Jonathan Klein

Jonathan Klein

Why did I get into this business? Easy: I love helping people and helping their dogs!

I have always loved animals. I begged my parents to let me adopt one of my classmate’s kittens in Second Grade. I began training her when I was very young. My oldest training memory was when we moved from the side of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix to southern California in 1967. Mother threatened to leave without the cat (she never would have actually done that) but I had trained him to come to dinner on the command “chow time”. I went to the balcony and called him off the mountain and he indeed came. Then I emphatically told my mother that I had to feed him or he would never trust me again. I was 10 years old at the time.

I have trained dogs as a hobby since we got our first dog in 1968 and professionally since 1988 when Henry entered my life. Henry was my fourth dog. At less than 4 months old his former owners had left him at the pound, deemed untrainable and a little terror. I soon learned they were nearly right. He was a little terror. But as I have also learned and taught thousands of my clients — nearly all dogs are trainable. Henry went on to earn obedience titles, do demonstrations in my classes and compete in dog sports, as well as doing commercials, movies and therapy work.

When I was having trouble training Henry, I sought the help of my local training club. One trainer told me to jerk him really hard then praise him more to overcome the response to the hard jerk. Another trainer told me with Rusty my second and very fearful dog “better she be more afraid of disobeying you than afraid of whatever else scared her”. Those were both respected trainers teaching local classes in my area. Since neither of those suggestions made sense to me, I had the good sense not to follow them. I became hooked on training and I have mad a life long career out of developing non-confrontational training methods and methods that didn’t themselves create new problems.

I went on to focus my attention on helping pet owners refine the training of their already good dogs and deal with the behavioral problems of the so-called “bad dogs”. I boarded and trained dogs in my home and ultimately opened a boarding and training kennel that I operated from 1991 to 2003. In 2003 I moved into Doggie Central in Culver City, with a 3500 square foot indoor training space.

Over the years Jonathan has successfully competed with his dogs on many levels. In 2006 Jonathan’s team won the First John Rogerson Canine Biathlon, an event that combined obedience, agility, tracking and retrieving.

I also try to stay in close contact with my peers. I am an active member of several trainers groups, including Truly Dog Friendly and the Southern California Dog Trainers Forum, which puts me in close contact with the local community of vets and trainers. Other past memberships include the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, Dog Obedience Instructors and Trainers Association and the Society of North American Dog Trainers.

I constantly revise my own methods, combining my studies at the Balu Academy with my experience working with over 5000 clients and more than 7500 dogs in the past 20 years. Dog behavior and effective teaching methods require ongoing study. I regularly attend seminars and courses on different aspects of teaching, training methods and behavior problem solutions.

"I Said Sit!"