Growing up with family Miniature Pinschers in New Jersey I decided in college that I wanted a larger dog. After researching in the day before Siri I purchased a Great Dane puppy from one of the early pioneers in the breed, “Pop Gilbert”, from what was his last litter. Pop led me to Kitty Kolyer who was breeding some of the top Danes in the country and working for Kitty on weekends, assisting at dog shows. Before long I was a professional handler while working full time at Arista Records with artists such as Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston. At that time there were only dog shows on weekends, other than two circuits, so it was easy to juggle a full time job while handling.

Getting a job offer at MCA Records in LA led me from handling to getting a judges license. All the while I was also breeding and showing Standard Poodles with my partner Joseph Vergnetti. We had the good fortune of having the #1 Non-Sporting dog of 2009, Ch Hillwood Dassin DeLovely.

Dobes, having always been a passion since handling several to their championships in my youth, allowed me the opportunity to sponsor Ch Cambria’s Must Be Fate who was a top winning Dobe and breeding two of her get who were WD and RWD from the puppy class at the last National held in LA. Since then I have shown and bred many other champions.

At MCA Records I progressed to Senior VP of Artist Development working on the careers of Elton John, Tom Petty, Bobby Brown and many others. Due to the opportunity I had in working on all soundtracks I was offered a job in the film division of Disney working on music in their live action films. While there I expanded by duties to include music in and animation, Pixar films, Disney Channel and home video. This offered me the opportunity to work with any artists whose music used in our films from Kelly Clarkson to Carrie Underwood, Pit Bull to Tina Turner and many, many more.

After retiring as Executive Vice President Of Disney’s film division I thought I’d subsidize my retirement by planting 1,500 olive trees making organic olive oil. Well, the olive oil is subsidizing many retirements, just not mine.

But, retirement gives me lots more time for the dogs. I currently judge breeds in the Working, Toy and Non-Sporting groups. I am also on the board of Morris & Essex, Assistant show chair and Decor Chair Of Santa Barbara KC, and hospitality chair of Malibu KC.

I currently own too many dogs, but they are all family and my partner, Gerry Etcheverry, is a saint for putting up with us all.