"I Was Never Mistreating Him or Inhumane to Him" – An Interview with Greatest American Dog's Teresa Hanula and Leroy

When Greatest American Dog started, I don’t remember seeing much of Teresa. She was overshadowed by several of the bigger characters on the show, both in the people and dog world. As time went on, she slowly became more visible to the viewers, coming to the fore mainly after the photo shoot episode.

Teresa really started to stand out to me during the art challenge episode when she described her relationship with Leroy on the canvas. She explained to the judges about how their relationship is sometimes great and how sometimes he drives her to the moon with frustration. It was a real moment and, at that time, she grew on me considerably because that's a frustration that many everyday dog owners experience.

This week, I was disappointed to see Teresa leave. In her interview, Teresa was nothing but real. She took away some great moments from her time on the show, learned quite a bit, and made some lasting friendships along the way.

RealityNewsOnline: Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat for the RNO readers.

Teresa: Thanks. We had a good run, and being in the top four is nothing to scoff at. I'm happy we made it as far as we did.

RNO: One thing I love about Leroy is that he has such great expressions! As I was watching him this week, he reminded me of Blue Dog by artist George Rodrigue. Have you noticed that?

Teresa: Yes (laughing). He does have great expressions, doesn't he? I picked him out because he was so expressive, even as a baby. Even back then he'd cock his head to the side, and he had such big ears. His face shows everything and so does mine. I really noticed that watching the show. You can sure tell what I'm thinking by the look on my face all the time. The cameras captured it. I thought, “Do I really do that all the time?”

RNO: I was looking at Leroy's website yesterday and saw a clip of you two on The Letterman Show when he was about 18 months old. He's obviously pretty bright if you taught him to do spelling commands at such a young age. How much fun was it to get to meet David Letterman?

Teresa: That was so much fun! It was one of the best experiences to date. [Greatest American Dog] was a good experience, but it was long, but The Letterman Show was even better. And shorter.

At Letterman, everyone was so welcoming, and Leroy did great on the show. It was great waiting in the green room because there were pictures of Elvis and The Beatles and here's Leroy among them.

When he was young I figured out that he loves to learn and be kept busy. I needed to give him something to do to keep him occupied, so I taught him tricks, including the spelling tricks. He's so smart.

RNO: I noticed on The Letterman Show that Leroy was a happy "talker" even back then. Is that pretty standard for his breed?

Teresa: (Laughing) that's a nice way to put it. The older [Border Collies] get, the more mellow they become. Other Border owners have the same problems with theirs being chatty. He knows when the show is on and when I can't stop him from barking. In practice, I can pause, step back, and get him to stop barking. In competition he knows when he can get away with it. There are times when I'm at an advantage to the other competitors because he's so quick to pick up on stuff, but sometimes he can think about ten steps ahead of me. It can be frustrating.

He likes to talk and enjoys the attention. It's part of his style.

RNO: How did you two get cast for Greatest American Dog? Were you recruited or did someone see it and say, "Hey, Teresa, you'd be great for this?"

Teresa: We have a doggie agent in New York. They called and said that we'd be great for the show and hooked us up. Leroy's competitive, and is great. As I said earlier, we both have big expressions. I have a strong personality, so that helped too.

There was a lot of time when we were under the radar and I didn't want to get involved as much. When there are 12 people, it's easier to do that. As people leave and there are seven, six, five left, you get more camera time and more involvement in the stories. I do stand up for what I believe, so when someone said something that made me react, I made sure I was heard.

RNO: Back on the episode where the dogs had to dig to find their owners, how is it that you agreed to have Bella Starlet do the digging instead of Leroy? You sure didn't seem happy with the decision.

Teresa: Leroy could do both, and I was trying to give Beth Joy a chance to see what she thought Bella could do better. I let her pick. She thought Bella would be strong trying to find her. She did do well in practice, but in the end, you can never tell what an animal can do. She was just trying to find the shortcut to finding Beth Joy.

We were trying to do this challenge as a team, and I thought we could work it this way to make our team stronger. (Laughing) We were wrong.