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Jack Fields our training director has spent over half of his life in the pursuit of training dogs. His family always had close relationships with their pets and Jack was one of those children who brought home every stray animal; so it was a natural progression for jack to eventually work with animals professionally. There are dog trainers out there who are excellent with dogs, but unfortunately they lack the good people or teaching skills. There are teachers out there, with good people skills, but they lack the dog skills. It is rare when you find a dog trainer who excels at both. Jack is that rare combination of dog trainer meets teacher.
Jacks’ career as a professional dog trainer and breeder spans over 27 years. He uses a wide variety of training methods and has trained dogs for a wide variety of roles. Jacks’ experience ranges from puppy development and kennel management to top level sport competition dogs. He has been or is currently employed by numerous city parks and community services programs teaching basic and advanced obedience. Over his career he has worked with thousands of dogs and handlers. Jack has trained top level sport competition dogs in both the American and German style shows. He has been a club helper for several Schutzhund clubs, and a trial helper. In 1995 he worked as a helper for the North Western Regional Championships. Having the opportunity to study under some of Americas’ “Schutzhund” greats (Dean Calderon, Less Flores) he has had the opportunity to work with several dogs that have represented the United States at the Schutzhund World Championships. Jack has also worked with Police Dogs, and was a Decoy for the Western States Police Dog Trails in both 1996/97 and was picked for the Decoy Team to work the Western States Police Dog Championships.
Mr. Fields is a certified wheel chair assistance dog trainer and is involved in the selection, testing and training of wheel chair assistance dogs as the Northern California Training Director for Canine Support Teams. Canine Support Teams offers Assistance dogs to people in need free of charge. Jack was part of the team that developed the animal assisted therapy dog program in Tracy California named Paws with Cause. A origination that uses dogs to help facilitate the recovery of patients in rehabilitation settings. Jack trained and certified the first program dog, and continues to oversee and consult for the origination now called Paws for Friends.
In 1997 Jack worked with his first Search and Rescue dog. A Pit Bull named Dakota. Pit Bulls are not a breed normally associated with Search and Rescue and Dakota was one of the first Pit bulls in the country to certify as a Search Dog. Dakota had over 100 deployments in her career and worked high profile cases such as the Laci Peterson case and was handpicked by FEMA and NASA for the Space Shuttle Columbia Recovery Mission, the team received numerous awards for their work. Dakota and handler are also featured in Magazines, and on an Animal Planet TV special. Jack is a consultant and trainer for ICF (Institute for Canine Forensics), as well as CSST (Canine Specialized Search Teams: a resource of the Santa Clara county Sheriff’s/ medical examiner-coroner’s office). After working with several Search and Rescue Dogs Jack realized “It is one thing to train and consult; it is something very different to be the one behind the leash.” Jack is now a Certified Search Dog Handler with his Rottweiler Java through CARDA (California Rescue Dog Association). Java is one of 5 Rottweilers in the United States to be certified in Search and Rescue at the current time (another breed not normally associated with Search and rescue). Jack or dogs he has trained have been deployed on high profile cases such as the Xiana Fairchild search, the Sandra Cantu search the Gelardo case, and the Herzog case. Jack has also worked with and consulted for Disaster dogs for FEMA Task Force 3 out of Menlo Park. He has been a lead instructor for SARCON (Nevada State Search and Rescue Conference 2008, and 2010) and has been a lead instructor for SAREX 2010, 2011, 2012 (California State Search and Rescue conference) teaching a variety of canine related topics. Jack has consulted, trained or given workshops for numerous county and or state agencies and has worked with handlers both nationally and internationally.
In the private sector jack has given demonstrations and provides education programs for a varity of public and private institutions with a focus on children's bite prevention programs, dog awareness, and dog training as a career for career days. He has given workshops and seminars in many different aspects of dog training from Schutzhund to Search and Rescue.
Jack consults, tests and helps rehabilitate dogs for several animal rescue organizations and over his career has been active in helping local animal shelters with their training and evaluation procedures.
Mr. Fields is considered an expert “dog character witness” by the California Judicial System and Jacks’ dog articles have been published internationally, and at the current time he is a regular contributor to The Total Rottweiler magazine. Jack has been instrumental in training the trainer and has launched many a dog trainers training career.
Jack has trained a lot of dogs, since 1986 it has been his only career; it has been all about the dogs. In his journey he has accomplished many things, but if you ask him he will say “I’m still learning how to do this stuff. His diverse dog back ground and excellent people skills helps bring a balance and deeper understanding to everyone who trains with him. His knowledge of the different training methods and his ability to understand dogs allows him to custom tailor training programs to the clients’ unique needs. When it comes to dog training Jack is sought after as a problem solver and has a history of helping teams get back on track. His unique methods and deep understanding of the dog human relationship makes him highly sought after no matter what the training genre. |
