The Puppy Bowl is one of the most fun events of the year and this season the game is expected to set viewership record for Discovery and Animal Planet.
The game is a sort of organized chaos and there is one man in the middle trying to keep order among the pups: referee Dan Schachner. The referee takes control of the 10 dogs playing at a time and throws out lines that refer to the puppy's actions in football terms.
Schachner is doing the game for the second year in a row and will be the referee responsible for calling penalties, such as "unnecessary ruff-ness."
"It is my job to call the puppy fouls," says Schachner to the Daily News, whose day job is as a commercial and voiceover actor. "So if I see puppies hurting themselves or doing something that is not puppylike, I throw my flag and call a penalty."
A puppy touchdown is given when one of the dogs drags a toy across the goal line, while stoppages and penalties are awarded when the pups relieve themselves on the field. According to NBC, the playing field surface makes it extremely easy for the crew to clean up after the dogs.
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"There's a team of assistants waiting on the sidelines with cleaning supplies," Schachner said to Forbes.com. "You won't see it on camera it happens so fast. And yes, sometimes I'm down there cleaning up the messes, too. It's not beneath me."
The pups are between the ages of eight and 20 weeks and Schachner said he tried to prepare by messing around at dog parks in New York City.
"I'd try to have little scrimmages with dogs," he says. "People thought I was weird but they think I'm weird anyway. The saving grace was that I was not dressed up in my full ref uniform."
The game will be played at Animal Planet's GEICO Stadium. The previous referee of the Puppy Bowl was associate producer Andrew Schechter, who had the job from 2008 until last year when Schachner took over. The announcers also use football terminology to spice up the puppy's actions.
The referee also handles timeouts when more water needs to be filled up for the dogs or something needs to be cleaned up. During one of the previous games substitutions were made when the puppies fell asleep on the field. The game also features a tailgate party with other dogs who get to "watch" the event go on in the stadium.
One way that Schachner keeps things in order is with a few treats that he keeps on himself.
"I don't want to say the Puppy Bowl ref is bribing anybody," he says. "I would call it rewarding good behavior as needed."
The Daily News said that Schachner passed the biggest test (and the only test) for the Puppy Bowl referee job with flying colors. All he had to do was pass an allergy test. Some other calls he will need to be familiar with are "roughing the pisser", which is exactly what it sounds like, and illegal use of the paws, which also is exactly what it sounds like.
Last season Schachner tried to keep the pups in order by focusing on lying down and bathroom accidents. This year there is also a puppy hot tub.
"There are fouls this year for napping, and more excessive cuteness calls than last year," he said. "There's also a call for Illegal Retriever Down the Field."
Schachner spoke with EW.com and told them how (Sadly for viewers that don't know) the game is shot in November and most of the pets have already been adopted by the time the game airs.
"It's a two-day process. We shot it back in November. One day is devoted to the kitten halftime show and the promos and opens and closes that we do, but the other full day is devoted to the Puppy Bowl itself. That's a full-day of shooting, 10 or 12 hours, to create a two-hour show. So for me, I have to be alert that entire time on so many levels. It's not just one set of puppies that come in, it's several sets of puppies that are rotated in and out of that playing field. I'm the only constant on the field. It sounds funny, but I make sure I get lots of sleep, that I eat well, that I'm healthy. [Laughs] I also do look at past game footage. I look at past moves, and things that we've allowed in the past, and what we're not going to allow this year. I talk to the director who's in the control room about the types of fouls that we're going to call and how we're gonna run the day. Last year was my rookie year, so in the beginning, like any rookie would, I would call fouls every time I saw them. But I learned this year to start to pick my battles a little bit. You can't foul them every time they pee. Puppies are gonna pee. Puppies are also gonna nap. Puppies are also gonna want to eat. Those are essentially the three things that they love doing all day long. So you really have to just call the most egregious fouls."
Schachner has been one of the top human faces for the Puppy Bowl and likely wil return again for the game next year.
