AM Show Hr 3 | ZZ Top’s Animal Handler, Buzzard Tricks & the Clone That Made History

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Lock and load.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
The Michael Derry Show is on the air. With the

(00:34):
passing of Frank Beard, I heard from a lot of
folks who had an association in one way or another
with ZZ Top. I heard from people from LaGrange. I
heard from people who had a connection to the Chicken Ranch.
I heard from people associated with the band, with the tour,
with MTV, you name it. And I had learned some

(00:56):
number of years ago, not so long ago, that before
ZZ Top went mainstream and big time and MTV and Eliminator,
which took them to a more commercial audience and moved
their music more from blues to traditional rock, that they
toured the state. And I saw pictures of this tour,

(01:16):
the national tour of Texas. And it was really more
a traveling zoo than anything else. And Frank Beard would
be on the drums and Birds would come and land
on his shoulder. I mean, the showmanship was off the charts.
So I heard about a guy named Ralph Fisher. And
I wish I could attribute to who said this to me,

(01:36):
to who emailed it to me, because at the time
I didn't think much of it. Hey, the guy who
was ZZ Top's animal handler for that whole tour for
three years was a guy named Ralph Fisher. You should
get him. He's still alive. So I said, we'll find him.
And so some work was put in, and we have
tracked him down, and little did I find out, the

(01:58):
ZZ Top stuff is really cool. It's only the tip
of the iceberg. This guy has led an amazing, interesting,
fascinating life. Ralph Fisher is our guest. Welcome to the program.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Thank you, Michael.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I'm just in awe. I mean, I have had an
embarrassment of riches. I had the famous Angler. Bill Dance yesterday,
and now I'm talking to Ralph Fisher. I must admit,
reading your biography, your life is nothing short of incredible
and amazing. So you're born in 1944 in Sugar Land.

(02:36):
You go to Katy High School, blend, and then you
get an undergrad and a master's at Sam Houston State University.
How did you get interested in animals?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, I was raised on a dairy farm, and we
had animals to milk production and for food sources and eggs,
everything else. So that was my, you know, when I
was a kid, we always had pets hanging around, wild
or domestic. So it was always an animal thing for me.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
And then you figured out, so I guess you went
to parochial and private schools, and you were teaching, right,
while still staying involved with the rodeo.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
That's correct.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
And you got involved as a clown at what point?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
When I was in Blinn College, we started a rodeo club,
and we didn't have any money, so they pointed at
somebody and said, you're going to be the announcer, and
you're going to be the pickup man, and they pointed
at me and said, you're going to be the clown.
I said, okay. So I borrowed some rouge and some
lipstick from my dorm mother, and I became a rodeo clown.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Okay, now let me make sure this is right. You
are 82 years old, and you're in the Texas Rodeo
Cowboy Hall of Fame, but you are still clowning at
the occasional convention rodeo. Is that true?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Not lately. No, I had to retire. I finally had
to retire. I had some hip problems and shoulder problems and, well, age-related, whatever, so...
It's not really good to be out there, you know,
with a bull, wild bulls, if you can't move too good.
So anyway, but as I fought bulls and saw people

(04:28):
getting hurt and so forth, other clowns, I realized that
I had to do something for the longevity if I
was to last, you know, as a rodeo clown. So
I started developing animal acts, training dogs and horses and
coyotes and everything else, buzzards. and presenting them as an
entertainment during the rodeo. And because of those animal acts

(04:50):
and still bullfighting and working the barrel, I was able
to get some really good rodeos and attain some national prominence.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Not much, but some anyway. Well, you're in the Rodeo
Cowboy Hall of Fame. That's a bigger deal than... I
think you're one of those guys that's a rodeo guy
that downplays what you do, and I can appreciate that.
So I read that you did it for 46 years.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's right. Hard to imagine, huh? So you are– and
I've always admired these types of people, whether it's Donald
Trump or P.T. Barnum or Davy Crockett. You are a showman.
You are a guy that– you are interesting by nature,
and other people find you interesting. I recognize– You have been,

(05:37):
let's see, during his peak years, he was a staple
at 150 performances annually, gaining recognition for training and presenting
various animal acts, particularly the world's only bullfighting buzzards. Now,
who dreams that up?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well, I did. I was looking for a different act.
And as a kid, we always had a buzzard hanging
around the house in Barker, Texas. My dad and I
would find them down in the woods and bring them
up and keep them in the yard. And they would
hang around for a year or so. And then they
would gradually fly off, you know, and go back to

(06:15):
the wild, I guess. So we always had, and we
always named the buzzard Oscar. So no matter how many
buzzards I have had after that, we always named them Oscar.
And I had four. As a matter of fact, one
time I had four that I could use at the
rodeo simultaneously, turn four buzzards loose, and they would come

(06:36):
to me and land on the barrel. But anyway, they
were all named Oscar. So when I yelled Oscar, Oscar,
here they'd all come, you know, that's what I wanted.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Of course you did. How do you train a buzzard?
Is it just like anything else?

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, they respond to food. And so I keep them
a little bit hungry until showtime and then have tiny
bits of food for them in my pocket. And when
they come and light, I taught them at home to
light on my hat and get fed. So they knew
that they, in the arena, when they were released at
one end, I was standing on the barrel at the

(07:12):
other end or up, you know, They would come to
me because they knew they were going to get a
little bit of feed. And then after a while, they
got trained to do that, and they'd come to light
on me. And I have several pictures with all four
of them sitting on me with my arms outstretched and
so forth. But anyway, it was kind of a gimmick.
And now the bull riders didn't like it. The crowd

(07:32):
loved it. The stock contractors, everybody connected with the dollars
and loved it. But some of the bull riders were...
It's superstitious, and they didn't like it. And that's one
reason why I never had a career, much of a
career in the PRCA. I did have quite a career

(07:54):
in the International Rodeo Association and North American Rodeo Commission
and the Texas Rodeo Association, but not much in the PRCA.
Bull Riders protested.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Well, it probably has something else to do. I think
you're downplaying it. Same reason the headliner doesn't want a
really good opening act to outshine them. Hold with us
for a moment. Ralph Fisher, animal handler extraordinaire and more.
Coming up. Live, laugh, learn. Doing it big on the

(08:26):
Michael Berry Show. I love the photo of ZZ Top
performing at the Little Cypress Mauriceville. which I lived closer
to Little Cypress, Morrisville than I did Orange. I just
say I'm from Orange, but I'm from Orange County. I'm
actually from a little community known as Mack Lewis that
is outside the town. I was really closer to LCM,

(08:49):
and my brother actually lived in what he could have
fed into the LCM school district if he wanted to.
But they hosted ZZ Top before anybody knew them, just
before anybody knew them. They didn't have the big beards
at their homecoming, and they were very proud of that.
Maybe it was their prom. There's great stories about ZZ
Top before they became nationally famous nationwide, and MTV and

(09:09):
the Eliminator album had a lot to do with that.
Before that, they were traveling the state as this amazing
zoo on wheels, and Ralph Fisher was handling the animals
for that. Ralph, what was that like?

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well... They were my animals. I bought them and trained
them and everything. So I had a vested interest in
doing a good job and taking care of them. When
you're traveling with especially large animals like a buffalo and
a bison and a big Texas longhorn steer, there's a

(09:42):
lot of precautions that you have to take in traveling
coast to coast. I think we went coast to coast
several times in those basically parts of three years. And
so it was a job for me, and most of
it was related to taking care of my animals. I mean, uh, I,
I made, I guess I made pretty good money in

(10:03):
those days. I was getting a hundred dollars a day
and a 25 cents a mile for my truck and trailer,
which now they're paying about, I don't know, $ 4 or $ 5.
I don't even know what they charge a mile. Now
it's a lot, but I was making enough to pay
the bills back home. And you know, And buy a
couple of rear end for my truck and some other

(10:24):
stuff that went bad on the tour. But it was
just traveling and finding safe places to keep my animals
between the jobs.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, I read that your animal training spans a number
of species, including javelinas, domestic pigs, dogs, horses, mules, burros, coyotes, wolves, skunks, armadillos, buffalo, bulls, cows,
Texas longhorn, bremen steers, and we'll talk about chance in
a minute. buzzards and even road runners can you give

(10:53):
me an inventory of what you took on the road
was easy top of the 70s.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Well with them i had a live bison that i
got in kogel out of nebraska uh i i'd like
to tell you that story i called all over trying
to find a trying to find a buffalo and uh
So I finally talked to some ranchers that had one
that they had tamed and turned loose after they, you know,
petted him and had him on a bottle, I think.

(11:18):
But he was two years old and I hadn't touched
him in two years. So they got him in the
corral and they sold him to me and then we
put him in the back of a U-Haul truck and
put a stick under the door so he could have
air coming back to Houston, back to Katy. And that's
where I got my buffalo. Do you remember what you
gave for him?

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Do you remember what you gave for him?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Uh, yeah. Um, I think it was about $ 2, 000. Oh, okay. Yeah.
And that's, that was quite a bit back in those
days also. That would have been 75. And then we,
and then the steer, uh, the steer, uh, came from
the Marks, famous Marks Longhorn Ranch. They're now down at, uh,

(11:59):
down at, uh, uh, in the area. Uh, anyway, uh, they, uh,
They sold me a beautiful steer, and he was already
saddle broke, but he was still a little bit jittery.
So it just took a while. I spent months actually
getting both of these animals ready. Then we had rattlesnakes

(12:21):
in a plexiglass container right in front of the band.
It was a plexiglass pyramid, and we always had two
or three live rattlesnakes in there. And then two buzzards
sitting on stage. on cow skulls behind, uh, behind Frank,
the drummer. And he, he'd look back at old Oscar
and really worry about him all the time. Frank was
kind of a character. You wouldn't think so, but, uh,

(12:44):
Dusty and Billy seemed to get along. Okay. With them.
Everybody got along. Okay. With the buzzards, but it was
so unusual that, you know, they had a, they had
a show right there on stage with, and put the
steer and the Buffalo on scissors, scissor lifts on either
side of the stage that were in encased in a shroud.
So after about, uh, 20 feet in the air, you'd
see this buffalo coming up under spotlight on one side

(13:07):
of the stage and a steer coming up on the
other side of the stage under spotlight. And we had
glitter on their horns and their wranglers standing there holding them.
And they would only stay there for a few seconds,
maybe 30 seconds. And, you know, half the audience was
all screwed up anyway. And they'd say, oh, I think
I saw a buffalo. Then the animals came down and

(13:29):
the spotlight went through the band's And the first introductory
song was always, get high, get high, get high. And,
of course, the snakes were right there in front of them,
which weren't that noticeable, but they were for the press
mostly anyway. And the buzzards were sitting behind the drummer
on opposite sides of the stage. So my job during

(13:51):
the production was to keep an eye on the buzzards
and make sure everything was safe back there. But they
were behind the main noise, you know, the noise of
the drums. And let's see, I had a coyote on
there for a while. I know we went to New Orleans,
and the coyote walked the high wire, walked the ladder
and crossed the 10-foot high wire span and came back.

(14:13):
And the audience wasn't really excited about that. And Bill
Hand was such a magnificent... He had plans that nobody,
in the back of his mind, nobody would have ever
dreamed of. But anyway, he said... You know, I don't
think this cow is going to work. He said, I
don't want something that's going to crap and step in it.

(14:34):
So he said, look, go to California and go find
me a wolf. I want a real wolf because it's
lone wolf productions. So he flew me to California and
I went to a big facility out there that raises wolves.
I found this beautiful little puppy that was just weaned
and I thought within a few months would have been

(14:56):
full size. They grow so fast. But Bill was impatient
and didn't want to wait that long for this puppy
to grow up.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
And he wanted to.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Open the performance sitting on stage with a big howl,
you know, under a spotlight.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's what he really wanted.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well, so I trained this German Shepherd puppy. to do
the same thing, and we painted this German Shepherd dog
up to look just like a wolf, and I borrowed
him from a friend in Katy. And to make this
dog howl, I had to pinch his ear just a
little bit. Now, I know, Peter, people are going to

(15:31):
go crazy about this, but I'm sorry. Some of the
training techniques, and I don't consider that cruel, but just
a little bit of a nudge on his ear, and
he would start howling like crazy. So then as I
trained him, all I had to do is just reach
my hand forward.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
I could do it.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
So I finally got I could do it out of
the spotlight for three or four feet away. Anyway, PETA
blackballed that because they didn't like the thought of any
kind of cruelty going on in the training process.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Plus, it was fun. They don't like anything that's fun.
During the break, if I don't have to prep for
the next segment, I will quickly... scan emails and see
if there's anything I need to talk about. And I
got an email from a fellow named Robbie. I won't
say his last name. And he said, I need the
number for your garage door experts. I'm stuck in my

(16:25):
garage and can't get out. So I immediately called Cody Johnson,
not that Cody Johnson, but that Cody Johnson, the garage
door opener guy. He's number two in the list. Cody Johnson,
my buddy that owns sign press that does the big
signs at the stadiums. He's number three on the Cody Johnson.
And the first Cody Johnson is the guy that holds
the record at the Dome or at NRG for the

(16:47):
biggest rodeo crowd ever. But anyway, so he's on the phone,
and they're on their way, and they're going to get
him out of his grudge. Not as crazy as the
life of Ralph Fisher, who gets more interesting the longer
you talk to him. Tell the good folks you're not
an Aggie by education. You went to Sam. But you
have a singular distinction at Texas A & M University
that puts you in the record books. Can you tell

(17:08):
that story, please, about Chance?

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Okay, good. Yes, that was quite an experience. When I
was doing photos with people sitting on Texas Longhorns, I
did that for 18 years at a booth at Houston Rodeo.
People might remember the photo booth there, but I was
always looking for new animals, and somebody called me and
told me they had a tame Robin Bull up in Madisonville.

(17:34):
I went up and looked at him, and I bought him,
and he was very, very tame. He was nine years
old at the time. And he lived another 10 years.
And we named him Chance because I thought I was
taking a chance. Every time I got around him or
got on him, I taught him how to ride. He
was already gentle, but he wasn't a halter broker. So anyway,

(17:55):
I taught him how to ride. I taught him how
to stand still for photos for one hour. And he
became one of our... He was on David Letterman's show.
You can Google that. Buzzard and... Robin Bull on David Letterman,
and I guarantee you'll see it. He was in a
movie called The Locust with Kate Capshaw, and he was

(18:17):
the main animal character, and Jeremy Davies and Kate Capshaw. Anyway,
we kept him and did photos with him for years
and years. When he got older, we found out A &
M was doing a cloning project, which was all brand new.
The only clone they had at the time was Dolly
the Sheep in England. So A & M started this process.

(18:38):
They wanted an unusual-looking animal so they could keep its
separate phenotype looks and all that from other animals. So
we had this big old robin bull with huge horns
and all the skin hanging down underneath, the low sheath
and all that, which has all changed nowadays. Even in
those days, they had already changed them and they cleaned
them up. They didn't have all those skin characteristics and

(18:59):
all that. So anyway, they... chose Chance to do the
cloning project. They took some skin tissue from his side.
They developed several live embryos inside of donor cows and
then they started experimenting and removing the embryo and looking
at them and they finally got down to a couple

(19:20):
and one died and only had one left and it
turned out to be second Chance that was born then
and he looked just like the big brahman except he
was a little brahman bull and the mother cow was
not even any kin to him because they just used
her her emptied egg as a as a carrier surrogate

(19:42):
all right anyway uh second chance in grew for and
we kept him about nine years he uh uh he
hurt me pretty bad he didn't have the same disposition
as as the donor but he was quite a quite
a story and we did a lot of international press
with him and things like that and and uh he

(20:02):
he hurt me pretty bad a couple of times by
hooking me for no reason and just tore up my
shoulders and a bunch of stuff so there's a documentary
on what is that Netflix about ZZ Top's Worldwide Texas
Tour and he's included in that.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah that's where I learned about.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
All this if by chance we meet again did you
really so that's kind of the synopsis of the clone
he was the first clone in the world after Dolly
the Sheep and he lived right here in Swiss Alps Texas.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, so those Aggies are something else. They cloned a
Brahman steer in 1998. That's almost 30 years ago. That's impressive.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yes, he was a bull, and when he came back,
he came back as a bull, and he remained a
bull the whole... I'm sorry, when he was cloned, he
was a steer. You're right, because he had appendulous testicles
and became infected, and as an old guy, we had
to have him castrated. That's right. So he was a steer.
That means he couldn't produce... So that was another bright

(21:11):
spot for them. Here we had an animal that looked
like nobody else because breeders had already changed up the
characteristics by then to be leaner and cleaner and, you know, whatever,
and body and phenotype. So then they had this deer
that couldn't produce. So when they cloned him, he came
back as a bull. And then we had him castrated... No,

(21:36):
I don't think he never. He was always a bull.
Second Chance was always a bull. And he lived about
nine or ten years. And he finally had a problem
with his digestion and the vagus nerve that controls the
food through the body. And it was some disruption. They
couldn't fix it. And he died from bloating and being
filled up. And he couldn't relieve himself. They had to

(21:56):
cut him open several times to relieve him. He spent
quite a bit of time at A & M then.
But he was doomed and died, you know, then about
at nine years old.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
You know, I'm hearing stories of humans that are doing that.
They start as a bull, and then one day they
just announce they're a heifer. I don't know how that works.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Michael, only you would come up with that, but that's
the truth. He, she, it, we don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
So Ramon said that when you were talking to him
during the break, you said that you follow our show
and you have followed his story. And I said, what
is your story? He said, I fasted for 43 days.
Please tell me you didn't do that because I'll never
live that down.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
No, no, no. I just mean him doing advertisements and
so forth at your direction.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
I prefer people not to know.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
I probably don't have a lot of smut on ZZ Top.
Bill O'Reilly interviewed me years ago, and he wanted to
hear it all. So I didn't have anything. I'm sorry.
I had a job to do, and I did it.
I mean, that was it.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
I had a family at home waiting on me. I
want the opposite of smut. I think the world of
ZZ Top, the individuals, their music stands on its own.
I love them. I want nothing but positive. But I
noticed that your children's names are Todd, Kimberly, Bryce, and Dusty.
Is Dusty named for Dusty Hill?

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Well, yes and no. Yes, I guess so. We were
choosing names, and Dusty was just– yeah, but it really–
Really was. We never had really admitted that, you know,
but I think so. I was really, I was strong.
I'm the one of the parents that really wanted that name,
you know, and it was a good name, a good name. So, yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
All right, Ralph, I want to ask you a favor.
I want to come back. And I want you to
give us advice of lessons that could be applied across
any animal because everybody's got a dog or a horse
or a cow or something that they may not want
to take on the road on a national tour or
David Letterman or Jay Leno or put them in the movies.
But they'd like to just they'd like to tame them

(24:12):
a little bit so that they interact better. If you
if we can hold on and you would give us
that advice, I would sure appreciate it. Ralph Fisher is
our guest. Lucky you. The Michael Perry Show continues.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
This must be your lucky day.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Did you hear him say Billy? I guess this is
the live version, so that's pretty cool. So when Frank
Beard passed, we were paying tribute. One of my favorite
shows we've done because you folks ran the show, calling

(24:49):
in and sharing your stories and emailing me your stories,
and they were fun. And somebody suggested that we talk
to Ralph Fisher, who I was talking about the national
tour of Texas and the animals that they would take
out in this crazy show they would put on. And
it's all in the documentary on Netflix about them. It's
pretty cool. And I said, Ralph Fisher is around. You

(25:11):
could talk to him. He's 82. He's alive and well.
Get him on the phone. And so we tracked him down,
and he has agreed to be our guest. And what
a fascinating life. I have come to learn, Ralph. You
mentioned that movie, The Locust. I have come to learn.
I've been to the house where that was filmed, that
big plantation house. That is owned by a friend of

(25:35):
mine named Ray Moore. Ray and I aren't close. I
know him. I've been out to visit him. I've toured
his many, many. I think he's the largest landowner in
Fort Bend County. I could be wrong, but I believe
that's true. If not one of them, he sold off
a lot of them. But his son-in-law is Cody Johnson.
Not that Cody Johnson and not that Cody Johnson, but

(25:55):
the other Cody Johnson that owns Sign Press. Anyway, he
said that movie, The Locust, that was filmed on the
ranch at the big plantation house. You've been to that house.
So there you go. A small world. Yes.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Old Chance, he was the main animal star in that movie.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, well, he sounds like a very, very special Brahmin.
I mean, of all the things, you had something on
your hands. I have received so many messages, I can't
read them all, from people who wanted to personally attest
to your character and goodness in their friendship. I'll just
pull one of them out, a fellow named Sam.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Lately?

Speaker 1 (26:37):
No, just during this interview. A fellow named Sam Magana,
his son Ricky is, I think, a trooper or a
ranger or something. But I guess Sam Magana is a
friend of yours, and it happens to be his birthday today.
So that's why I chose that one of them all.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
I'll be.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
So real quick before we get to the question I
asked you, do you still run Ralph Fisher's Photo Animals,
and do you still run Buzzard Whisperer?

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yes and yes. The Buzzard Whisperer thing is sort of–
gone by the wayside. It's a non-profit deal, you know, non-profit.
So I was doing, and how it got started, I
was doing freebie presentations at uh school little school functions
and stuff and taking my i had a wolf uh

(27:26):
i had a nice tame wolf and the buzzards and
armadillo and whatever i'd take them to these little schools
so that's how we started buzzard whisperer and uh did
quite a bit of that but yes the animal business
is still in effect we do photos of people sitting
on texas longhorns like i said we had a photo
booth there in houston for 18 years and we just
we gave it up it was just too much Too

(27:48):
much to worry about. I still do that at corporate parties.
We have beer boroughs, and we do armadillo races also.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
And I've tried to find a website for you. I
didn't find one. There's a Facebook page. Is that where
people are to go?

Speaker 2 (28:01):
That's probably what it is, yes. The website got sort
of compromised and became a porn site. Excuse me, just
let me cut this other phone off. So anyway, that's
kind of how. But the Facebook page is– and we've had–
you know, I've had so long doing this business that
I don't really scrounge around for extra jobs.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
No, I wouldn't guess you would.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Hell, I'm old. So we did quite a few, though.
You know, I stay busy.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
All right, so here's what I want. I've got a
German Shepherd that I got from George Foreman, and she's
a sweetheart and we love her. But we have a
trainer that was George Foreman's trainer, and he comes once
a month, and then when we travel– She stays with
him and keeps her under wraps because that's a very
aggressive breed, in my opinion. But what is your advice?

(28:47):
And we work with her constantly. What is your advice
for people that have a dog, a horse, a cow?
What are some basic things that everybody can apply to
getting along better with their animal?

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well, basically... You've got to like the animal you're training, okay?
If you don't like him, and there are people and
there are situations where he just don't like him. I mean,
he's either bitten you or refused to do something or
run away or growled at the grandkids. There are several
reasons why you don't like him. So I think you

(29:21):
really have to have an affection for that animal. to
respect him enough to not be mean and cruel. Like,
like this German shepherd, I was training for ZZ top.
He didn't want anybody touching his ear.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
And I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
And he was, a little bit on the aggressive side.
So if you reach for his ear, he would howl.
So that's what it's like. You've just got to learn
each animal and their characteristics. But I see all these
dog shows on TV. I love to watch those national shows.
And they always treat those animals with a little bit
of a little treat after they do their thing. And

(29:58):
I just never did believe in that. But I'm not
going to be opposed to all these magnificent trainers. But
for my personal, a little pat on the head is
what I consider a treat. And if that dog really
likes you, he's wanting that little pat, that little assurance
of your voice even. Your voice can even change enough

(30:18):
in tone to designate that. Like right now, we've got
an old house dog that's dying. Okay, he's real slow now.
He hardly eats. He's just going down. But, boy, when
I pet him on the head, his tail starts wagging.
And so that's how I've trained things, just with some kindness,
as a reward for what they do that that may

(30:41):
be opposed to a lot of the trainers giving little
candy sweets or whatever they give them but i i've
just mostly given now the buzzard was different i did
have a little bit of a meat treat for them
uh because birds are different than than dogs and other
animals are they harder to train Well, yes, of course.

(31:04):
They've got a little pea brain, you know. But they're
also survivors. So you give them something to survive with,
and they're going to go for it. So that's why
they were always faithful to me. Somebody turned four cages
loose with a buzzard in each cage at the end
of the arena, and they fly and light on me,
light on my head and arms, standing on a clown

(31:26):
barrel out in the middle of the arena. There's something
about me they like. And it's that food attraction, you know,
to begin with. So that's my feelings on that. There's
going to be some people opposed to that. And maybe
you can break the ice with some little treats and stuff.
But that affection to me is probably the most. But

(31:47):
you've got to be firm. You really have to be firm.
My best dog would run off all the time. Sometimes
during the act, he'd take off. He'd take off. I
started putting on advice. I took the advice of these
old trainers that have died now. They were with Ringling Brothers.
I'd go to Louisiana and get them to help me,
or I'd go to North Texas and get them to

(32:09):
help me. But this little puppy ran away every time.
So I put a little...