Brian Kilcommons is an American dog trainer. He is a protégé of the late Barbara Woodhouse

Barbara Woodhouse

Barbara Kathleen Vera Woodhouse , was a well known British dog trainer, author and television personality. Her 1980 television series Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way made her into a household name in the UK...

 and the only North-American to have studied under Woodhouse in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

.

Kilcommons grew up in Levittown

Levittown, New York

Levittown is a hamlet in the Town of Hempstead located on Long Island in Nassau County, New York. Levittown is midway between the villages of Hempstead and Farmingdale. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a total population of 51,881....

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. In his autobiography Tails from the Bark Side he explains how he found emotional refuge in his beloved mutt Irish from the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. He enrolled in a pre-vet programme at Iowa State University

Iowa State University

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...

 but he dropped out because of financial difficulties and opened his training and obedience school in 1977.

Kilcommons is the author of various pet training manuals. He currently lives lives on a 124 acre (0.50181064 km²) farm in Gardiner, N.Y. He is married to Sarah Wilson, who is also a trainer and the co-author of some of his books. Together they have two German shepherds, a beagle

Beagle

The Beagle is a breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound, but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears. Beagles are scent hounds, developed primarily for tracking hare, rabbit, and other game...

 and two mixed breed

Mixed-breed dog

A mixed-breed dog, also known as a mutt or mongrel, is a dog whose ancestry is generally unknown and that has characteristics of two or more types of breeds. A mixed-breed may be a cross-breed dog, a random-bred dog, or a descendant of feral or pariah dog populations...

 dogs. He is considered one of the most esteemed dog trainers in the US.

Dog training

Kilcommons has trained the dogs of many celebrities and he has been described as the dog trainer to the stars by a Miami Herald reporter. His clients include Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...

, Diana Ross

Diana Ross

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...

, Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd is an American television and film actress, who has played lead roles in films including Ruby in Paradise, Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy, Where the Heart Is and High Crimes...

, Morley Safer

Morley Safer

Morley Safer is a Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News. He is best known for his long tenure on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which began in December 1970.-Life and career:...

, Diane Sawyer

Diane Sawyer

Lila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....

, Carly Simon

Carly Simon

Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

, Patrick Ewing

Patrick Ewing

Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...

, Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...

, Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen

Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...

, Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...

 and others. Over the years he has trained over 35,000 dogs.

Training Philosophy

Kilcommons advises dog owners that saying No to a dog is useless. The reason for this advice is his belief that dogs simply do not understand the meaning of the word because it is too abstract for them. They are more likely to think that No is their name. Kilcommons explains that dogs are more likely to understand, and thus obey, commands connected with a specific action, such as Off, Sit or Stay. Such commands demand specific action from the dog and thus are more easily understood. When the puppy complies with the command, Kilcommons advises positive reinforcement in the form of praise and rewards.

Family dog training and behavior center

Located at 207 West 75th Street and founded by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson the Family dog training and behavior center has been described as a "parallel universe

Parallel universe (fiction)

A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 for yuppie

Yuppie

Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...

s with four-legged children". Occupying an area of 1,200 sq. ft. the center includes facilities for puppy daycare, a puppy treadmill, puppy play groups and a puppy fashion

Fashion

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...

 boutique

Boutique

A boutique is a small shopping outlet, especially one that specializes in elite and fashionable items such as clothing and jewelry. The word is French for "shop", via Latin from Greek ἀποθήκη , "storehouse"....

 under the name of Bark Avenue. Customers included Francesco Scavullo

Francesco Scavullo

Francesco Scavullo was an American fashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan and his celebrity portraits.-Biography:...

, Elsa Peretti

Elsa Peretti

-Biography:She was born in Florence, Italy, in 1940, the daughter of a well-to-do Roman family. Educated at Volbicela School in Rome, with a diploma in interior design. In early jobs she was a French teacher, a ski instructor and a model...

, Harry Reasoner

Harry Reasoner

Harry Truman Reasoner was an American journalist for ABC and CBS News, known for his inventive use of language as a television commentator, and as a founder of the 60 Minutes program.-Biography:...

 and Geoffrey Beene

Geoffrey Beene

Geoffrey Beene was an American fashion designer.Beene was born in Haynesville, Louisiana. He studied medicine at Tulane University, but dropped out in 1946, after three years. He moved to New York in 1947 to attend the Traphagen School of Fashion...

.

Discipline

Kilcommons believes that the dog should understand who the boss in the family is. He thinks that people nowadays invest a lot of energy and effort in their pets and many times neglect to discipline them properly. Undisciplined dogs can then exhibit domineering and disorderly behavior such as sitting on the couch and running outside the house without being properly prompted. He provides advice to families by observing their interaction with their canine companions and then analyzing the weak points. Proper training with basic commands such as the Sit command and behavioral cues such as ignoring the dog when he transgresses and sits on the couch have been credited with turning the behavior of an unruly dog around.

Awards

Brian Kilcommons and his wife Sarah have been awarded the Dr Steve Kritsick Memorial Award from the NY State Veterinary Medical Society for their impact on animals in the media. They have also been nominated twice for the Genesis Award.

Appearances

Kilcommons has appeared on 20/20, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America

Good Morning America

Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...

, QVC

QVC

QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...

, HGTV

HGTV

HGTV , is a cable-television network operating in the United States and Canada, broadcasting a variety of home and garden improvement, maintenance, renovation, craft and remodeling shows...

, The Oprah Winfrey Show

The Oprah Winfrey Show

The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....

, A&E

A&E Network

The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...

 "Dogs", The Today Show, ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 Weekend News, CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 (global), Prime Time Live, The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

 Report, PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 Gentle Doctor: Veterinary Medicine, and he hosted Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...

 Pet News. He has also served as the CBS Morning News Investigative Reporter and Animal Expert on WABC

WABC-TV

WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...

 Eyewitness News

Eyewitness News

Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...

, Channel 7.

Articles

Kilcommons has written articles for the following publications: Redbook

Redbook

Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...

, Town & Country

Town & Country (magazine)

Town & Country, formerly the Home Journal and The National Press, is a monthly American lifestyle magazine. It is the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States.-Early history:...

, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...

, People

People (magazine)

In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...

, Miami Herald, Toronto Star

Toronto Star

The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

, Boston Globe, USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

, San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

, Vancouver Sun, Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

, Philadelphia Inquirer, NY Times, Newsday

Newsday

Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...

, St. Louis Post Dispatch, LA Times, Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

, Glamour

Glamour (magazine)

Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....

, Dogs in Canada

Dogs in Canada

Dogs in Canada is a monthly magazine, which includes 12 monthly issues along with an annual edition, typically released in mid-November. This publication founded in 1889 is Canada's oldest continually-published magazine. It was started as a newsletter for the CKC Canadian Kennel Club, and is owned...

, Mc Calls

McCall's

McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...

, Palm Beach Daily News

Palm Beach Daily News

The Palm Beach Daily News is a daily newspaper in Florida, serving the town of Palm Beach in Palm Beach County in South Florida. It is also known as "The Shiny Sheet" because of its heavy, slick newsprint stock. It was founded in 1897 as the Lake Worth Daily News, and it covers the social affairs...

, Dog World

Dog World

Dog World is a monthly magazine aimed at the community of serious dog enthusiasts and participants, including breeders; conformation exhibitors; obedience, agility, herding and field trial competitors; veterinarians; groomers; and trainers...

, Dog Fancy, Seventeen

Seventeen (magazine)

Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...

, InStyle Magazine, Women's Wear Daily

Women's Wear Daily

Women's Wear Daily is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called "the bible of fashion." WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers,...

. Brian and Sarah Kilcommons are also contributors to Parade Magazine.

Publications

• Your Dog: An Owner's Manual (1981)
• Good Owners, Great Dogs (1992)
• Childproofing Your Dog (1994)
• Good Owners, Great Cats (1995)
• Mutts: America's Dogs (1996)
• Tails From the Bark Side (1997) (autobiography)
• Paws to Consider: The Complete Guide to Selecting A Breed (1999)
• Metrodog: The Essential Guide To Raising Your Dog In The City (2001)
• My Smart Puppy (2006) (Book/DVD)

External links

• Four ways to tell if this Mutt's for you Men's Health Oct 2007
• A Conversation with Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care By C. J. Puotinen Edition 2, illustrated, revised, Publisher McGraw-Hill Professional, 2000 ISBN 0658009966, ISBN 9780658009969 Length 544 pages pp. 19–25

Citations and notes