Robert George Gailey, 82 of DeLand, Florida passed away on Sunday, April 4, 2021. Robert served in the United States Army before working in Law Enforcement as a K9 Counselor. Robert “Big Bob” Gailey was afflicted with dementia, Gailey had a passion for dogs and was a pioneer importer of German Shepherd dogs he trained for police agencies in Central Florida and all over the state. He left a legacy of training knowledge and techniques used by many law enforcement K-9 handlers from agencies across the area. People came from all over to honor Gailey and say farewell before he died. Gailey was a longtime force in police dog training, police dog handler training, and a pioneer in Central Florida’s dog community. Dogs were Gailey’s life. The walls of photos — hundreds of pictures — in his DeLand home tell the stories of Gailey working and training dogs of all breeds. Gailey was a longtime police dog trainer, an award-winning dog show competitor, and a pioneer German shepherd dog importer in Central Florida. His love for dogs was lifelong — when he helped at a veterinary clinic in Orlando or at age 12, when he was showing in American Kennel Club competitions. His work with police dogs started in 1959 when he was a military police officer in the U.S. Army and was a K-9 handler. After leaving the Army, he became a reserve deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. In 1964, Gailey started K-9 of Orlando, a police dog training facility, which he later moved to Astatula in Lake County. For at least 55 years, as a trainer, Gailey prepared thousands of officers and deputies as K-9 handlers all over the state. Records that Gailey kept of his work show that he trained and worked with dogs from police agencies all over Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and West Virginia. He also worked with K-9 units in Washington, D.C. During those years, Gailey also launched K-9 units at Disney World in 1972 and shortly after did the same at Seaworld. In addition to being the first importer of German shepherds to the Central Florida area, Gailey also improved training techniques and added his personal touch to training police dogs, which are still taught in multiple K-9 programs at agencies in Florida. Perhaps Gailey’s biggest contribution in K-9 training was that he changed compulsion training (making the dog do what the handler wanted) to happy training, where Gailey got the dog to do something because he wants to do it. Bob taught food motivation and toy motivation. Every one of his officers and students he trained were familiar with his phrase, Repetition by association, forms a pattern, creates a habit, produces the behavior. Gailey, described as a “machine” when it came to his work ethic, left the business of police-dog training in 2008 but still worked as a K-9 consultant. Even in his late 70s, Gailey was still training pets for people. He would also show up at the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office K-9 training compound as late as last year and watched K-9 handlers and their dogs in training. Bob was known to go out of his way for a department. If someone called and their department was short on funds, Bob would put the person and the dog through the class and not charge them anything, and do the certification for them. Bob was diagnosed with dementia a year ago and “spiraled down” six months later after his favorite pet German shepherd, Nemo, died of cancer. Gailey leaves behind his wife Lisa.
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