It's official. Agility has another TV star.
 Folks
may remember a few months ago that Hege Hurdwell was desperately seeking a doggy double for
Keefa for the part on a TV series. Unfortunately she couldn't find a one in time, but the part
did stay in the agility world. Rosie Ison's Disney (The Cartoon Classic) eventually got the
star part with his younger newphew Woody being his doggy double and understudy. Rosie has
been given the go ahead by the film company to tell their story of what happened on set.
Barking is a new 13 week series about an 11 year old
girl, her talking dog and their mad family. They've finally finished filming and my own Disney
(The Cartoon Classic) is the star. It is funny extremely well written script and has often had
the crew in hysterics.
 We
went for the initial audition in March. Disney was a real star (as usual) and performed
everything that was asked of him. We then had a wait of over six weeks whilst they did more
auditions and made their final decision. Disney was ultimately chosen because I could
fortunately also supply a double dog (Disney's newphew Woody) which the Granada TV insurance
company insisted on.
Once we had had the formal 'Yes' from Granada, we then had weeks of training to
do. Granada had provided a list of skills they wanted Disney to do. Some were fairly easy like
wave, give a paw, etc. but some were bizarre like getting him to sit in a tree and ride a
skateboard! Along with this, we had things like stand on his back legs, hide eyes, dig holes,
push things with his nose, go with someone and go to a mark. The list was long, but we managed
to train him to do all of the things plus some extras like cocking his leg on command but not
actually peeing.
 Disney
relished all the training and was keener and keener on each session, which we kept short and
sweet. We also had to teach Woody some basics as well, in particular the two important ones to
1) go with a stranger and 2) go to a mark. Woody has the attention span of a gnat so it took a
little longer, but he also got there in the end.
Along with training we also had many visits to the puppet maker as they has to
build a puppet to do the speaking parts in the programme.
Lights, camera, action
July the 5th was the start of filming and the start of many weeks of
travelling to Yorkshire. A very tiring four hour - if the traffic was good - trip. Often it
wasn't which meant a five or six hour trip!
Disney coped very well with the filming and seemed to really enjoy it.
Woody was used briefly right near the end of filming so he had fairly boring days on set.
The cast and crew were all lovely and very friendly. The days were long and
often very boring, and for people who think film work is glamorous well I can assure you, it's
not!
 Unfortunately
they had hoped to use Disney for nearly all the work and then just slot the puppet in for the
scenes that involved the talking, but it became very clear after the first couple of weeks that
continuity was a problem because no matter how good a puppet is they could never really cut
from a live dog to a puppet easily and keep it looking good. So the puppet has been used more
than expected because of the long dialogue scenes. Disney didn’t have to go up in a tree after
all! He still, however, had a fair bit of 'acting' to do every day.
I have seen some very rough cuts of the first two programmes, and it looks good.
The script is hilarious. Probably the humour is better for adults than kids! It will be on at
4.30pm on Thursday, 28 October on ITV all regions.
 Sacrifice
Unfortunately it meant a finish to my camping at weekend agility shows once the
filming had started. Coming home on a Friday night and not getting in till between 10.30pm and
midnight meant I didn’t want to then get up at 6.00am the next morning to tow a caravan to a
show. Just the thought was bad enough. It also meant I missed Dogs in Need and Longleat
which was huge disappointment for me. Still I suppose I couldn't have it always.
Also doing no Obedience training showed up. I only did two whilst filming and
Disney did a 'Mary Ray and Kissy' moment at one of them. The retrieve article was a square
block with something attached. I threw the article and Disney ran out to get it, promptly
turned towards me and stood on it. The reason this happened is we taught the 'go to a mark'
using a small block of wood and Disney was doing what he’d been taught... only in the wrong
place! I had to laugh, but there were no more Obedience shows after that - too confusing for
him I think.
On the
plus side, however he behaved and worked better in agility than he had ever done. Whether it
was the release of stress after a week of work or whether it has just focussed him more, but we
had more good places and clear rounds this year than ever before - even in Senior classes!
 So
now my little fellow is a TV star
I am so very proud of Disney. He did more than I could ever have hoped, and I know I
will cry when I see him on the screen. He is truly a once in a lifetime dog. They broke the
mould with him.
He went from Starters to Senior in Agility in less than four months. He is now
competing in 'B' in Obedience. He has represented Southern England twice at Crufts in the
Obedience team event. He dabbled for a while in Heelwork to Music - fourth in his one and only
show. He has also appeared in several TV adverts to date.
Thank you
I would like to say huge thank you to Chris Cole for all his help and patience and the
wonderful care he took of Disney whilst he was filming and I was unable to be with him on set.
Chris put Disney forward for this job and I hope he feels equally proud of him. Chris put up
with my high and low points throughout the 14 weeks and always had a smile. A big thanks must
also go to Karen who held the fort at their home all on her own. Without her none of this would
have been possible.
More about
Disney's World
 About
the author...
Rosie Ison
has been around dogs nearly all her life. Her grandparents had German Shepherds
and collies and, as a child, her parents had a mad blue merle Border Collie called Shep who
lived till she was 16 years old!
After Shep died, her
mum decided to leave the BCs alone for a while and got Beagles. Rosie decided to do Obedience
with them and, in fact, did it quite successfully.
On leaving school she
went on to work in a Boarding kennels where her love of Standard Poodles started as they also
bred them there. She got her own first dog at aged 16 years, a little rescued all black Collie
x Lab x Springer cross called Doola. She was doing very well in Obedience but tragically got
run over whilst being looked after whilst Rosie was on holiday.
After that, she got
married. Very soon the children came along, and so it was decided that she would devote all her
time to the kids (with swimming clubs, cubs, scouts, brownies, dancing etc. etc.) She felt that
she couldn’t give the time she’d want to a puppy so she started doing voluntary fostering of
cats for the RSPCA and also bred and showed Birman cats. She also showed her moggies, and all
her children appeared on Blue Peter with the Cats when they were younger. Rosie also appeared
on a BBC childrens' programme, showing the preparation for shows and the actual day itself.
They also did a SKY kids programme. Two of her cats have appeared on TV adverts.
When her children got
older and they moved to a bigger house, she persuaded her hubby to let her have a dog and Ellie
her first Standard Poodle arrived. That’s when her love of Agility started in 1992 .
Rosie and her daughter
Laura now have five dogs between them. Sadly Ellie is departed but they have 10 year old Libby
(Standard Poodle), eight year old Toy poodle Wispa, Jake, a 3 year crossbreed and Woody, a 22
month old poodle x collie cross as well as Disney, a six year old- poodle x collie cross
Who knows what will be
next?
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