My work background is in speech therapy/behavior change in children, which translates easily to the teaching and reinforcement strategies used to train dogs. A coworker of mine was a speech therapy dog handler, so I have firsthand experience of the effect of dogs on the emotions, social skills, and empowerment of people. Friends, teachers, and neighbors have counted on me to care for their pets in the past, and as a young adult I enjoyed caring for my own bulldog Darwin and my boyfriend’s Doberman Nietsczhe for several years. I am a small person, so walking that pair of tough guys and handling them so well always seemed to surprise people!