# Training rats 4 Movie



## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

I got a new movie filming in July and I have to train rats! lol This should be a fun project and I have used rats before in movies but never really had to train them. I use to have rats when I was young and I LOVED working with them. They are smart and easy to train kind of like dogs so this should not be too hard. It is a Hallmark movie called "Let Them Shine" and the rat has to come out of a hole in the ground, look at the camera, run under the desk, then run along a wall while being chased. I might use different rats for each part but I have 6 brown females rats waiting to be trained! 
Today we just tried peanut butter and tomorrow I will try a bunch of other treats to find which one goes nuts for what treat. Then we can work on the rest of the behaviors. I have a month to work with them and that is more than enough time. When it is all said and done I will place them as pets, I just do not have the heart to feed them to my snake after working with them. I will have to video the progress for the director so I will upload here in a few weeks. :woof:


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## Lex's Guardian (Aug 8, 2009)

Sweet! Sounds like a fun project Lisa, I love the Hallmark channel too  How did you get into such an interesting line of work?


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## FloorCandy (Feb 19, 2009)

I taught my previous rats all kinds of tricks with those yogurt treats you get in the pet store, they went crazy for them.

Congrats on the new gig


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## Black Rabbit (Nov 14, 2009)

Wow how cool. I love rats too. I had a really cool one that used to play with my cat. I can't wait to see the movie. How did the other movie go have you guys started on the Disney film yet?


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

I got several calls about 5 years ago looking for dogs to play in movies and I just kind of got into it from there. I have done many types of animals and my business has built a good reputation on being able to provide animals that can do what they want them to. Wasting time and money on set is huge so if you have trained animals coming in that can do what they want it saves a ton of money and time. I get little jobs like these all the time but I do not do certain animals like no flies, maggots or things that gross me out! No big exotic animals like Tigers, no big birds like eagles or hawks, but I do just about any small animal or small livestock. It's fun and I get to meet a lot of really cool actors. Like the time we scared the crap out of Gerald Butler! OMG it was great the director told me to use Kaos to tell Gerard they changed the script and they wanted kaos to go take him down in a bite suit.... good fun , Gerald's face drained of all color! lol
The part was the dogs ran by him and had no contact so it was a good joke. Stuff like that is priceless and after that he was a little scared of the dogs! lol
It's great money and a ton of fun so my business just keeps growing and we are trying to get in more bids for movies.



kg420 said:


> Wow how cool. I love rats too. I had a really cool one that used to play with my cat. I can't wait to see the movie. How did the other movie go have you guys started on the Disney film yet?


The disney film went great we shot for like 10 mins got what they wanted and left! It was a small part where she just grabbed the cart and played tug with it basically. It was part of a montage scene.


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## Black Rabbit (Nov 14, 2009)

Oh I get these things from the store there a Welches strawberry treats covered in yogurt. There kinda like yogurt covered raisins but it's strawberries instead. They are so good and I bet they'd love em


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## aimee235 (Apr 29, 2007)

Peanut butter can cause them to choke. Rice crispies and cheese work well. I'm not sure what other treats would work for training. I never trained mine to do anything besides come when called. I hope the movie and training goes well. Good luck!


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## meganc66 (Mar 6, 2009)

That's the coolest, and um Lisa I LOVE GERARD BUTLER!!!!!!! he's my yummy yummy yum..... anyways... yeah. lol


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

Megan you crack me up!!! lol but yeah it was cool to work with him!
Yeah the peantbutter worried me but I gave it them as a snack and they liked it but that thought crossed my mind because it is so sticky. Tomorrow I am going rat treat shopping! lol I am going to get a bunch of foods and try them out. I am hope they will like the spray cheese in a can it will be easy to use.


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## echs332000 (Jan 10, 2010)

i train rats once a week....I train them to NOT RUN FROM MY SNAKES hehe


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## BittersweetEmbrace (Feb 24, 2010)

performanceknls said:


> I got a new movie filming in July and I have to train rats! lol This should be a fun project and I have used rats before in movies but never really had to train them. I use to have rats when I was young and I LOVED working with them. They are smart and easy to train kind of like dogs so this should not be too hard. It is a Hallmark movie called "Let Them Shine" and the rat has to come out of a hole in the ground, look at the camera, run under the desk, then run along a wall while being chased. I might use different rats for each part but I have 6 brown females rats waiting to be trained!
> Today we just tried peanut butter and tomorrow I will try a bunch of other treats to find which one goes nuts for what treat. Then we can work on the rest of the behaviors. I have a month to work with them and that is more than enough time. When it is all said and done I will place them as pets, I just do not have the heart to feed them to my snake after working with them. I will have to video the progress for the director so I will upload here in a few weeks. :woof:


Lol! Momma Lisa the rat directer!  I love how smart they are


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## American_Pit13 (Apr 23, 2007)

I love rats! Whooo that show be some fun training along with the chicken WP


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## ThaLadyPit (Oct 12, 2008)

Wow! This aughtta be interesting! Can't wait to see how that turns out! I'm still uber excited about the Disney film.. so you'll have to remind me when it comes out so I can take the kids to go see it.


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

YEah holly I am working on the chicken WP idea my little batam has GAME! lol
It is a dinsey series called Scoundrels and is for TV I guess it will be out soon so I will look for it and post when it comes out.

The rats will be interesting we are going to start the box training tomorrow.


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

The movie went great and I did not get any video of the training but you can just watch the movie! lol I filmed it last Monday and Tuesday and they were perfect rats! The movie is called "Let Them Shine" and is a Hallmark production I think it will be made for the hallmark channel so keep an eye out!


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## BittersweetEmbrace (Feb 24, 2010)

Awesome! I remembered the movie name from the last time it was mentioned. I'll keep an eye out! Hallmark and Lifetime have some good movies


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## aimee235 (Apr 29, 2007)

That's great. I'm glad all went well.


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