Andre Gatling

Born in Southeast, Washington DC, Andre has always had an interest in expressing himself verbally and in writings. During high school, Andre wrote an article that was published in The Washington Post expressing his views on how we ,as students, should be willing to except students with AIDS into schools considering the bullying they were going through.

Andre, an alumni of the DC Improv Comedy School, has had a long and successful career in the entertainment business as a standup comedian, actor and improver. But his real love in life is rescuing and training an array of animals, particularly the Pitbull. He has spent well over 25 years working with animals and much more time growing up around Pitbulls. He realized he had a unique approach to changing the behavior of aggressive dogs from his personal experiences with dogs and his time working with quarantined dogs in animal shelters. In his own words, Andre will tell you, "Aggression in a dog is similar to aggression in a human. We're both scared of what we don't understand, and our need to protect leads to aggression. Changing that aggression in a dog is more complex because the dog doesn't speak English, so I had to learn to speak dog!"

Andre lives in Potomac Falls, Virginia with his 2 Pitbulls, Chloe and Jordan, both of whom have American Kennel Club (AKC) accreditations. Chloe-who he calls a Ball Addict-has an AKC Good Citizenship Title, while Jordan-who he calls the Bone Collector-achieved her AKC Star Puppy Award. These accolades help Andre's advocacy for Pitbulls to help change the perception of the breed.