A Different Path

Well folks, it's been a year and a half since I first opened the doors (gates, actually) to Path & Paw Doggy Daycare. It's truly been a journey, full of highs and lows and so much learning. Every dog that has visited with me has taught me something, big or small. And I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have learned these lessons with so many wonderful people and wonderful dogs. But now it's time for me to take Path & Paw in a different direction.


I was recently given the opportunity to work at the Humane Society of Sonoma County, and I've really been enjoying this angle on working with dogs - getting to improve the lives of shelter dogs, helping them find homes, and getting to work with more people on a day to day basis. However, I'm currently working at least six days a week - three at daycare, three at the shelter, with private training sessions in the evenings and weekends. I'm going to be holding group training classes at the shelter, as well, and recently finished becoming licensed as a Family Paws Parent Educator, which gives me the opportunity to start giving seminars on dog/child safety and to help young families with dogs and babies. There are so many interesting opportunities that I can see emerging from all of these changes, but I'm finding that my schedule is simply too much, and in taking a step back, I'm realizing that I want to focus more on training.

So, I'm going to be phasing out of daycare. I'll remain open up until June 1st, but am also planning on starting some playgroups. Playgroups would offer an opportunity for supervised socialization in a controlled setting, where we can discuss our dogs' body language, work on our observation skills and promote positive social skills for our dogs. This would be similar to the puppy playgroups many of you have most likely attended when your dogs were smaller, but in a larger setting. More details to come!

I've also had aspirations of starting an Out and About dog group, where folks can gather to work on better leash manners in the presence of other dogs, especially for those of us that have reactive or over-excitable pups. This has been put on the back burner due to my insane schedule, but by letting go of daycare, I can actually put some energy into getting it up and running — more details to come on this, as well!

Saying goodbye to daycare isn't an easy choice, but I feel that it's time for me to move on and continue to grow and evolve as a dog professional. I am so grateful for all the incredible people that have supported me on this daycare journey, and I hope to stay in touch with you all, and continue to be a part of your dogs' lives. Thank you so much!


Tressa