Animal continue to play role
with dog and pony show

By Emily Toadvine
Staff Writer

The band festival is no stranger to animals and their tricks. Elephants and mules have graced the festivities in years past. In keeping with this year's circus theme, an old-fashioned dog and pony show is coming to town. Richard Kohlrieser, who calls Wapakoneta, Ohio, home, is ringmaster for the animals. His dogs and ponies usually perform with circuses. They have been to Disney World and circuses around the country. In the summer of 1994, they performed with Pat Boone as part of the Will Rogers Folly in Bransom, Mo.

He describes the show as ever-changing. "I tell people, `It's never the same twice.'"

The Dog Pound Review will be staged at 5:50 p.m. Saturday during the picnic at Centre College and again at 2:50 p.m. Sunday at Centre. The acts will continue informally throughout the festival at the Norton Center. The ponies also will be available for rides. The dogs also ride on one of the ponies as part of the act.

Most people are surprised to learn that the dogs primarily come out of dog pounds and animal shelters around the country. The nine dogs come in all sizes and shapes. He dresses like a dog catcher and carries a net.

"It's kind of their act. They kind of work me. They've got me trained."

The ponies, which he says are at the large end of the miniature breed, also perform. He has white and black ones and they perform such tricks as the whites ones moving in one direction in a circle and the black ones moving in the other. One walks on his back feet.

Kohlrieser traces the start of his career to his childhood. "I've been doing this since I was a kid. I started going to amateur horse shows and then I started going to rodeos." When he got to old to ride, he started clowning. In the 1970s, he started working with circuses and started with the animals.

"I don't know what I'm going to do next."

Cutline: Richard Kohlrieser is ringmaster for these performing dogs. The Dog Pound Review and ponies that Kohlrieser has trained will be performing tricks at the Norton Center for the Arts.