Friday, January 11, 2008

Training Baby Elephants #3


Scan000010704, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 1/11/2008 06:44:00 AM

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buckles"
I recall while making a pit stop on the NY thruway en route to the Bentley show, a knock at the door and it was Ben and Barbara and tribe on their way to the BAC show. That was the first time I saw Ned. In this photo I am guessing he is a year or so maybe 1200 lb's ???.

11 January, 2008 13:52
Buckles said...

You got me stumped on that one. Doesn't ring a bell at all.

11 January, 2008 15:45
Anonymous said...

Buckles"
Tepa said it was in 1991 and Ben had just gotten his new pickup and gooseneck?.
My Question is how "old" is "Ned" , not you, in
the Photo?, also what
will he weigh?.

11 January, 2008 17:15
Buckles said...

"Ned" would have been about a year old in this picture. Since he was captive born these Stud Book people could tell you exactly. Maybe 500 or 600 pounds.
I was 29 at the time.

11 January, 2008 17:31
Anonymous said...

Buckles"
I do truly feel when it comes to training young elephants you can walk on water, and that Ned's introduction into the world of circus was created in only 17 days however the 29 year old part appears to be a bit "unseemly"
P.S.thanks for the info.

11 January, 2008 20:20
Anonymous said...

Buckles, what do you train first, the groung sit up or the tub?

HM

12 January, 2008 00:15
Anonymous said...

I can well understand and am in total agreement on the training time for a young elephant as pointed out by Buckles. This would be the all important basics that become part of almost all of the later routines. The complete lay down, sit up and of course Trunk Up. For me the hind leg stand would come later as it constitutes balance and muscle build up. And of course getting them to go here and there. Certainly as we gain more experience we know about what they are going to do before they ever do it. When I think of my first efforts compared to later I realize what I didn't know. I think it is important to be very efficent in your approach and not waste alot of time. It is important that the young elephant does not learn to "dummy up" and that can easily happen to a novice trainer. I have seen that and been there myself and it can add alot of time and frustration for both trainer and animal. We must be patient and easy does it along with being efficent. Long boring segments are not good as if the animal gets weary with all the drawn out goings on it will surely rebel and we can't let that become too much of a factor.

A little food for thought from an old horse trainer as well. It has been written and announced that to train the "capriole" takes some five years of involved additional trainng. I have found that if you have a horse that kicks with a touch of the whip and also will do a quick, not so high rear that if you can't train it to do the "capriole"{ in about four days you are in the wrong business. I have done it numerous times and "at liberty" as well.

12 January, 2008 09:32
Anonymous said...

A good comment. What comes first, the chiken or the egg? Buckles and myself have discussed this over the years and I will be interested in his view. When I was a young kid in winters at our home up in Minnesota during the evening, my father would tell me about various forms of animal training and what he had seen and done, so he explained what a "rigging" was for laying down a young elephant and said that when the elephant was laying flat to right away roll it into a ground "sit up" and not let it just get up. So that has been my theory and practice. Bucles told me that there was the Gardiner theory and the Reed theory. One being to do the tub sit up and the ground sit up became a "free trick" or visa-versa. I always liked to bite the bullet and while I had them down to "roll them up". A liitle more time and work , but it seemed for me to make the tub sit up a little easier. I note the elephant appears to be a pretty goog size baby that can be a factor. So I guess its a trainer's decision.

12 January, 2008 10:54
Anonymous said...

Buckles and Col.,
I agree "how fast" in the hands of a skilled trainer, is a knowledgeable utililization of his time. If he is also going to be presenting the animal/ animals upon completion. If he is training the animal/animals for somebody else to present, "how fast" is dependant on how long you want it to hold together. Unless you are setting the foundation for long term "correcting/fixing employment.

12 January, 2008 13:11
Anonymous said...

The only time I ever actually saw rigging in use with a punk was on a Thai elephant farm when my cousin got married there ten years ago. I'd heard some stories about training in the lumber camps that were "old school" but the mechanics of the training I saw were incredible, and not dissimilar to the laydown sessions popular with "natural horsemen," just on a grander scale. In operant terms it was all shaping and modeling, but I would never have imagined how much they accomplished over the three days we were there.

12 January, 2008 14:51
Bob Cline said...

The following is the Asian Elephant Studbook information provided for Ned.

Born: Oct. 10, 1987 Stud# 275.
Sire: Vance Stud# 240.
Dam: Josky Stud# 252.

13 January, 2008 09:12
Anonymous said...

Buckles"
I am not asking for another shameless display of your age but rather a bit more information.With Mr.B.Cline's up date of Ned's date of birth "Oct.10,1987.
To the one who walkes on water,
My "question" is can you give us the approximate date of the first day of the 17 day "creation"?.

13 January, 2008 10:54
Buckles said...

The easiest way to figure this out would be to find the opening date for Hanneford in Auburn Hills in 1989 and count back 17 days.

13 January, 2008 11:06
Anonymous said...

I'm starting to think that elephants must be a heck of a lot smarter than dogs. Although I've trained a bazillion dogs and a decent number of horses and ponies, reading the speed that young elephants are ready for the ring, well, it's pretty amazing, especially since you can't even begin any serious training with a dog until it's past the puppy stage. In the $2,500 baby elephant days, they used to be performing just off the bottle.

HM

13 January, 2008 17:25

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