Biography

Bonding for Life is a system of dog training that began its evolution over fifty years ago. I first learned to train dogs under the tutelage of one of the best dog trainers ever, Rudd Weatherwax. He was the owner and trainer of the original Lassie, and many Lassies that succeeded him. The original Lassie's name was Pal, and I had the honor of meeting him before he died. He was very old and blind and deaf. At that time I was a teenager, and my mother owned a female collie named, not coincidentally, Lassie. Actually she had a big long AKC name; her pet name was Lassie.

Rudd Weatherwax saw my mother's Lassie competing in a dog show in the summer of 1957 in Encino, California, near where my mother and I lived. He approached my mother and asked if she would be interested in breeding her Lassie to his current Lassie, Junior. He explained that Junior, fathered by Pal, was in his middle years and he needed a new Lassie (generation III) to take over for Junior in the television series Lassie. Although Junior and his father were not registered AKC dogs, my mother agreed and a litter of puppies was produced. Alas, none of the males had a white blaze down his nose, so Lassie III had to be chosen from another litter, whelped by a different mother.

All of the puppies were sold except for one male. He was the best in the litter, and I wanted him. I named him Punkey. Rudd Weatherwax showed me how to train him. The reason for that was because Rudd often got calls for a collie to appear in various films and TV commercials. He wasn't about to use Junior or his eventual son and replacement, Spook. Punkey was perfect for the roles because he was big and handsome, and he didn't have a white blaze down his nose so he couldn't be misconstrued as Lassie or thought of as a Lassie counterfeit. Rudd Weatherwax and Punkey and I went all over southern California in the spring and summer of 1958 to various commercial and movie sets. Before many of the filmings, my mother would drive me over to Rudd's house where he would show me how to train Punkey for the upcoming job. I learned more than I thought was possible about dog training.

Often at various filmings there were other dogs there to perform. I was so struck by the fact that in every case there was such a high level of affection between those dogs and their trainers. Each trainer was the virtual center of his or her dog's universe. That intimate bond I saw between them – especially what I call positive eye contact – was remarkable. In my mind, the reason for that was obvious: hand feeding. Just as Rudd was teaching me to do with Punkey, every dog trainer I saw almost always rewarded his or her dog with some sort of food treat after the dog successfully accomplished the desired response. Obviously, the treats given to the dogs came from its trainer's hand. Never once on a set did I see a dog food bowl. I will talk about hand feeding, positive eye contact, and the affection rewards in detail throughout this book, starting with Chapter One.

In the fall of 1958 I moved from Southern California to live with my father in Wichita, Kansas. Of course Punkey came with me. I enrolled in Wichita University, now known as Wichita State University. My major was psychology with a specialization in learning theory. In fact, at that time, the entire Wichita University psychology department was about learning theory. That was perfect for me because of my newfound interest in the subject, of course stemming from my experience training Punkey under the grandmaster's eye. The various courses at Wichita State required that my classmates and I study the entire history of learning theory. As you might expect, B.F. Skinner was the major player at the time, but with my junior and senior years came an intensely detailed study of O. Hobart Mowrer's new, two volume, Learning Theory and Behavior. Mowrer had successfully "unified" the two learning theory foundations of Classical and Operant Conditioning. In so doing, he emphasized the importance of sympathetic autonomic drive reduction, cybernetic feedback, and a "new" hypothesis that asserted that cognitive "signs" are actually what trigger skeletal-muscle habits. It was my previous work with Rudd Weatherwax that crystallized Mowrer's teachings so they made perfect sense to me back then. After many years of dog training, they make even more sense now.

I graduated with honors from Wichita University in 1962, and then moved back to Southern California to attend graduate school at UCLA on a scholarship. Punkey did not work in the movies or television anymore because I was so highly focused on my courses at UCLA where I had chosen to major in clinical psychology. I earned my Masters degree in 1965; however that same year I had to drop out of the Ph.D. program and go to work because of financial hardship. My wonderful son, Scott, was born in 1965, and I had him and his mother to support. The meager stipend I received from the Veteran's Administration as a clinical psychology intern simply did not cover the bills.

From 1965 until 1988 I worked as a counselor for various employers including the Los Angeles County Probation Department where I counseled troubled youthful offenders. During those years, I also worked for several Los Angeles area smoking cessation clinics. If you think training a dog is hard, try to stop someone from smoking. Some human bites are as bad as dog bites.

In 1968, Punkey, son of Junior and grandson of the original Lassie, Pal, passed away. What a wonderful dog he was. Rudd Weatherwax had taught me how to have him jump up into my arms with a simple hand signal.

Now fast forward to 1982 when I conquered my own personal demon: alcoholism. Then in 1988 after twenty-three years in the field, I retired from counseling to resume what I had come to realize was my providence in life: dog training. To get up to speed, I read many books and viewed many videotapes on the subject. I also attended dog-training seminars. Nothing I learned was incompatible with my education in behaviorism and learning theory at both Wichita and UCLA, or what I learned from Rudd Weatherwax. What came new to me that wasn't under Rudd's broad wings were certain aspects of "home consumer" training that involved discipline. For example, I'd never heard of the alpha roll. That's pinning a dog on its back and straddling it and admonishing it after it did something seriously wrong. In the movies you train the dog to do stuff with rewards, not to not do stuff by punishing it. Yes, you really do want the dog to jump on the dining table and scarp down the Christmas turkey. While on movie or commercial sets, I never saw a dog physically disciplined in any way. They were all happily obedient. This is not to say that your dog will not need to be physically corrected. More than likely, he or she will. Beforehand, though, I'll have you try one or more verbal corrections and, if necessary, one or perhaps more physical suggestions. I'm certainly not going to teach you how to do the alpha roll. It's unnecessary, and secondly, it destroys the aforementioned positive eye contact this book will teach you how to create with your dog.

Over the last twenty plus years, many dogs have taught me much. Each one brings something new to the table; meaning each of them comes to you as an individual rather than as a member of a certain breed. If you prejudge a dog by its breed, you are making a big mistake.

The main thing I have found over the years is that quite often clients need help in understanding their dog's psychological needs and how to satisfy them. Most particularly, they need to learn how to properly communicate with their dog. This book speaks extensively to that issue, and to your dog's other psychological needs starting with the Overview, which you will read next.

Another reality I have discovered is that a significantly high percentage of dog owners act as if they are their dog's peer rather than its master. No, you must become your dog's alpha, as you will learn starting at the beginning of Chapter One. I call that alpha, the "benevolent alpha" because one of the three essential characteristics of your relationship with your dog is the mutual exchange of love. Yes, you can show love to your dog when you discipline him or her. That's not only because of the humane way you will learn to render corrections, but it's also due to the bountiful rewards you will bestow upon him or her immediately after his or her unwanted behavior has been corrected. Seemingly ironically, corrections will become conditioned positive stimuli that signal something very good is about to happen.

I will remind you from time to time as you read along that Bonding for Life is very much a reward based system of dog training.