Gladiator Dog (canine freestyle)

[furtech]

Here's a great canine freestyle routine (dog-dancing) involving swords, dramatic battles and over-acting. Not sure how accurate the fighting is, but it's as good as any sixty-year old Italian gladiator movie!

EDIT: Plus, a cute video on how to keep your cat from eating your food. This is a real training clip (by amateurs), but the cat is adorable.

Comments

[brerandalopex.livejournal.com]

[Brer] I have always thought it would be fun (and virtually impossible) to re-create the Agent Smith battle from Matrix II as a canine freestyle entry. ;)

[brerandalopex.livejournal.com]

[Brer] Also, I dunno if you have seen the Charlie Chaplin one... Looks like the same event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLWp9zJTlz8

I am impressed at how far this canine performance event has come. A couple years ago the best acts were still mostly just collections of simple tricks strung together to music, with very little attention to timing or choreography. People are really starting to pull it all together now.

When you see a half-hour show of it on Animal Planet you'll know it has arrived...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Same venue, probably a different year (but could be same event). I'm pretty sure this happened in Britain, where Mary Ray is supreme and her classes and shows have inspired other freestylers to great heights. Here's a link to one of her routines: not too spectacular until you consider how hard it is to get two dogs to do two different things together. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK43ZUIgPJc)

One of the finest is still Carolyne and Rookie's "You're the One the I Want" routine featurine a golden retriever that is SO HAPPY doing an amazing routine:



Animal Planet has featured canine freestyle many times in various shows: I'm waiting for either a reality show based or a series about freestyle.

[oats-a-plenty.livejournal.com]

That video is about 10 years old, I think, or close to it.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right. This was still in the earlier days of Canine Freestyle (I think it was just called "Freestyle Obedience" in those days). None-the-less, this is a classic routine that only a very few have come close to matching, both in skills and in the sheer joy both dog and human express.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Agent Smith battle would be cool to do with a little digital compositing and a LOT of planning and compiling time! A million border collies fighting...what would Neo be?

[brerandalopex.livejournal.com]

[Brer] Well I was thinking in terms of the human partner being Neo with all the border collies as the Agent Smiths. You could obviously never do it for REAL with any serious number of dogs, but it would be impressive if someone could even pull it off with just three or so.

Would have to be border collies too. I dunno of any other breed that would have the sheer force of concentration and speed.

The biggest challenge would be indicating the tricks. You'd have to have three different queues for each motion and the dogs would have to be mind-bogglingly well trained to execute them with enough precision to get the timing down.

All probably why no one will likely ever attempt it. :)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah! That would work! I want to see someone train their dog to do some of the body-twisting, bullet dodging actions! Give them all dark glasses!

See above for doing routines with more than one dog. Mary Ray is the only one I've seen do a routine with just -two- dogs well. Have you ever tried to do obedience training with both dogs at once? Doing different things at the same time? It's like that...

I am still intrigued by the idea of doing it digitally, tho'!

[iisaw.livejournal.com]

Might not be that hard to do! Just need a green-screen stage.... ;)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

How bored are we?

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was amazing! Does the human give the dog cues, or does hte dog just learn when to do certain things by the human's actions?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

The thing that isn't clear to most audiences is all the grind-work that goes into any routine.

You begin with individual tricks: high-stepping, twirl and twist (spin direction), bow, etc. Clicker-training has been invaluable for this.

Then you find a piece of music you like and want to do a routine to. Now the grind work begins: you break down the piece into musical beats/phrases (much like you would do in animation), and begin to design your performance by assigning each trick your dog knows with that segment. That's one of the things that makes the Gladiator routine so amazing: it's -four- minutes long! That's 240 seconds of routine that had to be broken down! Mary Ray did almost a -five- minute piece, to a song from Chicago!

Now you practice each segment, then start to practice the whole piece, then with music. The dog hardly notices the music: his attention is on the human performer. Imagine practicing the whole piece through, time and again, so that the dog knows pretty much what order things come in. The human uses very subtle hand and body motions to cue the dog, sometimes a prop. Some cues are more subtle than others...

Then the big humiliation: you try this in front of a small audience (like your freestyle club). First time in front of distractions and even the different sound of a building (usually with dogs around as further distractions) and loud noises like applause. The result is usually less than stellar. So you practice more and more. Teams that do this in front of big audiences (like Crufts or big TV show audiences) are amazing!

I got to try to ad-lib a simple routine in front of a freestyle seminar audience with R0ndo and a big handful of cheese. We did well, considering, and I managed not to trip over him.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I know a lot of work goes into these sorts of things. I just wasn't sure if they practice it so much the dog remembers the act, or if there are cues (even though they've practiced a lot!)

I wish I could have seen you and Rondo ad-libbing! (Even better, wish I'd taped it for blackmail posterity!)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a combo of practice and cues. When R0ndo and I tried it, my "cues" were me waving my arms around flinging bits of cheese everywhere trying (somewhat successfully) to get R0ndo to twist. At least it showed me this activity was within the realm of possibility...

And yeah-- I'd love to see what we looked like. Not! We -were- the "Special" entry that day!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Oooh-- I just found a Mary Ray demo on YouTube! She's going through basic routines with one of her dogs at a seminar. You can see her less-subtle cues here (as well as treating). I love how during one of the walking exercises her dog has to give her kisses!

[oats-a-plenty.livejournal.com]

Booo! Border collies excel at too many things. :P

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's still the case, but there were some competitions (particularly agility) that had two sets of scores: the fastest/highest scores and the fastest/highest scores for non-border collies.

[desertcoyote.livejournal.com]

I love these performances. Much more interesting than just rote obedience or parading a dog around a show ring. I hope it keeps catching on.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

What I like most about Freestyle is that you don't need any fancy equipment for it. Just a clear patch of floor or lawn and a boombox. The dogs seem to enjoy it as well and the people involved with this are very easy-going and encouraging (as opposed to the very focused and serious agility crowd).

[ursulasart.livejournal.com]

You just keep reminding me that some day when I have a house and a darling man, I will need a border collie, too. :)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Move to L.A. and I'll loan you Apache to see if you know what you'd be getting yourself into!

[ursulasart.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd care for living in LA, so it's lucky I already know. :)

This is my family's beloved aussie/border mix.