While “Hangdog” is not exactly a shaggy dog story, it certainly appreciates the way dogs can help us live better lives.

A dramedy about a couple in crisis when their newly acquired rescue dog goes missing, “Hangdog” immediately establishes that unemployed Walt (Desmin Borges, “Only Murders in the Building”) is not particularly pleased and happy to have moved to Portland, Maine, for a better job for his live-in girlfriend Wendy (Kelly O’Sullivan, “Ghostlight”).

“Walt is pretty indifferent about the family dog,” Borges, 40, said in a phone interview. “Wendy decided to get the dog and he kind of went along with it.

“I feel Walt, for the most part, is in this repetitive bubble of aimlessness. Like, he knows what he wants, he just doesn’t really quite know how to reach out and grab it.

“So he finds himself in a city where he’s never been to before. He’s struggling to find a job, struggling to find his place, struggling to feel comfortable in his own skin.

“And then his girlfriend goes away for a job interview and he gets tasked with taking care of this dog that he’s not too terribly fond of but wants to do a good job for the weekend.

“Only he happens to lose him within the first 24 hours that he’s in his custody. Which creates a huge crisis in terms of being honest with Wendy.

“First off, he doesn’t want to seem so irresponsible that he can’t take care of this beautiful little pup. But at the same time, he knows he has a certain period of time in which he has to find the dog before she gets back.

“And when she calls, he makes a really split-second decision to go with the lie that everything’s fine, rather than telling the truth.

“This begins this crazy journey of looking for the dog where he meets great people who help him. And within doing so, he then finds out so much about the people of Portland, and finds friends and finds himself, oddly enough, within that weekend.

“At the  least he’s putting himself in a position to start moving forward in the best way possible. So he sort of has this transformation.”

As for Mr. Tibbs, his Schnauzer mix canine co-star, “He’s incredibly skilled. I have not worked with a whole lot of animals in my life but as far as dogs go, we bonded very, very quickly.

“So much so that in scenes in which I’m supposed to be indifferent to him, that was the hardest.

“I love dogs,” he added. “We became quite close. We wanted to be around each other a lot.”

“Hangdog” is in the Somerville Theater Oct. 16, and streams nationwide Oct. 25