Abbey the German shepherd who played Sam actually alive even tho the movie “I Am Legend” was released 10 years ago. She is living with her family and trainer, Steve Berens. 
He said:
She’s older now and she doesn’t hear hardly anything. But she’s still kicking, she still likes a ball and likes a bone.
She was trained a lot of the basics that you need for film work, and then directly for those scenes.It was stressful at first, but she really came on good. She’s a good dog and she really learned fast.
He continues:
When you work with a lot of actors, they’re not that interested in the animal – a lot of actors look at it as something that the audience is going to be looking at instead of them.
But Will was not at all like that. He understood that this was his co-star, and he really dug it and really got into it. He was a fabulous guy to work with.
I think that she really liked him, and that made a difference. I think that’s one thing in the film I was very happy with, and very proud of – the relationship was really solid.
When Will Smith was a kid, he had a dog that got hit by a car and died. He told himself that he never wanted another pet, as he couldn’t go through that heart break again, but he fell in love with Abbey on set. He even asking her trainer if he could keep her.
I was begging him. I was like, please let me have Abbey. Please, please, please let me have her. But you know, she has her own family now so it was just another one of those fleeting Hollywood romances.
