Nicholas Sparks: What I've Learned from My Dog

Nicholas Sparks and friends ...

“I had a dog named Jenny when I was growing up,” recalls Schilling. “When I’d come home, she was always so glad to see me. As a little girl, I trained her to walk across the room on her hind legs and my mother got so worried that I was hurting her back.

“For ‘The Lucky One,’ I was the one who had to be trained. The script called for me to go running with several dogs on a leash. That was probably the trickiest thing I had to do – learning how to run with all those dogs. I kept falling. Yeah, it was fun to run. I like to run. But the scene where we run into the pond – actually it was an accident.

"The dogs started treating me like I was like a part of the pack. They weren’t listening to me the way Rowdy listened to Zac. I was trying really hard to hang onto their leashes – but the dogs were all excited and I fell into the water. But it looked so good on film that they just kept it in the film.”

Nicholas Sparks and friends ...

Playing the owner of a kennel in the film, Danner had to learn how to work with dogs. “Well, luckily for me – and I don’t want to brag, but in New York City, my husband and I have two Golden Retrievers,” she says. “I trained them both and he said ‘You’ll never get those dogs to do anything.’ In Central Park, you can let them off their leashes early in the morning and I love going there with our dogs. My brother said, ‘You’ll never get them to stay off the rugs.’ I showed him! ‘Off the rugs!’ I tell them and they obey. So, I came to this role a little prepared. The dogs in the movie were so wonderful. One in particular -- I just adored him.”

Does Danner think her animals have ever taught her anything? “Unconditional love,” she answers, “how to love without judgment. The very first dog I had as a baby was Dukie and I’ve never had another a dog like him. He was my guardian and my friend. This dog wouldn’t let anybody near me. My mom would put my playpen on the front lawn and he would just sit there guarding me. My mom told me years later how we kids would be out in the neighborhood playing and she’d tell him, ‘Bring the kids home for dinner.’ And he would come get us. He was a special dog.”