"The best dog trainer in New York City." - Whiskers Holistic Pet Care
"Few trainers know more about dogs." - Kevin Behan "Lee Charles Kelley knows his stuff." - DogWorld Magazine Lee started training dogs part-time in New York in 1987 and began doing it professionally in 1990.
Lee is one of only a small number of pet dog trainers who've rigorously studied, tested, and applied dominance techniques, the Koehler Method, Tellington Touch, William Campbell's work, all aspects of behavioral science, a few other odd things that very few people know about (some of which turned out to be useful), plusNatural Dog Training. There is no other trainer in New York City - or, perhaps, anywhere in the world - who can say that.
In 1992 Lee read Kevin Behan's groundbreaking book, Natural Dog Training. Intitially he disagreed with almost everything Kevin wrote. But the next day he decided to be scientific and test some of Kevin's techniques just to see if they worked. Not only did they work, the results were amazing. Kevin's training exercises were 10 times more effective than anything he had ever studied or come across before. Lee quickly became an integral part of what has now become a worldwide movement — the Natural Dog Training Revolution — which is slowly changing the way people everywhere think about and train their dogs.
In April of 2009 the editors at PsychologyToday.com invited Lee to write about dogs for their website. During the roughly four-year period that followed he wrote over 100 science-based articles on canine behavior and learning, garnering over half-a-million hits. His articles were praised by many of the scientists writing for the website. But given the fact that Lee was often critical of the way some of the smartest PhDs seem unable to understand the simplest things about dogs, he was also criticized. This conflict eventually led to his dismissal.
However, Lee continues to write about important issues on his two blogs: Lee Charles Kelley: Natural Dog Training in New York and Canine PTSD: Its Causes, Symptoms & Treatment. In fact Lee has become one of the country's foremost experts on diagnosing and treating dogs who've developed post-traumatic stress disorder. He also started the first-ever support group to help owners of rescue dogs, particularly dogs who've developed PTSD as the result of being lost, abandoned or abused. He also pays it forward by giving free workshops and seminars on how to diagnose and treat dogs with PTSD.
Lee is also a best-selling mystery novelist (the detective character in his books is an ex-cop turned dog trainer). He's also asuccessful lyricist and composer. His songs have been praised and recorded by jazz musicians and singers alike. And with writing partner — composer David Forrest — he wrote the book and lyrics for the musical comedy It's Only Money, which had its premiere in November of 2012 at The Cascades Theatrical Company in Bend, Oregon.
Yet beyond all that, Lee's deepest comittment — his greatest love — is helping people understand how to train and control their dogs ... the natural way.