SEPT. 2006

A Legend To Remember

By Lynn Whittaker, Bow Wow U

On July 3, 2006 professional trainers and dog aficionados said farewell to a legend, Arthur Joseph Haggerty. Born in Manhattan on December 3, 1931, "Cap" or "Captain" lost his battle with cancer in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 74 years young. Having been around dogs all his life, Arthur Haggerty began training on his own at a very young age, but before claiming the title "Captain" in the dog industry, Mr. Haggerty served his country for 9 years in the army after joining in 1951. He served two tours in Korea, where he earned three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. After serving, he went on to train military dogs and became commanding officer of the K-9 unit at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was a true leader. This is where Arthur Haggerty, the Grandfather of Dog Training, became known as Captain Haggerty.

Captain Haggerty made an indelible mark in the training circle. He proved that a professional trainer could not only earn an income by training dogs, but could be highly regarded in the industry. In 1961 he opened Tri-State School for dogs (now known as Haggerty's School For Dogs) in Manhattan and moved out to Los Angeles and opened a facility there sharing the same name.

The Captain's biography reads like the who's who in the dog world. He had trained enough dogs to supply the media industry with some 450 television commercials, 150 feature films, including "Eyes of Laura Mars", "The Pawnbroker", and "Shamus". He also trained dogs for soap operas like, "The Guiding Light", "All My Children" and "Another World". He trained dogs for the military, during the Vietnam War, several Sheriff and Police Departments and for elite Hollywood celebrities. In his career, he trained over 100,000 dogs according to his daughter, Babette.

Some of his more famous clientele ranged from The New York Stock Exchange, (his dogs were used as drug detection dogs), The Panamanian Defense Forces K-9 Corps, as well as Hollywood celebrities like Liza Minelli, Brooke Shields, and Hugh Hefner. Captain also appeared over two dozen times on "The David Letterman Show" performing in the infamous Stupid Pet Tricks segments.

This man had the leash on many collars of the canine industry. He was a trainer of obedience and also trained avalanche survival dogs, search and rescue, cadaver dogs, dogs for shows, narcotic detection, bomb detection, and trained security dogs for major department stores just to name a few. He also served as a handler of AKC dogs, later becoming a judge, judging some 7 different breeds and classes of dogs. He also judged the first Schutzhund (an advanced German form of obedience) trial in New York State.

Captain Haggerty was a published author writing several books like "Service Dogs: Their Training and Employment", "Dog Tricks", and "How To Get Your Dog To Talk". In fact, he has written over 200 published articles on dogs. He served on the Board of Directors for numerous organizations such as; The Commission for Animal Education in New York, The Bide-A-Wee-Home, The Society for New York Dog Trainers, and Institute of Human Animal Relationships.

Captain Haggerty was involved with many worldwide studies and training experiments of canines such as mine detection, olfactory experiments, scouting, dog behavior, and interestingly enough, worked with Duke University's Para-psychology laboratory, testing dogs for extra sensory perception.

His life's work will always be remembered with trainers, and will continue to live on through his daughter, Babette Haggerty-Brennan who has followed in his footsteps.
Though I never met Captain Haggerty in person, I am thankful for the wonderful World Wide Web. Here is where I met and corresponded with him often. I enjoyed reading his posts, and engaging in conversations with him online. He took his career very seriously.

Looking at his impressive past, it is humbling. I only hope that I can do a small fraction for the dogs and people I train, that he has done for the thousands of people he has encountered. For more information on the life and legacy of Captain Haggerty, please visit www.haggertydog.com.