Prior to meeting Jordan my experience with dog trainers had dropped to an all time low because a dog trainer, asked to produce a dog that barked at a closed door, warning their owner, produced instead a dog that wagged its tail and looked happy on cue. Worst thing was the trainer wasn’t too worried- thinking we could cut around it in the edit. This lack of professionalism made me exclude all dogs from every picture- until we made the series Black Hands. We had to replicate the dog owned by the Bain family.
I met Jordan, because of a problem I was having with my own dog and was impressed with his skills and knowledge. So, we gave him his first job - find a Keeshond and train it to represent the Bain family dog.
A challenge both to find and train a dog within a few weeks.
As opposed to my previous experience every behaviour had been rehearsed before coming to set, and the dog performed that behaviour on cue. Brilliant.
Now - provided I have Jordan working with us, I can let the dogs back into the picture.