Hot-dogging it

Times: What is it about this particular dog, the Chihuahua? It is kind of tough and scrappy.

Garcia: Yeah, they're feisty. All small dogs have tremendous character.

Times: What do you have?

Garcia: I used to have Labrador retrievers, and now I have two small dachshunds and a small little toy poodle. We travel a lot, so they make it a lot easier to travel.

Sotelo: I have a German shepherd.

Lopez: And I have three Chihuahuas and a big poodle, partial black and white. That dog reminds my wife of what it was like when we first got married. He's like the young George, very loving, unconditional.

Times: Did you have to do your own barking? Did you have a bark double?

Garcia: No, there was barking, we had to growl. It was pretty embarrassing, yeah, it was actually. It's like people are filming you and they're watching you, and you're going grrr-rrrrr!

Lopez: And I may be the first Chihuahua that cries in a movie. One tear! He's pretty stoic. That's a very expensive tear, by the way.

Garcia: It's true that dogs have that quality, that unconditional love quality about them, you know? And any dog, it's not one particular breed. They really become part of a family, part of your family, like children. . . . So if you would have to come back as a dog, what kind of dog would you be?

Lopez: Well, I'd come back as the poodle that we have now, because that thing gets treated a lot better than I do. He's in a dog hotel in Vancouver!

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reed.johnson@latimes.com