Dog Gone Good
There's a trainer in the house
By Mike Wombacher


After 13 years and over 30,000 hands-on hours of training dogs in the Bay Area, it is my great pleasure to introduce myself to the readers of the Marina Times and inaugurate a regular column on dogs and training.

   Did you know that there are more dogs than children in the San Francisco Bay Area? Even in the baby-dense Marina, a walk down Chestnut Street on a Saturday afternoon would leave one hard pressed to say whether more dogs or babies were traipsing by those colorful storefronts. Yet despite the fact that there are so many training options available these days, I continue to find that an overwhelming number of owners have very little meaningful control over their dogs.

   What do I mean by meaningful control? Instant response in challenging situations, no matter what. To make things worse, even if one endeavors to gain such a level of control, there seem to be more approaches to dog training in the Bay Area than there are financial exit strategies in the current Wall Street pandemonium.

   In this column, I will strive to put forth simple, sensible and balanced training advice – as I do in my books, classes and private lessons – that can help anyone understand and manage their dog’s behavioral and training issues. While my training experience is wide and varied, my particular areas of interest are raising puppies and the integration of children and dogs. I have written books, lectured and appeared on TV on both subjects, and will likely write about them at length in columns to come. Additionally, I would like to involve you, the reader, in the development of this column. To that end, I intend to have a Q & A section and am open to your ideas for discussion topics in the months ahead. You can e-mail your questions and suggestions to mike@northsidesf.com
.
   I want to briefly share a bit of my training background with you. In addition to having written two books on training (There’s a Puppy in the House: Surviving the First Five Months and There’s a Baby in the House: Preparing your Dog for the Arrival of your Child), I have also been certified as an expert on dog behavior by the California Superior Court. I have been a panelist and lecturer at the Annual Animal Care and Control Convention as well as other functions statewide. I have trained dogs for numerous Bay Area celebrities including Robin Williams, Sharon Stone, Michael Tilson Thomas, Linda Ronstadt, and Joe Satriani. Inspired by those show-biz connections, I am currently working with a production company to produce my own dog training television program. Lastly, I am a regular contributor to the new national dog magazine, The American Dog (www.theamericandogmag.com), as I will be for the Marina Times. I am greatly honored by both assignments.

   My basic training philosophy could be summed up as, “Maximize the positive, minimize the negative, be realistic, and get results.” What that philosophy means with respect to your dog’s training and behavior issues will become evident in the coming months, as we get to know one another and I have the opportunity to respond to some of your concerns.