I've been working with animals for over 20 years now, and if asked my family, they'd probably tell you I've been obsessed with them even longer. I grew up in Northern Maine, where your closest friend might live 30 minutes away and there isn't exactly an endless list of entertainment options. Like many animal-loving kids, I spent years begging my parents for a dog. They finally gave in when I was in 5th grade. The day I got my first dog, may arguably still be the best day of my life. I started caring for animals professionally while I was still a kid and never really stopped. What began as a way to spend time with animals eventually helped pay my way through college, where I studied law and business and minored in sociology and psychology. By the time I graduated, my pet care business had paid for my education in full. At one point I was sitting at my desk preparing applications for graduate school when I had a realization: Why am I doing this? The answer was simple; I was doing it because it was what I thought I was supposed to do, because that's what everyone (including family) tells you. Go to school, get another degree, follow the conventional path. Instead, I picked up the phone and called my parents. "I've decided I'm not going to grad school." I took the money I had planned to spend on another degree and invested it into finding a home where I could continue building the business I already loved. Over the years, my interest shifted beyond simply caring for dogs. I became fascinated by behavior, why dogs do what they do, how they learn, how they communicate, and why some relationships between people and dogs seem effortless while others struggle. After spending decades watching dogs day in and day out, I've come to realize that one of my favorite parts of this work is helping people see what their dogs are already trying to tell them. It was honestly news to me when I learned that reading dog behavior isn't intuitive for everyone. Spending so much time around dogs has made many things feel obvious to me that aren't obvious at all to most people. Today, I still find myself endlessly curious about dogs, behavior, learning, relationships, and communication. The more I learn, the more I realize there is always something new to discover, and that's one of the things I love most about this work. I also have a soft spot for cats. While I've spent years learning to read dogs and understand what they're trying to tell us, most cat communication still feels like an unsolved mystery; and I suspect that's exactly how they prefer it.