Mark Reviews Movies: PICK OF THE LITTER

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 27, 2018

Showing just how much the competitive brand of reality television has infested our culture, here's Pick of the Litter, a documentary about five puppies training to become guide dogs for the blind or visually impaired. This might not seem like the sort of true-life story that demands the façade of a competition, but directors Don Hardy Jr. and Dana Nachman go for that angle anyway. Surprisingly, the results are effective.

That's because the film is, at its heart, about a group of people who genuinely want to help. The dogs are cute, to be sure, and admittedly, it does become easy enough to want them to succeed, even though they have no clue as to why they're doing what they're doing. There comes a moment when Phil, the most promising of the pooches, fails a required test and appears ready to be "career-changed"—a euphemism for being removed from the training program to be adopted by a family. There's no inherent drama in this, but boy, do you feel bad for the little dog nonetheless.

The organization at the center of this program is Guide Dogs for the Blind, located in San Rafael, California. We meet the five puppies at their births and stick with them until they succeed in becoming guide dogs—or are transferred to becoming a breeder or a "civilian life" (A cartoon picture of each dog fades when they fail). Along the way, we meet volunteers, who raise the pups in regular homes until they're ready for training, and the trainers who have to do rigorous preparation for the dogs' tests (learning when to stop, how to navigate neighborhoods without sidewalks, and when to disobey a command that could put its owner in danger).

We meet some decent people (some of whom also seem strangely competitive about their temporary dogs), but the man who stands out is a veteran who has post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Iraq. He has taken in a few dogs for the program, and they've helped him cope. When he meets and bonds with his newest charge, named Patriot, the relationship between them becomes quite affecting.

Yes, Pick of the Litter is framed as a story about the dogs, but the film's real draw is in seeing good people working for a common, charitable cause of worth. The dogs are very good dogs, too.

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