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Mark Spivak
Mark’s German Shepherd Dog, Akbar, earned an AKC Companion Dog (CD) title and a leg toward her Companion Dog Excellent (CDX) title before needing to retire due to a health issue.
Mark’s German Shepherd, Topper, earned the titles of Schutzhund I, II, and III, FH, and CD and was a national level competitor in several sports. During his competition career, Topper won numerous high-in-class and high-in-trial awards in tracking, obedience, protection, and overall score. Topper and Mark won the 1998 Southeast Regional Schutzhund III Championships held in Wilmington, North Carolina and qualified for the 1998 and 1999 USA National and North American Championships. Topper completed his ASCA CD with outstanding scores of 195 and 196 out of a possible 200 and finished high-overall-in-match in an AKC obedience event. In addition, Mark and Topper earned the prestigious advanced tracking title of FH with a score of 92 out of a possible 100 points. Mark has also participated in agility, herding, and KNPV and competed with Topper at the 1997 KNPV National Championship Trial. Topper and Mark also appeared nationally on Fox SportsNet performing agility demonstrations. Mark presently owns a 4.5 year old German Shepherd, Marlo, that Mark plans to enter into competitions. Marlo is trained through the Utility level in AKC work and has received training in schutzhund tracking, obedience, and protection. Mark has also completed an AKC Open (CDX) title with a client's Labrador Retriever and has competed at the Utility level with another client's Boston Terrier. In addition, Mark has coached numerous people and multiple breeds to all levels of AKC titles, from Novice through Utility, and many first place finishes.
Two of Mark's German Shepherds have participated as therapy animals. Through his company, Comprehensive Pet Therapy (CPT), Mark founded the first professional Animal-Assisted Therapy programs in the state of Georgia and designed the programs used in the rehabilitation departments at Shepherd Spinal Center, Dekalb Medical Center, and Egleston Children's Hospital. He has also served as an officer for the non-profit organization Happy Tails Pet Therapy. His work in therapy and obedience has been featured on CNN, Noonday, Living in the 90's, Community and other television programs, plus WGST, 99-X, and B-98.5 radio. Mark was "The Pet Expert" on the Channel 11 Saturday Morning News and has appeared in multiple segments on canine behavior for Fox-5 Eyewitness News, WGCL-TV 46 Clear Channel News and Comcast TV. Local print media, including The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Sandy Springs Reporter, The Gwinnett Loaf, The Alpharetta Neighbor and Chai Magazine, and national print media as far away as The Denver Post have featured Mark or CPT. Mark has trained and handled dogs for several television commercials and a music video. Mark and his personal dogs have appeared in a prominent advertising campaign for a large dog food manufacturer and four feature films, Letters From a Wayward Son (starring Harry Connick, Jr., Peter Postlethwaite and Rebecca Carlson), Run Ronny Run (starring Mr. Show's David Cross), In My Life (a WB pilot), and 2001 Maniacs (starring Robert Englund). In addition, as a research consultant working in conjunction with Emory University’s Neuroscience Department, Mark co-designed the research study and designed the training protocols whereby the Emory/CPT research team became the first group worldwide to publish quality fMRI images in dogs without the use of sedation or physical restraints. Until recently, neuroscientists believed that the objectives accomplished by the Emory/CPT research team were impossible, as to provide quality images subject dogs can not move more than 3 mm in any spatial plane for a period of 12 to 25 seconds and they must remain motionless while confined to a small space and while withstanding noise that reaches volumes of between 95 to 110 dB. The groundbreaking work conducted by Emory and CPT achieved coverage in the LA Times, Time.com, RollingStone.com, and ABC World News Tonight. The team’s resultant publication (Functional MRI In Awake Unrestrained Dogs), co-authored by Mark, was published in the esteemed scientific journal PLoS One.
As an author, Mark co-authored the PLoS One journal article described above. He will imminently publish an outstanding book, “Housebreaking- How to Housebreak Both the Easy and Difficult Dog,” that will be available on Amazon.com and via other national sources. He has partially completed another book focusing on basic pet obedience. For several years, Mark has been a monthly columnist as “The Pet Expert” for Loving Pets Products, a respected national manufacturer and distributor of gourmet pet treats and products. In addition, Mark has authored many abstract and full-length articles for the CPT website and he has published many proprietary training articles that CPT uses internally for educating professional trainers and for maintaining quality control when establishing CPT’s corporate protocols. Prior to starting CPT, Mark received a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. Mark's reputation and accomplishments have grown CPT from a one-person company to a company of multiple elite trainers who have become the most respected group of pet trainers in the Atlanta area. Over 80 Atlanta area veterinary clinics recommend Comprehensive Pet Therapy for the improvement of pet obedience, household manners, and behavioral problems. As President of CPT, Mark has trained or managed the training of close to 50,000 pet dogs. He coached the CPT competition team, which has taken numerous first place finishes, and has coached CPT's Georgia Force Black and Blue team, the nation's first football mascots to retrieve the kicking tee during Arena Football League games. Still, rather than resting on his laurels, Mark continues expanding his knowledge by attending seminars and personal coaching sessions with world class trainers and behaviorists, including Prof. Ian Dunbar, Brian McGovern, Gerianne Darnell, Dr. John Wright, Dieter Meyer, Jan Timmerman, Dean Calderon, Gary Hanrahan, and Joel Silverman. When not working at CPT, Mark is a voracious reader and trivia aficionado who is also an exercise enthusiast, tennis player, and a USA Wrestling “bronze certified” wrestling coach. For the past seven years, Mark has been a coach for the Alpharetta Junior Raider Wrestling program and he has been the Junior Raider Wrestling Head Coach during the past three seasons. Mark is the President of CPT and in addition to his administrative duties teaches private lessons, in-home private lessons, and group classes. He also performs expert witness services for criminal and civil cases requiring research, investigations, expert opinion, written affidavits or trial testimony and continues to function as a research consultant for Emory University’s Neuroscience Laboratory.
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