I just finished a production of Annie and probably the part I was most impressed with was our Sandy. We got one of Bill Berloni's dogs and a trainer to come up and the dog was just fantastic. He actually is one of the dogs in the running for the 2012 Broadway Sandy!

What have you done for Sandy? Borrowed a neighbor's pet? Had a child dressed as a dog? Any good stories?

I saw a three-legged Sandy once. It worked, I suppose. It didn't distract, at least.
In the production I'm currently in, our Sandy is just the pet of a member of the community. However, the dog has done Sandy before, so...

Ours was with a person! lol

In the jr. production I was in when I was 12, they used a little girl in a suit, and in a summer camp production I once saw, they eliminated Sandy altogether. Every reference to him was cut and Annie sang 'Tomorrow' to the bums in the Hooverville scene instead.

I've never seen the show done professionally without a real dog, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fkAObX4QPg

This was my dog playing Sandy. Each night he did something different, but every night he sniffed either the drummer or the piano player's head and got a laugh out of the crowd. Sandy and Annie were the 2 stars of the show, even though Sandy (aka. Rally) only was in a few scenes!

Annie did a remarkable job with him and very rarely did he care about me off stage (of course I think this video was the only time he paid attention to me off stage) ;-( But it was a great experience!

Sure would love to audition him for the Will Snith remake!

Angela

Ours was a shih tzu.

We had a real dog for Sandy, too- in the scene where Annie has to call Sandy to prove Sandy's her dog, the dog could be pretty fickle. Once the dog WOULD NOT go to Annie for at least two minutes, and another time the dog went to Annie without even being called.