About Us
The Dunbar Academy consists of three Dunbars: Ian, Kelly & Jamie. It is a division of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, and the successor to James & Kenneth Publishers.
Ian grew up on a farm in Hertfordshire (England), training cows, chickens (and yes, cats and dogs), received his veterinary degree from the Royal Veterinary College (London University) and a PhD in dog behavior from the University of California, Berkeley. He designed and taught the world's very first off-leash puppy socialization and training classes — SIRIUS® Puppy Training (1982) and founded the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (1993). He’s hosted a television program and authored several books and hundreds of articles about dog training.
Kelly grew up in Chicago where she drove horse-drawn carriages with her Rottweiler, Ivan, started Ain’t Misbehaving (a dog behavior counseling service) and managed a training, daycare, and boarding facility before moving to Los Angeles to work at the SPCALA's Outreach Department (an after-school program for at-risk adolescents that teaches communication and conflict resolution, and builds self-esteem through dog training). After moving to Berkeley as the COO of SIRIUS Puppy Training, she became a Dunbar. Kelly was one of the first dog trainers to become a Certified Pet Dog Trainer — CPDT, (receiving a higher score than Ian on the examination).
A few years later, Ian and Kelly founded Dog Star Daily, a free online website dedicated to ensuring that every dog gets the education it needs to be a happy, well-adjusted and well-behaved member of a human household. Dog Star Daily was Ian and Kelly’s way of giving back to the world of dogs, offering an incredible amount of free dog training information to anyone and everyone who wanted it. Under Kelly’s leadership and care, SIRIUS and Dog Star Daily blossomed into robust and thriving companies, which, between them, have helped 100s of thousands of dogs in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond!
Kelly also started a non-profit called Open Paw, that created and promoted resources for dog shelters, to help empower them to be as effective as possible at retraining, rehabilitating and rehoming abandoned dogs, thereby transforming neighborhood shelters into thriving community centers where dogs become more adoptable, and where the community can come to learn how to train dogs.
Jamie was born shortly after Ian started SIRIUS, when Ian was married to his first wife, Mimi. Ian and Mimi got divorced a few years after Jamie was born, and they shared custody of Jamie and remain wonderful friends. Jamie grew up in Berkeley and Oakland, then went to Brown University to study Sociology and Visual Art. Jamie has always had a passion for explaining complex concepts in fun and engaging ways. He has written and published five illustrated, educational books for children, including Gordy McGranite Grapples with Gradients, 7 River Riddles and the Universe Verse Trilogy.
Jamie initially joined the various Dunbar dog training ventures as a cameraman and video editor, but his role has since expanded to encompass a wide variety of responsibilities, including marketing, advertising, graphic design and writing. Most recently, he’s been focusing on bringing the Dunbars into the 21st century with Dunbar Academy, our online dog training school.
Dunbar Academy began as a home for video recordings of Ian’s seminars, so that people could watch his lectures and workshops from the comfort of their own homes. Then we began adding the many other dog training videos, books and podcasts Ian has made over the years for the general dog owning public. It wasn’t long before Dunbar Academy held hundreds of hours of dog training content.
We’ve always believed whole-heartedly in making dog training information accessible and affordable to anyone who needs it, because we know how much of a difference it can make in the lives of dogs. That’s why, after we realized how much content we had available, we decided to create a subscription model for the material on Dunbar Academy, so for a low monthly price, anyone could get access to our truly unparalleled collection of dog training videos, books, podcasts, seminars and workshops.
Now, the three of us are working hard to make all-new content for Dunbar Academy: puppy & dog training courses that are designed from scratch, to make the best use of the online course format, so that dog owners everywhere can train their dogs in SIRIUS® fashion to be well-behaved, good-natured, happy canine companions.