My journey to inspire other K-9 teams!
My name is Megan and I have been in the world of dog for close to 15 years. I am human mom to two young boys and a dog mom to 5 dogs, 3 German Shorthaired Pointers and 2 Labrador Retriever . A wife to a husband that is just as dog loving as me who has helped me turn this business into a family run small business. I am a Certified Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed through the nationally recognized Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. I am very diverse in my experiences, from puppy and adult manners classes to the fun sports of competitive dog work such as rally, conformation, agility, dock diving, and hunting. I earned my Associates Degree in Small Animal Management from the University of New Hampshire, Thompson School.
After graduating from college I pursued a career in the dog grooming industry for 10 years. I was a manager of big facility and enjoyed taking the time to train employees within the industry and educate pet parents on many dog related topics. During that time I had my first child and wanted to take some time to enjoy motherhood. I took the time to figure out what I truly loved. While I loved grooming and truly loved educating people, I decided to pursue a career in teaching Companion Animals at the high school level. I did this occupation for 3 years and felt very fulfilled and loved it. However being a mom of 2 young human children I felt I needed to be closer to home and follow my passion of opening and running my own dog training business. So that is when my husband and I started the developing of Inspire K-9’s Training Center LLC.
Why did I get into dog training? That is a great question to ask? I have a simple answer! I have learned along my educational path that there are many people who get a pet and think, “it can not be that hard to raise a pet”. Then they learn as the pet gets older they come with demands and challenges. In my years, I have been within the animal industry in many capacities. In those careers I began to realize there is a need for education. There is a need to teach people how to “talk” or understand dog language. I myself was one of them when I got my first competitive dog fresh out of college. I said to myself, “I got this”, “I have experience”, “it can’t be to hard”. Does that sound familiar to you? I’ll admit boy was I wrong! I ruined her, by spoiling her and doing my training all wrong. I didn’t know “dog talk” as much as I thought I did. From that moment on I made a commitment to change. Not only for myself and for my dogs and but any dogs I would own in the future. I set a goal for myself and gained all the knowledge I could on science based training. I read books, spoke to other trainers, mentored where I could. I wanted to do right by my “girl” and any other dog I had in the future.
When I went into teaching students at a technical high school about the canine species I noticed there was a need everywhere. So as I taught these students and saw the light bulb of the science based learning go off I thought hmm.. maybe I need to get this message out to more dog owners. From there the rest is history, and here I am starting my mission of creating amazing K-9 teams with a foundation of trust in learning.
Living by Four Paws – Two Feet – Together One Journey!
I hope you will take the time to join me and see how fun training can be, and how great your bond and companionship can be between you and your four legged companion. Training should never be a battle it should always be fun and should always be developing a trusting, understood relationship between you and your fellow canine!