Base

First Name

Arthur

Country United States of America (the)
Certifications Animal Behavior College Certified
Foundation Style Certified
Business/Organization Information
Websites
Tell us about yourself: • Animal Behavior College Certified (honors) and Foundation Style Certified
• Have over the years spent a good deal of time assisting/observing/learning from Mike D'Abruzzo.
• Some training experience, for friends and acquaintances. Not currently doing so professionally, but am thinking of doing so.
• Trained two shelter dogs myself, both of whom had behavioral ‘issues.’
o One dog, Samson, a 70-pound Malamute-Shepherd mix was dog aggressive, thunder-phobic, gun-/fireworks-shy and didn’t hesitate to bite w/o much warning when I (out of ignorance) pushed his buttons too far. Paradoxically, though, he was extremely friendly to everyone, especially kids and older people. After making a lot of beginner’s mistakes, we became best buddies, on- and off-leash. Foundation Training methods plus experience played a big part.
o The other dog, Carrie, is a fifty pound mutt who’s been with us for 7 years now. My guess is that she’s a Carolina dog/hound/some kind of terrier mix who had been given up by two previous owners for chasing kids and being generally unruly and uncontrollable with fear aggression, especially toward males, especially delivery people. She was given to me to train by trainers I was apprenticed to as part of the ABC training program, and I initially trained her using ABC techniques, which are basically what Mike teaches in Phase I and, a bit, it II. Once I learned Foundation Style training, those techniques, up to and including e-collar training. We spend a lot of time in the woods together, just about every day, off-leash, which, for that type of dog is one of the best things you can do.
o Have spent and continue to spend time reading about dogs on the web, in books, and watching all sorts of training videos on-line and on DVD.
o Also spend a lot of time walking dog in village and park near village, which has given me the opportunity to observe (and deal with) the day to day reality of handling a trained dog on- and off-leash in situations where owners don’t always have the knowledge and experience they need to have a good, safe, calm time with their dog.
Currently training a couple of local dogs.
Last Name

Lopatin

Nickname

Art