Local dog having its day in a TV movie!

Paul Pollock of Akron is getting a close-up look at moviemaking. But he’s not the star. His dog is.

Pollock, who owns the Sit Means Sit dog-training franchise for Cleveland-Akron (as well as two others in Florida), is the trainer of 5-year-old Simba, a Belgian Malinois mix with some Dutch shepherd and German shepherd included.

Simba is now playing a key role in Love Finds You in Valentine, the latest in a series of movies based on the Love Finds You in … novels by various authors for Christian-inspirational publisher Summerside Press. The idea, says the movies’ executive producer Chevonne O’Shaughnessy, is for “really good female, family stories … that the whole family can sit and watch.”

The first, Love Finds You in Sugarcreek, was the UP network’s highest-rated original movie in 2014. The second, Love Finds You in Charm, premieres on UP at 7 p.m. Sunday. Valentine, the third, will arrive in 2016.

Love Finds You in Valentine, now being shot in the Millersburg area, stars Michaela McManus (Aquarius) as Kennedy Blaine, a Los Angeles law student who inherits a ranch in Valentine, Neb. Going to Valentine with an eye toward selling the ranch, she instead is intrigued by the area and by the ranch foreman, Derek Sterling (Diogo Morgado, Son of God, The Messengers).

Derek has a dog, Wilson. Which is where Simba comes in.

“We wanted to have a big dog, that could look like he ran a ranch with the guy played by Diogo,” said O’Shaughnessy. The dog “is the main part of the movie. He’s the one who saves our protagonist. … and this dog is perfectly what we imagined.”

Belgian Malinois were originally a herding breed, and are very strong, high-energy and intelligent dogs, said Pollock.

“They are used a lot for police canines and military canines,” Pollock said. But when the filmmakers first contacted him, they were looking for a border collie, the kind of dog in the book.

“When I brought in my border collie and met with them, they were talking about the scenes he would need to do and whether he could growl on command and bark, and look pretty intimidating. My border collie, and most border collies, don’t really fit that part. They’re more bubbly and don’t look too intimidating.

“The one casting person … knew about my other dog and asked if I had Simba,” Pollock said. “He was out in my van. And as soon as they saw him, they went oh, yeah, this is the dog.”

Simba is new to movie work but not to performing. You may have seen him entertaining at Canal Park, for example, by running the bases, and he will be back there for Wednesday’s game. “He’s done modeling for SkyMall magazine and for American Greetings cards, things like that.”

For movie scenes, Pollock — also a newcomer to movie sets — said he was always off-camera. “Sometimes I’m behind a wall, sometimes I’m just outside a screen shot. They’ll give me a marker so I know I can’t walk past that.” He has also at times coached the actors on how to deal with Simba; fortunately, both McManus and Morgado are dog owners in real life.

Everyone has apparently loved Simba. O’Shaughnessy said folks from UP made sure to include the dog in a behind-the-scenes feature being shot on set — and that she’s eyeing Simba for a new part.

“We have another movie that we’re in discussions right now,” she said, referring to an adaptation of the novel An Uncommon Grace by Serena Miller, who also wrote Love Finds You in Sugarcreek.

“The main protagonist has just come back from Iraq or Afghanistan. She has kind of PTSD … but the dog is the one who keeps her calm and helps her get through it. We’re thinking of putting [Simba] in that role.”

So will Pollock be looking for an agent for Simba?

“I never set a goal … to have my dog be a star,” he said. “It’s more that I had a passion for dog training. We’ll see where it takes me. I’m not out seeking any roles. I enjoy running my company and training family-pet dogs.”

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com, the HeldenFiles Online blog, Facebook and Twitter. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

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