Growing up my go to fun fact about myself has always been "I grew up with a dog that had no eyes". In 2004 we rescued a 2 year old Basset Hound from the shelter named Leroy. When he was 6 years old, he quickly developed glaucoma in both of his eyes and needed emergency surgery to have them removed. I spent weeks sleeping on the couch next to Leroy in his cone, and soon enough he was healed and ready to take on this new adventure with blindness. I have extensive experience working with and creating a safe environment for blind dogs. Leroy has since passed on at age 12 after living a very full life despite his blindness. Fast forward to 2015, I adopted my current dog Berkeley at 2 months old. He grew up in a college environment living with 8 girls in one house so he can be somewhat protective over females. Outside of my college classes and working part time jobs, I made an effort to ensure Berkeley was properly trained and well-behaved. I trained him on the basics as a puppy, so he was able to test out of the level 1 beginners class. Berkeley went on to complete both the level 2 intermediate and level 3 advanced classes. After his training, we completed a test with an AKC evaluator and went on to become certified under the American Kennel Club as a "Canine Good Citizen". Berkeley is now 7 years old, but always gets mistaken for a puppy. He has anxiety around kids, water, and getting his nails trimmed, but he loves playing with other dogs and frequents dog parks. He especially loves playing with small dogs and puppies. He is very energetic, but especially gentle with smaller dogs. Berkeley is somewhat of a mix between a cattle dog and a boxer, so he does have some herding tendencies around children. He loves to run around on the dog beach in front of our apartment and enjoys taking long walks down to the trails near Pacifica Pier. In my professional life before moving to California, I worked at an ad agency under a well-known dog food brand. I spent a majority of my time localizing the company's website and marketing campaigns across the globe. I worked closely with vets and pet experts to launch educational articles on dog care, tips and tricks, training, and more. I then moved on to work under a global pet pharmaceutical company that manufactured things like flea and tick treatments, heartworm prevention, etc. Under the same company, I was also part of the team that launched a telehealth app for veterinary offices and pet parents. A large part of marketing within the animal health sector focuses on pet health education, so I worked closely with vets, dog influencers, and teams of scientists. Overall, I have a fairly unique set of skills when it comes to pet care. Throughout my experience, I have gone on to give advice to pet parents navigating their way through dog blindness and helped others with the basic training of their new puppies. With my professional background, I've learned so much more than the average dog mom surrounding pet health. Berkeley and I would love to have your dog over and would absolutely treat them as one of our own. We can't wait to meet you!