Damn, I've found the perfect way to get rid of the prarie dog in the opening-shot, but I need someone who a) has the BluRay-DVD and b) is able to rip a portion of it (so that we have the full thing in 1080-res):
The visual-effects featurette contains the clean plate used for the opening shot, until the point of the car driving through the mound of dirt and the camera being covered with dust, so that the blend could be made right there.