Candace Cameron Bure: What It’s Like Costarring with a Dog

09/07/2012 at 01:45 PM EDT

Candace Cameron Bure and BugZ

Alexx Henry/ Crown Media Holdings, Inc.

She’s shared screen time with John Stamos, the Olsen twins – and even Bill Nye the Science Guy.

But Candace Cameron Bure has worked alongside some four-legged stars, too. And sometimes, it’s better that way.

“It’s depends what humans you’re working with,” the Full House alum jokes to PEOPLE.com.

Her latest canine costar: BugZ, whom she rescues in the Hallmark Channel movie Puppy Love, which premieres Saturday.

“I think there’s a playfulness that comes to the set when any kind of animal is involved,” she says of her roster of nonhuman costars, which includes the ’87 to ’95 family sitcom’s beloved golden retriever Comet. “Animals just kind of make you gush. People’s hearts melt. People relax around animals because you just want to love on them and kiss them.”

Although she has never adopted a dog from a shelter – unlike her Puppy Love character, who splits custody of a shelter pup with his original owner – the mom of three (and wife of retired hockey player Valeri Bure) has a part-furry, party-scaly brood of her own: A 4-year-old Rottweiler named Samson, a bearded dragon named Colt and two gold fish.

“Pets are so great for bringing families together,” she adds. “My children have grown up around animals. They’re not scared of them.”

And her family might be expanding soon – with another dog.

Bure, who got her first furry friend when she turned 17, says she’s looking into adopting a “little scrappy dog.”

A self-proclaimed animal lover, there’s only one critter she won’t be adding to her clan, she says – “big spiders.”

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Candace Cameron Bure: What It’s Like Costarring with a Dog