Max The Elephant Barn Dog

Max, who gets his name from the Asian elephant scientific name Elephas maximus, is a mixed Terrier who really enjoys greeting Zoo guests. He is very affectionate and can be a bit lazy at times (what dog isn’t?), but rest assure that he serves an extremely important role with Asian elephant training.

To the elephants and zoo keepers, Max acts as a companion animal, running and playing in the elephant yard under keeper supervision. Max also acts as a crucial stepping stone in the process of learning to train elephants. Before teaching our Asian elephants certain behaviors and actions, new keepers must often train Max to do the same thing. Once they have perfected behaviors with Max, they are ready to pass these lessons on to our pachyderms.

An important lesson to take from Max’s story is that there are thousands of abandoned and sheltered dogs looking for good homes. Adopting a dog has a tremendously positive impact on the dog itself, their owners and families, and in this case, on elephants and zoo keepers.