Hello everyone! My name is Haleigh. I’m going to tell you a bit about my past, present and potential. I believe my purpose is to help animals. When I was a baby my mom had a Borzoi. She told me he is the one who taught me how to walk. I would pull myself up with his fur and he would slowly walk next to me. My parents had know idea how much of an animal lover I would grow up to be. I was always bringing animals home. It took me till this last year to realize my driving force has always been to help animals in anyway I can. I started my first real job working in a Petsmart grooming salon in 2013, moved to Petco grooming in 2016 and started cat grooming in 2020. I didn’t do any continuing education after I was originally trained by PetSmart until March of 2020. I had just left a Petco grooming salon to go to an independent dog grooming salon when Covid started. Many conferences were now happening online. I was able to easily get more education and it awakened more of my love of cats. There was so much to learn. But the more I learned, the sadder I became. I was using not ideal handling and training techniques. Did you know groomers, all over the country are not licensed? There are minimal laws about owning a grooming business and none on safely and humanely handling a dog or a cat. There is no formal education or requirement on sanitation for groomers and none for animal behavior. I was seeing stressed dogs and fear biting when I started looking into dog training. I learned there is no law or standardized training for dog training as well! I was even working for someone who encourages aggressive handling and I didn’t even know. So all of these people who may not understand dog psychology are training dogs, and grooming doesn’t have a standard either, who is left to trust? There is not a required formal education or federal license. Here I have been working in a profession for ten years where there are no laws requiring training or a test for animal behavior for the people who work in these fields. I frantically tried to absorb as much information and retrain myself which weren’t actually good practices. I unfollowed every trainer except Zak George. Nothing against some amazing trainers but I was retraining myself on dog behavior. I wanted make sure I was sticking to one handling and training method. The “look at me. Place. Sit. Lay down. Wait. Come. Leave it” are the same but my understanding of dog body language and behavior has improved. I looked for someone I could trust to give consent and ethical instructions. Zak is one of the many trainers pushing for federal law requirements in dog handling practices. I desperately think we need this for groomers, trainers, daycare, boarding, and veterinarians. If the worlds leading researchers and veterinarian canine behaviorist are all say positive reinforcement is the most effective long term and the safest way to train a dog, there shouldn’t be a debate, but there is which is why I have this paragraph the longest. As someone who you are considering trusting your pets safety to you should know that this is something I’m passionate about because I spent so long doing the best i could but they were still outdated practices. We should all be licensed. We need pet care professionals who are trained and who are there for your animals welfare. We need more people who your animals are excited to see. I want to be one of those people to every animal I look at. Presently, I’m still a pet groomer, just not expanding. I have worked with and groomed dogs from all over the world, meat market dog, puppy mills, street dogs, bate dogs, abandoned, but the hardest are the mishandled ones. Not only do I have to convince them I’m not going to hurt them but to trust me enough to use sharp tools. Being a pet groomer is truly a rewarding job. Making animals clean and have them feel good. It is truly a passion of mine. I’m also a weekly volunteer at Regional Animal Services of King County also known as RASKC. I work with the cats and small animals. I am also a volunteer cat transporter for the Balam Foundation out of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I travel to San Miguel for a few days helping out at the foster center socializing and grooming cats. Then I fly with the cats to already adoptive families in the states. By being a Rover dog walker and pet sitter I’m able to practice and expand my knowledge on canine and feline behavior. I am able to work as a groomer and I stay healthier by being active. Your babies get to enjoy an adventure with me in the the beautiful, and wet PNW. My husband Scott and I currently have four dogs ranging between 9 years old and 14 years old. A year ago our oldest dog was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I was making extra money by walking and house sitting for my grooming clients to pay for Brittany’s treatment. Long story short, we’ve made many trips to WSU Veterinary Teaching College for treatment for her. Somewhere along the way I got this crazy idea. I called it my pipe dream, something that will probably never happen. In central Washington I want to buy a piece of land and plant trees. I want to have it dedicated to native plants and a haven for wildlife. Crazy right? My husband and I are backyard bird watchers. We do a lot to make our yard wildlife friendly, fourteen plus bird feeders, mason bee and leaf cutter bee boxes on the house, our cats stay inside or on a leash, we plant native species and kinds that help wildlife. I started to think, could housesitting and dog walking be a way to make money for this so called pipe dream. Maybe its crazy or maybe I’m working towards my potential.