Wednesday, January 28, 2009

For Steve Robinson

"Christopher - thats a long, long pole for young lions. Was Gary using meat on the end of it?"

Steve, what length is a long, long pole supposed to be? As folks felt a need to define and take advantage of the "American Style" and the "European Style", I suggest that is the "British Style". Now if we can only define the "Latin, Asian, and Australian Styles" everybody can have a self serving description of what it is they do. LOL




10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are some nice shots of Diamond & Princess.

Stefan

Casey McCoy Cainan said...

I would say for what he appears to be doing, the long stick is good. He appears to be bridging distance, so that the cat will move up to the next pedestal with out him moving toward it. You can push the animal the the other pedestal with the whip from a distance, but the reward should be there when the cat does it rite. If he uses a shorter stick he has to approach the cat after it comes to the "spot" this way he moves the cat to the spot and the reward is instantly there. Makes good sense in an act where the trainers body getting closer to the cat is a form of pressure. Like working an elephant from 20ft away for awhile teaches the elephant that if you move inside the 20ft mark, it should change something it is doing.

Wade G. Burck said...

Casey,
You can't push them towards you. You can push them away, but not into you. I should think them wanting to come to the person would make the person being close the motivation/reward. From what I have seen the long stick is to teaching something that will be done later. What do you suppose that pedestal will eventually be?
Wade

Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Floor plate maybe, waltz pedestal? Can't push cats towards you? You aren't going with the theory that they come "into" pressure are you,,,lol

Casey McCoy Cainan said...

If you hold the stick out in front, and pop the cat in the back to make it come to the stick, it is being pushed towards you, not coming to the stick.

Wade G. Burck said...

Casey,
Of course not. That's why they go away from pressure. They come into reward. If they are not afraid, that should be you.
Wade

Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Rite but if the cats are apprehensive to come towards someone, they can be pushed toward that person and rewarded instantly with an incredibly long and awkward stick thus building confidence to "come" to the person

Wade G. Burck said...

Casey,
They can be pulled toward you but they have to be pushed away from you.
Wade

Anonymous said...

Wade - as in other things in life, poles come in a variety of sizes. Normal, long, bloody long and omigosh.

Depending on the person using them, they can be pushed or pulled. The circus world has plenty of proponents of both actions.

With regard to the use of the poles in the Lacey pics I think both of you are playing with words.

And I still would like to know from Christophe if Gary Ambrose was using that long pole for meat.

Wade G. Burck said...

Steve,
I know what/why they are being used in the Lacey act. I just wasn't sure if Casey knew. "Bloody long???" Is that exact or a rough estimate? LOL
Wade