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With the fast coming opening of the
movie Hachiko. I wanted to give the visitors to Akitasites a little more
dogside view of the making of the film than the trailers and movie reviews. I
contacted
Were you ever on set during filming
?.
No we were supposed to be invited but never really
got the chance to go.
How did Forest put up
with the repetition of retakes.
We cautioned the trainers in advance of sending the
dog that "they" (the dogs) were going to learn quickly but
the trainers most likely were not going to get the dogs motivated
enought to do repetitive actions. The cautions that Deb and I issued
to the trainers were almost identical (even though neither of us
really knew this until much later).
After the dogs were trained we were told by the
trainers that these dogs were indeed very different from the other
dogs they had trained and their training methods were altered and akin
to the training they used when they trained the wolves for a previous
picture.
I think it was very fortunate that each of these
three dogs had very different temperaments. It is my understanding
that Layla was the outgoing active willing girl who worked for her
tennis ball. Clapton/now Chico was just a big goofy boy (you'd
probably get more precise information from Deb Anibal on their
differing temperaments)
Forrest on the other hand is a real "ho
hum" dog, he is lazy, slow and unaffected by most things. If I
were to make an educated guess I would say Forrest was probably the
most challenging dog of the three.
ALL of these dogs were trained by hand signals that
differ greatly from the more common ones we know from the obedience
and performance rings. Just as an example-to get Forrest to rise from
a sitting or lying position you need to kick your right leg out
crossing over your left leg-and he will instantly stand (IF you can
get him to look at you) LOL
We were told we would be provided with a CD of all
the hand signals and tricks they had learned-and we were told we might
be able to replicate some of the tricks but not all of them-we never
got this CD despite many requests for it. :o(
How much travel was
involved. How many months did the filming take.
We sent Forrest to California to Boones Animals of
Hollywood in June 07 and were told we "should" have him back
by Xmas 07 at the latest but hopefully by Thanksgiving 07. That
didn't happen-the picture took far longer to make then was orginally
antipated and weather did not co-operate-it snowed when it wasn't
supposed to and didn't snow when they thought it would. Requiring them
to catch almost all four seasons to make the picture appear to cover
the many years of lifespan of Hachiko. We finally got Forrest back in
Sept/Oct of 08.
The dogs spent several months in California living
with the trainers then went on location to Providence-they returned to
California with the trainers and then returned to Providence in
the spring/summer to finish filming. Forrest was returned to us from
Providence just a couple days after the final scenes were shot.
What did the dogs do to entertain
themselves between their scenes.
These dogs got the very best of treatment from the
trainers-they constantly lived with the trainers and spent almost 24/7
by their side.
They were fed diets that adjusted constantly to
maintain them in optimal condition. They went site seeing with the
trainers and just about everywhere the trainers went the dogs were at
their sides. These dogs did NOT live a kennel life while in the care
of the trainers-they lived in their homes with them and were treated
like royalty.
Here is a link showing just what the trainers and
the dogs did when they weren't filming. These pictures were taken by
Mark-photography is something he's very proud of.
Kathy
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by
Joseph Capaldi. The short interview with
Kathy is below.BY
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