Welcome to Bob's page! You will get the only authorized version of
information about Bob Weatherwax right here. For more from Bob
himself, don't forget to visit his FaceBook page!
Bob and Laddie on the
Pasadena Humane Society float
in the annual
Tournament of Roses New Years Day Parade;
January 1, 2003
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This page was last updated: January 9, 2012
Some of Bob's
innumerable credits include:
360 episodes of the original
Lassie television series
Back to the Future
Big Jake
The Borrowers
David Copperfield
Aftershock
F.B.I. Untold Stories
Harry and the Hendersons
Joshua’s Heart
The Magic of Lassie
Lassie; Best Friends Are Forever
Life Goes On
Married with Children
Moment by Moment
Poltergeist II
Racing With the Moon
The New Lassie series
Red Dwarf
Roseanne
The award winning
mini documentary,
The Weatherwax Legacy
released June 13, 2011
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After graduating high school, Bob joined the United States Army and served
three years before being honorably discharged. While he reports that Army
life was far easier than working for his father, who so despised the thought of
nepotism that he placed incredible challenges in front of his young son, Bob
nonetheless opted to go to work for his dad upon returning from the service.
Thus, in 1962, Bob began working on the Lassie television series as an
assistant trainer. With a natural talent, an expert teacher, and deep love of dogs,
Bob soon worked his way up to what he fondly terms "first leash". It was not
long before Bob was not only accompanying and assisting his dad on the summer
stage show circuits, but He was also taking the dog by himself to these
performances as well as to various television talk shows and other appearances.
Bob Weatherwax was born one
year to the day after his father,
Rudd Weatherwax's famous
Lassie Come Home star, Pal was
born. More than any other kid in
the world, Bob literally grew up
with Lassie. As a mere toddler,
he was the training "prop" Rudd
used to teach his canine star
such things as retrieving the
human, kissing the face, and
otherwise interacting with various
actors. Not much later, Bob was
given the responsibility of caring
for the working dogs in his dad's
30 - 40 dog kennel. Before and
after school, as well as on
weekends, the kennel chores
were Bob's responsibility.
Spreading his wings in the Hollywood dog training arena, Bob eventually
established his own business training and supplying dogs for a plethora of movies
and television programs. During those years, he also supplied a number of
assistant trainers to take the dogs he had trained to various assignments. Those
assistant trainers included his own young son, Robbie. In those years, Bob became well known as "the dog trainer who could". If a dog was needed for
a difficult performance, or another trainer was not up to par, the studio community
knew to call on Bob Weatherwax to get the job done.
When Rudd's health began to fail during the filming of his final Lassie movie,
The Magic of Lassie, Bob was called on to replace his dad and complete the film.
After Rudd died in 1985, Bob trained the young dog his dad had kept to represent
the next Lassie. Without an interested corporate sponsor, he set forth on his own
to promote what he cherished as his dad's legacy. He found interest in the then
new cable network, Animal Planet, which established a Lassie series that played
for two seasons. Eventually that dog was bred, and the son he produced for
Bob became the star of Bob's own Lassie movie,
Lassie; Best Friends Are Forever, in 1994. Another television series followed,
this one filmed in Canada in association with Universal Studios and Classic Media,
and featuring the dog from the movie. That dog, notably, was one Bob called
"Howard" for the owner of the first airline to allow the Weatherwax Lassie dogs
to fly as passengers -- Howard Hues.
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Nonetheless, Bob still owned the last of the Weatherwax Lassie dogs, a son of
Howard, whom he called Laddie. Bob and Laddie made numerous public
appearances, and rode in the Rose Bowl Parade in 2003. Later the pair went to
the California state capitol to show their opposition to a statewide law requiring the
neutering of all dogs. Laddie personally voiced his opposition to attending
politicians who notably scrapped the bill.
By this time Bob's promotional
efforts had resulted in several
corporations taking notice, and
the Lassie trademark was sold
for increasing profit by several
successive companies during
that period.
The final buyer was
Classic Media which still owns
the name as of 2012.
Their perception of what the
icon should represent was different from what Bob and his
father had fostered and nurtured
over their six decades with
Lassie. So in 2004, Bob parted
with them and thus with his representation of the Lassie name.
Bob & Laddie
Howard
Today Bob lives with Laddie's young
grandson, his pet Collie he calls
Hammer, and a feisty Cairn Terrier
known as Throttle. Both dogs made
an appearance in the award winning
documentary short,
The Weatherwax Legacy, featuring
Bob and his dear friend,
Temple Grandin.
Looking forward, Bob hopes to reestablish the work his father began
in his early years of touring with
Lassie. At every venue, Rudd
insisted it be written into the contract
that he and Lassie, or Bob and
Lassie visit sick children
in a local hospital. That Therapy Dog work, for which the moniker wasn't even
known at that time, was an ironclad requirement that Bob continued religiously
through his own years with Laddie.
In that light Bob is currently seeking funding for the full length documentary,
By My Side; The Service Dog Mystique, in which he and Temple Grandin
will appear. Additionally, he hopes to open a teaching center to help foster
Therapy Dog teams, and eventually to teach potential Service Dog trainers, as
well. Through these venues, he wants to see carried on through generations to
come the real Weatherwax Legacy; a genuine respect for and celebration of
the human / canine bond.
-- Terry Thistlethwaite
See You In The Morning; Simon and Simon; Skeezer; Stone Fox;
The Watchers II; Who’s the Boss?
Bob & Laddie
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Young Bob with Pal,
the original Weatherwax Lassie Dog
and star of seven MGM movies
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Rudd Weatherwax often referred to his son Bob as
"The best dog catcher I've ever worked with"
Bob and Lassie; The stage show
