Trainers stood off-camera using a combination of hand signals and verbal cues to get the dogs to achieve lots of action throughout the film such as barking, growling, lying down, sitting, standing, and even digging. In one scene, a dog called Scooper begins to dig in the snow as the other dogs lie in the snow and enjoy a much-deserved rest. The dog finally digs up a flask. A trainer buried some treats in the snow near the flask and used a hand signal from off-camera to get the dog to begin digging. Once the dog got scent of the treat, the rest of the scene came naturally to the pooch. After the scene was filmed, the other dogs also received edible rewards for a job well done.
Demon, Yodel and Sniff, Mack and Diesel, Scooper, Duchess are all Siberian Huskies. Nana is the only one of Lucy's dogs not to be a Siberian Husky, she's a Border Collie.
During a fantasy/nightmare sequence, Ted's dogs lie on beach chairs with sunglasses on. Each dog had a trainer and was prepped for one month prior to filming. Each dog had its own foam padding which was cut out to fit its hips and back so it could lie on the beach chair and not slip down or tip over. Custom-made bathing suits were made for each dog to wear. The trainers placed the dogs in the chairs and set sunglasses on their faces then stood off camera calling to the dogs to get them to look in various directions. After the scene was filmed, the trainers retrieved the dogs and disrobed them, rewarding each with a treat. All of the mouth movements and facial expressions here and throughout the film were computer generated and edited in during post production.