"The babies were much more problematic than the dogs, weirdly. The dogs were, if anything, overtrained so some of the times when we just wanted mayhem, they would be sitting there well behaved."

"Even though my intent was to let them just be dogs and we'll capture it on film, they really had to choreograph all those scenes," so one dog would cross the room and chew up a pillow and another would urinate in the corner, and a third would relieve himself near the fireplace and the others would run wild.

In "Year of the Dog," Molly Shannon plays Peggy, a single woman whose world is turned upside down when her beloved beagle dies. White, whose writing credits include "School of Rock," "The Good Girl," "Chuck & Buck" and, with Jared and Jerusha Hess, "Nacho Libre," had been inspired by a real-life loss.

"I had a cat that died on me ... and you don't realize how attached you become," he said, during a recent phone interview. The cat, which he named Bootlegger, had been a stray he adopted. It lived in his back yard for three years and died in his arms on Christmas.

Thinking about the experience, he realized most movies with animals were sentimental stories aimed at children. "I just thought it would be interesting to talk about an adult relationship with a pet, from a sophisticated point of view," he said.

"Peggy goes through a lot, and there's a lot of scenes where she's crying or she's in mourning, and I just felt like with Molly -- because of who she is -- that it wouldn't feel as punishing as in the hands of maybe some other actress. It would still have some comic register to it," White suggested.

On top of that, you wonder if Peggy will go off the deep end. "I felt like having her in it, it would add a hint of suspense to it. She has a little bit of edge to her, even if she's playing this sweet character."

"She nods her head and she listens. She's supportive, but she doesn't really bring her needs and her issues to the fore, so that when she does start agitating and she does change, the people in her life, I don't think they're wanting her to change in that way because they've started taking her for granted."

The death of Pencil brings her into contact with an animal activist named Newt, played by Peter Sarsgaard. Although Peggy falls for Newt, he doesn't return the affection.

"I had met some people through animal rescue and there's a certain kind of sensitive man type that sort of emerges in that world. You wonder, 'Are they gay, are they straight, do they just love dogs?' And so I kind of wanted to create a character, it really wasn't about his ambiguous sexuality, he's just decided he's given his life over to his pets."

Peggy lives next door to an available man, played by John C. Reilly, but he turns out to be a hunter and she somehow blames him for Pencil's death.

"I wanted her to meet her sort of foil, in a way, and have somebody who had a completely different point of view on her animal issues. ... At some point, you feel he's a hunting nut job, but he approached it in sort of a sober way and there are moments where you go, 'Maybe he's the most sane person in the movie,' depending on your point of view."

White, who makes his directing debut with "Year of the Dog" and has a string of acting credits to his name, owns two dogs and a cat (a second one recently died). He describes his French bulldogs as "somewhere between a pug and a bulldog. They're a little bulky. They're not intimidating although they have a nice little gargoyle head."

They once belonged to his mother, who worked such long hours that they spent too much time sitting in her yard. He rescued them from her and got the cats from shelters. "When I'm traveling, I have somebody who lives in the house, like a dog sitter, and I have a dog walker. They have a full team."

"Year of the Dog" opened in New York and Los Angeles two weeks ago and has been rolling out across the country. During a publicity tour, White heard a range of reactions to Peggy's character, the movie's tone and its issues.

"It's nice when you win the popularity contest and everybody loves your movie and there's a consensus around it," he said, as with "School of Rock" or even "The Good Girl," which allowed Jennifer Aniston to shuck off her "Friends" sophistication, not to mention hairstyles.

But he's also happy when moviegoers, whether they love "Year of the Dog" or not, have thoughtful responses. "I like to feel like there's something to chew on."

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