Maine pooch to star in movie shot in Bethel Christmas film debuts today with Pittston dog

BETHEL – A Christmas movie starring Bear, a frolicsome Old English sheepdog from Pittston, will have its world premiere this weekend in Bethel, the town where most of the film was shot last May.

“The Twelve Dogs of Christmas” is based on a popular children’s book by the same title written by Emma Kragen when she was 7 years old. The film version was produced by her father, Ken Kragen, of “We Are The World” and “Hands Across America” fame.

Dozens of Bethel-area kids and canines are featured in the film about an 11-year-old girl named Emma who uses dogs to teach the dog-despising townspeople of Doverville and its unscrupulous dogcatcher the true meaning of Christmas.

The world premiere and benefit showing is set for Saturday evening at Telstar High School in Bethel, where the film will be shown again Sunday afternoon.

Bear plays the part of Yehteh, a female sheepdog that belongs to a young boy named Mikey. In one scene, Yehteh gets thrown out of a school classroom; in another, Emma rescues him from a German shepherd in a dogfighting arena.

Bear’s owner, Jerry Case, said that when it came to performing before a camera, his sheepie was a natural.

“He did everything they asked him to do. He got up on chairs. He jumped up on people. Bear is big. Even the dog trainers from Los Angeles agreed he is the most handsome sheepdog they had ever seen,” Case said.

“Normally, they would train a dog six months in advance to do a movie. For the filming, Bear got a walk-through and a rehearsal. He screwed up every rehearsal, but as soon as the lights came on in the camera, he was perfect. He got 95 percent of what he had to do, right, on the first take.”

The production company, First Frame of Los Angeles, came to Bethel, Case said, “because the state of Maine assured them there would be snow on the ground in April. And there was not. They had to import snow by the truckloads from Sunday River in Bethel.”

During the six-week filming, Case, 51, directed his dog from various locations.

“I was crouched under dingy stairwells in barns, and the like, hiding, giving dog commands,” he said.

It was Bear’s shaggy charm that landed him the role, Case said.

“I heard they were making a movie in Bethel and wanted people to bring dogs for auditioning. So, I packed three of my sheepdogs in my car. They said they were going to fly in a sheepdog from California, but they might need doubles.

“Three or four days later, director Kieth Merrill called and asked me if I wanted to bring them over again. He plays with them, whips out his cell phone and calls both dog trainers to come to Maine but leave the sheepdogs in California,” Case said.