Growing up in my family there was devotion and commitment to our German Shorthaired Pointers. Since the 70s, admiration of our hunting dogs was encompassed with pride and there was a large focus on function and workability yet still having a family companion. My eldest Uncle was a dog man, with a kennel full of GSPs and Beagles. I preferred my summers there running dogs, being the bird girl, feeding rabbits, and mucking stalls in exchange for riding privilege in the afternoon. The basic kid playing with friends on bicycles just wasn’t my thing. When my father had his pups I was continuously getting caught sleeping with and being told to get out of the whelping box. So my world truly did revolve around the dogs.
During my youngest years I would rather be reading horse and dog encyclopedias, books about riding, training your dog, breeding or learning different breeds origins. I didn’t care about fiction or fairy tales, I wanted knowledge. I wanted answers. My overwhelming passion was animals, but especially horses and dogs.
After high school I took a summer job helping with a large boarding kennel, Holly Farms. They also bred and showed Akitas, Shiba Inu and Portuguese Water Dogs and were highly revered in the dog show world. I met my first professional mentor there one day bathing a kennel dog. Sara, of Pioneer Poodles truly took me under her wing, and honed me like a sword in grooming not only at the kennel shop but also at her kennel on the weekends grooming poodles.
Soon after a summer I began management for the boarding facility dogs, which also included the breeding dogs at Holly Farms. I was their main groomer now until they retired 3 years later. I was striving on my off hours studying to be a veterinary technician and working alongside with Rockhill Veterinary hospital as a groomer. This led to entrepreneurship with multiple grooming shop locations. My expansion for another grooming location led me to my next venture. During those teen years I accomplished a lot. I was soon Professionally handling dogs for my Uncle in the GSP ring and my mentor led me to handling poodles for her. In addition, training weekly with my young Rottweiler and GSP preparing to compete in UKC obedience.
As I reached my 20s I had the opportunity as a student to meet another professional mentor at Professional Canine Academy Inc. At the time I was handling and managing grooming clientele in Pet Country Club. But soon I was furthering my knowledge in genetics, temperaments, extreme behavior modification, Schutzhund, detection, and personal and estate guardians. In 2 years I completed my Commercial Certifications and continued as a sub-contracted Trainer/Handler. In those leading years I titled several dogs for PCCI in Schutzhund and my 2 personal dogs.
