Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to the Spencer Quinn novel Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery, and set Hotel for Dogs writer Jeff Lowell to adapt the script.

According to Variety, the book is the story of a down-on-his-luck private eye who sets off, accompanied by his loyal dog, to solve a missing persons case. The story is told from the vantage point of Chet, a dog that flunked out of K-9 school.

New Line and Summit also chased the dog tale.

No production date has been set.