Dog Trainer

Dog trainer Thomas R. Fink will be allowed to house up to 60 animals in a commercial kennel at his West Brandywine Township home. Fink, who lives at 1370 Manor Road, was granted a special exception to build a kennel on his five-acre residential property by the Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday. The board, however, attached restrictions to the approval. Fink, who owns and shows 26 sled dogs, will not be allowed to house more than 60 dogs at any one time. He will have to install an on-site sewage disposal system approved by the Chester County Health Department to handle wastes from the 34-pen building he plans to construct.

After hearing some opposition from nearby residents, the Middletown Township Council has tabled a decision on Judy Murray's request for permission to give dog-obedience lessons in her garage on South Pennell Road. Murray has applied to the township to teach dog obedience as a home occupation. She is certified by the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, she said. At a meeting Monday night, Murray said she wanted to give private lessons three nights a week. The two nightly sessions would be scheduled a half hour apart to avoid any parking problems.

Three men were arrested and have been charged after officers from the Pennsylvania SPCA cracked down on a dogfighting ring in East Germantown yesterday. Responding to a call on the animal cruelty hotline, a humane officer found two dead dogs in the yard of the home on Bringhurst Street near Wakefield, said a PSPCA official. Five more injured dogs were found tied up nearby. One man carrying a dog was arrested after trying to flee from the home, police said. Two other men - one suspected to be the homeowner, the other a dog trainer - were also arrested.

Jonathan Babineaux expressed relief yesterday after he was cleared of a felony animal cruelty charge that could have sent the Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle to prison. "I'm just happy the whole situation is over with," Babineaux said. "It's been a long process. I've been waiting it out and it's finally over. " Gwinnett County (Ga.) District Attorney Danny Porter said yesterday he dismissed the charges following an investigation of the death of a pit bull in February. Pat McDonough, Babineaux's attorney, said it proved Babineaux acted only in self-defense against the aggressive dog that belonged to the player's girlfriend.

Brian Kilcommons has trained some of the most famous animals in America. Diane Sawyer. Robert Mitchum. Diana Ross. Maureen McGovern. "People think I'm training their dogs," says the author of the highly praised new book, Good Owners, Great Dogs, "but I'm really training the owners. " Diane Sawyer's Gordon setter, George, for instance, "was a major-league crotch bumper. He'd send you flying with a bump on your crotch. " Or the former West German ambassador to the United Nations.

Job Michael Evans acknowledges that his system of teaching a dog obedience is based on the "tough-love" method. His no-nonsense approach to canine misbehavior, detailed in People, Pooches & Problems: Understanding, Controlling and Correcting Problem Behavior in Your Dog (Macmillan/Howell Books, $19.95), was developed during Evans' years as a monk at the Upstate New York monastery of New Skete, which supports itself by breeding and selling German shepherds. His system is based on an owner's dominating his animal and severely limiting the petting, cuddling and expressions of approval that the dog receives.

It was a combination of things that made me stop pretending, to accept that she was a loveable yet complicated bitch who wasn't interested in playing nice, who couldn't care less that her big butt took up my side of the bed. "She's never going to be a poodle," my dog trainer said one day in frustration, shortly before I stopped paying him. My dog, Bindi, was a South African boerboel, a big mastiff-like beast you've probably never heard...

The sun has come out tomorrow for Joanna Pacitti, unceremoniously dumped by fax as the star of the Broadway production of "Annie" But a cloud passed in front of it yesterday as two more local girls were eased out of the Broadway "Annie. " When the news came, Joanna, 12, was busy performing as "Annie" in Raleigh, N.C., along with her dog, Zappa, fired before her from the Broadway production. Her dad, Mayfair barber Joe Pacitti, said he didn't think Joanna knew much about the departure from the Broadway show of Christiana Anbri, 6, of Northeast Philadelphia, who played "Annie's" littlest orphan, or 8-year-old Melissa O'Malley of Langhorne.

They may have similar talents on the gridiron, but when it comes to being dog owners, Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick have been using a different playbook. "Donovan's a spoiler," said Perry Parks, a Southampton, Burlington County, dog trainer who's been working with McNabb's dogs for almost three years now. "He absolutely pampers them. " McNabb, who owns two American bulldogs named Deuce and Diamond along with a recently acquired Belgian Malinois named Rocky, actually pampers his pooches a little too much at his Moorestown spread, said Parks.

Like the holiday shopping season, the holiday moviegoing season officially begins today. Anticipating the dangers of holiday gorging, Hollywood has carefully prepared light fare. None dare call it lite. For children, there are animated features boasting baby brontos and alley kittens - pets that don't require housebreaking. For families, there are films about strange siblings that might redefine our ideas about brotherly love. For dates, there are romantic films galore - most of them asserting that for every happy couple, there is an unhappy third party.

It was a combination of things that made me stop pretending, to accept that she was a loveable yet complicated bitch who wasn't interested in playing nice, who couldn't care less that her big butt took up my side of the bed. "She's never going to be a poodle," my dog trainer said one day in frustration, shortly before I stopped paying him. My dog, Bindi, was a South African boerboel, a big mastiff-like beast you've probably never heard...

AUSTIN, Texas - There were times, such as when she wanted to hide in a metal culvert during a thunderstorm, or when our tent collapsed in the middle of our last night and we slept in my tiny car, that I second-guessed taking my dog camping. But I'm so glad I did. My dog and I are still benefiting from five days of concentrated training and fun in the woods of Colorado last summer. Shari Elkins, cofounder with Jane Del Re of the Canine Center for Training and Behavior in Austin, was the mastermind and leader on the trip, which for her was the culmination of years of using hiking and outdoor activities to train dogs and their people.

Tank Aikman took a seat, assumed a confident stance, and sniffed out the competition. A husky fellow, with a thick neck and jowly cheeks, he knew he had the right look for the part. He was also one of the more experienced actors auditioning yesterday to play Bill Sikes' tough sidekick in the Walnut Street Theatre's forthcoming musical Oliver! Would this give him a leg up on the competition? "Probably not," shrugged his best friend, Steve. "But I know they're going to love him. " He said he saw no reason why Tank, charming and handsome, wouldn't hold his own against any of the two dozen dogs who showed up for the open call.

Three men were arrested and have been charged after officers from the Pennsylvania SPCA cracked down on a dogfighting ring in East Germantown yesterday. Responding to a call on the animal cruelty hotline, a humane officer found two dead dogs in the yard of the home on Bringhurst Street near Wakefield, said a PSPCA official. Five more injured dogs were found tied up nearby. One man carrying a dog was arrested after trying to flee from the home, police said. Two other men - one suspected to be the homeowner, the other a dog trainer - were also arrested.

They may have similar talents on the gridiron, but when it comes to being dog owners, Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick have been using a different playbook. "Donovan's a spoiler," said Perry Parks, a Southampton, Burlington County, dog trainer who's been working with McNabb's dogs for almost three years now. "He absolutely pampers them. " McNabb, who owns two American bulldogs named Deuce and Diamond along with a recently acquired Belgian Malinois named Rocky, actually pampers his pooches a little too much at his Moorestown spread, said Parks.

Jonathan Babineaux expressed relief yesterday after he was cleared of a felony animal cruelty charge that could have sent the Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle to prison. "I'm just happy the whole situation is over with," Babineaux said. "It's been a long process. I've been waiting it out and it's finally over. " Gwinnett County (Ga.) District Attorney Danny Porter said yesterday he dismissed the charges following an investigation of the death of a pit bull in February. Pat McDonough, Babineaux's attorney, said it proved Babineaux acted only in self-defense against the aggressive dog that belonged to the player's girlfriend.

For five years, Maureen Tierney nurtured what she called her retirement pipe dream. While she directed programs and services for a nonprofit, the 50-year-old North Wales mother of two, who loves to bake, fantasized about life as a pastry chef. In March, Tierney finally quit her desk job and enrolled at Philadelphia's Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. Was she crazy? To reassure herself, she turned to an unusual business that allows wannabes to test-drive their ideal careers.

Hakan Kaynaroglu remembers searching for a friend amid the rubble in Istanbul. The apartment building where the business associate lived had been turned around by the force of an earthquake that killed 17,000 and left one of Turkey's major cities in ruins. "When I got there, he was dead. I felt nothing at the time," Kaynaroglu said of the August 1999 disaster. "I just kept thinking, 'What can I do?' " Two years later, Kaynaroglu has moved to the United States and lives in Coatesville with his wife, Pat Hawn Kaynaroglu, one of the area's best-known dog trainers.

It started with an idea, a horse barn and a dog. Ten years later, Canine Partners for Life is about to complete a $1.6 million expansion to keep up with the demand for the dogs it trains. "We've grown and evolved beyond . . . our comprehension at this point," said Bob Hlavacek, capital campaign coordinator. The nonprofit company trains and provides service dogs for people with mobility impairments and related problems in 16 Eastern states and the District of Columbia.

When Bill Tagye answered the door soon after midnight on New Year's Eve, his dogs, Kelly and Sonny, bounded out. A police officer was at the door of his second-floor duplex in Morrell Park in the Northeast, answering a call about an argument between Tagye and his girlfriend. The dogs paused, sniffed, then ran down the stairs. A second officer, downstairs, opened fire. "I saw a bright flash," Tagye said. "I began screaming, 'The dogs are OK, the dogs are OK!' " Tagye raced down the stairs.