Texas pet becomes YouTube hit

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) - Dudley's day begins like most of ours: He gets out of bed slowly in the morning, brushes his teeth and dresses for work. Unlike the average morning routine, however, Dudley's has been seen almost 1.5 million times.

Did we mention that Dudley is a dog?

Dudley's human, Charli Kilpatrick, said she never expected her video featuring the chocolate Labrador Retriever to go viral. She made the video as part of a group project for a communications class at The University of Texas.

"It has gotten so much publicity, people are asking me if they should pay me," said Kilpatrick. "I am starting to think I missed something along the way."

Kilpatrick said the project was to create a video and get at least 1,000 views by December. Students in the class were learning about Internet marketing and celebrity culture.

"We were just fretting over 'How are we going to get the views?' A thousand views seemed impossible," said Kilpatrick. "Three days after uploading it, we had 10,000. We were like, 'Woo! we're going to get an A.'"

In the video, Kilpatrick used her arms and Dudley's head to make it look as if Dudley was brushing his teeth, eating a sandwich, or changing the television channel.

Amazingly, Dudley stayed still through all of the project. Kilpatrick credits the fact that Dudley was tired and well fed.

"In that first clip when he was lying down in the bed, he was really asleep," said Kilpatrick. "I had to shake him to wake him up. He was very tired and complacent at the time."

In other scenes, it took a little more ingenuity to make Dudley a willing actor.

"With the toothbrush, that was probably the most difficult," said Kilpatrick. "We tried it with regular toothpaste and that was not going to happen. So what we did was dunk the toothbrush in dog food. Immediately after that he swallowed it. I was like 'Alright, we got it!'"

Don't worry. Dudley wasn't using Kilpatrick's toothbrush.

Kilpatrick trained the 1-year-old dog when he was a little puppy. He was Kilpatrick's first dog, so she wanted to train him right. The UT student worked with Dudley every day using no treats.

"Now, whenever he gets treats he thinks it is just the best thing in the world," said Kilpatrick.

As Dudley's fame continued to grow, Kilpatrick says she's received some unexpected attention.

"Good Morning America" featured the dog on television first. Then came other opportunities.

"One of the third or fourth people who contacted me was this agency that represents YouTube videos," said Kilpatrick. "They said they represented Charlie Bit My Finger, Charlie and the Unicorn, and a couple other famous YouTube videos. When I read that, I thought it was just kind of silly."

Kilpatrick says she will handle Dudley's sudden fame on her own for now. If the video becomes even more popular, she may change her mind.