Oh Behave!

With 40 years of dog training and pet industry experience, Steven Appelbaum used his extensive knowledge and business acumen to create Animal Behavior College – the largest specialty school of its kind in North America. ABC offers pet industry certification courses in all 50 states and every Canadian province, and the ABC Alumni Group boasts the largest number of certified dog trainers in the United States.

Appelbaum always knew that dogs were his life’s passion and knew someday he would devote his career to working with them. After enlisting in the United States Air Force in 1977, he worked as a security specialist and patrol dog handler and trainer before being honorably discharged a few years later. In 1981, Mr. Appelbaum enrolled in Animal Trainers Career Academy where he honed the skills acquired in the military to learn how to train dogs for motion pictures. After graduating at the top of his class, he formed his first company, Animal Behavior and Training Associates (ABTA) which provided dog training services.

Over the next 10 years, ABTA branched out to major pet stores, and in 1994, was named the exclusive provider of dog obedience classes for the entire chain of Petco® stores. By 1996, ABTA expanded into Canada through Petcetera stores. This expansion made ABTA an international success and the largest dog training company in North America.

Building ABTA required that Mr. Appelbaum and his staff locate and hire trainers from all over North America. However, he soon learned that 70% of the professional trainers he considered hiring failed ABTA’s basic training exams. It was this revelation that influenced his decision to offer a structured education program for dog trainers.

In 1998, he created Animal Behavior College. ABC combines a home study curriculum with hands-on Externship training. Initially, the school only offered a dog trainer program. Today, ABC offers four core programs in dog training, cat training, pet grooming and veterinary assisting. ABC also offers a classroom program for students who want to attend a more traditional brick and mortar school. In addition, the school offers 5 relevant Short-term Programs on an array of subjects including, Pet Nutrition and Diet, Pet Sitting and Dog Walking, Training Shelter Dogs, Pet Massage, and The Art of Selling and Teaching Private Lessons. At present time, ABC has graduated and certified more than 24,300 students in the U.S. and Canada combined.

Mr. Appelbaum is a lecturer and has been an expert consultant and witness in several dog bite cases. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Canine Professionals (IACP) and was also featured as one of the top 25 most influential people in the pet business by Pet Product News in 2005. He is instrumental in forging new strategic relationships between ABC and major pet product vendors, manufacturers, and pet organizations. He has written numerous published articles and columns for magazines including, Pet Age, Pet Business, Pet Product News International, Real Simple® Magazine, and Purchase Family Magazine and has appeared in several podcasts, radio, and TV interviews. Mr. Appelbaum is the author of the book The ABC Practical Guide to Dog Training and is the former editor of Off Lead Magazine.

A private pilot and avid jogger, Mr. Appelbaum and his wife Shelley reside in Pasadena, California and are “pet parents” to a Basset Hound named Truffles and a gigantic 105-pound Labrador Retriever named Sam.

 

Transcript:

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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Let's talk pets.

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Announcer: It's Oh Behave with Arden Moore.

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Announcer: This show that teaches you how to have harmony in the household with your pets.

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Announcer: Join Arden as she travels coast to coast to help millions better understand why cats and dogs do what they do.

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Announcer: Get the latest scoop on famous faces.

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Announcer: They're perfectly pampered pets in Who's Walking Who in Rin Tin Tinseltown.

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Announcer: From famous pet experts and bestselling authors to television and movie stars, you'll get the latest buzz from Wagging Tongues and Tails.

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Announcer: Garner great pet tips and have a doggone fur flying fun time.

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Announcer: So get ready for the pause and applause as we unleash your Oh Behave host, America's pet edutainer, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Welcome to the Oh Behave show on Pet Life Radio.

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Arden Moore: I'm your host, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Oh Behave, oh my goodness, it is such an apt term for today.

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Arden Moore: That's because our special guest is a pioneer in the field of animal behavior, and he's not a 100.

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Arden Moore: I promise you, he's very youthful, and he's going to be here.

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Arden Moore: We're talking behavior, dogs, cats, zoo animals, and beyond.

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Arden Moore: Please welcome to our show, the founder of the Animal Behavior College, Stephen Appelbaum.

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Arden Moore: Welcome back to the show, Stephen.

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Steve Appelbaum: It's a pleasure to be back.

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Steve Appelbaum: Been too long.

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Arden Moore: I know.

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Arden Moore: We've reversed.

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Arden Moore: We got younger looking, right?

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Arden Moore: Since the last time you were on the show.

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Steve Appelbaum: That's right.

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Arden Moore: Well, you know, ABC.

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Arden Moore: It's as easy as ABC, Animal Behavior College.

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Arden Moore: But it hasn't been easy.

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Arden Moore: It's been challenging.

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Arden Moore: But folks, we're with a person here who's very persevering.

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Arden Moore: And he's dedicated to all types of animals.

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Arden Moore: And we're going to dive into who the heck Steve Appelbaum is after we take this break.

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Arden Moore: So you're going to like this, Steve.

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Arden Moore: Everybody, sit, stay.

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Arden Moore: We'll be right back.

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Announcer: Time for a pause for furry ones.

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Announcer: Actually, sit and stay.

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Announcer: Oh Behave will be right back.

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Arden Moore: Paws up, Pet Pals?

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Arden Moore: Arden Moore here, your host of the Oh Behave Show.

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Arden Moore: Me-

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Arden Moore: Wow!

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Arden Moore: Did you know there's up to 100 million free roaming cats in the United States?

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Arden Moore: And without spay or neuter, that number is only going to keep growing.

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Arden Moore: Not only does spay neuter humanely reduce the community cat population, it keeps cats healthy.

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Arden Moore: Scooter, the neuter cat, is on a mission to give cats an extra life by making it hip to be snipped.

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Arden Moore: Hey, check them out.

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Arden Moore: Go to givethemten.org.

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Arden Moore: That's givethemten.org.

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Arden Moore: And help us make this a better world for cats.

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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets on petliferadio.com.

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Announcer: Oh Behave is back with more tail wagging ways to achieve harmony of a household with your pets.

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Announcer: Now, back to your fetching host, America's Pet Edutainer, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Welcome back to the Oh Behave Show on Pet Life Radio.

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Arden Moore: I'm your host, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Our special guest is a friend and a friend to all of us and our pets.

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Arden Moore: And his name is Steve Appelbaum.

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Arden Moore: And you know him from Animal Behavior College.

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Arden Moore: After the show, give us the website real quick before I forget.

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Steve Appelbaum: Sure.

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Steve Appelbaum: It's animalbehaviorcollege.com.

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Arden Moore: So, we're going to go back in time.

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Arden Moore: We're in a time capsule.

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Arden Moore: Is that all right, Steve?

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Arden Moore: I brought the pop card.

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Steve Appelbaum: You are.

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Arden Moore: All right.

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Arden Moore: So, we're going back in time.

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Arden Moore: And you're in the United States Air Force.

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Arden Moore: And somehow, you're hooked up with dogs.

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Arden Moore: What's going on?

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Steve Appelbaum: It was SPK9 handler in the service.

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Steve Appelbaum: And this is a long time ago.

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Steve Appelbaum: I mean, obviously, after we learned how to fly, but enough.

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Steve Appelbaum: You know, it's funny you talk about the time machine.

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Steve Appelbaum: I know that everybody over the age of 50 will appreciate this.

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Steve Appelbaum: Whenever you're on your computer and you're doing a drop down box where they're asking for your birthday and you have to keep scrolling before you get there.

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Arden Moore: Oh, yeah, I don't know anything about that.

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Arden Moore: No, go ahead.

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Arden Moore: Yeah, go for it.

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Steve Appelbaum: Well, not you, of course.

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Steve Appelbaum: You're getting younger every year.

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Steve Appelbaum: I got into that because originally I was interested in a career in law enforcement.

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Steve Appelbaum: And it seemed to me that this would be a great way to segue and take my experience and apply it to hopefully getting a job in law enforcement.

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Steve Appelbaum: But what happened was I realized that the people go into law enforcement for a whole host of different reasons.

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Steve Appelbaum: And I understood those reasons.

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Steve Appelbaum: There was a tremendous appeal for me, but I also realized that it wasn't going to be my path.

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Steve Appelbaum: I didn't want to do that for the next 20 or 30 years, even though I had a tremendous appreciation for what's done in law enforcement.

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Steve Appelbaum: But I had thousands of hours of dog experience, which was sort of just an accident.

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Steve Appelbaum: When I went into service, it was post-Vietnam, but before the military became more of a popular destination.

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Steve Appelbaum: And so I was just in a sort of weird window.

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Arden Moore: And where were you?

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Arden Moore: Where did you grow up?

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Steve Appelbaum: I'm originally from New York, born in Brooklyn, grew up on Long Island.

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Steve Appelbaum: But my folks moved the family west when I was a teenager.

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Steve Appelbaum: So from the age of 14, we came to live in Southern California.

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Steve Appelbaum: And I can tell you that it was a very different place then.

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Steve Appelbaum: Now I didn't grow up in this.

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Steve Appelbaum: When I was in New York, I didn't grow up, as I said, I was on Long Island.

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Steve Appelbaum: So it's not like I was in the city.

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Steve Appelbaum: But New York was a lot different than LA.

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Steve Appelbaum: It still is.

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Steve Appelbaum: So I did some growing up there, some growing up here.

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Steve Appelbaum: Anyway, when I got out of service, I had no idea what I was really going to do when I grew up.

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Steve Appelbaum: But I had all this dog experience and I figured, you know, I can train.

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Steve Appelbaum: Maybe I'll just come back to Southern California and see if I can make a living doing something that I was pretty good at and like doing, which was training dogs.

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Steve Appelbaum: You know, is this a hobby?

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Steve Appelbaum: Is this something I can do part time?

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Steve Appelbaum: Is this something I could do full time?

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Steve Appelbaum: And so I did.

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Steve Appelbaum: I came back here and I started training and I found within the first year that I had about all the business I could handle.

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Steve Appelbaum: In fact, within two years, I was starting to hire other trainers.

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Arden Moore: You went to Holly Wolf, didn't you?

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Steve Appelbaum: I did go to Holly Wolf.

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Steve Appelbaum: Well, you know, it's funny, when I came back to, oh, this was like late 80, early 1981.

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Steve Appelbaum: And there were, I connected with some motion picture animal trainers out here.

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Steve Appelbaum: And I like the idea of it, of training for motion pictures.

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Steve Appelbaum: But the challenge I had with it was it was a kind of feast or famine existence.

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Steve Appelbaum: And they also, in order to get into that business, you typically had to do very long apprenticeships with these old guard traders, where essentially you clean kennels and work basically for freight.

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Steve Appelbaum: And I figured, you know what, I just spent four years doing that.

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Arden Moore: And you also had a salute a lot.

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Steve Appelbaum: So, you know, one thing led to another, and I started my own business, and things kind of took off from there.

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Arden Moore: So let's keep going, because what I'm seeing in you is you realize you have a talent and an affinity for training.

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Arden Moore: But it's one at a time.

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Arden Moore: And we were getting into the age where people are using something called a computer and people were starting to use distance learning and things like that.

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Arden Moore: So how did you come up with the idea?

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Arden Moore: I think I'm going to create a school, but not going to be brick and mortar.

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Steve Appelbaum: That evolved gradually.

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Steve Appelbaum: I mean, first, when I first got into training as a civilian, the internet didn't exist, or if it did, it was part of a dart bar or whatever.

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Steve Appelbaum: It certainly wasn't anything that civilians were using.

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Steve Appelbaum: Personal computers were still in the future.

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Steve Appelbaum: And so basically, when I set up my first business, it was all private lessons.

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Steve Appelbaum: After about four or five years of that, I recognized that I wanted to offer group classes for a couple of different reasons.

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Steve Appelbaum: First, because my private clients still needed me after five or six or eight lessons, but they didn't need me privately.

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Steve Appelbaum: Right.

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Steve Appelbaum: Really what they needed at that point was for me to keep my eye on them in a group class scenario.

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Steve Appelbaum: Plus, I knew that my market was limited in private lessons, groups were less expensive.

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Steve Appelbaum: This was just another thing I could offer my clients as well as offer potentially another business, but I wasn't sure where to promote it.

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Steve Appelbaum: Most of my business was coming from veterinary referrals, and I didn't want to go back to the veterinary contacts that I had made, essentially promoting a business that was a fraction of the cost of my first one.

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Steve Appelbaum: Instead, I went to a pet store that had opened and I presented them with what at the time was a novel concept, which was I would like to do a class through your store.

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Steve Appelbaum: And essentially, the first lesson is going to be a lecture in which we discuss behavioral challenges, which is why most people wanted to come to group anyway, equipment they were going to need.

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Steve Appelbaum: And then after that, we would meet at a location outside of the store.

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Steve Appelbaum: They had never been approached this way.

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Steve Appelbaum: I wasn't selling the equipment they were.

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Steve Appelbaum: The store was.

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Steve Appelbaum: And so this was tremendously successful.

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Steve Appelbaum: I was working with some independent pet stores, and they were bought out by a large pet chain that we've all heard of, Petco.

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Arden Moore: Well, yeah, let me interject.

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Arden Moore: I think the date here, we're now back into the 90s now, 1994.

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Arden Moore: I just want to kind of speed up a little bit.

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Arden Moore: So you got Petco when it was wearing diapers.

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Arden Moore: That's pretty amazing.

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Steve Appelbaum: That's right.

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Steve Appelbaum: They were interested in a one shop stopping concept.

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Steve Appelbaum: I had this service and so part of it was being in the right place at the right time.

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Steve Appelbaum: Part of it wasn't being smart enough to be scared.

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Arden Moore: I always liked that.

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Arden Moore: That's my mantra.

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Arden Moore: I wasn't smart enough to know to be scared.

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Arden Moore: That's a good mantra.

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Arden Moore: I think I'm going to get a shirt that says that.

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Steve Appelbaum: Yeah.

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Steve Appelbaum: You kind of have to grab the opportunities and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

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Steve Appelbaum: So by 1994, we signed a contract with Petco, initially for the state of California, but ultimately for their entire chain.

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Steve Appelbaum: The company expanded at its peak.

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Steve Appelbaum: We had about 550 trainers in 44 states, but I had a problem and the problem was I couldn't find trainers, not as many as I needed.

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Steve Appelbaum: And so that led me to conclude that the way around this was to grow my own.

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Steve Appelbaum: And that's how the school started.

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Steve Appelbaum: Now by now, we're talking 1996, 1997, the internet is becoming a thing.

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Steve Appelbaum: And so we create a distance learning program coupled with a hands-on component where the students actually now in those days, we did it through the Petco stores because I still had that arrangement with them.

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Steve Appelbaum: But we quickly divested ourselves of that so that by the time Petco bought me out of my company and they took the program in home, which they still have, but it's theirs now and has been since 2004, the school was a completely separate entity standalone.

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Steve Appelbaum: And the rest is history.

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Steve Appelbaum: So that's the short version of how this happened.

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Arden Moore: Everybody we're speaking with, Steve Appelbaum, he's the man, the genius behind Animal Behavior College.

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Arden Moore: We're going to dive in a little bit deeper after we take this break.

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Arden Moore: So you know, sit, stay or purr.

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Arden Moore: We'll be right back.

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Announcer: Time for a walk on the red carpet, of course.

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Announcer: Oh Behave will be back in a flash.

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Announcer: Right after these messages.

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Betty White: Hi, this is Betty White, and I'm inviting you to do an end of the Oh Behave show with Arden Moore on Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: We're back from the lot.

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Announcer: Just check the paper and we had our record showing at the box.

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Announcer: The letter box, that is.

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Announcer: Now back to Oh Behave.

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Announcer: Here's Arden.

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Arden Moore: Welcome back to the show.

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Arden Moore: I'm your host, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: I'm talking with my buddy, Steve Appelbaum.

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Arden Moore: I love how he shared the evolution of how a guy from the Air Force with dealing with handling dogs, just kept going with the different decades and kept seeing this evolution.

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Arden Moore: And you're kind of, because you were living in California, kind of riding the crest of a training wave, wouldn't you say?

00:13:25.140 --> 00:13:26.360
Steve Appelbaum: Yes, absolutely.

00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:38.560
Steve Appelbaum: Attitudes and methods have changed over the last 40 years, but the idea that pets were a member of the family, that certainly was not considered a radical notion in 1980.

00:13:39.280 --> 00:13:43.540
Steve Appelbaum: 1980, the early 80s into the 90s, that's not the 1880s.

00:13:43.760 --> 00:13:49.980
Steve Appelbaum: So, although it certainly seems that way to some people when I make a reference to something and they say, well, I wasn't born yet.

00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:52.180
Arden Moore: We still love those youngsters.

00:13:52.520 --> 00:13:56.900
Steve Appelbaum: Oh, yes, yes, I love talking to somebody and talking very briefly.

00:13:56.920 --> 00:13:59.560
Steve Appelbaum: I remember having a person working in my office.

00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:03.120
Steve Appelbaum: I don't know, somehow we were talking about events of national prominence.

00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:07.280
Steve Appelbaum: And I asked her, okay, so what's the earliest event you remember?

00:14:07.520 --> 00:14:09.160
Steve Appelbaum: I know you don't remember the moonwalk.

00:14:09.340 --> 00:14:13.400
Steve Appelbaum: And she looks at me with this perfect like 23-year-old contempt.

00:14:13.620 --> 00:14:15.720
Steve Appelbaum: And she says, now this is like 15 years ago.

00:14:15.900 --> 00:14:19.220
Steve Appelbaum: And she says, Steve, I've seen Michael Jackson video.

00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:19.560
Arden Moore: Oh.

00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:20.620
Steve Appelbaum: I swear.

00:14:20.900 --> 00:14:21.440
Arden Moore: Oh, all right.

00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:21.900
Arden Moore: That's good.

00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:22.300
Arden Moore: That's good.

00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:23.080
Arden Moore: Well, that's okay.

00:14:23.300 --> 00:14:27.080
Arden Moore: You can always be a ageless wonder.

00:14:27.280 --> 00:14:29.920
Arden Moore: Take that Michael Jackson and moon astronauts.

00:14:30.160 --> 00:14:43.240
Arden Moore: So ABC, it's, you know, I love this is, I'm gonna brag for you because you have built this and you have trained, is it over 30,000 people in different areas?

00:14:43.260 --> 00:14:47.360
Arden Moore: And you started off in dog training, but, and I read this list real quick.

00:14:47.780 --> 00:14:58.140
Arden Moore: Let me see, seven core programs, dog training, service dog training, cat training, groom, pet grooming, veterinary assisting.

00:14:58.280 --> 00:14:59.240
Arden Moore: Oh, this is my favorite.

00:14:59.540 --> 00:15:05.880
Arden Moore: Last two are my favorite, aquarium maintaining and zookeeper assisting.

00:15:06.140 --> 00:15:06.580
Arden Moore: Wow.

00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:08.780
Arden Moore: Tame and wild for 200.

00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:11.680
Arden Moore: What made you branch off into all these areas?

00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:16.820
Steve Appelbaum: Much of it was a student and what we call prospect feedback.

00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:17.160
Arden Moore: Okay.

00:15:17.860 --> 00:15:21.660
Steve Appelbaum: I mean, we started the dog trainer program in 1998.

00:15:21.860 --> 00:15:25.580
Steve Appelbaum: I quickly realized that it had tremendous potential.

00:15:25.800 --> 00:15:31.400
Steve Appelbaum: We launched the veterinary assistant program in 2008, grooming in 2010.

00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:43.440
Steve Appelbaum: I really liked the idea of cat training because I'd been getting cat behavior questions since the 80s and as people came to realize, hey, they're trainable, they're just trained differently and for different things.

00:15:43.900 --> 00:15:48.060
Steve Appelbaum: So we launched cat training, then we did aquatics management.

00:15:48.280 --> 00:15:49.800
Arden Moore: When did you do the cat training?

00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:50.220
Arden Moore: Do you remember?

00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:50.880
Steve Appelbaum: I do.

00:15:51.160 --> 00:16:00.340
Steve Appelbaum: We started the cat training as a short-term program in 2011, but we got so much good feedback from it that we launched it as a main program.

00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.440
Steve Appelbaum: We just expanded it in 2016.

00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:08.120
Arden Moore: All right, glug, glug, you got some aquarium, you got some fish, get your koi on.

00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:08.840
Steve Appelbaum: That's right.

00:16:09.140 --> 00:16:14.560
Steve Appelbaum: Yeah, you know, it's funny when that was first presented to me, I didn't quite know what's to make of that.

00:16:14.580 --> 00:16:19.120
Steve Appelbaum: I think my comment was, wait, we're going to train fish, what?

00:16:19.300 --> 00:16:37.080
Steve Appelbaum: But when I came to understand what it was, you know, and recognize that there is an absolute opportunity for people to not only start their own business, but if they want to work in a pet store, and that can be a great way to get experience, to have that knowledge makes them potentially very valuable employees.

00:16:37.260 --> 00:16:39.620
Arden Moore: You're talking like saltwater, freshwater.

00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:45.960
Arden Moore: Is there some little factoid you can share with everybody that might surprise people about aquarium maintenance?

00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:53.040
Steve Appelbaum: The aquarium maintenance, I believe, is worth about four and a half billion dollars a year in this country, in the United States.

00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:54.260
Arden Moore: That's a lot of chum.

00:16:54.300 --> 00:16:54.700
Steve Appelbaum: It is.

00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:59.500
Steve Appelbaum: Although some people have a hard time considering them pets, I don't, I think they're wonderful.

00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:05.280
Steve Appelbaum: I believe that tropical fish are the most popular pet kept in the United States.

00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:10.280
Steve Appelbaum: You know, just because of the sheer numbers, I mean, you could have four or five fish in a tank, at least.

00:17:10.300 --> 00:17:14.340
Arden Moore: So you can't have four or five Rottweilers in a tank that that just wouldn't make it.

00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:16.320
Steve Appelbaum: Four or five bassins.

00:17:16.340 --> 00:17:16.580
Arden Moore: All right.

00:17:16.580 --> 00:17:17.400
Arden Moore: Here's the other one.

00:17:17.420 --> 00:17:19.100
Arden Moore: This one really, I love this one.

00:17:19.760 --> 00:17:26.600
Arden Moore: And you have now ventured into zoo keeping assistant and you actually it's my understanding I was trying to do my homework.

00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:36.160
Arden Moore: You actually have a special scholarship in the name of the person, all of us, who's a friend to all of us, a real golden girl.

00:17:36.420 --> 00:17:42.220
Arden Moore: Talk about that because I'm pretty curious about you realized in the world of zoos, they need help.

00:17:42.380 --> 00:17:43.080
Steve Appelbaum: Absolutely.

00:17:43.080 --> 00:18:08.680
Steve Appelbaum: And zoos and exotic animal rescues run into a similar problem that veterinary hospitals run into that really animal related businesses frequently run into, which is many people love the idea of working with animals, especially exotic animals, my gosh, but they don't recognize or they don't understand what's really involved, you know, in their mind's eye, they're going to be playing with a lion or something.

00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:11.160
Steve Appelbaum: And so you get a lot of volunteers.

00:18:11.360 --> 00:18:19.520
Steve Appelbaum: But once the reality, which is it can be difficult, at times dangerous, but often tedious work, it's wonderfully rewarding.

00:18:19.700 --> 00:18:22.780
Steve Appelbaum: But you need to go into this with eyes wide open.

00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:28.860
Steve Appelbaum: And you need to have some basic understanding, safety protocols, basic knowledge of what you're dealing with.

00:18:29.020 --> 00:18:39.600
Steve Appelbaum: And so that program was designed for people that wanted to get into this as an entry level so that they weren't just wide eyed volunteers.

00:18:39.620 --> 00:18:45.440
Arden Moore: I really like that because, you know, you don't go up to a puma and say here kitty, kitty, kitty.

00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:47.120
Arden Moore: Right?

00:18:47.300 --> 00:18:51.000
Steve Appelbaum: And yeah, I mean, sometimes people, it's not that their hearts aren't in the right place.

00:18:51.060 --> 00:18:51.580
Steve Appelbaum: They are.

00:18:51.600 --> 00:18:57.980
Steve Appelbaum: I mean, you've been in the animal industry long enough to know that people are in this in part because they're following their hearts.

00:18:58.120 --> 00:18:59.460
Steve Appelbaum: And that's fabulous.

00:18:59.580 --> 00:19:10.940
Steve Appelbaum: You also need to have a clear understanding of what you're getting into because the more you understand that, the more likely you are to get a job or to be accepted as a volunteer.

00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:16.340
Steve Appelbaum: So we did this for that also because we thought it would just be an extremely cool program.

00:19:16.340 --> 00:19:17.640
Arden Moore: Oh, thank you.

00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:19.000
Arden Moore: I'm glad you said it like that.

00:19:19.380 --> 00:19:24.520
Arden Moore: I mean, what do you think about the fact that you've never put yourself in a little corner?

00:19:24.840 --> 00:19:27.220
Arden Moore: You've always kind of looked at other options.

00:19:27.360 --> 00:19:31.820
Arden Moore: Is that something you inherited from your parents when you were in the Air Force?

00:19:31.840 --> 00:19:35.180
Arden Moore: Where do you get this notion that, well, why don't we try this?

00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:37.920
Steve Appelbaum: I'm good on some things and not as good on others.

00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:42.520
Steve Appelbaum: One of the things I'm good at is I'm pretty good at analyzing trends.

00:19:42.580 --> 00:19:43.240
Arden Moore: Okay, good.

00:19:43.260 --> 00:19:45.640
Arden Moore: So you're not wearing bell bottoms anymore, right?

00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:47.720
Steve Appelbaum: Well, I get to say no on Zoom.

00:19:47.740 --> 00:19:51.220
Steve Appelbaum: And since you can only see me from the waist up, I'm not wearing bell bottoms.

00:19:51.460 --> 00:20:00.580
Steve Appelbaum: No, I mean, look, I mean, it is important as a business person to be flexible enough to understand changes and trends.

00:20:01.120 --> 00:20:11.760
Steve Appelbaum: Had you told me 10 or 15 years ago that my company would have social media ambassadors, I would have looked at you strangely, but you evolve or you don't.

00:20:11.860 --> 00:20:17.880
Steve Appelbaum: But if you don't, especially in business, you do run the risk of running into problems.

00:20:17.900 --> 00:20:20.520
Steve Appelbaum: So I've had a decent on that.

00:20:20.820 --> 00:20:24.800
Arden Moore: And I did want to get back to the scholarship name because she's up in heaven.

00:20:25.020 --> 00:20:26.340
Arden Moore: She's been on our show.

00:20:26.560 --> 00:20:27.420
Arden Moore: She's in heaven.

00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:28.580
Arden Moore: You better say her name.

00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:31.760
Steve Appelbaum: Betty Weich was an inspiration to all of us.

00:20:31.860 --> 00:20:33.900
Steve Appelbaum: I also met her only once.

00:20:34.140 --> 00:20:36.560
Steve Appelbaum: Yeah, just a fabulous, fabulous human being.

00:20:36.580 --> 00:20:40.440
Arden Moore: I like that you named it in honor of her for the Zookeeper Scholarship.

00:20:40.460 --> 00:20:41.920
Arden Moore: That's really well done.

00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:45.280
Steve Appelbaum: With tremendous respect and appreciation.

00:20:45.560 --> 00:20:46.940
Steve Appelbaum: And you talk about a pioneer.

00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:55.080
Steve Appelbaum: I mean, she was talking about things 20, 30 years ago, 40 years ago even, that just weren't on a lot of people's radar.

00:20:55.220 --> 00:20:57.880
Steve Appelbaum: But she was consistent for a very long time.

00:20:58.260 --> 00:21:04.740
Steve Appelbaum: And yeah, yeah, we're very honored to live in her shadow, I think.

00:21:05.300 --> 00:21:06.120
Steve Appelbaum: She was wonderful.

00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:12.540
Arden Moore: So when you're not building this training fiefdom, including fish, you can want to know what do you do for fun?

00:21:12.540 --> 00:21:19.720
Arden Moore: And I understand you got a favorite four-legged home that is listening right now and needs to hear the name on the show.

00:21:19.880 --> 00:21:20.820
Steve Appelbaum: Yes, Roy.

00:21:20.840 --> 00:21:22.860
Steve Appelbaum: Roy is the current Basset Hound.

00:21:23.060 --> 00:21:29.240
Steve Appelbaum: So my wife and I had had two dogs before Roy, Truffles, who was also a Basset rescue.

00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:30.780
Steve Appelbaum: Beautiful, beautiful dog.

00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:36.040
Steve Appelbaum: And to Sam, a giant 100-pound lamb, one of the most wonderful dogs I've ever had.

00:21:36.280 --> 00:21:43.240
Steve Appelbaum: And when they passed, Sam was 14 and Truffles tragically from cancer when she was 11, the house just seemed empty.

00:21:43.940 --> 00:21:47.080
Steve Appelbaum: And so we went back up to Basset rescue.

00:21:47.100 --> 00:21:51.380
Steve Appelbaum: There's one out here in Southern California, an Acton, which is pretty surreal when you go up there.

00:21:51.380 --> 00:21:52.540
Arden Moore: I know where Acton is.

00:21:52.560 --> 00:21:53.180
Arden Moore: Yeah, yeah.

00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:56.320
Steve Appelbaum: Yeah, that's South San Diego, North County San Diego.

00:21:56.340 --> 00:21:58.920
Steve Appelbaum: Yeah, so bottom line is we wound up with Roy.

00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:08.140
Steve Appelbaum: At the time, this is 2019, we had a half foreign notion of getting maybe a two or three-year-old dog because we'd just done the old dog thing and it could be hard.

00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:16.980
Steve Appelbaum: But this 10-year-old Basset hound came over and leaned on my leg and somehow Roy wound up getting adopted at that point and we've had him since.

00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.840
Steve Appelbaum: Now he's 15 and we're doing the old dog stuff again.

00:22:19.860 --> 00:22:24.120
Arden Moore: Which you know with Roy saying, her dad with age brings wisdom.

00:22:24.460 --> 00:22:25.360
Steve Appelbaum: He does.

00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:26.280
Steve Appelbaum: You know what?

00:22:26.340 --> 00:22:31.100
Steve Appelbaum: Elderly dogs are, they could be challenging, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.

00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:40.600
Steve Appelbaum: And you know, it's funny, when we're up there, you see in a lot of the rescues, a lot of senior dogs and you realize, nobody's going to adopt that, everybody wants the youngsters.

00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:44.580
Steve Appelbaum: So I mean, Roy has proven to be a fabulous dog.

00:22:44.700 --> 00:22:46.660
Arden Moore: What's the favorite thing you like about him?

00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:48.700
Arden Moore: What's something that, what's a Roy-ism?

00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:52.120
Arden Moore: What's something you go, hey, Shelley, I like this dog because?

00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:55.980
Steve Appelbaum: Well, Roy, Roy is highly intelligent.

00:22:56.180 --> 00:23:01.580
Steve Appelbaum: I love truffles, but she wasn't the brightest tool in the show, the sharpest tool in the show.

00:23:01.600 --> 00:23:02.960
Arden Moore: Wasn't the brightest truffles in the field?

00:23:02.980 --> 00:23:03.920
Arden Moore: Okay, that's all right.

00:23:03.980 --> 00:23:17.100
Steve Appelbaum: Yeah, but Roy is extremely smart and unlike a lot of bassets who don't always care about pleasing you one way or the other, they're just distracted by their nose or whatever, Roy actually does really try.

00:23:17.120 --> 00:23:23.200
Steve Appelbaum: He's fundamentally a really good dog and a very sweet boy and everybody loves him.

00:23:23.220 --> 00:23:23.820
Steve Appelbaum: It's so funny.

00:23:23.840 --> 00:23:31.080
Steve Appelbaum: I mean, he likes to bark at people through this fence and people will come up to us all the time and go, oh, we love your dog.

00:23:31.100 --> 00:23:31.940
Steve Appelbaum: It's like, why?

00:23:32.060 --> 00:23:35.320
Arden Moore: He's just barking at, yeah, but he's got a basset hound bark.

00:23:35.560 --> 00:23:40.520
Arden Moore: This isn't a chihuahua, it's a, yeah, he's got a great hound dog bark.

00:23:40.620 --> 00:23:42.200
Steve Appelbaum: He's got a great hound dog bark.

00:23:42.340 --> 00:23:43.960
Steve Appelbaum: He's been a wonderful companion.

00:23:44.220 --> 00:23:55.300
Steve Appelbaum: Our mile and a half, two mile a day walks became 40 minute miles, which is really slow, became 40 minute half miles and are now like 40 minute two block walks.

00:23:55.480 --> 00:23:57.120
Arden Moore: But that's okay, dad.

00:23:57.140 --> 00:24:04.900
Arden Moore: I know you've been a jogger, but you got a four-legged senior and you're accommodating Roy, which is a good thing.

00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:06.740
Arden Moore: So we're almost out of time.

00:24:06.760 --> 00:24:07.440
Arden Moore: I can't believe it.

00:24:07.460 --> 00:24:08.740
Arden Moore: We got to have it to have you back.

00:24:08.760 --> 00:24:24.460
Arden Moore: But what's a parting message you want to give all of us out there that are lucky to share our life with a pet or two and the importance of knowing behavior and the importance of getting properly trained in schools like Animal Behavior College, if you want to pursue a career?

00:24:24.620 --> 00:24:27.800
Steve Appelbaum: Parting of a nugget of wisdom for just a pet.

00:24:27.820 --> 00:24:29.080
Arden Moore: Yes, there was a nugget of wisdom.

00:24:29.100 --> 00:24:31.620
Arden Moore: Benny White from Heaven is listening right now.

00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:32.620
Arden Moore: I can promise you.

00:24:32.780 --> 00:24:39.160
Steve Appelbaum: Love, patience and understanding, which I realize are kind of eye rolling cliches, but it's true.

00:24:39.340 --> 00:24:41.200
Steve Appelbaum: Patience, extremely important.

00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:43.160
Steve Appelbaum: I struggle with that sometimes.

00:24:43.280 --> 00:24:44.320
Steve Appelbaum: I know I'm not alone.

00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:47.880
Steve Appelbaum: Come from a place of love and from a place of understanding.

00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:52.720
Steve Appelbaum: Recognize that dogs and cats are intelligent beings.

00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:54.680
Steve Appelbaum: They're not human beings.

00:24:54.820 --> 00:24:59.860
Steve Appelbaum: And it's important not to consider them as human beings, which doesn't mean you don't love them.

00:25:00.140 --> 00:25:02.520
Steve Appelbaum: It just means that they communicate differently.

00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:08.380
Steve Appelbaum: And since it's not likely they're going to be learning too much of our language, they'll learn some, okay?

00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:09.860
Steve Appelbaum: And they'll learn our body language.

00:25:10.020 --> 00:25:14.360
Steve Appelbaum: It's critically important for us to understand where they're coming from.

00:25:14.380 --> 00:25:19.920
Steve Appelbaum: That's true in dealing with behavioral challenges, in general communication, in teaching them to respond.

00:25:20.300 --> 00:25:23.880
Steve Appelbaum: Do it with kindness because you're gonna be better off in the long run.

00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:29.600
Arden Moore: It is a conversation, whether it's verbal or nonverbal, you should always have with your pet.

00:25:29.620 --> 00:25:30.780
Arden Moore: That's what I hear you're saying.

00:25:30.800 --> 00:25:31.280
Steve Appelbaum: That's right.

00:25:31.280 --> 00:25:32.340
Arden Moore: It's not you telling them.

00:25:32.360 --> 00:25:32.960
Arden Moore: That is absolutely right.

00:25:33.020 --> 00:25:34.020
Arden Moore: It's a conversation.

00:25:34.280 --> 00:25:34.900
Steve Appelbaum: That's right.

00:25:35.300 --> 00:25:45.240
Steve Appelbaum: Sometimes you can tell them, but if you're gonna do that, you need to do it in a way that it's most likely to be understood and understood positively by them.

00:25:45.460 --> 00:25:54.220
Steve Appelbaum: As far as people wanting to get involved in this as a career, yes, the pet industry is a huge and growing industry.

00:25:54.460 --> 00:25:58.620
Steve Appelbaum: It is about 60% larger than the toy business in the United States.

00:25:58.640 --> 00:25:59.480
Steve Appelbaum: It's massive.

00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:10.040
Steve Appelbaum: And there are numerous ways to get involved, whether you want to work with cats or dogs or being veterinary or grooming or work in animal rescue or with exotics.

00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:12.020
Steve Appelbaum: There are lots of opportunities.

00:26:12.040 --> 00:26:14.280
Steve Appelbaum: You can certainly check out our school.

00:26:14.280 --> 00:26:14.700
Steve Appelbaum: I like it.

00:26:14.760 --> 00:26:24.140
Steve Appelbaum: And frankly, since the internet can be a scary but wonderful place, there is a ton of information out there, all of it true, of course.

00:26:24.320 --> 00:26:27.800
Steve Appelbaum: No, a ton of information out there about pet careers.

00:26:28.100 --> 00:26:34.000
Steve Appelbaum: Do your research, do your homework, invest your time before you invest your money as the old saying goes.

00:26:34.140 --> 00:26:37.320
Steve Appelbaum: But if this is a passion, don't be afraid to follow it.

00:26:37.460 --> 00:26:41.340
Arden Moore: Well, that's your slogan, where animal lovers pursue animal careers.

00:26:41.360 --> 00:26:42.220
Arden Moore: Did I do my homework?

00:26:42.380 --> 00:26:43.020
Steve Appelbaum: Absolutely.

00:26:43.040 --> 00:26:43.700
Arden Moore: All right.

00:26:44.040 --> 00:26:49.100
Arden Moore: Hey, my ageless amigo, it's so nice to see you, Steve Appelbaum.

00:26:49.420 --> 00:26:57.780
Arden Moore: I wish you the best and I'm so glad you got to come on the show and keep doing what you're doing and play some 80s music when you wanna relax.

00:26:58.540 --> 00:26:59.820
Arden Moore: Is there a favorite 80s band?

00:26:59.820 --> 00:27:01.080
Arden Moore: It's 70s music.

00:27:01.100 --> 00:27:03.580
Arden Moore: Oh my God, what's your favorite 70s band?

00:27:03.600 --> 00:27:04.620
Arden Moore: Come on, I wanna hear this.

00:27:04.760 --> 00:27:13.780
Steve Appelbaum: No, although it's funny, my wife and I have a kind of running joke, which is we're seeing a lot of these old bands before they go away.

00:27:13.780 --> 00:27:14.100
Arden Moore: Yeah.

00:27:14.260 --> 00:27:16.180
Steve Appelbaum: You know, we just saw the Eagles.

00:27:16.680 --> 00:27:17.560
Arden Moore: Oh, okay.

00:27:18.260 --> 00:27:18.800
Arden Moore: All right.

00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:21.320
Arden Moore: Hey, that's it for our show today.

00:27:21.340 --> 00:27:25.040
Arden Moore: I wanna at this time thank my special guest, Steve Appelbaum.

00:27:25.060 --> 00:27:27.640
Arden Moore: He is the founder of Animal Behavior College.

00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:31.820
Arden Moore: I also wanna do a shout out to my producer, Mark Winter.

00:27:32.140 --> 00:27:37.040
Arden Moore: He's the executive producer of Pet Life Radio, the largest pet radio network on the planet.

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Arden Moore: And humbly, you didn't know this maybe, Steve, but this show, you're on two things.

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Arden Moore: Longest running weekly pet podcast in the planet since 2007.

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Arden Moore: Animal, so is my producer, but also Feed Spot voted our show number one of all pet podcasts for 2023.

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Steve Appelbaum: I can understand why.

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Steve Appelbaum: You have a fabulous show.

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Steve Appelbaum: I am a listener and I wish you the best of luck as well and maybe we'll get together sometime sooner than it's been since the last time.

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Arden Moore: I know, I know.

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Arden Moore: All right.

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Arden Moore: So everyone, until next time, this is your flea free host, Arden Moore, delivering just two words to all you two, three and four leggers out there, Oh Behave.

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Announcer: Coast to coast and around the world, it's Oh Behave with Arden Moore.

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Announcer: Find out why cats and dogs do the things they do and get the latest buzz from wagging tongues and tails in Rin Tin Tinseltown.

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Announcer: From famous pet experts and bestselling authors to television and movie stars, you'll get great tail wagging pet tips and have a fur flying fun time.

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Announcer: Oh Behave with America's pet edutainer, Arden Moore, every week on demand, only on petliferadio.com.