My Story

Most of my earliest childhood memories are filled with dogs, cats, and small, large, and exotic animals. No matter the subject or activity, if an animal was involved in some way… I was hooked.

I was that kid who was dubbed the animal fanatic, the kid who immersed herself in the Animal Kingdom and dreamed of working with animals when I grew up. Zookeeping, Marine Biology, Conservationism, Veterinarian… the list goes on, but I think you get it.

So I was animal-obsessed… I must have had a lot of animals growing up, right?

Wrong.

I had a childhood cat, McKenzie, and two guinea pigs at a time until I was twelve years old when I got my first dog. His name was Buddy – Original, I know. It took ten years of persistent harassment before my parents finally let me get a dog.

Before the age of Social Media and the rise of Google, pet care/animal-related books and Animal Planet were all the rage in my world. I learned basic hands-on training concepts with my guinea pigs before I got my first dog… and the rest is history. Ha! Kidding (not really).

It’s been a wild ride in the years I’ve professionally worked with dogs, working in the following fields:

It’s been wild, uplifting, rewarding, heartbreaking, nerve-wracking, and everything in between. The dog biz is f#&%ing hard – mentally, physically, and emotionally. I’ve been beaten down by colleagues, complete strangers, and entitled dog owners who preferred to listen to what their neighbors had to say and didn’t value my time.

I’ve been bitten, dragged, scratched, pissed, and sh*t on. I’ve had to break up group dog fights. I’ve had to break up personal dogfights.

I’ve ended up in horrifying situations that could have killed me if I didn’t know how to handle the situation properly.

Lots of blood, sweat, and tears have been poured into the dog industry… and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve saved countless dogs’ lives and set owners up for success, and knowing I’ve positively impacted so many families kept me going.

But I’m not here to talk about my life and career.

Over the course of my career, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve learned a lot. I don’t know everything, and I never will… But I’ve noticed a very common trend over the years with the rise of social media:

There is a ton of terrible misinformation out there that is reaching millions of pet owners, and pet professionals like me have seen the worst of those results.

As a trainer, I have helped hundreds of dogs and their owners find a balanced, harmonic life, and a lot of those times, it wasn’t only by hands-on training… in fact, that was only half of the equation. It also taught them how dogs think, how to properly communicate, read body language, and fine-tune the details to their specific needs.

I started writing this blog to help educate new and seasoned dog owners and set them on a more informed path to all dog-related topics, from informative posts to product recommendations that my colleagues or I use as professionals and more.

On my blogging journey, I’ve gained great knowledge of what it takes to be “seen” on Google, and marketing has become a second passion – so why not blend both and help fellow pet professionals and brands?

Meraki Dogs – once just a local dog-training business website – is now a valuable global resource for dog owners, lovers, and hobbyists and a competitive marketing brand for pet businesses. Thank you for your continued support!