I began my professional life in the high-pressure garment district, where I worked as a sweater sales representative- and did so very successfully during the 1970s and ‘80s. After 12 years, the garment industry’s “dog eat dog” environment had begun to lose its appeal. Meanwhile, difficulties with a recently acquired bloodhound named Duke, turned out to be the catalyst leading me into my new career. Being a life long dog lover, I found Duke to be a stubborn and difficult pet. However, my wife, Marilyn and I still had hopes that he might adapt to our young family.

We took Duke to two trainers to try and improve his behavior. The trainers managed to get Duke to behave, but their techniques shocked us. They hit Duke to get his attention. To control him, they lifted the 120 pound dog into the air by means of his collar and leash. Although at first I thought that the dog trainers knew what they were doing—they did get results—I gradually began to realize that Duke was obeying them out of fear.

Despite the obedience training, Duke’s behavior became worse. He once badly bit one of my co-workers, snapped at both my wife and me, and threatened our 18-month-old son. This last incident led us to the decision to put Duke down. Later I realized, “That dog wasn’t taught; he was brutalized.”

Eventually, my love of dogs, my growing dissatisfaction with the garment business, and my conviction that there must be a better way to train dogs led me to a famous trainer, Jack Healy. Healy had studied and trained dogs for decades and ran his United States K-9 Academy in Millford, CT. I spent six weeks in intensive study with Healy at his school, mastering the much more loving, communicative, and interactive dog training techniques that Healy had developed.

With a foundation in Healy’s dog training methods, Marilyn and I decided to start a dog-training center here in Chicago. In 1988 we opened the training center on West Walton Street. There, my staff trained and worked with both dogs and their owners, while, my wife, Marilyn handles Good Dog’s administrative affairs. We have just moved into our new location at 1352 W. Lake in Chicago’s River West area.

Since 1988, thousands of dogs, plus their owners and family members, have benefited from my loving training techniques. I stress that dogs of any age or breed can learn and benefit from my training approach. Human commitment to the program represents the first critical step in successful training. Good Dog will not accept any dog whose owner is not committed to working consistently and lovingly with his or her dog.