Director: Kids helped hire 'Shaggy' dog

NEW YORK, March 5 (UPI) -- Director Brian Robbins says his two young sons helped hire the canine star of his new family flick, "The Shaggy Dog."

"They love (the movie.) They sort of have ownership over it. They've been involved the whole way. They cast the dog with me," Robbins told United Press International in New York. "One morning, my doorbell rang and 60 dogs were in my yard and my kids were there and we did screen tests with the dogs and we went through the screen tests together. We chose the dog as a family."

So, did the filmmaker always want a bearded collie to play the dog into which funnyman Tim Allen transforms?

"I had screen-tested sheepdogs and all different kinds of black and white, sort of shaggy-looking dogs," he said, adding the dog they ultimately chose was a talented bearded collie that looked great and could do most of the "acting" and stunts the movie required.

"The problem with sheep dogs was they have that hair that comes down over their eyes and the reason they have that is because their eyes are terrible," he said. "I felt I needed to see the dog's eyes in this movie. I felt it was important for the emotional content."