Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1910-07-15
TRAINING A TRICK SEAL.
A Simple Task VIXEN You kno" That
He Likes Fish.

dts all in making an animal do
nothing that is not natural, said
the old animal trainer, nothing
that the nature Of the particular
species goes against. You see, its
just like people training themselves
for special thing: doctors not Civ
ing pills for just about anything as
they used to do when l was young,
but each particular doctor doing
one thing. That's because the doc
tor can do that thing we'll and COM
paratively easy. 1t is the same
way with breaking animals. The
trainer must know, first of all,
enough about the habits of his
breed to fit tricks to their need. He
must not try to make an elephant
climb or a lion play the drum.
"'rake seals, for example. don't
believe there is an animal act that
makes people sit up and take more
notice than those acts with seals,
the fellows that catch hats and bal
ance big balls. Those wonderful
tricks that make the little girls
scream with delight and get their
mothers all excited are done on one
simple principle-seals eat fish.
That's all there is to it when you
come right down to the truth.
"You begin with one seal, a lot of
little pieces Of fish and bit of
string. You let the seal sit on his
pedestal, which he likes to do by
nature. Then YOU throw him one OF
the pieces Of fish, and he naturally
and easily catches it. Next You tic
piece of fish on the end of your
string and swing it toward the seal.
He catches that. too, and YOU keep
moving away from him and swing
ing the reward to him from an in
creasing distance. Now you are
ready to begin with the hat or corn
ucopia. Placing and tying a bit Of
the fish up in the tip Of it, You toss
it to the seal. He is dexterouS by
nature, and his nose, detecting the
fish up in the cone, quickly seeks it.
He bites it out and losses the cone
aside. Before long he comes to as
sociatc that cone with his loved fish,
and he will catch any number of
similar ones and toss them aside
when he fails to find what he wants.
That's all there is to the trick, you
see.
balancing the big rubber ball is
based on the same principle. The
ball is soaked in tishy brine and
thrown to the seal. He gets the
odor and tries his best to get into
the ball and find what he's after
This results in his balancing the
ball on his nose, feat for which
his quickness, his supple, muscular
neck and his natural feeding habits
are all adapted, and then he gets his
piece of fish as prize.
"The man working with seals
thinks to himself, What else DO
!! seals do naturally?' And the an
swcr comes. They like to slap and
beat around with their front flip
Icrs.' Here is the basis for a good
and effective trick Down on tho
side of the pedestal on which the
seal is placed an automobile horn is
fastened or a little drum or a tin
] pan. The seal in the excitement of
being fed slaps with his flipper for
all he's worth. and YOU can see that
with few simple adaptations, such
as tying a cymbal to the fipper. for
instance, a seal band is assembled
and sets the audience wild by its
comic and clever performance. It's
all so simple, YOU know-whcn YOU
arc on the inside" - New York
Poet