Nov 8, 2009
Week 64: Project #1--Hollywood Animals
I spent Monday through Friday of this week hanging out in Santa Clarita at a place called "Hollywood Animals". These guys specialize in big cat movie work. As an example of some of their recent work, I met the tiger featured in "The Hangover". Her name is Kate! Anyways, it was a great week and I learned a lot about the ways they handle and train their cats. One of the owners, Brian, is about to go off and tour with Ringling Bros. doing a lion act. We watched several training sessions with a hyena, leopard, bear, and lions. The highlight was getting to tag along to see a shoot for a TV commercial (which I can't say much about due to confidentiality agreements. I'll let you know when it's released!). All the trainers there are really great and their animals are awesome and well kept too. On Friday, I got to work a tiger on leash to test out their new system of semi-protected contact for a trainer for a day they had coming up. It was a great week and I'll never forget all the lessons I learned and the contacts I've made! It almost feels weird going back to school and knowing I'm still not done until May. (Pics: Guide Dogs for the Blind)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Liz,
Can you explain more about the "semi-protected" contact?
Is this a physical shield/barrier of some sort or is this a method of keeping the animal's trainer with you while your handling the criter?
Mark
Semi-protected is basically on a leash or something similar. It could mean something like boards as well. Anything that makes the animal feel somewhat limited. If protected contact is an animal completely enclosed and you outside of that enclosure with no physical contact, and free contact is you and the animal sharing the same space with no restrictions on either of your interactions, then semi-protected contact is the entire range of middle ground.
Liz! no updates in over a month? I need updates!
-your loving husband
Post a Comment