Meet Catmantoo

At 18 years old, Robert Dollwet was given the opportunity to train police dogs in the US Military. He explains that at the time, he knew he loved dogs but wasn’t quite sure what he was getting himself into. “It didn’t take long to realize I had a knack for working with dogs,” he said, “And I figured this must be the thing I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”

After working with the Military, he moved to Hollywood, California to train animal actors for the TV and movie industry. And 4 years later, he started his own dog training business in Malibu to help the rich and famous with their pets. In 2019 he relocated to the Gold Coast to spread his knowledge with those in Australia.

Over his 35 years of experience, it’s safe to say he’s a real dog guy. But it turns out, he’s a cat guy, too—or, in other words, a Catmantoo.

“After the Military, I got a job training animal actors in Hollywood,” Robert tells us, “Even though dogs and cats were our specialties, I got to train and/or wrangle many different kinds of animals. That’s when I went from being a “dog” trainer to an “animal” trainer. In 2004, I wanted to stand out as a trainer, so instead of getting another dog to train, I decided on a cat, because people thought cats couldn’t trained. I not only wanted to show people cats are very teachable, but working with a cat would improve my own training skills. Plus, a cat acts as a huge distraction for the dogs I was training, which helped take their training skills to a higher level. I found a cat on the street and named him Quiz.”