How Did You Get Started in the Dog Industry?

My journey with dogs started when I was about 14 years old, long before I ever thought of dog training as a career.

It began simply enough: I started walking dogs for my neighbors. I loved being around dogs, but I quickly became fascinated by something beyond just taking them for a walk. I wanted to understand them. Why did one dog respond differently than another? Why were some confident while others were fearful? What made a dog want to work with you?
That curiosity led me to volunteer at veterinary clinics and animal shelters throughout Los Angeles. I was exposed to dogs of all breeds, ages, temperaments, and backgrounds, including dogs with significant behavioral challenges. Those experiences taught me an important lesson very early in my life:
Every dog is an individual, and understanding the dog is just as important as training the dog.
I was also fortunate to have two half-brothers who had a major influence on my career. My brother Michael owned and operated a professional dog-training business in Cleveland, Ohio, while another half-brother was a military dog handler in the U.S. Army.
I became Michael’s understudy and began learning professional dog training from someone who was already making a living doing it. That was really my first introduction to dog training as a profession.

Throughout college, I continued to own dogs, train them, and learn everything I could. My path then took an unexpected turn. After college, I played professional basketball in Europe and eventually lived in Germany and France.

While living in Stuttgart, Germany, I discovered that one of the top police-dog trainers in the area had a training facility nearby. Once again, I found myself drawn to the dogs. I became an understudy and spent my time learning everything I could about advanced canine training.
My experience expanded into areas including advanced obedience, protection, agility, scent discrimination, bomb and explosive detection, search and seizure, and security applications. Working with highly trained working dogs gave me an entirely different perspective on canine ability, motivation, communication, and drive.
Eventually, my basketball career came to an end and I returned to Los Angeles. Michael also moved to Los Angeles, and together we started a dog training company called Success Dogs.

That was a major turning point. What had started years earlier with walking neighborhood dogs and volunteering at shelters and veterinary clinics had evolved into a profession.
I later was presented an opportunity to become the Training Coordinator at California K-9 Academy in Burbank, one of the larger professional dog-training facilities in Los Angeles at the time, with locations in Burbank and Gardena. That position exposed me to an enormous variety of dogs, trainers, handlers, and training situations and helped shape the practical approach I still use today.

I also became deeply involved in working-dog sports and advanced training, including Schutzhund. I competed at a high level internationally and had the opportunity to work as a decoy with some exceptional working dogs, including decoying the dog that won the 1994 U.S. Schutzhund Championship.

Looking back, I think that unconventional path is one of the things that has made me a better trainer. I didn’t start with a business plan or decide one day that I was going to become a dog trainer. I started with a genuine fascination with dogs—and I kept following that fascination wherever it led me.

From walking neighborhood dogs, to volunteering in shelters and veterinary clinics, to learning from my brother, working with professional K-9 teams, training in Europe, competing internationally, and eventually working with thousands of family and companion dogs, every experience added another piece to the puzzle.

And after all these years, the question that continues to drive me is essentially the same one I had when I was 14:
Why does this dog behave the way it does—and what can we do to help the dog and the owner succeed?
That’s really where Smart Dogs began.