How to Hire a Great Animal Coordinator or Trainer

Congratulations, your production is greenlit!  Your bond is secured. You have attached producer, director, talent, camera crew, prop-master, greens, grips, and, most importantly, craft   services!  What more could you possibly need…

 Animals!

From tiny commercials to huge features, virtually every production needs animals.  Heroes, villains, or background elements, animals are always there. Why? Animals transcend race, age, and other demographics—almost everyone feels a connection when they see animals on screen. Animals powerfully convey emotion, and do not collect residuals or go on strike.

                Despite this ubiquity, many production personnel are unsure how, where, and when to secure first-rate animal talent that will nail every shot and make working with them a joy.  Of course, the easiest way to ensure you are getting a fantastic animal team is to call us!  But, if you want to know more about the details that will allow you to succeed, whether you use us or someone else, read on...Here are some general guidelines for hiring an excellent animal team and working with them for maximal efficacy:

Select your animal team early—This is the most important step to animal excellence and low costs.  Finding and prepping animals takes time.  If your team has adequate lead-time to search properly, they will find ideal animals. Even if they already have well-trained animals that fit the role, they will need to prep them for the exact action. If you hire your team before the script is final, they can advise as to which animal actions will be difficult. Most importantly, the more time the team has to prep, the fewer takes will be required.  So select your team early, give them the script, and let them do their job while you do yours.  Even if you cannot afford to put an animal team on payroll early, talk to them anyway so they can start getting ready.

 Hire a skilled team—The first set of skills your animal coordinator must have are the same as leaders of other production teams: be professional, understand production needs, listen carefully and intelligently, be strong team players, and speak up constructively when appropriate. An animal coordinator must be:          

• Creative and solution oriented.

• Able to assess your script to achieve its highest animal possibilities with minimum risk and maximum efficiency.

• Familiar with the best trainers in the business and be willing to engage them when appropriate.

• Familiar with the intricate rules of the industry and provide help with the American Humane Association or any other animal-related organizations and issues.

• Candid and forthcoming about his limitations.

• Confident about his strengths and able to get you what you need for a successful shoot.

• An absolute advocate for animal safety, happiness, and well-being; love the animals and take their stewardship seriously.

• Unfailingly attentive to the safety of every animal and person on set.

                 In addition to these skills, the animal team must possess superior understanding of animal behavior and command the requisite animal training techniques.  Too many trainers who practice professionally actually possess little effective animal training skill or rapport. One useful way to assess trainer candidates is to meet one of their animals and observe its repertoire of skills.  Let the trainer select the animal, then stand back and expect to be convinced.  Or, ask them to prep and demonstrate a particular shot.  Remember, a trainer has no better résumé than his animals!

 Trust the team you hire—Once you have selected a team, listen to their advice.  True animal experts have spent decades honing their craft, and are highly motivated to make your shoot successful, so utilize their expertise.  If you make them feel comfortable offering ideas, they may suggest alternate species or breeds, or slight changes in action, or other techniques that will help make the shot more effective and easy.

 Hire a strong team first, then seek the perfect animal—a common mistake is looking for the animal, rather than focusing on the trainer. Engage good people and they will get the animal you need, and will train the animal to perform the scripted action. 

 Look for a team with experience, but do not assume that more credits are better—some of the absolute best trainers in the business are not the people who have been doing this forever.  There has been a remarkable transformation in training techniques during the past fifteen years, and many old-school trainers have been less able to learn and adapt.  Look for people with the skills to get the job done well.

 Don’t make assumptions about how much animal talent is going to cost—Call an animal coordinator and find out.  Often producers think they cannot afford animals, and then call and find out that we have the perfect animal already prepped for a similar job and can work far cheaper then usual, or they estimate prep and are radically inaccurate. An animal coordinator will be happy to put together a bid after asking a few questions, and then you can make an informed decision.

 Include the animal team in pre-production meetings—Productions sometimes do not see why the animal team needs to be involved in pre-production, but then the animal team cannot know about decisions that were made. The animal coordinator will listen for small changes in script, location, wardrobe, FX, lighting, etc., that may have an effect on his animals, and he will then be able to ask the right questions, raise unexpected problems or offer solutions, and show up on the day with animals ready to do what is desired.

Define the animal action in advance—Long before you are ready to think about the animal action, the animal team must be training, and if they are training the wrong action it will cost you time and money.  A few hours of early attention will save you many, many takes. Animal training is exact: if you want a dog sitting in a chair, and you later change it to a ladder, the dog will need to be re-trained, which takes time. The more clear and accurate information you can give the animal team, the better job they will do.

                 It is unfortunate that animals have a reputation for being challenging on set—this absolutely does not have to be the case.  The best trainers in the industry are skilled professionals who have an amazing mastery of psychology, husbandry, and training, and are dedicated to having happy, healthy animals who show up on the day beautifully prepped and ready to perform.  The animals are rarely the reason for additional takes! If you follow these guidelines and select your animal team with care, working with talented animals will be a delight.