Rohnert Park pugs star in She & Him's Christmas music video

A trio of Rohnert Park pugs is stirring up a wintry Internet storm as the irresistibly dressed stars of a new holiday music video.

Decked in seasonal furs, fleece, tartans and velveteen, Roxy, Blue and Bono have racked up more than 275,000 views on the “She & Him” website alone, with thousands more shares, making a merry Christmas for their owners Phillip and Susan Lauer.

The costumed pugs create cuteness overload as they romp in the snow and snooze by the fire to a country cover of “Winter Wonderland” by She & Him, a (actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward). The song is a cut off the pair’s new album, “Christmas Party.”

Deschanel was already a fan of the Lauer’s Pupstar Sonoma (pupstarsonoma.com), a novelty photo/video production company that calls upon the wrinkly-faced dogs to be their adorable selves while wearing fetching costumes designed and stitched by Susan Lauer. She has a degree in fashion technology and used to work in the business, but now she designs exclusively for her pugs.

The Lauers say they have been putting their pugs to work since they were barely out of puppyhood.

“When we got our dogs, we started building things for them, and it just blossomed,” said Phillip, who worked in IT for 10 years but for many years before that was a professional photographer.

At first the couple just dressed the dogs for holiday cards and a Halloween pet costume contest. But in 2009, the Lauers upped the ante. They entered a national contest sponsored by the designer Valentino. “The Most Fashionable Pug” contest was a promotion for “The Last Emperor,” a documentary about the Italian designer who is famous for his family of pugs, which even have their own car and driver.

Pug parkas

Susan Lauer already had sewn three glamorous fur-collared pug parkas for a Christmas card picture that never got taken. They caught the eye of the discriminating designer, who awarded the Lauers third place.

Valentino picked the winners himself and gave Roxy, Blue and Bono third place out of 475 entries. The pugs won bling-y designer collars from The House of Dog, and they were on their way.

“It was half hobby and half not,” Phil Lauer said of those early efforts. “But we couldn’t stop doing it because, A, it was fun, and B, we could exercise our particular crafts. And I could also keep my day job so we could pay our mortgage.”

They began providing content for Barcroft Media, which provides video content for the media.

That led to a short film, “The Pugs of Westeros.” Thea take-off on “The Game of Thrones” featured the Lauers’ photogenic threesome outfitted in royal garb, complete with golden crowns, and placed in a castle set they created and installed in a San Francisco studio. It ends with the dogs on a green hillside (in Sonoma County) looking off at an Irish Castle in the distance - the only computer generated shot in the film.

The British live streaming equivalent of Netflix, Blinkbox (now called TalkTalk), distributed “The Pugs of Westeros” as a promotion for Season 4 of “The Game of Thrones.” It went viral, catching media attention from “Good Morning America” and Perez Hilton to BuzzFeed and Mashable.

Call from Deschanel

The pugs’ latest gig came in the fall with a call from Columbia Records and Sony Entertainment at the suggestion of Deschanel.

She is a regular on the TV series, “New Girl,” and has film credits that include the Christmas pic, “Elf,” which has also been Pugged in video takeoffs. For more than a decade, Deschanel also has performed music on the side.

For “Winter Wonderland,” the Lauers went in search of snow.

“It’s October and it’s not even close to snowing,” Phil Lauer recalled. “We’re getting down to the wire on timing for shooting before the first storms of the season blow in. I’m watching The Weather Channel and every website, trying to see at what elevation there might be snow.”

With snowfall forecast at Kirkwood on a Sunday nigh, they piled the pugs in the car and hit the road at 3 a.m. to film them cavorting in the white stuff, bundled in scarves and caps with ear flaps.

Pug friend

For the indoor scenes, they tapped a friend with an antique-filled Victorian in Alameda and a pug of her own, a brother to their Bono.

They created snow flurries with biodegradable, compostable snow made out of cornstarch, and the video closes with four pugs in pajamas sleeping by the fire.

Costuming pugs is a trendy thing, but Susan Lauer brings expertise to her elaborate designs. She worked for a couture designer in Hawaii and created patterns for a garment manufacturer before applying her gifts to her little gang of three.

Lauer said the stocky little hams seem to enjoy working and dressing up, enduring 12 costume changes for the 2 minute, 38 second “Winter Wonderland” video.

“We did all the training ourselves. We’ve trained them since they were babies,” said Lauer of Roxie and Blue, 9, and half-brother Bono, 8.

“They’ve been in front of the camera since they were pups, so it’s normal for them. I have a photography studio set up in my garage, and every time I go to the garage, they’re at my heels because they love to do it.

“We wouldn’t do any of this if they weren’t into it.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.