About Andrew

Speaker • Author • Television Host

I’m Andrew Ledford, a speaker, author, television host, and dog trainer based in Southern California, serving the Gateway Cities and North Orange County, from La Palma to Huntington Beach, Brea, and Anaheim Hills..

What I Do

I’ve spent over 35 years working with dogs and the people who love them, but my real subject has always been behavior. How it forms, how it changes, and how the environment shapes it, in dogs and in the people around them. That’s the thread running through everything I do: training, writing, public speaking, and the video work I’ve been doing since I was first on public access television in 1985.

I began training dogs at 11, became a professional trainer at 18, and by 19 was involved in K-9 security dog training and helping manage a security company. Since then, my work has ranged well beyond obedience training: security and protection dogs, therapy dogs, Psychiatric Service Dogs, and animal actors for television and film. I developed the Seal Beach Animal Shelter’s first training program, co-created pet-therapy programs for the San Fernando Valley VA, Del Amo, and Torrance Memorial hospitals, and have trained dogs used in post-stroke recovery research.

Somewhere along the way, I took a technique built on Ian Dunbar’s positive-reinforcement work and modified it using Jun Fan concepts, along with principles drawn from Neolithic animal taming, into something that doesn’t fit neatly into conventional ABA categories. Strategist John Boyd talked about building a “snowmobile” by mixing ideas from different fields to solve a problem no single field could solve alone. That’s close to how I naturally approach things, whether the subject is dogs, speaking, or writing.

I developed the C.A.N.I.N.E. Method as a way to put structure around behavior change, whether the “client” has four legs or two. It’s the same framework behind my newest project.

New Book: Safe Dog Walking For Seniors

My upcoming book brings together several things I’ve spent years thinking about: dog handling and changing human behavior. For the last few years I have also been growing more concerned by the number of clients who call me because of being pulled down by their dog, falling over their dog, or having a leash injury from their dog. When I got three clients in a row who had been pulled down or injured, I decided to implement a program I had been working on for about 20 years. The program is flexible enough that it can be used as a fall prevention program as well as for learning and sharpening other skills. This fall prevention program also incorporates much of the CDC’s STEADI framework, and is grounded in more than 25 years of using Tai Chi concepts to teach handlers balance, timing, and body awareness. It’s been shaped by decades of watching handlers struggle with the same physical and cognitive challenges, some due to age, some to health conditions, some just to the simple difficulty of learning something new while managing a dog on the end of the leash.

If you work with seniors, in a veterinary practice, a rehab setting, a rotary club, or anywhere fall risk and dog ownership overlap, this is a talk I’d like to bring to your group. (More on the book, and where to find it, is coming soon.)

Public Speaking

I’ve been speaking to groups for years, mostly as an extension of my business and mostly because I think good information should reach people whether or not they’re paying for it. I’ve been fortunate to speak to audiences well beyond Southern California because of it.

My speaking topics include:

• Dog walking safety and fall prevention for seniors
• Behavior change, using animal behavior and dog training as the lens
• Book writing

I’m currently developing a more formal speaking practice and documenting that process as I go, with the goal of building a system others can follow too. Many of the speaking experiments will be posted on this site. This isn’t your average speaking practice; it actually uses some of the same theories and principles that go into helping people prevent falls.

Television and Media

I’ve been involved with public access television since 1985, first as the host of a show, then as a producer again when public access came back online in 2014. In the 1980s, I also worked as a camera operator for Starline Productions. These days I produce several different types of shows covering local Southern California travel and history, dog rescue, local events, and real estate. Some are public access TV shows and others are more like online video shot with my GoPro. I’m always open to developing new shows for public access. I live streamed extensively during COVID but not as much now.

A Few Other Things About Me

My family has been part of the Long Beach area for several generations, and I started my first business here. My interests run wide: history, archaeology, comparative religion, geology, and verbal behavior, alongside Tai Chi Chuan, which shapes how I move and how I teach. Some of my thinking draws on B.F. Skinner, Konrad Lorenz, John Boyd, Joseph Campbell, and W. Edwards Deming, among others.

Books

Picking the Perfect Puppy or Dog: now available at Amazon.

Dog Training Strategies, Tactics, and Personal Insight: now available at Amazon.

Safe Dog Walking For Seniors: coming soon.

Get in Touch

If you’re interested in booking me to speak, want to talk about a TV or media collaboration, or just want to connect, you can reach me at 562-606-1729 or find me on LinkedIn as Andrew Ledford.

Contact me at 562-606-1729

I have a material connection with links on this site that go to other sites