about: Jesse R. Booker
Natural animal behaviorist
Jesse, center, with his brothers in cowboy boots. 1967.
EXPERIENCE IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU; IT’S WHAT YOU DO WITH WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU.
-Aldous Huxley
Jesse with his dog, Reznor, (Rez) a stray from the Navajo Nation Reservation adopted from Best Friends Animal Society.
JRB K-9 founder Jesse R. Booker is a Natural Animal Behaviorist specializing in behavioral dog training and horse training. At the core of all that Jesse does is his respect of animals for what they are and how they instinctively learn.
Jesse will be the first to tell you that family and his work with animals are the most important things to him. The greatest compliments for Jesse are referrals from happy humans and K-9s. Especially referrals based solely on his reputation from people he’s never actually worked with.
Jesse was a horseman long before venturing into the world of behavioral dog training. Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, Jesse watched his uncles compete in rodeos. This is where he and his brothers spent all of their free time on horseback.
From the rodeos, he also learned the intricacies and nuances of horse behavior. As a child, Jesse's family always told him that he was a natural horseman — just like his grandfather, after whom he is named. It’s no surprise that he naturally followed in his grandfather's footsteps by working with animals.
As a teenager, Jesse was what we would today call an at-risk youth. Lacking a safe and supportive home environment, street life was pulling him down a dark path. In 1982 at the age of 16, the police caught Jesse dogfighting.
Growing up on the streets, Jesse didn’t have the frame of reference to understand what he was doing was wrong. However, it is, and always will be, something he deeply regrets.
“Good judgment is the result of experience, and experience the result of bad judgment “
-Mark Twainin
As an alternative to entering the juvenile justice system, the court mandated he attend therapy and work with animals. Jesse lived and worked on a family friend's horse ranch, continuing his learning about horse behavior and horse training.
Jesse's traumatic childhood events changed the course of his life, and his admiration for all animals grew. One positive to come out of these tragic events was Jesse’s love and understanding of dogs referred to as Pit Bulls.
Jesse working on horse groundwork
Jesse started Bully.dogs, his first dog training business, with the goal of redeeming himself and promoting education around bully-mix dogs. That business focused on affordable training programs for game-breed Pit Bulls and bully-crossed dogs.
For over three decades now, Jesse has worked and trained with the true Pit Bull game-breed, as well as bully-mixed dogs. Jesse has become the go-to dog trainer in Los Angeles for the most challenging dog behavior issues like aggression, reactivity, destruction, and separation anxiety. He’s known for working with some of the most difficult dog behavior cases imaginable, with much success.
He set out to learn all there was to know about this category of dogs and, as they say, the rest is history. As mistaken and troubling as it was, Jesse's early upbringing in the unethical underground world of dogfighting is largely responsible for his actions on behalf of dogs today.
On his podcast, The PitBull Mechanic, Jesse discusses how he transformed his regrettable childhood experiences into a lifelong career as a Natural Animal Behaviorist. He also shares helpful dog training tips to use with your own dog.
Experience:
Jesse R. Booker of JRB K-9 is a Natural Animal Behaviorist with over three decades of real-world, hands-on experience with horses and dogs of all breeds and sizes. He's worked with Los Angeles area adoption centers, animal rescue organizations, and animal shelters. He's also volunteered services to the Latino Alliance for Animal Care Foundation (LAACF) helping educate the San Fernando Valley community about responsible dog ownership. The counterintuitive behavior modifications Jesse developed and still uses today stem from all his past trials and errors from working with animals — experiences that could never be learned in a classroom or from books. For Jesse, learning animal behavior will always be an ongoing endeavor to better help animals with human problems.
Jesse R. Booker is based in Los Angeles, CA. For horse and behavioral dog training, and all other inquiries, please reach out.