Everyone and His Brother Hopes to Have the Next Benji

Perhaps it’s time your best friend went to work for you. She has that certain something, you tell yourself--the way she whimpers and looks up, covering her eyes with her paws.

Chances are Hollywood isn’t interested.

“They’re all just dreamin’,” said retired Hollywood animal trainer Frank Inn, who lives in Sylmar. “Everyone thinks their dog and child are so smart.

“I have people call me up every day saying I should use their dog in pictures. If I was a stupid man, I would say yes. Why would I want to take an owner’s dog and split a profit?”

Animal trainers routinely scour animal shelters for their stock of workers, said Inn, who turned up a scruffy mutt at a Burbank animal shelter in the early 1960s--who later became a dog-star named Benji. “I didn’t really need him at the time,” Inn said of his discovery. “But I took him so he wouldn’t have to be put to sleep.”

The mutt yawned, sneezed, swam, chased trains and played checkers with Uncle Joe for seven years on the “Petticoat Junction” TV show before making his first movie, “Benji,” at the old age of 13.

Benji’s daughter--also named Benji, and now 13--has gone on to make three pictures, a Christmas special and more than a dozen TV shows after her father died a seasoned veteran at the age of 18 in 1975. In her heyday, Benji commanded $15,000 for personal appearances, a portion of which, Inn joked, the dog shared with him. “We’ve lived very nicely,” Inn said. “Now Benji and I go around to convalescent homes and just say hi.”

Trained Menagerie of 500

Inn worked with Rudd Weatherwax, trainer of Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, and in 1954 founded his own company, now located in Saugus. He went on to train a menagerie of 500 for the TV show “The Beverly Hillbillies,” including Fairchild the Bear, Cousin Bess the Chimp and Racky the Raccoon.

Inn’s company once harbored 1,000 assorted creatures, but now houses 50, mostly dogs and cats used on such recent movies as “Funny Farm” and “Harry and the Hendersons.”

And should you think that your mutt has the makings of a Mighty Dog, don’t turn to Blair Bunch, begun 14 years ago in Van Nuys by Bob Blair. The company also believes that potential stars hang out at animal shelters.

Blair Bunch trains animals for Budweiser, Kodak, Sears, McDonald’s and Chevrolet commercials, among hundreds of others--not to mention those starring that caped wonder, Mighty Dog, symbol of Mighty Dog dog food.

Blair’s son, Bob Blair Jr., discovered Mighty Dog (his offstage name is Scamper) at the East Valley Animal Shelter in 1983. “He had personality,” Blair said. “There was a sparkle in his eye and he looked happy. He wanted to get out of there. He had three days to go.”

Air-Conditioned Comfort

Blair Bunch houses 50 dogs and 100 cats in air-conditioned comfort, replete with piped-in music. Blair, 31, said it takes about three hours to train a dog in basic obedience and up to three years for it to become proficient in movie work.

“The Hollywood Mongrel” is a type of dog that Hubert Wells recruits for his Thousand Oaks company, Animal Actors. “A medium-sized, fuzzy dog with a cute expression,” explained Wells, 54, who has trained animals for such movies as “Doctor Doolittle,” “Sheena,” “Out of Africa” and “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.”

One other Hollywood trainer in the Valley, Karl Miller, said he finds employees for his Sun Valley company, Animal Action, in newspaper ads that offer free animals. Miller, 47, has trained animals for such movies as “Cudgel,” “Body Double” and “Remo Williams, the Adventure Begins,” as well as the TV show “Punky Brewster.”

One of Miller’s major discoveries was Scruffy, a mixed wire fox terrier who shared the limelight on “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” TV show. “I had no other reason to take him than to look on the card and read that it was his last day,” Miller recalled of finding the dog at the East Valley Animal Shelter in 1968. “A year later, he received 50% of the fan mail on the show.”