Chad Powers Came Back Today. Glen Powell's Dog Started as a Bakersfield Shelter Puppy Named Ambrosia.

By mChip.org Staff Last updated September 3, 2026

Season 2 of Chad Powers dropped on Hulu this morning, which means Brisket is back on red carpets. His route from a Central Valley shelter to an actor's arms in Enid, Oklahoma is a good look at how a modern rescue adoption actually works.

All six episodes of Chad Powers season 2 landed on Hulu at 3 a.m. Eastern this morning. [1] Which means Glen Powell is doing press again, and Glen Powell doing press means Brisket is doing press — the dog turned up alongside him at Jimmy Kimmel Live just over a week ago. [2]

So: does Glen Powell have a dog? Yes. A terrier-poodle mix named Brisket, and his route to that red carpet is a fairly good illustration of how a rescue adoption actually works in 2026.

He wasn't called Brisket, and he wasn't from Oklahoma

Powell likes to call him an Oklahoma boy, which is a nice line and not quite the paperwork. [3]

Brisket was born to a mother pulled out of the Bakersfield shelter system — one of six puppies in the litter. The Labelle Foundation, a Los Angeles rescue founded in late 2018, took the mom and all six pups. Roughly 85% of the dogs Labelle handles come from two Central Valley facilities: the Bakersfield City shelter and the Kern County shelter. [3]

At that point he had a different name. He was Ambrosia. [3]

In June 2023, Labelle posted his photo to Instagram. Powell was in Enid, Oklahoma, filming Twisters, and going through a breakup. "I was going through a breakup... I had always wanted a dog," he said later. [3] A mutual friend made the call. Samantha Peraino, Labelle's head of operations, described the ask plainly: "We actually were reached out to through like a mutual friend of ours and was like, 'Can you guys hold this dog for Glen?'" [3]

The dog moved from his foster family to Powell during the early weeks of filming, in July 2023. [4] He became a fixture on set — Powell has said every department took care of him, which is part of why the dog is now unbothered by airports, crowds, and late-night studio audiences. [4] He has his own Instagram account, @hotbrisket.

Count the hands he passed through

This is the part worth pulling out, because it's not unusual — it's the standard shape of a rescue adoption now.

Before his first birthday, Brisket was: born to a shelter dog, pulled by a rescue, placed with a foster family, renamed, and transferred to an adopter two states away. That's four or five custody changes and at least one identity change, and each handoff is a place where a record can be created, updated, or quietly left behind.

Most adopted dogs come home already microchipped — shelters chip on intake as a matter of course. What doesn't automatically follow the dog is the registration behind that chip. It can still point at the shelter, the rescue, or the foster, months after the dog has moved on. Nobody is being careless; it's just that the chip number travels in the dog and the contact record travels in a database, and only one of those moves on its own.

What to ask when you adopt from a rescue

If you're adopting this Labor Day weekend — and shelters are busy this week — these are the five questions worth asking before you leave with the dog:

1. What's the microchip number, and can I see it scanned? Not the paperwork. The scanner, in front of you. Chips migrate, and occasionally a dog turns out to have two.

2. Which registry is it in, and whose name is on it right now? This is the answer that's most often "I'd have to check," and it's the one that matters when the dog slips a collar in week two.

3. Was the dog transported from another region? A dog that came from out of state may have records in more than one place, and a vet history that starts partway through.

4. Can I have the foster's notes? Fosters know things intake paperwork doesn't: what he does in a thunderstorm, whether he counter-surfs, how he is with a leash in the first ten minutes of a walk.

5. What was his previous name? Partly practical — he may still answer to it, and it may be what appears on older records. Partly just worth knowing.

The first two weeks

The stretch right after adoption is when dogs are most likely to bolt. A new dog doesn't yet know where home is, hasn't attached to you, and treats an open door as information rather than a boundary. A slip lead in addition to the collar, a leash on for backyard trips, and a tag that's correct on day one rather than day ten all help more than they sound like they should.

Brisket got very lucky in his particular version of this — he went from a Central Valley shelter litter to a film set with a hundred people watching him. Most dogs get one person and a quiet house, which is honestly the better deal.

Either way, the dog that ends up on the couch is the same dog that was on an intake list in Bakersfield a few months earlier. That's the part of his story that's actually replicable.

He wasn't called Brisket, and he wasn't from Oklahoma

Count the hands he passed through

What to ask when you adopt from a rescue

The first two weeks

Sources