As professional animal trainers for 25 years, Doug and Lynne Seus have dedicated their lives to raising and training animals, including the largest land animal in North America, the grizzly bear. The Seuses adopted their first grizzly more than 20 years ago. Bart the Bear would go on to become the big screen's most famous bear, starring in 15 motion pictures including Legends of the Fall, White Fang and The Bear. Bart weighed in at 1,500 pounds and towered 9½ feet tall. At the age of 23, Bart passed away, but his legacy lives on in the rest of the Seus grizzly clan: Tank, who starred as Archie the Circus Bear in Dr. Dolittle 2, and two bear cubs, Little Bart (Bart's namesake) and Honey-Bump.

So how does Doug Seus get an animal the size of a grizzly bear to do anything he asks? By teaching it manners, of course.

"It's like training a child to have manners. They [the bears] won't have dignity unless the parent teaches them and gives them that sense of dignity and self-worth," Seus says.

So Seus takes pride in playing mama bear to his adopted bear family and what mama doesn't want their kids to have good manners? In Doug Seus' grizzly bear world, not only do bears have manners, but their tricks are simply fun games and training is transformed into an art form.

Review Seus' five unusual rules of bear etiquette and training, then listen to his grizzly philosophies yourself. Follow Seus' advice and you'll have a well-trained, well-mannered bear. Our advice — don't try this at home.

Rule #1: Blow Into a Bear's Nose
This rule could also be called "Gaining a Grizzly's Trust." Why on earth would you blow into a bear's nose? "It's like throwing your energy into its soul and manifesting yourself in its spirit," Seus says. Or more simply, it gives the bear a warm and fuzzy feeling that lets it know everything is OK. Seus also recommends spending long hours with the bear, sitting with it while it eats meat, stroking it gently.

Rule # 2: Desensitize the Bear to Stress
The best way to teach a bear to handle stress is to take it for a walk along a sidewalk, down the center of the street and then directly into traffic. (Don't worry, it's not really dangerous. You'd pause for an 800-pound bear walking in the street, wouldn't you?) Seus introduces his bears to traffic in order to familiarize them with the sound and movement of cars and trucks; that way they'll be well-equipped to handle the stress of big city traffic and noise.

Rule # 3: Break the Bear's Routine
This rule goes hand in hand with Rule #2. Bears can be very habitual, so breaking them of routine is another part of desensitizing them to stress. "You break routine so that they can cope with life," Seus says. To keep them guessing about their mealtime, Seus feeds the bear at a different time every day, putting their food in different colored bowls as well.

Rule # 4: Speak in Bear
Seus has created his own animal language, which he says is mostly based on body gestures and some language that he has adapted especially for the bears. For example, "leeft" means "lift," but Seus changed the pronunciation because it was too close to the word "sit." "I'm always cautious of the words that I use and inflection," he says. He doesn't want to confuse the bears during training. Seus uses an example with dogs. When a dog is on a couch, its owner will often say "get down." But if you've taught your dog to "lay down" he may confuse "lay down" with "get down." The owner should add "get off the couch" to his or her training vocabulary.

Rule # 5: Create a Big-Screen Bear With a Few Simple Behaviors
Seus says giving a bear simple instructions like "sit" or "stay" is easy, especially once the bear has learned to trust you and handle the stress of new situations. It's training a bear to do things in a sequence that becomes difficult. Seus is careful to train bears in different behaviors on separate occasions. "I won't teach 'close your eyes' at the same time I teach 'lay down,' so I can put them together later." Seus says stringing together the sequence of instructions is what brings a big-screen bear character to life.