NEW YORK - Photographers always pick the worst times to track down celebrities and snap their picture, Liv Tyler says.

"It's always the days when it's 8 in the morning and I'm going to walk the dog or I have a pimple or a thick white shirt that makes me look chubby - that's when they're there," the 26-year-old actress tells Seventeen magazine for its January issue.

But Tyler has found that going for a stroll with Neal, her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, also has some unexpected benefits.

"What's great is that since we moved into our new neighborhood, when I walk the dog, I'm Neal's mom. I'm not Liv Tyler at all," she says. "So everyone's like, 'Hi, Neal. How are you today?' Nobody knows my name. It's great. I'm totally anonymous. It's all about Neal."

Tyler plays the elf princess Arwen in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," the last part of the film trilogy, which opens Dec. 17.