DOG STAR : Take a Hike, Spuds; Here Comes Laguna’s Canine Skateboarder--a Real Hotdogger in Anybody’s Book

Sidney may have a mug only a mother could love, but he is a canine prodigy and a genuine celebrity.

Just ask Kathy Wood, Sidney’s owner, who beams with motherly pride as Sidney hops on his skateboard for a ride down the sidewalk in Laguna Beach.

Sidney the 4-year-old English bulldog is a skateboard fanatic, a dog whose talents soar above and beyond the usual Frisbee-catching, ball-chasing and paw-shaking that is the lot of many lesser dogs.

His feats on the skateboard--he’s also fond of skim boarding--have landed him in People magazine and earned him an invitation to appear on Late Night With David Letterman’s “Stupid Pet Tricks” segment.

He has also been discovered by a nationwide skateboard manufacturer, appearing in the company’s promotional videos as a talented and adorable beach bum.

Wood, manager of the Pampered Pet Kennel in Laguna, is thrilled with all the attention but declined the invitation to appear with Letterman because she didn’t want Sidney to fly across the country in the cargo hold of an airplane. Sidney flies coach or not at all, she said.

Wood picked up Sidney when he was just 2 months old and claims that she never actually taught him how to ride his extra wide board. It was just something that he took to.

“He just jumped on the back of the board one day while my friend’s son was skateboarding, pushed the boy off and skated away,” she said. “Now I have to literally hide his skateboard from him, he loves it so much.”

Sidney’s technique consists of a two paw on, two paw off stance to build up speed, balancing on all four paws on the board and craning his neck towards the concrete in an effort to see the wheels when he really gets going. He continues skateboarding until the board inevitably crashes into something, at which point Sidney turns his body around and continues in the opposite direction--even when the board faces backwards.

Sidney gained greater fame among skateboarders when, by a chance encounter, he was chosen to appear in a promotional videotape produced by Santa Barbara-based Powell Peralta, one of the nation’s largest skateboard builders.

The company discovered Sidney when Wood met the wife of a cameraman who produces skateboard videos for the company, according to Jim Fitzpatrick, the company’s promotions manager and video screenplays writer.

Although dubious about Sidney’s skill, the company scripted him anyway in the skateboard video “Public Domain.”

“We thought we would have to do a lot of staging and manipulation of the dog to make the thing work,” Fitzpatrick said. “But this idiotic dog knew exactly what to do.”

In the video, Sidney chases professional skateboarder Lance Mountain, who’s known as the clown of the sport, off his board and steals it, Fitzpatrick said. Mountain tries to retrieve it in the same manner that Sidney stole it--hiding behind a tree and then giving chase--but he falls flat on his face.

“Robert (the cameraman) came back saying you guys won’t believe this,” Fitzpatrick said. No editing of the raw footage was needed, Fitzpatrick said.

The video generated fan mail from youngsters across the country, many who wanted to know if Sidney was Mountain’s dog and others asking if Sidney’s scene was staged, Fitzpatrick said.

Sidney appears in the company’s new video to be released later this month, this time stealing not only Mountain’s skateboard but that of another pro, too.

Aside from his nationwide star status, Sidney has become something of a local celebrity as well.

Penny Milne, an animal behaviorist and trainer at Canyon Animal Hospital in Laguna Beach, knows Sidney and explains his fondness for skateboarding as “very unusual.”

“It is something I have never seen in a dog before,” Milne said. “Not only riding a skateboard is unusual, but what is also interesting is that Sidney is interested in anything board-like.”

“We all know that dogs will chase after things that are moving and try and bite and grab them with their mouth,” Milne said. “The fact that Sidney can ride and propel these moving objects is what is extraordinary. Most bulldogs are truly bull-like. It is unusual to have one as cooperative and bright as Sidney.”

Milne said English bulldogs are “an extremely determined and focused breed. They have motivation to do what they want rather than what you want. As far as the skateboarding talent goes, a bulldog’s body shape, with its low center of gravity, may contribute, but mainly Sidney is just a character. It’s just a Sidney quirk.”

Danny Sullivan contributed to this story.