Infocus
Infocus
Congratulations
TOPDOG Gautam Kari for being awared the‘ John Richardson’ Dog Whisperer’ s Cup 2017-18
44 years living in the Gulf, dogs were seldom called man’ s
“ 30best friend; there weren’ t even any training opportunities available there. To have become the first Indian to receive an international award for Animal Behaviour is surreal.
At the age of 35, I closed down my business, took my guitar and left for San Jose, California to pursue a calling that seemed rather ludicrous at the time. I enrolled in the Animal Behaviour College( ABC) and played live music in clubs from San Francisco to Los Angeles to make ends meet. While there, my passion for this calling only got louder and my vision became brighter. I decided that I wanted to be the best animal behaviourist in the world.“
While studying at the Animal Behaviour College, California, Gautam Kari simultaneously took courses taught by the world’ s
Creature Companion | Interzoo Special 2018
most renowned animal behaviourists and psychologists.“ I had to drive 50-100 miles one way every day to learn from the masters, and enjoyed every minute of it.”
The most inspiring story in my journey While doing sessions with Delita Jones in California, I was given a black Labrador named Blake to handle. Blake seemed like a very unfocused dog with a low attention span, while the other dogs, mostly German Shepherds and Malinois, all possessed sharp wits. That made me a bit nervous. Every dog was kept in a straight line and one by one, the trainers along with their dogs had to weave through obstacles with complete focus. By then, I was very well trained through the course of my time at ABC, and kept referring back to the theories I had learnt to keep my dog in focus. However, Blake simply did not respond to me. No matter how hard I tried, he displayed unfocused energy and did not complete the task. I failed