Santo vom Haus Zieglmayer played
Rex in the hugely popular Austrian television series
'Kommissar Rex' from 1992-1997. Known in real life as
Beejay, he was trained by the distinguished animal trainer Teresa Ann Miller who, together with her father Karl Lewis Miller, runs the company 'Animal Action' - one of the most successful animal training schools in the world. The Millers have been awarded with numerous 'Patsys', (the animal Oscars of America) in recognition of their work with animals.
Approximately 40 German Shepherd dogs were tested before
Santo vom Haus Zieglmayer was finally selected for the role of
Rex. Training began approximately five months prior to the filming of the first series. On average,
Rex received four hours training per day. On the subject of her training method Teresa says: 'Our animals don't go to work. For them it is play. It is extremely difficult to make an animal look good on the set if it doesn't want to.'
One of the most visually dramatic stunts that Teresa had to get
Rex to perform was to leap through a closed window. To achieve this effect, Teresa first got
Rex to jump through an empty wooden frame. The frame was then gradually covered with a plastic sheet which had a hole in the middle. This enabled
Rex to jump through whilst getting used to a certain amount of pressure against his back.
Rex repeated the jump until the hole in the middle of the frame was so small that the plastic sheet tore. Finally, 'sugar' glass replaced the plastic sheet which splintered as soon as
Rex jumped through - thus giving the effect of real glass.
Santo vom Haus Zieglmayer (Beejay) died in 2003, aged twelve years. He spent his retirement with his trainer, Teresa Ann Miller along with his replacement in the Rex series,
Rhett Butler, .
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Santo vom Haus Zieglmayer played
Rex in the hugely popular Austrian television series
'Kommissar Rex' from 1992-1997. Known in real life as
Beejay, he was trained by the distinguished animal trainer Teresa Ann Miller who, together with her father Karl Lewis Miller, runs the company 'Animal Action' - one of the most successful animal training schools in the world. The Millers have been awarded with numerous 'Patsys', (the animal Oscars of America) in recognition of their work with animals.
Approximately 40 German Shepherd dogs were tested before
Santo vom Haus Zieglmayer was finally selected for the role of
Rex. Training began approximately five months prior to the filming of the first series. On average,
Rex received four hours training per day. On the subject of her training method Teresa says: 'Our animals don't go to work. For them it is play. It is extremely difficult to make an animal look good on the set if it doesn't want to.'
One of the most visually dramatic stunts that Teresa had to' target='_blank'>
Rhett Butler, .
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