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Michael, Please! Deliver us from the Dog Whisperer!
"the more you put a dog's body in a cage, the more you put his mind in a cage"
is a quote Michael utters into the camera 14 years ago on the very first day of filming of The American Puppy Project, as he tries to get people to understand that the dog training establishment is wrong, as it looks at dogs and their behavior as "problems.
In 2010, the dog "experts" stilll just don't get it. That the first 2 years of a puppies life is CRUCIAL. The last thing puppies need to be is "calm and submissive." They need to romp, rumpus and run wild! So that they can learn naturally by leaps and bounds!
in 1996, Michael paid $1000 to hire a camera guy to film some training sessions with a litter of puppies, thinking he'd be able to make a quick training video out of the footage and sell it later that year.
As it turns out, there was a long and winding road ahead, and a lot more story that needed to unfold before this would happen. It would be an epic journey spanning from the 90s to 2010. East Coast (philly). North Coast (cleveland). West Coast (Los Angeles) centered on the lives and adventures of these three puppies.
- Chazz (lab/chesapeake mix) 1995-2009
- Kwame Brown (wild dog/american dingo) 2002-
- Jackie Brown (pit bull/american bulldog) 2009-
THE CHOW FROM HELL and the BEAUTIFUL BLONDE who loved him
By the time Chazz is one year old, he, his moms and Michael need to find a new place to live on short notice. The only place that would allow big dogs ends up being a dilapidated house under the freeway (476) where two Chows live. One problem. They were fighting. To the Death. Vicious battles on a daily basis that would only end in death for one of them if nothing was done. Their owners, a young couple are powerless to do anything about it. So the Chows are kept separated at all times. One day, the Yellow Chow MeeKim chews his way through a wooden door to get at the Black Chow Tai, and ends up in an emergency room with his face a bloody mess and one ear nearly bitten off.
Callie is a very friendly dog, but she's also very powerful. She puts up with MeeKim harrassing her without complaint. Shrugging it off. But she has no patience for even one hair on her son Chazz's coat to be put out of place by an aggressor such as MeeKim. One day, as Michael is upstairs playing Quake on his computer, he hears the sounds of war outside. He gets there just in time as Callie, having broken MeeKim's shoulder, is now dragging his limp body across the yard. In a few more minutes, he would have been dead.
For the next 3-4 years, Michael gets to live in a four dog household where any day could result in a vicious, 4 dog blood fued. All fueled by an unbelieveably vicious chow named MeeKim, owned by a Beautiful Blonde who is dating a drummer in a rock n roll band. As a result Our Hero Michael learns techniques to prevent, and defuse dog fights, as well as ways to break them up quickly. The experience with the vicious chows is instrumental in Michael further developing his HOT DOG (Hands Off The DOG) TRAINING method.A few years later, the couple would break up and the blonde would start to use michael as a "surrogate boyfriend." She loses a ton of weight to get back at the drummer boy, owner of the other Chow. All of a sudden, Lynne looks like Britney Spears, even better than Britney Spears. She and Michael go out drinking together all the time, they go to her parents house, to a halloween party, where lynne dresses as a slutty nurse, they spend new years together and more...and Michael falls for her despite the fact that she smokes like a chimney and is really not his type. 
This happens around the turn from 1999 to 2000.
This happens around the turn from 1999 to 2000. One day, michael finding himself overly abused by Lynne's sudden and arresting hotness, and her short skirts and is fed up with being used as a tool to prove to her ex boyfriend how hot she still is. Overwhelmed, michael cannot take it anymore and decides to force a resolution to the crisis. He gets down on one knee and proposes to Lynne, knowing full well that she'll say no, because she was still in love with her old boyfriend. Michael also hopes this will scare her off, so that she stops abusing him with her hotness. Michael GETS the marriage proposal ON FILM. Using a ruse to get the elderly couple next door to film it.
TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS, You'll need to DONATE or this will never see the light of day. If you do donate, it will be done before the Holiday season. the most EPIC, AMAZING, INNOVATIVE, PROVOCATIVE and BRILLIANT DOGUMENTARY ever made.
GET BEHIND THIS PROJECT NOW. I COMMAND YOU!
When his beloved Chocolate Labrador Callie died early, and suddenly from Renal failure in 2001. Michael films the last walk, the visit to the vet, and the burial, in which Callie's son Chazz repeatedly tries to dig up his mom and stop her from being buried. Michael purposely wants Chazz to know what happens to his moms, and films it, because he thinks Chazz should know what happened to the dog who had never left his side for the first 4 and a half years of his life. The footage is heartbreaking, but very important on understanding dog behavior and the incredible bond these two dogs shared.
For the American Puppy Project is very much like a wildlife documentary, only instead of lions, or leopards or wolves, dogs are the subject. Michael believes they are every bit as worthy of study as any other type of animal and may be the first person to take this approach and study dogs over a long period, the way animals are studied in the wild. P.S. Michael actually is a biologist and got his degree from the same school that Produced YouTube founder Chad Hurley. In fact, both men ran track for the same coach, Ed Fry. (if it matters, Michael was a lot faster than Chad!)
Where were we? Okay, after Callie's death, Michael goes into a deep funk, for years, pretty much giving up on the idea of ever coming out with a documentary, never fully recovering from the blow of losing a dog so precious to him, so quickly and unexpectedly. He is in a dark place for years. He does pick up a wild american dingo aka carolina dog who is crazy and vicious and immediately goes after a full grown male chow (Tai) on day one. 
This new puppy is almost as bad as the MeeKim the Chow, and was tied up to a bench in a park and abandoned in a snowstorm as a ten pound puppy in 2002 before being found by Chazz on a walk.
This new puppy is almost as bad as the MeeKim the Chow, and was tied up to a bench in a park and abandoned in a snowstorm as a ten pound puppy in 2002 before being found by Chazz on a walk.Eventually in 2004 at a low ebb, Michael goes to work on the help desk for a major corporation in suburban philly. He is quickly promoted to network admin by his boss, who, like Michael, is a HUGE SURVIVOR and AMAZING RACE fan. After Michael films an Amazing Race audition, which features some of the dry wit you'll see in the dogumentary, he is shipped out to California in 2006 to manage the West Region networks and computers.
Then one day another powerful, world beating little muscle bound female puppy jumps into Michael's lap, after being kicked out of two homes and Michael knows exactly what to do. He gets back on the horse and starts filming. He comes out of his shell and picks right back up where he left off and gets the HOT DOG METHOD down on flim with Amazing and Effortless results on an 85 lb pit bull/american bull dog named Jackie Brown. Even though she's a pit bull, she's by far the easiest dog he's ever trained. Mostly because by this time, Michael's HOT DOG METHOD is fully refined and developed, and ready to take on the world!
This is a dog story. A story of family
and friends and freedom and perseverance across years and years of setbacks.
From Birth to Death, the heartbreak, joy and pain,
inspiration and the unbreakable bonds that form between dog and dog, dog and
human. Violence, love, drama. The development of a brand new training method
dedicated to getting dogs more freedom. Freedom from confinement, control,
punishment, surgery and the backwardness of the dog training establishment. This
is a story. This is an epic adventure. This is a revolution. The American Puppy
Project Begins.
The American Puppy Project is all this and more:
groundbreaking, fantastic, incomparable
funny, original and brilliant
whip smart, daring, madly creative and innovative
heartwarming
heartbreaking
dramatic, bold and adventurous
BY SUPPORTING THIS PROJECT YOU ARE SAYING "I WANT THERE TO BE BRILLIANCE IN THE WORLD! I DEMAND AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE DOG WHISPERER!!!!!!!
By supporting this project, you WILL GET IT.
Finally, This is a dog story. It's their story, from their point of view.
Look at some of the wonderful perks below. Still working on the Perks. Don't worry, they will be good. Just donate! You are gonna frickin' LOVE THIS!
THANK YOU! from all the dogs who have made this possible, to you. They put their muzzle in your lap and look up at you, hopingly hoping that you will take them for a walk!
WHAT IS THE FUNDING FOR?
FUNDS ARE TO HELP US FINISH THIS FILM. WE QUIT OUR JOB IN APRIL TO LAUNCH THIS MASSIVE PROJECT and have made great strides. BANKS HAVE NOT COME THRU WITH THE EXPECTED LOANS because of the tight credit market. We need your help to FINISH AND DISTRIBUTE this AMAZING PROJECT. THE BRILLIANCE IS OBVIOUS. The years of dedication should be clear. YOUR MONEY WILL MAKE THE MOST EXCITING, DRAMATIC, INSPIRING AND Amazing Dog Documentary ever filmed see the light of day. The American Puppy Project WILL....CHANGE....THE.....WORLD.
Thanks to your help.
Created By:
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Michael PattonOkay, maybe it's kind of late, or...uhhh....early, as I have been up all night, but I really don't understand this form. I guess you're asking my Role. I'm the Creator, producer, dog guru, IT guy and everything else for dogtv.com networks up to this point.