5.0

I started out my dog care experience with The Seeing Eye as a teenager volunteering to raise puppies in my home from the time they were six weeks old until they were 18-24 months old and ready to return at a mature age with basic training mastered for the next step in their service animal training to eventually become guide dogs to aid those with visual impairment and improve their quality of life and independence. From these roots I’ve continued to developed my own skill sets in raising, training, and caring for dogs at all ages of life including their senior years while especially enjoying the foundational training with puppies as they develop over time to master their basic training. My strength is in connecting with and understanding a dog’s behavior and emotions through their body language, a skill acquired while raising a rescue dog with fear aggression developed after they were attacked and injured by an off-leash dog before they came to live with me for their remaining years. This experience also taught me the importance of socializing dogs from a young age and exposing them to as many people of all ages, places, animals, noises, smells, and environments outside their normal routine as possible overtime time as they gain confidence and self-control to desensitize them from any type and of stimuli they may encounter throughout their life.