WARREN ECKSTEIN

On his upbringing: 360k WAV audio file 2Mb QuickTime movie On becoming pet therapist to the stars: 715k WAV audio file 1.9Mb QuickTime movie

Lily Tomlin and her dog

Web posted on: Monday, September 28, 1998 4:40:15 PMEDT

(CNN) -- Warren Eckstein is perhaps the most renowned pet therapist in the world, and his unique line of work has taken him to some interesting places. He is most likely the only person on the planet who can say he trained dogs for the mob, and helped comic actress Lily Tomlin's pooch deal with its multiple personalities.

Now he's telling his tale in an offbeat book titled "Memoirs of a Pet Therapist."

Eckstein spoke with Miles O'Brien on CNN's Sunday Morning.

O'BRIEN: Communication with animals. Is that really possible? Can we talk to dogs in the way we think of that?

ECKSTEIN: Sure we can. What we need to do is get rid of this human ego, spend more time on the floor and just kind of watch their behavior. Any pet owner in America will tell you they know what their pet's thinking. You know, "I'm hungry," "I want to go out," "Buy me a new toy," or "What time is pop coming home from the office?"

O'BRIEN: As I understand it, your talents in this ability to communicate have landed you in some high-and-mighty places. You've become sort of the pet therapist to the stars. How did this come about?

ECKSTEIN: Years ago when David Letterman first moved to New York from Malibu, his dogs had trouble adjusting to the streets here in New York City. What a shock. So it was up to me to resolve those problems, which I did, and then he called me up one night when he was hosting his show, and Lily Tomlin was a guest, and I met Lily and started working with her dogs, and her dog was like working with Sybil -- the dog had multiple personalities -- but then Lily practices multiple personalities every single day.

... the celebrities use the same attorney's, the same doctors, so I kind of became the dog psychologist to the stars.

O'BRIEN: There was some good buzz on you, obviously. I'm curious, you hit on something there. The fact that her dogs split personalities and she obviously performs in quite a few personalities. Do all animals reflect their owners personalities in that regard?

ECKSTEIN: Absolutely. I mean, if I have psychotic owners, I have psychotic dogs. If I have owners that are depressed ... as a matter of fact Miles, if I spend 10 or 15 minutes with someone's dog, I would probably know more about them than they probably want me to know.

O'BRIEN: How do you go about this? You say you get down on the ground -- if somebody at home wants to get on a better level and communicate better with their animal, what should they do?

ECKSTEIN: I know what you're thinking: Is this guy psychic? No, I'm not psychic. I do believe, though, that all animals have a sixth sense. I believe it's probably more inhibited people than any other animal, so by spending time on their level, we can understand what they're saying.

Looking into their eyes, watching their body language, because animals really do communicate with their body, and if we know what's normal and we watch for change, then we can determine exactly what they want.

O'BRIEN: How did you know that you had this gift?

ECKSTEIN: I grew up in a typical Long Island household in New York. People kept moving in and never moved out, so I decided to spend my off time as a young child in the backyard with snapping turtles and rats, much to my parents chagrin. I remember bringing a rat into the house as a child and convincing my father that it was a muskrat that lost its hair, but after six months even my father wasn't that gullible. So I just kept up with the animals, being shy. I felt more comfortable, I felt that they didn't care if I got a C or a D in school, which, by the way, there were many of. They liked me for what I was, who I was and could care less about the material things around me.

O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this. Turtles, rats, snakes, whatever the case may be. Is it all the same, as far as communication?

ECKSTEIN: It's all the same, basically. I mean, I generally don't sit down and have a conversation with an iguana. But yes, if you watch an iguana and you really study their behavior, you can communicate. I think the big thing here is, let's just remove that human ego and stop treating our pets like animals. They're part of the family. Years ago every dog in America was Duke, Duchess and Queenie. Now it's Sam, Sal and Harry. Sounds like a poker game on a Friday night, and that's because we should accept our pets as part of the family.

O'BRIEN: All right. You've got to tell us about the menagerie you have at your home.

ECKSTEIN: I just recently moved to the West Coast, but at my high point, I had two 1,200-pound pigs, six chickens -- which, by the way, sat on my shoulder like a parrot would do -- kind of a strange looking parrot. I had ducks, chickens, parakeets, snakes, rabbits and a whole array of snakes. You know what, they're a lot easier to deal with than people because they're totally honest and they never borrow money.