I have been working with/for animals since 1997, getting my start at the Humane Society of New York, taking care of the adoption dogs. I started working there hoping to find a little bit of nature in the concrete jungle, and I ended up finding my calling.​​ After several years there I started working for Bill Berloni, the premier animal trainer for entertainment in NYC, he's also the behaviorist at the HSNY. You may have seen his dog Bowdie in Peter Pan Live! on TV. Working for Bill, I learned how to read dogs' body language and figure out how to keep our animal actors happy and motivated. I worked on projects where we trained dogs, of course, but also cats, rats, mice, and birds. I trained the cat in the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" with Tom Hanks. In 2010 I was the trainer at the county shelter in Tucson AZ for a quality of life program for dogs in municipal shelters through Petfinder Foundation, called the Train To Adopt Program. One of the really useful exercises from that program is called the 'nothing exercise'.