The Animal Trainer
Katja Elsässer is an animal trainer. She discovered her passion for animals as a small child. When she was just five years old, she trained her guinea pig. At nine, her parents found her standing in front of the family home with a ram. Over the next few years, she taught it the most diverse circus tricks. At 17, she found her first real job as an animal trainer – she trained a pig for a film production. Meanwhile, Katja Elsässer has lived for the past 11 years on her farm near Lüneburg. But her “students” are not confined to the so-called “normal” animals. The young woman is far more interested in exotic beasts. “House pets like dogs and cats are just plain boring,” she explains confidently. “Spiders, iguanas, snakes, geese, frogs, and raccoons are much more interesting,” she adds. “Of course, I work on dog tricks too, but it's much for interesting to get my Spinni, my tarantula, to run in zigzags in front of the camera,” she explains laughing. “I’m the mommy to my animals, I pamper them as much as I can. They are used to the excitement from an early age, and I offer them the assurance that everything here runs according to plan.” Katja accomplishes things we might have thought impossible: she has her hens march down a wooden ladder single file, her bulls run on command, reindeer and hares run on a treadmill. Katja Elsässer is one of the best animal trainers in Germany, and is on the go with her animals all year long. Life on the farm with her animals, training them for films and television, means working 365 days of the year – seven days a week. We visit Katja on her farm, experience everyday life with reptiles, reindeers, raccoons, and many others, and watch her getting various animals ready for filming in upcoming jobs. We are present on the set for film shoots, but also during training walks with Olga the cow through the pedestrian zone in Lüneburg.
