Anders Hallgren

Born in Sweden 1940. Lived in California 1996-2001.

Probably the first psychologist in the world to focus entirely on working with dogs. Has inspired many followers who are active today in the same field.

Main Education:

Scientific degree in psychology from University of Stockholm, Sweden. Intensive self-studies in the area of Ethology, particularly canine behavior.

Career Highlights:

Anders devoted his entire career to dogs, especially those with problem behaviors. He always works in the frame of "family therapy", with the dog as an important member of the family, and with the whole family involved.

Anders has done extensive public speaking and conducted numerous seminars and workshops for dog owner associations, particularly in Scandinavia and Western Europe. He has appeared several times on Swedish national TV demonstrating his concept of "soft training methods".

In 1983, Anders was the first to ever train a dog to locate mold infections in wooden buildings – now a big industry in Europe.

Anders is a member of the Board of the Swedish association "Service and Signal Dogs for the Disabled"; all dogs trained by this organization are trained in accordance with Anders’ concepts.

Publications and important accomplishments:

Anders has conducted extensive research in topics that are related to problem behavior, such as stress analysis and dogs’ responses to stress, the effect of pain on behavior, under-stimulation, and mental activation. His main focus is always on identifying the underlying reasons instead of attempting to cure the apparent symptoms. Out of these studies, Anders developed several practical tools and systematic protocols to deal with stress, pain, hyperactivity, and medical reasons for problem behavior, including an effective innovative mental activation program.

Anders has written hundreds of articles to dog magazines and 16 books that are all published in Europe. His books are extensively used as reference literature for dog trainers in Europe. "The ABC of Dog Language" was the first to be translated to English and published in North America.

Anders has had a profound impact on the dog trainer community in Europe. It is to a large degree to be attributed to him that dog training in Europe since the ‘70’s has swung away from the traditional abusive standard methods based on pain and fear. The new traditions are adopting an attitude towards dog training that is in compliance with the dog’s nature – and it reaches far better results at top levels of competition training and practical work where the dog’s performance reliability is in high demand.

Personal Interests:

Anders’ heart beats for dogs, especially the "criminal" ones that have and cause problems. His non-violent and non-abusive ideology pertains throughout his life and he is a firm advocated for dogs’ owners taking good care of their dogs on a daily basis, giving them their deserved share of touch, affection, physical and mental stimulation – and love!

In the later years, Anders has also been writing novels; two of them are being published in Sweden in 1998.