Everyone loves filler stories about Uggie, the dog from The Artist. Don't they? It has been announced that the world's most famous hound is set to retire from movies at the end of the year.

"We don't force our dogs to do this," Sarah Clifford from pet actor agency Animal Savvy said. "And it always has to be fun for them. Uggie's still enjoying it, but he's getting up there and he's slowing down a little."

Next up, Uggie will be competing in the Golden Collar award for best dog actor. Originally there were just three more candidates: Cosmo for Beginners, Denver for 50/50and Hummer for Young Adult. But then Martin Scorsese penned a tongue-in-cheek piece in the LA Timescomplaining that Blackie, Sacha Baron Cohen's Doberman in Hugo, had been outrageously overlooked. So the Golden Collar people relented and admitted Blackie to the fold.

Well, would you say no to a Doberman?