Modifying American Girl Pets - Removing the plastic innards

We are into the 18" dolls at our house. I came across a fun find at a thrift store: an American Girl dog. The American Girl pets are super cute but they are very stiff; they have a hard plastic, poseable body instead of being soft. I looked inside and it turned out the dog could easily be modified to be soft and snuggly instead of hard. (I followed the same procedure on an American Girl cat and it also worked).

 He's super cute. Here he is before:

 First I split the back seam, from his head to his tail.

 Here is what it looks like inside:

The face of the pet was stuck into the plastic lining where the eyes are attached. I removed the screw:

 And pulled out the hard plastic innards.

 I pried the head open to release the face.

 The eyes and this little "mask" are left attached to the dog.

 Then he was just an empty skin. I stuffed him full of Poly-fil.

So he was nice and full:

 And stitched him back together. I just stitched from side to side along the back:

 And pulled the thread tight as I went:

 And here he is! Adorable AND soft.