Home
A little about my background
Hi, my name is Paul Pipitone, and I appreciate you visiting my website. I want to give you a brief outline of my 20-year background and experience with dogs.
I became interested in dog behavior and obedience when I was a young boy. My family always had dogs, and they were well behaved and mostly small breeds. In my teens, I was drawn to the more powerful and larger breeds like Shepherds, Dobermans, and Rottweilers. In the early 1970’s, I bought an AKC registered, 10-week-old Doberman pup and named him Kilo. (Hey, remember, it was the 70’s.)
I had heard of a trainer just outside of the city who was supposed to be the best. She was a six-foot tall, red-haired German lady who walked and spoke like a Gestapo Colonel. When I arrived at her training facility for the first time, I got out of my car and was leaning against the trunk. Her house was about 50 yards from the training area. The screen door opened, out rushed four BIG dogs, and they were coming straight for me. I froze. When they were about 10 feet away, she yelled something in German.
The two Shepherds circled my car to the left, and the two Dobermans circled to the right. They came together in front of me and sat down to wait for their master. Right then, I knew this was the person I wanted to teach me how to train my dog (preferably in English). When Kilo reached 6 months old, we began training. That summer, I learned much of what I still use today to train and rehabilitate dogs.
The following year, I added a female Doberman named Star and a German Shepherd named Turk to my pack. I joined a Schutzhund club in central Florida and began training with them. Schutzhund is a sport that combines tracking, obedience, and attack training using both verbal and hand commands.
Although I still have great affection for the large breed dogs, my attention and heart were stolen by a 13-pound Havanese several years ago. She was in danger of being euthanized because of a persistent problem with dog aggression. I adopted her and am happy to say that today, she is a happy, healthy 4-year old and walks side-by-side with other dogs every day as a part of my training team.
For over 20 years, I have worked with all different breeds to rehabilitate behavioral and obedience issues, and with their owners to teach them that a happy dog is one with boundaries and a strong, consistent and loving human pack leader.
Thanks for reading about my love for dogs. I hope we have the opportunity to work together someday soon.
Paul