September 26th, 2024In Daylesford, it’s training cats and dogs…

A scruffy terrier from Daylesford called Squid is about to hit the big screen as a star that rescues a drought-hit farm. 

Not only that, three cats that live with Squid have been cast in a horror film. 

Rebecca Faulkner, who has lived in Daylesford for seven years, spent five months hunting for a dog to play Runt in a film of the same name. 

“We knew roughly what we were looking for,” says Rebecca. “We wanted a dog that would thrive and enjoy it.”

The search was online and also by word-of-mouth with animal rescue people.

“We went to see 10 to 12 dogs and searched Victoria,” she says. 

Squid, “a mixed-breed mutt like some of the best ones” to train, was found in her third home.

“She was a ‘nightmare’ terrier. Terrier, terrier through to her bones. You get problem behaviour in animals just as you do in humans. I gave her a job to do. 

“She could easily have become an all-day barker, easily have become the kind of dog that tears up the houses and digs up the garden. 

“There was a lot of training from scratch. She needed agility and dogs’ agility is like that of Olympic athletes. They build muscles and coordination. 

“Squid just had to show her agility and do a lot of specific exercises. She would have been a nightmare left to her own devices. She has very long, supermodel legs and can jump fences like they’re not even there.” 

Little wonder, for the gruelling filming ran for six weeks of 10 hour days, five days a week.

“The biggest thing is building confidence,” Rebecca says.

“There was a lot of noise on the film set, with people coming and going.” 

Squid, as Runt, worked with nine-year-old Annie Shearer, who overhears her parents worrying about the loan on their farm.

With her compulsion for fixing things, she enters Runt in the Agility Course Competition at a local fair. Runt wins, getting $500, so Annie goes on to enter him in the massive Krumpets Dog Show in London. 

So there are hoops and hurdles, tunnels and see-saws in the film Runt, adapted from a best-selling book by Craig Silvey. 

Sharing the screen with Runt are stars such as Jack Thompson, Deborah Mailman, Jai Courtney and Celeste Barber.

Rebecca, who runs a specialised business finding and training animals for film, with her Sydney business partner Peta Clarke, reckons Squid, who is aged between two and three, could be up for another film.

“She’s got a lot of experience under her collar.”

As for the cats, named Birdie, Moss and Todd River (from Alice Springs), they will be in the upcoming movie Bring Her Back.

“All our animals co-exist. They live in the same house together, except for the chickens, but sometimes they do figure out how to stroll into the house. 

“It’s important that we teach all the animals how to interact with each other appropriately and co-exist without being worried about one another. 

“When we filmed The Rooster, a feature film by Mark Winter that was shot around Glenlyon, the introduction of the rooster to the family/team was really smooth because we had already gone through the process of introducing dogs to cats, cats to dogs and everyone to the chickens. It’s a process that we now all understand: family doesn’t hurt family.” 

But how in the name of felines do you train cats?

“Training is basically the same for all animals, tweaked to the species and the individual animal’s personality. 

“When working with cats we manage the environment on set so it’s safe and calm. We do not want them to get a scare or be fearful in any way. 

“We want the cats to be confident and comfortable. Just like the dogs.”

 Words: Kevin Childs | Image: Michelle Donnelly