

That's because Rusco was at an animal shelter when Alexander found a photo of what believed could be the dog he was looking for. The problem was, after months of searching, the esteemed animal trainer as behind such hits as "A Night at the Museum" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (he helped orchestrate the film's elaborate squirrel scene) found himself racing against the clock.

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"Because there are so many potential dogs to cast out there, it's hard for us to review every single source every single day," Alexander said. "We had one, small picture that I was able share with Disney, and when we got around to calling the shelter, they said, 'Well, he's been here for about two weeks, and that's about as long as they stay here, and we don't reserve him over the phone.' By then, it was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and I got in my car and rushed down to the shelter, but since it was so far away, I had traffic to deal with."

Unfortunately, Alexander arrived at the Moreno Valley Animal Shelter about 60 miles from Los Angeles just a little too late.

"When I got down there they were just closing the doors and wouldn't let me in," Alexander recalled. "So I went back the next morning and Rusco was still there. So after spending a little time for him, I knew right away, that this was going to be Papi."

The "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" in question is Chloe (played by Angel, voiced by Barrymore), a diamond-clad, bootie-wearing pampered pooch who is so caught up in her lifestyle that she barely notices that the rough-looking dog Papi (Rusco and Lopez), is around -- much less fawning over her. But when Chloe gets lost in the rough streets of Mexico, Papi rustles up some pals to save his one true love.

Rusco is unique that he's not 100 percent Chihuahua. Instead he's classified as part Chihuahua and part mutt, which explains his big ears and the overall scrappy "look" the filmmakers were hoping for. Another huge factor that helped Alexander turn Rusco into a movie star was the dog's age, which he estimated -- in human years -- to be about 2 years old when he adopted him from the shelter.

"In a perfect world, we like to find dogs that are just past being a puppy, about a year and a-half -- especially for a movie like this where we're going to get the dog and start training him right away," Alexander said. "A year and a-half up to 3 years old is the perfect range, but that's not to say we don't get older dogs, too. An older dog is nice, too, especially if they have a nice personality. It's just nice to get them when they're adults and they're ready to really work."

Now that Rusco's work is done on "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (apart from personal and promotional appearances with Alexander and Lopez), the trainer said that it's time for his new pet to play a little, too.

The great thing is, his lovely co-star, Angel, is there to play with him.

"They both live with me at the house -- they're quite the little couple," said Alexander with a laugh.

Also starring Jamie-Lee Curtis, Piper Perabo and Manolo Cardona, and co-starring the voices of Cheech Marin, Andy Garcia and Paul Rodriguez, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" opens in theaters nationwide on Oct. 3.