Welcome to my blog

Dogs are my whole life. I grew up with a Collie mix named Lady. Despite her previous history of abuse, she was by far the best companion a young girl could have. She taught me everything I needed to know about the unconditional love and loyalty that dogs give so freely. When she died, a piece of me died with her, but my passion for dogs lives on.

Meeting Zoey

For several years when I was in the military, I volunteered with local rescue organizations to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome unwanted shelter dogs. I got hands-on experience with everything from innocent young puppies to adult dogs with serious behavior issues. When the time came to adopt my own dog, I rescued a five-month-old Australian Shepherd named Zoey. She came from a breeder who basically left her in his backyard to fend for herself all of puppyhood. She was afraid of men, panicked when she encountered foreign objects, and growled and snapped at children. All of these issues wrapped up in a 25-pound bundle of black and white fur. I had seen dogs with issues before, but with Zoey I had truly met my match. It took months of dedicated rehabilitation and training just to help her become a “normal” dog. Her road to transformation was slow and somewhat discouraging at first, but we did it! She’s now a registered Hospital Therapy dog and my best friend! People have a hard time believing she could be anything but her bubbly, happy, self. Sometimes when I look into her eyes, I see Lady – with the same fiery spirit and unconditional love.

My passion for dog training

Fast forward several years, and here I am. I’ve turned my passion into a career, and I’m loving every second of it! After furthering my education, I grabbed hold of my dreams and started my own business. I now get to work with dogs of all breeds and temperament types on a daily basis, and I’ve never been happier. I’m dedicated to my passion, and I enjoy researching animal behavior, training, nutrition, communication – and anything else that catches my eye. There’s so much more to Man’s Best Friend than “Sit” and “Stay.”

My goals for this dog blog

As part of my website, I want to share my knowledge with you via this blog. Of course, I can’t tell you everything – we’ll save that for a book someday – but I do want to share golden nuggets of information with you that will help improve your relationship with Man’s Best Friend. A great relationship based on understanding and trust is a priceless treasure! I’m ridiculously passionate about training and nutrition – for humans and dogs! –so those are probably topics you’ll see a lot of on here. I’ll also be highlighting EXTRA-fun topics like Schutzhund and Police Dog Training but let’s face it—working dogs don’t apply to the average pet owner that just wants his dog to stop barking at the mailman or to come when called. I want to help YOU and SHARE information that’s useful to you.

This blog is for you – your questions and comments will be the fuel for my future posts so please, comment away!

Welcome and God Bless. ~ Amy