Easter Lurcher!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUr7rnDuRm4&feature=share

Lovely mossup who filmed two versions of this, one for England and one in Eire for Irish viewers, she has had a busy month also appearing along with Caddy and Brillo in a shoot for one of our favourite photographers David Stewart….Brillo also featured in a shoot for Partizan for Carte Noir coffee. Nearly time for a new Border Terrier as he never stops working, and is creeping towards middle age (at least!).

Bullseye continues to pull in the crowds as Oliver now settles in to its Birmingham run, he is a real trooper…..

We have two new recruits on the dog side, a charming Beagle and a stunning Siberian Husky, looking forward to working with them as they are both really super dogs.

Ollie, Dexter and I had a run up the M6 to Media City and were very impressed in how a run down area can be regenerated, makes a pleasant change from turning south on the M1!

Oliver, Alan Titchmarsh and lots of busy cats..

A1 has had a busy start to 2012….thanks to Mark for providing a beautiful toad for a shoot in York, and Chelsea for continuing her good work on “Oliver”, which has now moved to Manchester. Liz has been kept busy with various cat jobs,and also managed a trip to Wales with lurchers and hounds for a couple of days on Henry IVth (Thanks to Animals Okay) and Ellie and I conquered our nerves to appear live on “The Alan Titchmarsh Show”! Alan is a huge Downton Abbey fan and also a genuine animal lover and was a delight to meet. A tad worried about DA as we start shooting next month, and I hope that they haven’t moved too far in time…I doubt that Ellie will quiten down until she reaches her teens ( well not if her great grandfather was anyhting to go by….our special Uffa of Guidewell who we lost almost twenty years ago, but still miss) so will still be bouncing all over Highclere, Ealing Studios and assorted members of the Grantham/Crawley family!

Farewell 2011

Metacam "Born to Run"

2011 has been a wonderful year for A1 Animals, January was unusually busy, staring with a multi dog job for our friends QED in Manchester, for Misfits packaging, closely followed by a four day stills shoot for Latham’s dog food packaging involving dozens of dogs and puppies…as a result of his cuteness Hamish a Bullmastiff puppy managed to charm his way into A1 Animal’s clutches!
Mossup (Lurcher) was featured in “Casualty”(for Animals Okay) as the narrow boat dwelling Dervla playing Doctor Dylan’s pet and then went on to a Kellogs TV commercial along with additional studio work.
Ellie was chosen by Kay Raven (Animals Okay) to play the replacement Labrador on Downton Abbey, and has kept us busy throughout the year.
Ollie made his personal appearance at Crufts, along with Chummy (Oreo) and Mabel (The Kings Speech) and proved a huge hit, especially with one little girl who couldn’t believe that Mabel was the actual Pug from her favourite comic “All About Animals”, a really heartwarming moment!
Stills shoots have included Royal Wedding specials featuring Scramble for Next, and several shoots for Boden with Scramble, Brillo and Dexter including a recreation of the famous “Abbey Road” album cover.
Zelda, Spike, Cairo and Tonki shot a stills campaign for “Waitrose “ cat food and Spike, Haggis and Cairn appeared in advertisements for “Purina” both photographed by Steve Hoskins.
Our new chocolate Labrador rescue girlie Coco (ex Many Tears Animal Rescue) started her career with a stills shoot for Robert smith Photography followed swiftly by an appearance on “Shooting Stars” for Animals Okay at BBC TV Centre.
Another trip up the M6 to Manchester for Misfits dog treat packaging, ongoing trips to Highclere Castle and Ealing studios for Downton Abbey and a hectic day out in Surrey with various dogs for a calendar shoot (John Daniels Photography) all followed in quick succession…
“All About Animals” with Scramble and Mabel has continued to be a particular favourite…a lovely photo story, all delightfully pink and fluffy!
A major stills campaign for Metacam employed nearly all A1 Animals cats, shot both in a studio environment and on a canal boat at Hungerford!
July kicked off with a big shoot at Harefield for Dogstrust with Dexter and many, many other dogs…..followed swiftly by a couple of stills shoots for Gandee Vassan.
Another super job with David Stewart (photographer) and Phoebe Dalmatian, both are always a great pleasure to work with, as were the gnomes!
Animals on Blue contacted us for puppies in August, a super few days with German Shepherd and Dalmatian puppies, great fun, then another hectic time with Mabel Pug for Cadbury and several dogs over several days for Purina with Fudge (German Spitz Klein) Brillo (Border Terrier) Foster (Golden Retriever) and Ellie.
Dexter ( another ex Many Tears dog) was cast for “Call The Midwife” due to air in the early part of 2012, and was as usual, a real star this series is set in the 1950s and the costumes were great, all the women wearing “pinnies” and hairnets and everyone with a cigarette in their hand! Roupell Street (SE) was a perfect location.
Animals on Blue came back to us in October for a massive project for a website promoting sensible dog ownership, the first batch shot over four days comprising over forty different breeds of dog, busy but very enjoyable, more to come in 2012!
The utterly charming and gorgeous Junyoug Jang and Abner Pastoll approached us for a dog (Dexter) and some chickens for a teaser short, and it was lovely to see them both again.
Ellie did her final day on “Downton Abbey” for the Christmas special during which she was abducted by the dastardly Thomas (played by the very lovely Rob James Collier) and in contrast Mabel played in a comedic short involving a maternity delivery suite and a Bassett Hound……..
The ever lovely Martha (ex Many Tears) was an angel during a very difficult shot which involved her lying on a sofa surrounded by cuddly toys (It truly is a dog’s life!)
The year ended as it began, very busy with another dash up the M6 for Bailey Cat (a commercial for Uswitch.com), another trip to Wood Lane, this time for Polly on “Never Mind The Buzzcocks”, which brought back bitter sweet memories of dogs no longer with us, and another trip to Malcolm Ryan Studios, this time with Dax the Weimeraner bizzarely for a Korean cigarette advertisement….
Chummy featured in two Sky commercials, but the biggest event was the casting of Bullseye for the touring production of “Oliver”, this will tour all over the United Kingdom and across the sea to Dublin over the next year and more, starting in Cardiff. He is an English Bull Terrier who is being absolutely brilliant, coping with the atmosphere and noise of a huge production like a real old pro…..Good Boy, Bullseye!
New additions to the A1 family include Hamish, who has already proved how talented he is by appearing in commercials for British Airways, and John Lewis in addition to his stills appearances, Ria a striking Deerhound who will make her debut in 2012 having travelled from Rumbling Bridge, in Scotland to join the team.
Nessie (Yorkshire Terrier) and Manny (Lurcher) came to us via Cotswold Canine Rescue, it is our policy to give forever homes to rescue animals whenever possible, indeed we have adopted eleven cats (Rob, Roy, Ann, Rosie, Haggis, Polly, Wizzie, Spike, Cairo, Luxor and Cairn) all from rescue organisations. Rob and Roy made their debut in the ITV drama “Without you” starring Anna Friel who had fond memories of working with the late, lamented Jasper in the theatrical production of “Breakfast at Tiffanys”. Roy also appeared as Mr Miggles in the hit TV show “The Misfits”.
Bob Cat continues to be in demand after his standout appearance in the Ikea commercial and has been asked to make a sequel to his starring role in “Single White Feline” one of the major hits on Youtube for the BBC comedy department.
A quick mention a couple of our special friends:
www.manytears.co.uk An animal rescue based in South Wales who have very kindly allowed us to adopt several dogs.

http://www.cotswoldcaninerescue.co.uk

Who allowed us to adopt Nessie and Manny

www.nikipeach.com Niki Peach who looks after our website…Thank you!
Wishing all our friends and colleagues a very prosperous, but mostly a very happy new year,
From Liz, Sue, Alan, Chelsea, Dot and all the other two legged, four legged and indeed no-legged members of the A1 Animals team x

Phew…

It’s been uncommonly busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas, two commercials for Sky featuring Chummy, various cat jobs with Bailey, Sooty and the ever popular Bob, and of course the rehearsals of “Oliver” with Bullseye. Also a couple of interviews with the press and of course the much trumpeted Downton Abbey Christma Special ( a rather nice tweet from Hugh Bonneville saying that Isis is in talks with C4 for a series entitled “One Bitch and Her Man…….”!)
This is Ellie AKA Isis:

Famous people and silly things..

When people get to know about my job, they always want to know “have you met anyone famous?”…well yes, including Dames and Knights, Oscar winners and “Hello” people, and in over twenty years of playing this game, I’ve only ever met ione who thought that he was particularly “special”….no names, no packdrill, but he was not British.
Then they ask about funny things, well has anyone else put pieces of frankfurter in Colin Firth’s sock? I thought not…..has anyone had their Pug sprayed with champagne? (By a most apologetic Guy Pearce..)
All filmimg is a HUGE team effort, everyone is a small, or large part of the whole, everyone is important from the humble runner (or indeed the humble animal trainer) to the massive Holllywood star, it genuinely is an all pulling together event. And say wht you like about Russell Crowe, but when we filmed Robin hood, he insisted on introducing himself to all the animal trainers and asking not just our names, but also those of our dogs!

Downton Abbey and Animals on Blue.

Golly, what a busy week….Downton Abbey Christmas special, and forty dogs for Animals on Bue, for the launch of a new website. All the dogs have been fantastic, a really good, happy shoot.

Rescue dogs.

Whenever we can, we like to adopt our dogs and cats from rescue homes.We have adopted from Just For Dogs in Deryshire : Hunter the star lurcher, Many Tears in Wales: Martha the Mastiff, Sweep the poodle, Dexter the JRTx and recently Coco the choclate labrador. Ollie the BC came from Wiccaweys and Chummy the mutt from a small independant rescue, again in Wales.Oddly (well, oddly IMHO) some rescues don’t like you “making money out of animals” but our animals are our pets foremost…they have a happy, interesting life and are never kenneled. What’s not to like? Our most recent recruit is Bryn, a lovely Lurcher puppy who came from Cotswold Canine Rescue, as did Nessie the Yorkie. We are grateful to these individuals and organisations for allowing their charges to join the A1 family….
This is Chummy:

He had had six different homes in the six weeks before he came to us, and the kind lady who rescued him had been advised to put him down as not rehomeable!

About A1 Animals

I have been working for A1 Animals for donkey’s years, it’s a very happy association, gradually over the years I’ve added more dogs to my household to cope with the ever increasing workload…..although my blog is linked to A1′s website, it is very much my own personal musings, and by no means a reflection of the A1 party line, so please don’t blame them for my random jottings!

Anyway the important thing today is tracking down the recipe for a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake for my twin grandsons second birthday, but before I rush off, here’s another of my canine family:

This is Mabel (Romaneve Miss Muffet) bred by Tracy Henry….she is my most recent addition, and an absolute darling….she appeared in The King’s Speech, and recently filmed one of Cadbury’s quirky idents for next year’s Olympics:

Oldest first…

Brillo Border Terrier:This is my little old man Brillo, he came to us as a rescue from South Wales, he had spent the first six months of his life in a rabbit hutch! He sleeps on my bed every night and snores, though not in the same class as Mabel Pug…

Here he is in costume for Cadbury’s Clusters!What a trooper he is, I reaaly need to persuade my OH that we should have another Borderline Terriorist, Brillo has worked steadily all his life, and continues to be in demand.

Well, here goes..

As a virgin blogger, here are a few facts about me.

I am a mother, a grandmother and a wife.

I train dogs for films, television, photography shoots and anything that fits under the umbrella of “entertainment”, as long as it’s legal and reasonably decent!

I share my home with one long suffering husband, and ten dogs, all of whom work for their living…the dogs as actors or models in the audio visual world, the husband as something far more sensible….

My dogs come in all shapes and sizes, I will do a short biography for each of them…I also own two labrador retrievers who live with a dear friend, and also have seven or eight dogs that belong to friends and family that also tread the boards as required.

I’m going to attempt to attach a picture of Ellie, who is currently appearing as “Isis” Lord Grantham’s dog in the second series of Downton Abbey, we are back at Highclere next week to complete filming of the Christmas special…