From stray to Hollywood star: the story of the little dog from The House of the Dragon

Updated at Thursday 27.6.2024 1:45hs

In the new season of “House of the Dragon”, an unexpected protagonist has captured the attention and affection of viewers: Bobby, the star dog who accompanies Cheese (played by Mark Stobbart).

Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen the first two episodes of the second season yet, don’t continue reading.

Since his first appearance in the opening episode, where his master is hired by Daemon Targaryen to assassinate his nephew Aemon, Bobby has left an indelible mark.

Last week, after outrage on social media over a scene where Queso apparently kicks the dog, Stobbart clarified that everything was a product of post-production and that he and Bobby are great friends in real life.

Bobby, who has already participated in other productions, appeared again in the second episode of this season, released on June 23, where his performance once again moved the audience.

In a heartbreaking scene, the dog finds his master hanged by King Aegon in revenge for the death of his son, emitting a moan of desolation that has been widely commented on online.

Bobby is actually a little dog that Hollywood animal trainer Julie Tottman adopted after a charity rescued him from the streets of Cyprus in 2019.

According to what his now owner has said, they found this “lomito” malnourished and with scars that left evidence that he was suffering abuse. That’s why she decided to take him to give him the life he deserved.

“When he was found, he was extremely underweight and became nervous around men, indicating that he had been mistreated. He was the typical stray dog, he still had scars”said Julie, who has four other dogs at home and runs a farm with cats, chickens, foxes, deer, crows and owls, all trained for film roles.

However, for Tottman, his disheveled appearance and twisted ears created an image that had potential and could work for film or television. Noticing this, he did not hesitate to start training Bobby, and to his surprise, the dog not only adapted to the training, but did it wonderfully.

After casting (100% real, not fake), Bobby got his first big role in Hollywood to play Buddy, the companion of the evil Cruella de Vil in the villain’s solo film that came out in 2021, where The little dog shared the screen with none other than the two-time Oscar winner for Best Actress, Emma Stone.

Part of Bobby’s training for this film involved learning to catch a star necklace that Stone would throw at him, crawl under a table, and carry a bag of sandwiches to bring him lunch.

But perhaps the most complicated thing for this little dog was becoming the hero of the film by untying Emma, ​​who was tied to a chair with a rope in the middle of a fire (although of course, they recorded that last thing with blue screens).

This lomito’s work on Cruella was so incredible that his trainer and owner stated that Emma Stone was delighted with him, so much so that the actress wrote a letter of gratitude to Bobby for being an important star of the film.