Timeline Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

1995 – 2006

I learned more about dog training when I went out on my own. A lot of dog trainers from all over the world really opened my eyes. Here’s a list of some of the most influential at this time; Donna Crawley, Gottified Dildei, Dr. Ian Dunbar, John Rogerson, Chris Byrne, John Fisher, and Leslie Nelson.

The summer of 1995 was an eventful one. It was the summer I opened my business and it was the summer I got my Belgian Malinois, Suede. I drove out to Long Island to pick up Suede with a good friend of mine, Chris Byrne. Chris is the owner of Dogs Unlimited. He is a great dog trainer and has taught me a lot. We picked out Suede and he lived up to everything a malinois is known for. Lots of drive, never ending supply of energy and he lived to do protection work.

On August 15, 1995 I opened the doors to American Canine at 885 Dwelly St. in Fall River, MA. My first location was in a dirty, dusty mill with a machine shop next door, another business that made stuffed clams and a surfboard shop at the end of the hall.

Things were not too rosy. The surfboard shop spent most of their time smoking pot and practicing their artwork by drawing lewd pictures on the hallway walls. On top of that the guy that ran the machine shop was not very happy with his new neighbor and decided to make my life as difficult as possible.

He would stand in the driveway and yell at my customers telling them that they could not park. He would actually yell at them and threaten them. The landlord was a little wimp and did nothing to help.

I put up with this for about a year and then one Saturday morning, the machine shop guy and I almost came to blows. I won’t get into all the details here but I knew that it was time to find another location for my business.

Luckily, I had been teaching classes at a small animal shelter in Westport, MA. They had a small area were I held my training classes. The owner at the time said I could rent out the place full time and I moved my business to Westport.

About two months later the owner of the shelter died.

With the help of my parents I was able to buy the property. I could now offer boarding, grooming and dog daycare along with the training.

The business definitely prospered but it was getting to me. Boarding dogs is a 365 day, 24 hour job. It was difficult to get away and when I did get away I was always worrying. The next few years were a busy time for me. In addition to running American Canine, I did a lot of work for area shelters. I taught classes and provided training and behavior help for any shelter that needed it. One day, the Faxon Animal Rescue asked me to come and look at a dog they had.

They were not sure about the dog and wanted a professional opinion. I arrived not knowing what to expect and was taken into the back yard. When I looked into the yard I saw a big, beautiful German Shepherd playing with a rope toy. The shelter worker said his name was Jimmy and they were not sure if he was aggressive or not. Twenty minutes later Jimmy was in the front seat of my truck driving home with me.

American Canine kept growing, and I was in a position where I needed to take on more staff. I could no longer handle it all, cleaning the kennel, feeding the dogs (sometimes as many as 60 a day), running the daycare, and then teaching training classes a night.

One particular day I was having a difficult time trying to fix one of the kennel doors when my mom walked up to me and said she had hired someone. Not being in the best of moods I said, “Great,” and she introduced me to Rachael.

Rachael started working for me in 2002 and we became good friends. Over time we started dating and we got married on June 28, 2008.

I sold American Canine in 2006 and started the Dog Training Inner Circle. Rachael and I started the website so that we could help dog owners literally anywhere in the world. One thing that I am very passionate about is how dogs are trained.

Dog training does not have to be harsh. You can have a well trained dog using positive training methods.

And that takes us up to date and through my Dog Training Time Line!