It is official! For the first time ever in the U.S., we will be hosting a seminar with Bart Bellon, a well known trainer from Belgium, and it will be held at the K-9 Center in Ronkonkoma, NY (Suffolk County) on August 30 and 31 2003, Labor Day weekend. For those who do not know who Bart Bellon is, he is best known around Europe for his seminars on combining both operant conditioning with food and toys, with negative reinforcement with e-collars. Bart has mastered this combination which he calls "negative/positive stimulus training", and after attending a seminar of his in Belgium this February, I highly recommend seeing him live and in action! He has coached many Obedience and Schutzhund trainers to top scores, and many of the average pet dog owners to very well behaved canine companions, never losing sight of the importance of the dog's drive and attitude. Because of the success of his seminars in Europe, Innotek, one of the leading companies for remote trainers recently named him head of the Pro Trainer's staff for their company. In addition, Bart won the 2001 NVBK Belgian Ringsport Championships with his dog "Zot". Anyone familiar with the Belgian Ringsport will also be familiar with the difficulty in training for this program. For those interested in seeing his Championship performance, you can purchase a copy from Leerburg Videos by clicking here, http://leerburg.com/455.htm

We are working on putting together a video with clips of a seminar that Bart did in Germany showing the many different things that can be achieved with his method of dog training. Those interested in our video can e-mail me for more info.

The seminar will cover everything from problem solving, to working with pups and young dogs, to training and conditioning with the e-collar for real world situations. If you are interested in learning more about proper training with remote trainers, or just dog training in general, this seminar is a must!


The cost will be the same for spectators or those who want to work with their dogs, and that is $100 pre-paid before July 31 and $175 after the cut-off date. We will have time set for the first 20 puppies and dogs that sign up and have a 10 dog waiting list, however we will try to get in as many dogs as possible so if you want to bring your dog, feel free to, but we cannot guarantee anything past about 25 dogs due to time. Since it will be in the middle of summer, I imagine that most people coming in from out of state will probably not be bringing their dogs unless they have service dogs.

It is very difficult to find hotels and motels in the area that allow dogs other than service dogs, but we found one and are trying to work out a deal with them to hold rooms for the seminar. The other option is to stay in a hotel and board your dog at the seminar site in the boarding kennel at the K-9 Center, and I believe they charge $16 per day which you can also pre-pay for through us to hold a spot for since it is Labor Day weekend and the kennel will be booked. Here is the hotel info:

1) Howard Johnson (in Commack and allows pets)
450 Moreland rd
Commack, NY 11725
(631) 864-8820

2) Triangle Inn (directly across the street from John Browne's, no pets allowed)
1630 Lakeland Ave
Bohemia, NY 11716
(631) 981-6200

3) Econo Lodge MacArthur Airport (no pets allowed)
3055 Veterans Memorial Hwy, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779
(631) 588-6800

All checks or money orders can be made payable to Sit Happens Inc. and can be mailed to:

Judd Spodek
9 Talley Rd
Roslyn, NY 11576

Payment for the seminar is non-refundable, but is transferable. There will also be a $25 fee for any checks that bounce. For more info, contact me at (646) 235-0586 or e-mail. We look forward to seeing some of you there!

Best Regards,

Waleed Maalouf