Animal House
- Mark McWaters
- Fred Lopez
April Mackin’s career began, quite auspiciously, with a greyhound—the kind that carried passengers and burned diesel fuel. She boarded that Greyhound bus in San Francisco, with her one suitcase, and rode south to Moorpark College in Ventura County, chasing a dream.
“I had been camping out with some friends, sitting around the campfire, and someone asked me: ‘If you could have a career doing anything in the world, what would you do?’” April recalls. “I said I would train lions for the movies. I asked around, did my research—there was no internet back then—and someone mentioned what was then known as the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College. It sounded perfect. I checked into it and made my decision.”
It’s been over 30 years since she hopped off that bus (but who’s counting?) Since then, she has become a trainer of animals of every stripe, in high demand all across the country; first in California, then New York City, Atlanta, and Florida.
Today, she divides her time between both coasts, training “most everything that wouldn’t kill me, and a few that would,” for big and small screens all over the world.
As you would imagine, her first professional gig wasn’t taming the King of the Jungle. Rather, it was dolphins, which exposed her to a training method called operant conditioning. “You know the whistles you hear trainers use for marine mammals? That’s operant conditioning. We obviously can’t touch those animals, so we whistle to communicate. Similarly, we use clickers for smaller animals like dogs and cats.”
Florida, and what was billed as the next Hollywood—Universal Studios—quickly beckoned, and April’s career became bi-coastal. She worked the theme park’s live animal shows, and did a lot of work in New York—“I did All My Children up there.” And started gaining a reputation.
April is a freelancer who works with several of the most influential animal talent agencies in the country. Commercial directors and movie producers call them up, describe what they are looking for, and contract for her services.
“I have been lucky to be able to do what I love to do and work with some amazing people, and a lot of even more amazing animals. There are a lot of good animal trainers out there. I’m a pretty good one, I guess. People do ask for me and that is, of course, very flattering.”
On the Spot
April gets all kinds of questions when people find out what she does for a living. We’re not ashamed to add our name to that list. We’ll start things off with one of the most common ones:
What are some of the movies you've worked on?
My first production was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective starring Jim Carrey. I was the head animal trainer, meaning I was responsible for animal training as a whole, plus I personally trained Spike the monkey. That was a movie where everybody was working hard and working together. No one was famous, not even Jim Carrey, then. We had all those animals, all that variety, and even they worked together. Then it came time for the big scene where we released all the animals at once. We did it in three takes. And all the animals hit their marks.
I worked on Disney+’s Cruella. There’s a 10-minute piece in the extras section that is a lot of fun, where you’ll see exactly how we worked with those Dalmatians. I worked on Marley and Me,The Royal Tenenbaums, Lady and the Tramp, (I worked with the Scottie), Charlotte’s Web—lots of cows and pigs in that one—Hotel for Dogs, George of the Jungle, The Jungle Book…
Ooh, and Second Hand Lions with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. Sounds crazy probably, but I have to go back and read my own resume to remember them all. Army Wives is another one. An oldie but a goodie. The dog in that was a rescue from the streets of Mexico. Oh, I can’t forget Will Trent—a new series just coming out on ABC. That may be my most recent.
You worked with so many different animals. Are there any you refuse to work with?
Early in my career, I worked with elephants. I don’t like to train elephants anymore. And nowadays, I try to stay away from anything that could really hurt me.
Also, we’re not doing a lot with primates anymore. That’s the trend—nobody wants to see them.
How is training an animal for the screen different from training a house pet?
First of all, the animal has to like training for movies or commercials. There’s a lot of noise, activity, and distractions, not to mention loud gunshots, smoke sometimes, and explosions. You’re training a movie animal to act natural in an unnatural environment—act like a pet, or like a jungle cat—when they’re being directed, working off hand signals and such. If they don’t want to be in movies, we don’t force it.
Do you have any pets of your own?
They’re all my pets when I’m working with them. I take them home with me at the end of the day, feed them, give them treats. They sleep in my bed.
Even though they are all “working animals,” it’s better for them to have that routine and connection. Plus, I adore them, and the companies like when we do that. After all, most of them are someone’s pet in real life. But no, I don’t have any pets of my own.
Which are the smartest dog breeds?
A lot of people ask that. Any of the working breeds—German shepherds, border collies, retrievers—simply because they really want to work. They want to please you. It’s in their DNA.
And how about the less smart breeds?
There are no dumb dogs, let’s start with that. If you ask a dog to do something he’s not fit for, that he cannot physically accomplish, he won’t perform. Some dogs won’t beg, for instance, because their bodies just can’t do it. It’d be like asking an NFL lineman to dance The Nutcracker.
Have you ever trained a really small animal like an insect? What is that like?
You don’t really “train” insects. You herd them, which I’ve done, including cockroaches. By the way, I really don’t like cockroaches.
Is there a secret to animal training for us pet owners who want to show off our brilliant fur babies?
First, you need to realize what your animal is truly capable of and don’t ask him to do what he cannot do.
Second, know that dogs—all animals—have their own language. The way they move their tails, hold their ears, the noises they make, that’s how they communicate. We read our dogs just like they try to read us. In order to have a good pet, you need to create your own language together. It’s up to us humans to do that. Spend the time, be consistent. People who say their dog is stupid haven’t kept up their part of the bargain. There are no stupid dogs, only untrained people.
What do you do when you’re not training animals?
I rescue them. I’m a pilot, and in my spare time, I like to work with Pilots N Paws. It’s a national organization that connects rescue and shelter dogs with their foster and permanent homes.
After Katrina, I spent time down in the flooded Biloxi area working under the direction of DART (Disaster Animal Relief Team). I met a woman there who had to be rescued from the tree she and her dog climbed to stay out of the flood. It was a very intense situation, to say the least. The devastation was complete. There were no street signs. No resources. We’d get up before sunrise to look for displaced animals—because that’s when the animals get up. After that, in the middle of the day, you won’t find them. They’re hunkered down. I did crawl under a house to get one dog out. Not fun. But it had to be done.
Paws for Effect
The years and the animals continue to pass by on little cat feet, dog paws, bird talons, and horse’s hooves and April Mackin is right there in the thick of it all directing traffic. We should all be so lucky, to be living a dream conceived by a campfire decades ago is a gift—and no one is more aware of that than April herself.
“I love what I do ,and I do so love my animals. All the animals I train are like my own. That’s why giving back is so important to me. The pet rescues, the Pilots N Paws, they’re all part of that. I have been so fortunate.”
Then again, perhaps we are the lucky ones. After all, we’re the ones who get to enjoy the results of April’s labor whenever we turn on the TV.
