About Me

After a lifelong passion for animals and botany, I finally landed my job as a dog handler for the first time in September of 2020. I cried I was so happy, animals have always been a professional interest for me, though I knew I didn't want to go the veterinary route. For one year, I worked as a Doggy Daycare worker, managing a facility for 7 of those months. My job responsibilities included identifying problem behaviors, determining compatible personalities between social circles, and handling an enormous variety of temperaments. I worked alongside trainers in identifying cognitive reasons why a dog may be responding to certain stimuli differently than other dogs. I loved working with so many different personalities at once, but I found my interest falling to the dogs that needed help. The dogs that didn't understand how to play with other dogs, who scurried from other handlers, and the ones confusing others with their body language. I wanted to help, I wanted to understand them and help them feel heard. I didn't have time to put that type of focus into single dogs when 15 others were also running amuck, though I made my best efforts and am grateful to have made a difference in some dogs and their owner's lives in the time I was there. 

I educated myself to feed my interest.

College is expensive, and takes time I don't currently have, so I have no degrees to offer on the table. One day i would love to say differently, and I would like to study Animal Behavioral Sciences. I have worked diligently over the last year to educate myself in every and any possible way to understand more of man's best friend. At this point in time, I am Red Cross Dog & Cat First Response certified, and working through a course with Duke University's Dog Cognition center. I am constantly keeping up to date with literature and studies on dog emotion and cognition, collaborating with trainers, and attending webinars.