Custom Trainer Teaches Animals To Do Tricks

Custom Trainer Teaches Animals To Do Tricks SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 28-3-7 Dan Wallen knows tricks and how to train animals to do them. The fourth generation trainer has trained donkeys, mules, llamas, goats, cattle, camels, zebras and buffalo to ride, drive and do tricks. Wallen keeps an inventory of animal acts on hand for sale or lease and has several acts leased out to circuses and animal shows. He also custom trains animals and is currently working with animals from 8 different states. "All animals can learn," says Wallen. "Just like people, some learn easier. It all depends on their personality." The Bluffton, Ind., animal trainer charges $750 per month for board, room and training. He likes to have each animal for a minimum of three months, in which he will teach them 10 to 12 different things, such as walking a plank and a teeter board, rolling a barrel, climbing up on a pedestal, laying down, riding and driving. "I start off teaching them to lead and come forward, then to march and get up on pedestals," says Wallen. "The more they learn, the easier it is to learn the next trick." The longer he has an animal and the more eager it is to learn, the better trained it will be. Wallen has a crÞme colored pony that is the only one he knows of in the world that can climb up on a barrel and roll it with all four feet. It is also trained to do a wide variety of other acts, such as sitting up like a dog, something Wallen says only his family members know how to teach. He has also trained buffalo to ride under saddle, kneel, walk on their knees and lay down. One of his specialties is the æliberty act', which involves training a group of horses, ponies or zebras to work loose with no lead. When he is done, they will dance, waltz, move two abreast, then four and then six abreast, all on command. The value of the training quickly exceeds the value of the animal. "You can take a $2,000 horse, and when it is trained, it can be worth $15,000," says Wallen. The trainer recently offered his first ever training clinic with plans to video tape it and offer training tapes for sale. While mostly geared toward horses, Wallen says the same technique works with all animals. "I just adapt them a little for each one," he adds. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Daniel Wallen, D.E. Wallen Performing Animals, Bluffton, Ind. 46714 (ph 260 402-7167; email:dewallen@adamswells. com).

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