Teaching a dog to perform, with feeling
Carol Rosen lives in Maryland and trains dogs in show biz. She worked on the TV series “House of Cards” and several films, including “Game Change” with Woody Harrelson and Julianne Moore, and “Unstoppable” with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine.
You can elicit the basic emotions dogs feel by tapping into their natural instincts, like hunting or herding, Rosen said. Think of it as method acting, for dogs.
She showed some training videos from a commercial she worked on, which called for a dog to vigorously shake the feathers out of a pillow.
Rosen started by harnessing the dog’s play and predation instincts. “I’m enticing her prey drive with this pillow,” she said. “What I’m doing is using the instinct of the dog, which is ‘I’m having fun and I’m killing it.’”
Once she’s activated the dog, Rosen can turn this behavior into a performance: “Kill it.”
“‘Kill it’ is shake it — give it a kill shake to break its spine,” Rosen said.
So that’s playfulness, aggression, or excitement. But what if you want a dog to act out a more complex emotion, like shame?
Rosen said she would try to simulate how a human might act out shame. It’s like a magic trick — you’re creating an illusion.
“We’re going to teach behaviors where the dog puts his head down and then puts a paw over his eyes,” she said.
With her German shepherd Jessie, Rosen demonstrated how she’d shape these behaviors.
“We teach them a command called ‘touch,’” she said. “A dog will naturally reach out and touch your hand.”
From there, Rosen can use her hand to direct Jessie’s head down. With a lot of patience, she builds up from these basic movements — step by step — to create long chains of behaviors or stunts.
But while a trainer can teach a dog to cover its eyes, it’s the audience filling in the rest and calling it “shame” or “guilt.”
One thing that helps us fill in the gaps is the fact that dogs’ faces work somewhat similarly to ours.
Leslie Irvine, director of the animals and society program at the University of Colorado Boulder, said dogs have co-evolved alongside humans for thousands of years. In many ways, we’re cognitively hardwired to relate with, and map our emotions onto, dogs.
For instance, dogs and humans can communicate through gaze. Researchers have found that when humans and their dogs look into one another’s eyes, they both experience spikes in oxytocin, the brain chemical associated with trust and bonding. The longer the gaze, the bigger the spike.
In other studies, “expert dog trainers have been asked to interpret dogs’ facial expressions in a variety of settings,” Irvine said, and the trainers have been “pretty much on target, in terms of whether they’re able to pick up whether dogs are happy, sad, surprised, neutral, disgusted.”
When dogs are happy, they often open their mouths and loosen their lips. When they’re curious, they’ll tilt their heads. A nose wrinkle paired with a snarl might mean, “I’m annoyed, back off.”
Dogs have even evolved a whole new facial muscle that wolves don’t have: the levator anguli oculi medialis. It allows dogs to raise their eyebrows — which they can use to express surprise, interest, or sadness. And it’s thought this muscle evolved because it enhances communication between dogs and humans.
This hardwiring for human-dog empathy gets at the last thing that makes a dog a good actor: a super tight bond with its trainer.
Remember Rin Tin Tin? Not only was he very athletic and very smart, he had an extraordinarily strong connection with his trainer, Lee Duncan.
Duncan “had really a lonely childhood,” Susan Orlean said. “He grew up on a ranch that was quite isolated, and didn’t have any playmates except for the animals on the ranch.”
As a young soldier during World War I, Duncan came across Rin Tin Tin on a battlefield in France. He decided to keep the puppy and raised it in his barracks during the war. The two formed an intense partnership.
“The connection was so deep,” Orlean said. “I mean, we all love our dogs. But for Lee Duncan, this was a really singular emotional connection, and they were never apart.” On set, it was always Duncan who was behind the camera, giving Rin Tin Tin cues.
Trainer Gabby Scott and her miniature American shepherd, Taco, have a similar bond. They live in Maryland, and Scott has trained Taco from his earliest days.
He can sneeze on command, walk on a rolling barrel, and weave between Scott’s legs, forward then backward. When Scott lies on the floor with her legs up, Taco jumps up, then spins around while balancing on her feet.
Taco’s worked on a lot of commercials, and some amateur films too. He seems to have endless enthusiasm for training — and he adores Scott. His favorite toy is a soft orange disc, and he wants nothing more than for Scott and him to play tug with it.
Back to Rin Tin Tin and that scene on the cliff. Rin Tin Tin is limping, then crawling, toward the cliff’s edge. At some points, he lies down, like he’s ready to give up. It’s an impressive sequence of behaviors — no doubt Duncan was behind the camera, giving the dog the cues they’d practiced in training.
But that deep vulnerability — the sadness in his eyes that Orlean wondered about? The whole time he’s on that cliff, the audience never even gets a really close look at Rin Tin Tin’s face.
It turns out, there’s a lot that makes a dog a good actor: talent, clever choreography, a strong bond between dog and trainer, and us … our minds, filling in what we want to see.
Put that all together, add a compelling story and a stirring soundtrack — it’s no wonder we love, and feel moved by, dog movies.
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How to Become a Dog Actor
Just like human acting, there is no one path to stardom. Many acting dogs are “discovered” at shelters by trainers, who often can contact casting directors directly and recommend animals for projects. Owners, however, can submit dogs to casting directors as well in hopes of getting a lucky break. There are also many talent agencies that represent animals and are always looking for new four-legged talent.
There are two ways to get in front of a casting director: casting calls and auditions.
Casting calls are held when a casting director is looking for new talent. Any pet can attend an open casting call and be seen for a role. There are many dedicated websites that list available pet casting calls in your area. Social media (mainly Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) is also a great way to find out more information about new film productions and where dog casting calls will be held.
The other way to get cast is through an audition, which is invitation only. Major tv and film roles, and commercials are usually cast this way. Auditions for animal roles are very similar to auditions for humans and are an opportunity to perform a scene in front of a casting director. These casting sessions can be in-person or on tape; and may consist of several rounds before the final decision is made. Consistency is very important with dog actors, and the audition process is good practice because if your dog is cast, they may be asked to perform the same task many times in a row. That’s why it is important to have a dog that can be focused and will not be easily distracted or frustrated.
While Hollywood may offer many opportunities for both canine and human actors, there are opportunities to work in film, tv and commercials across the country. Like humans, dog actors may start out acting in non-union student films, music videos or local commercials to gain experience and obtain film for an acting reel (highlights of acting jobs). Many roles are listed on Craigslist, trade publications and websites as well as casting platforms.
Melissa Millett, head trainer and founder of The Ultimutts: Digby is a rescue dog who is one of the three doubles for Krypto on Titans. His owner worked at the animal shelter and watched him get passed over due to his high energy. After adopting Digby, she found he was a visual match for Krypto and his talents that might have caused him to be overlooked were suddenly celebrated. He also had extensive training to calm down, which is something that he took into his life at home. I hope he doesn’t leap out of car windows or onto random people at home for takedowns, although I know he would enjoy it immensely!
Millett: Some prefer to potty off leash and of course they need the royal treatment with hay laid down to keep their toes from getting cold in winter.
Winship: Once they learn something, it’s so sweet and endearing—they’ll go do everything to get a treat. I had a commercial where a Great Dane had to get on the dining room table and eat lamb chops. Well, guess what? That Thanksgiving we had a turkey dinner. The turkey ended up in the bedroom.
Brauner: Hachi: A Dog’s Tale is a great example of using younger dogs to portray the old Hachi. We used safe makeup for the look and all his training was in slow-motion mode. If you watch the film, the “old Hachi” was actually a young dog of three years. Some scripts call for a senior animal, but we are super clear that if a production wants a true senior we all have to treat them as such. This means more breaks, no rushing to set, and limited action—all discussed beforehand.
Mui: For Night at the Museum 3, they wanted a monkey to ride a tiger. We could not offer that, but we did offer a monkey riding a dog covered in green, which could be overwritten by CGI to make a tiger. This is what they did.
How Dogs Are Trained For TV And Movies | Movies Insider
How are Dogs Trained to Act in Movies?Can dogs be attributed to something like “acting talent” at all, or is it just a very good training? The best Hollywood dog trainers answered this question and explained how they prepare dogs for the movie.
Dog movie stars such as Lesie, Toto and Rin Tin Tin are as much a trademark of Hollywood as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep. In general, animals have been involved in the film industry from the very beginning, primarily due to their easy availability and the fact that they do not need to pay fees.
In return, their presence on the screen, especially when it comes to dogs, increased the respect and affection of people who began to equate them with heroism, loyalty, humour and intelligence.
Anne Gordon is the owner of Ena’s Animal Actors, a pet talent agency, and has been mediating in the engagement of animals for numerous films, television shows and the PR industry for more than six years.
When someone invites her to report her pet, she first inquires about obedience training, his social skills, health and age. He then checks how they are behaving in an unfamiliar environment.
– Some dogs are great in their own household, but if we put them in front of a stranger or in an unfamiliar environment, they become completely different animals. Preference for getting a role is usually given to animals that are obedient, that know a lot of tricks and that have attended agility training. Even the most sought after are mixed breeds and not pure breeds, which means that a look like Benji’s is still in fashion.
Gordon claims it’s never too late to train. Her dog Buck was adopted from the shelter when he was three years old, and he didn’t even know how to sit on the command. With advanced obedience training and agility classes, he can perform 15 tricks today.
– Dogs never stop surprising me. Their abilities are limitless. Just when you think I can’t or won’t do something, that’s exactly what they’ll do. But the opposite is also true. ”
Further, Gordon emphasizes that typical training is not suitable for filming because it becomes too obvious in the recording that the dog reacts to the signals coming from behind the camera. That is why he relies on syllables, gestures, body language, so that their behaviour seems much more natural and untrained.
No matter how ready you are, filming is often unpredictable and full of distractions – from the light to the camera, so it goes without saying that everything does not always go as planned.
A few months ago, in an interview with NPR, Teresa Ann Miller answered several key questions regarding Hollywood dogs. In the same interview, she also promoted the new Hungarian film “White God”, which talks about the mixed breed Hagen, abandoned and left by the roadside. Hagen teams up with other abandoned dogs with a plan to take revenge on people who treated them badly. Miller participated in the casting and trained two dogs who shared the role of Hagen: “This was not a film with animals, but a film that leads a dog while telling a story at the same time.”
Teresa is the daughter of another famous Hollywood trainer – Karl Miller, who, among other things, worked with the popular dog Beethoven from the film of the same name: “Growing up with so many animals was an incredible experience. One day we had chickens, the other raccoons. We even had a seal in the bathtub overnight, because my father worked with the seals the next day. ”
Her training style is therefore the legacy of a veteran trainer: “Everything a dog does is a reflection of my body language or my voice. Also, during obedience training, you give very direct signals, one word, one syllable as a command. You get a quick reaction to what you want him to do. ”When she wants the dog to look sad, Teresa starts talking quietly and slowly, and makes him lower his head and watch. He begins to react to her quiet address and body language, lowers his head and ears, and it is possible for the dog to start crying.
However, all this requires talent, and even time. It takes several months for the trainer and the animals to adjust so that the reaction is appropriate. Certainly, it is easier to work with dogs than with other animals, because they are the only ones who really want human attention, tenderness and praise. With others, it all comes down to rewarding food.
It is interesting that the biggest canine Hollywood stars did not come from respectable families, nor were they purebreds. According to some data, about 80% of dog actors were actually rescued from the street by coaches or adopted from an asylum. Such is the case with the mixed stray who played Eddie Murphy in the movie “Doctor Doolittle” and Fang from the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”.
Trainers regularly search shelters in search of canine doubles, and the general opinion is that street dogs have a special character and are unexpectedly friendly. Once coaches adopt them, they become their owners at the same time. They get time to play, train, and take them to work every day, which, you will admit, means that they spend more time with the owners than the average pet.
The use of animals in the film managed to educate the public, provoke empathy towards animals, and even awaken activists and motivate them to fight for the protection of animals.