A tribute to Verdell

Anyone who's seen the movie "As Good as it Gets" will remember Verdell, Simon's finicky pooch!! The script called for a Brussels Griffon, a rare European breed, to play the part of Verdell. Director James Brooks even thought of calling the movie "A Dog's Story." Brooks also thought of calling it the Old Friends, Rock Bottom, and The Bright Side of Life.

Starting in April 97, it took two weeks of searching the US and Europe to find the six dogs who eventually played Verdell. Their names? Timer, Sprout, Debbie, Billy, Parfait and Jill. Jill (from Texas) was the last dog found, and the one who was used the most.

Apparently, no one had ever worked with the breed before, so animal coordinator Gary Gero and trainers Roger Schumacher and Ray Beal had their work cut out for them. Luckily, they found them "very intelligent, and very trainable" according to the movie's director, James Brooks. Even so, it took 15 weeks of training, 6 days a week, to be ready to shoot. Roger Schumacher, who had just also worked on 101 Dalmations, said filming As Good As It Gets was even more difficult.

Greg Kinnear said "[Jill] is the ultimate star of the film." According to Brooks, she was exceptionally intelligent for her breed. She certainly had to do a lot to deserve this praise- during the course of the movie, she gets thrown down a garbage shute, and changes Melvin Udall's life, while depressing her owner, Simon. She has to pretend to like Jack Nicholson more than bacon bits, which is pretty amazing. :)

But everyone's work paid off - with 3 Golden Globes and 2 Academy Awards, director James Brooks said, "I'm just flying." Jill was probably pretty happy too - after the awards ceremony, she accompanied Brooks to a post-Oscar party at Chasen's, where she ate lamb.

Contact the Queen Bee

Other recommended breeders on the Island:
Carmeli ~ BC Canada

Other recommended breeders off the Island:
Griffy Guys ~ USA
Moselle Griffons ~ Ohio USA
TreyAcres ~ Ohio USA

 

Back to SpruceBugs Brussels Griffons

A Little Brussels Griffon History
(from the American Brussels Griffon Association)

The origins of the Griffon are humble. In the early 1800s, coachmen customarily kept small terriers as ratters in the stables. Those in Belgium were Affenpinscher-like, known as griffons d'ecurie (wire-coated stable dogs).

By the mid 1800s, crosses between the native Belgium dog and the Pug, black and tan King Charles Spaniel, and the Ruby varieties of the English Toy Spaniel combined to give us the determined, loving, enthusiastic dog we love to this day.

These crosses also account for the Griffon coat varieties - rough (wire coated) and smooth (short haired). The smooth coat is recessive to the rough coat. This means that two smooths can only produce smooths, but two roughs (if they carry a recessive gene for smooth) can produce smooth coats as well. The crosses also produced the various coat colours - red, black, belge (mix of red and black hairs blended all through the coat), and black and tan, as well as the head characteristics that make this dog so distinctive. The original street dog was known as a "ratter", and some Griffon owners report their dogs still perform this duty.

Griffs are intelligent, lively, very interactive with their family, and have a curiously stubborn streak in them that their owners learn very early on to try to avoid! :) Griffs love to be the centre of attention, up front sitting on the centre console for car rides, hiking the mountain, or just cuddling on the couch on a rainy day.