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   The dog trainer was Boone Narrs, who has been training animals for Hollywood for over 30 years. Several dogs were needed to portray Hachi over a 10-year period.

“Based on our criteria, he found three adult Akitas named Forrest, Leyla and Chico to play the part of the adult Hachi,” said Shigekuni Wong. “They were show dogs from all around the country, and blood-related. We needed multiple adults due to the long working hours, and for scenes that required specific personalities. We called Leyla the ‘kissing dog’ due to her affectionate nature. Forrest was reserved and we used him in more serious scenes.

“We found that puppies grew very quickly, so we were constantly replacing them over the several-month shoot. Due to this size issue, we decided to use the smaller Shiba puppies instead of Akitas.”

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