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Vermont filmmaker Andy Knight Mitchell is used to winning Emmy Awards for his films, but at a recent screening in his hometown of Middlebury, Mitchell chose a different title.
On Saturday, August 10, Mitchell and the Middleboro community attempted to break the Guinness World Record for most dogs at a film screening at the Netflix series “Inside the Mind of a Dog” at the Memorial Sports Center.
Mitchell got the idea from his 13-year-old son Billy, who saw that a 2023 screening of “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” in Los Angeles held the record. Mitchell found the idea funny and decided to try to break the record with his dog film.
The event was sponsored by Middlebury Underground, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Mitchell that works with the Homeward Bound Animal Shelter.
How to break the world record
At the record-breaking screening of the movie Paw Patrol, 219 dogs were in attendance, so Middlebury needed 220 to break the record. Attendees had to wait in a registration line with their dogs so that all the dogs could be counted on their way into the building.
Guinness World Record rules for this challenge included one dog per person, dogs cannot wear clothing or accessories, owners must clean up all feces, and all dogs must be on a leash and accompanied, over one year old, and up to date with vaccinations.
And the hard part? All dogs had to sit with their owners and watch the film for at least ten minutes. While some owners assumed their dogs would be OK with watching other dogs on the big screen for a few minutes, others said they had to keep their dogs from getting excited.
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Did they break the world record?
Middlebury’s chances of winning the title were good, as 280 dogs had registered to watch Mitchell’s film. Unfortunately, only 206 of those dogs showed up – reportedly just 14 dogs short of breaking the world record.
Although they didn’t match the record, the mood at Middlebury was good, and Mitchell said he thought it was likely they would get their dogs together and try again in the future.
“We have three attempts, so you never know,” Mitchell told Vermont Public Radio. “We’ll see if the community is ready. But we’re close enough that we know we can do it.”
Brent Hallenbeck of the Burlington Free Press contributed to this report.
