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When I left my part time job and subsequently closed my business in the dog training industry, I foolishly deleted a lot of the work I had done online. I had run a business for 3 years and removed my website and almost all of the blogs it contained.
At that particularly painful time, I wasn’t thinking about how much work that I had done previously might matter and so, very little of it is out there on the interwebz. But, now that I am writing again, I did a little search to see what I was able to find. I realized with the passing of time, I did some cool things in the field. But, the decision to leave it was the right one for me (for reasons that will become more clear as time goes on), even if I do feel a little pang of loss when people tell me it’s a shame I’m no longer “in dogs”.
This is a teeny tiny fraction of what I did in my career, but it was kind of cool to remember some of what I contributed to the field. And it made me feel proud of my time there, a feeling I thought I had lost forever.
I wrote a well-received article on working with dogs who have anxiety in the car. And made a cute graphic to go with it. I also got to talk about it in the mainstream online publication, Bustle.
I started a little podcast. Just a few episodes, but it was fun for a while. I was also a guest on this one.
I ran a nonprofit for a few years. We did some good work and I got to contribute to other blogger’s platforms, like this one.
I worked at an animal shelter, where I served as the Canine Education Behavior and Training Coordinator and got to do some amazing work and fun interviews.
I contributed to a valuable online resource dedicated to helping people understand dog body language.
Being asked to contribute to multiple pieces (a couple more are below) by my friend, novelist (and former dog trainer, herself), Victoria Schade was super cool.
And my biggest contribution to the field was an online course that I created because I saw a need: people and dogs were struggling with nail care. I ran that course for about 3 years and it was extremely gratifying to see people and their dogs overcome this issue together. I’m also happy to see some of my former colleagues carry the torch now that I’ve moved on. But, while I was in the mix, I got to talk about it here and here and here and here. Pretty cool to look back on all of this!
And honestly, it’s a relief to look back on it and not feel triggered by the events surrounding my departure from the industry. And I am pleased to make an Ebook version of Nailed It: A Course in Canine Nail Care free here. No strings attached. Happy filing! 💅🏼 🐶