A-Z Dogs

 The Art Of Casting For Film, Tv And Theatre.

- Tom Burrington

IF YOU look through the history books you’ll find that the use of dogs to entertain is timeless. They have that ability to enchant and allure anyone who watches them perform and you’ll find it hard to turn on your TV, flick through a magazine or browse the internet without seeing how the appeal of a dog has been used to catch your attention.

In today’s multi-platform digital age there’s plenty of opportunity for ‘star dogs’ and when a company needs a performing dog there’s a man in the business who is the first call for many. That man is Gerry Cott.

Gerry, whose early career was in music and saw him play guitar alongside Bob Geld of in the The Boomtown Rats, went on to change paths and make a living out of animal show business. His credentials are impressive. He’s been doing it for over 30 years and has accumulated a wealth of knowledge which is hard to rival and which is why many of the biggest producers and filmmakers in the world value him as the most important man in the industry. He left The Boomtown Rats when the life of a musician failed to excite him and it became dogs and animals which breathed new life into him and gave him the drive to dedicate a lifetime’s worth of work to.

Gerry grew up in the countryside of Ireland where he was surrounded by animals and an abundance of dogs which included Cocker Spaniels, terriers and Collies. His mother’s family were farmers and his summers were spent on farms in County Wicklow surrounded by cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, dogs and the occasional horse. This is where he first caught sight of working dogs as he would squander hours watching large Collies being used as cattle herders.