Their Majesties will see You Now
The daily interaction with the cats, what the Laceys’ declared as "work" their four-legged friends see as a fun routine. Like any good performance, the Lacey Lions show skills based on their natural instincts. The brothers use these natural habits to make the training fun for the animals. The Lacey brothers know their lions from a young age and watch them from the first day of life. They observe and answer questions such as: Are they lively and do they like to jump? Are they gentle, or do they like to play? What is their favorite thing to do? What the lion as an individual likes is put into training. The next step is to encourage intrinsic motivation through an appraisal system which includes recognition of their "Alpha-lion" Alexander and Martin Lacey Jr.
Youngsters, however, spend their first year playing and becoming familiar with their lion/human family. In the second year of a lion’s life they would enter training which leads up to their introduction to the ring. It is definitely a "must" which is easily seen from the fact that both male and female lions go voluntarily and without fear through the tunnel. Even lions would find life boring to just lie around all day and wait for food. Training and presentation are a daily entertainment and stimulation for them.
However one cannot overestimate them. Alexander and Martin Lacey Jr. know that. The lions cannot concentrate for much more than a quarter of an hour at a time. So both trainers work in the outdoor enclosure as well as in the ring and are never away from their lions for long periods of time.
In the ring the horse whip and stick are utilized as an extension of the arm and voice. They help to amplify the trainer for better communication. When they are on the floor they show the direction in which to go; the whip calls attention with its cracks. The whip is not used as a weapon. Evidence of this can be seen by those with a keen eye: none of our lions fear the whip. On the contrary: the lions see it as a playful " touch" just like with the stick.
