About circus dogs...

Working dogs like to have jobs to do.  Depending on the breed, some dogs like to hunt, track or guard, and some like to pull carts, herd animals, or even perform.  Dogs have worked as circus performers since the arrival of early American circus acts. Because dogs are so easily trained, they were quickly incorporated into smaller travelling circuses in the late 1800s. A dog named Stout's Pal Pierre was famous for walking a tightrope with the Barnum and Bailey Circus in the 1930s, and later acts included dogs that could leap, jump, dance and ride horseback.  Circus dogs can perform incredible feats!

Meet the circus dog...

"I’m a hard-workin’ dog; I’m a circus pup. Circus work may sound like play time to you, but this job isn’t for the average pooch. While some mutts are sleeping all doggone day, I’m busy practicing tricks with my human handler. I’ve got to keep up my act.  Even on weekends. I get up and put on my uniform (mine happens to be a tutu) and perform tricks that make humans stand up, clap and sit.

Some dogs get all the easy jobs – like walking on a leash or guarding the front porch.  Not me – I’m wire-walking, answering to clowns, and weaving in and out of horse hooves and wagon wheel spokes while they’re moving. My job’s not easy.  (The hardest part is the uniform.)  I’d like to let you in on the secret to my success.  It’s friction.  Not a single doggone trick would be possible without friction.  Friction helps me stay (and heel and sit) exactly where my handler tells me. Friction stops me from slip-sliding off the high wire. And most important of all – friction keeps my tutu in place.  All in a day’s work!"