I agree with the contention that you have to witness it live to appreciate it, in the argument for Beattys greatness. But there is enough movie/8mm footage available for me to tell what is "training" and what is not "training"
Thursday, June 12, 2008
My vote as the best "Lion Trainer/act" of the century.
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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8 comments:
Out here in the colonies we didn't get the chance to see any of these acts in the flesh. But, as a matter of interest, where would you rate Pablo Noel?
Steve,
All due respect I wouldn't. I missing teeth cinched it for me. Because there has been no standard set as to what is a "trick", I have set my own. ie I don't rate a roll over unless there are 4 or more, and I rate a forward hind leg walk against a forward hind leg walk. I rate the easier back ward hind leg walk against a backward hind leg walk. I don't rate a hind leg pivot unless it is forward. I rate a fire hoop by willingness and number of animals in the cage. I disregard a lay down completely, and rate a pyramid if the positions are entirely different, and never done before. I give high scores if the behaviors are done in the middle of the arena facing the front and low scores if they are done against the wall facing backwards. The greatest at using both the wall and the middle of the floor combining the two styles were Charly Baumann and Gunther Gebel, and Gert Semonit. The most skilled at combining those two styles "working today", that I have seen are Josip Marcan and Alex Lacey.
Wade
Addendum to Steve,
And I believe it was your mate, Crocodile Dundee who said, "that's not a knife, mate. THIS is a knife."
And that is kind of how I analyze what a Trainer has done.
Wade
Wade - now we're talking!!!!
On the WGB scale there are NO cat acts in this part of the world. It is very sad and has little to do with AR and more to do with an uneducated public and a similarly unappreciative circus profession.
In the US did you really have tricks done against the wall facing backwards ie: away from the audience?
In this country we usually seat the cats with their butts to the audience but work them facing the punters.
Sadly, we will never see Josip Marcan or either of the Lacey boys work in this country.
I did see Martin Snr in the UK last year.
Steve,
Don't come at me with that Aborigine mumbo jumbo. What in hell is a punter? Isn't he the fellow that kicks the football away after 3 downs? An easier way to train is to sit the cats with their backs to the front of the house, and drive them to the pyramid set up in the back of the house. In the states the cats sit in the back of the arena and face the front of the house, requiring "calling the animals to you, as apposed to driving them into a barrier. If they are push from front to back for a laydown they may be facing the front but they are in the back against a barrier with the trainer blocking them from returning to their seats. Much easier then keeping them in the middle with nothing between them and the seats. It requires a gentler more precise training technique.
I referenced Alex Lacey as being one of the best "currently working" at combining the American style of working in the middle, bringing to you, and the European/English style of sitting the animals with their backs to the front and driving into a barrier. His brother Martins act is strictly European/English, as is the father's who I have only seen videos of.
Back wards meaning sitting with their backs to the front, as opposed to sitting in back like a liberty horse or elephant and facing the front.
Wade
I like to use the East African/Swahili style with cats in front and back, which I was taught by the "WORLDS GREATEST" animal trainer Hamis Juma Shahid. This technique allows the trainer to make only four cats look like they fill up the arena. This is aided by using a 30' arena as opposed to a full sized 40'
Casey - my mentor was Capt Mustafa Nortee who advocated the repetitive method saying ......"once is never enough".
Casey,
Not to be confused with, "just one more time."
Wade
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