Every once in a while an inquiry hits our inbox from an aspiring trainer or behavior professional that asks us the best path to get into the field. Working in an unregulated field, where anyone can slap a title like “certified trainer,” “or “behaviorist,” on a business card is tricky. The terminology alone is confusing. Dog psychology? Obedience? How does anyone with a dog know what will be helpful? How does anyone who wants to work with pets know where to start when there is so much conflicting information?
Unlike other professions, there isn’t a clear-cut answer or a step-by-step process. But sometimes that makes for a more interesting story, and that’s why we’re sharing ours. Whether you’re looking for your own path as a trainer, or you’re about to work with one of us as part of your behavior team, we hope that getting to know us a little better is helpful (and/or fun), and we’re glad you’re here.
TL;DR
Although our paths are varied, here are a few of the common themes I pulled out of our stories that brought ours together here at Pet Harmony:
- Mentorship: Just like a stray kitten finds a trusted human to follow home, many of us started by finding a mentor to show us the way.
- Behavior and body language: We all learned about behavior and body language in some way. In college, through a program, a mentor, or by filling our shelves with books, these essential topics inform our practices and allow our team to prioritize welfare and wellbeing.
- Hands-on experience: Whether in a shelter, vet clinic, or training classroom, we all spent time applying behavior principles and practicing training mechanics.
- Curiosity and growth mindset: We’re all lifelong learners. Whether we have college degrees, certifications, or other credentials, we continue to learn and grow. Additionally, we have all brought our individual skills and talents along for the ride, including those from previous lives and careers, which bolsters our next theme…
- Teamwork: Internally at Pet Harmony or working as part of our clients’ care teams, we know that helping people and their pets live harmoniously means we all have to work together.
Allie
Well, I was born on a Monday…
Fast forward 13 years – I wanted a puppy. We had always had 2 dogs while I was growing up and 2 years had passed since we lost one of my childhood dogs leaving us with only 1. It felt like the mourning period was over and it should be time to add another four-legged family member. My parents disagreed with that assertion, saying that they did not want the responsibility of caring for another individual.
So, in true Allie fashion, I created a PowerPoint presentation and presented to them everything that I would do for the puppy and all that I learned about caring for puppies. They relented, and we adopted an adolescent Newfie mix, Bear. Thanks to Bear and his adoption process, I learned a lot about animal homelessness in the US and decided that I was going to open an animal shelter. Which is obviously a totally normal thing for a teenager to decide to do with their life.
My local shelters did not allow volunteers younger than 16, so as soon as I turned of age, I started volunteering. The volunteer position was loosey goosey, and I got to do everything from cleaning dog and cat enclosures to helping potential adopters to providing enrichment. I also got my first job at 16 as a veterinary assistant. At 17, I started working at a local pet boutique.
I went to college for Animal Science at Iowa State University (decidedly not pre-vet). While there, I started a student-run organization called Students Helping Rescue Animals to connect students with local shelters and provide aid through volunteering, fundraising, and educating the student population. That organization still exists today!
I took all the classes I could on companion animals, animal enrichment, and human psychology. I published my honors thesis study on environmental enrichment and its effect on adoption rates for shelter dogs on the ISU Ag Extension website. I had a few summer internships with shelters and sanctuaries, a semester-long internship with the director of a senior citizen facility, and did a whirlwind study abroad about horses in Ireland and the UK.
After graduating in 2012, I was only able to find part-time work with animals so I had a bunch of part-time jobs: Kennel Technician at a local shelter, Dog Trainer at a local company, Veterinary Assistant at a local low-cost spay/neuter clinic, and assisting my mom in her real estate work.
One of those jobs finally turned full-time and I became the Program Manager for the low-cost spay/neuter clinic in 2013. This was it! I was going to do the things I needed to do when I opened my shelter! Fundraising, program development, donor relations, volunteer coordination, marketing… and I hated it. So a decade after deciding I was going to open a shelter and taking every opportunity I possibly could to prepare myself for that, I entered into a quarter-life existential crisis, realizing I no longer had that dream.
In considering what I was going to do with the rest of my life, I found solace in teaching group classes every week for a local dog training company – the only part-time job I continued when I accepted the full-time position. I just wanted to train dogs. In 2014, I took a full-time dog behavior consultant position with Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah and eventually became the team lead for the dog behavior department.
I was afforded a lot of opportunities while there: national speaking engagements, TV & commercial appearances, publications. But the most important opportunity was getting to work with hundreds of dogs and several cats with really severe behavior issues. I essentially got a super condensed crash course in behavior modification; what would have taken over a decade to experience, I got in a couple of years. This is also where I met Emily and we started working on Canine Enrichment for the Real World.
We decided to move back to Illinois at the end of 2016. I worked contracted training jobs for 1 whole month before deciding that if I wanted to pay my bills and work as a full-time behavior consultant that I should start my own business, and thus Pet Harmony was born. Since then Canine Enrichment for the Real World and its companion workbook came out, we started the Enrichment for the Real World podcast, and I continue to speak and teach.
Emily
Being the neurospicy person I am, non-humans were my special interest from infancy. My parents loved to tell the story about how my bib had a bunny rabbit on it with a squeaker in its tummy, and when people would squeak it I’d cry and tell them, “Don’t hurt the bunny!” So for as long as I can remember, I wanted to work with animals and cared deeply about their wellbeing. As a child, I thought the only option was to be a vet, so that’s what I thought I wanted to do.
When I was 10, we went on a tour of the Texas A&M vet school, and our tour guide told us, “To get into vet school, they don’t just look for good grades, they look for lots of experience working with animals.” Taking that hyperliterally (because, again, neurospicy), I asked my mom if we could stop by our local shelter when I got home. The shelter told me volunteers had to be 11 years old, so on my 11th birthday I signed up to be a volunteer.
I was a hard worker and very interested in learning more about animals and their care, so one of the vets who offered vet services for the shelter – and who, incidentally, knew my parents from church – invited me to volunteer at his vet clinic.
So from the age of 11, I started volunteering at that shelter and vet clinic, eventually getting hired as a kennel tech at 15 and then trained up as a vet tech at 17. I also rode horses at a local barn. We couldn’t afford riding lessons, so I mucked stalls in exchange for lessons, and eventually was allowed to groom horses in exchange for lessons.
The journey I went on through my teens and 20s was long and convoluted and I won’t bore you with the details, but the salient points are:
- I also ended up working for an aviary, raising and training parrots; I volunteered for one wildlife rehab facility during college and worked for another later in my 20s; I switched to a different stable that used the freedom method and I eventually got to the point where I was able to work with the horses who had behavior issues in exchange for lessons; over the years I became a relief vet tech, which allowed me to work at a wide variety of veterinary practices, including emergency medicine, speciality hospitals, alternative medicine, and exotic medicine; I co-founded and ran Austin Parrot Society; and I served on the board of Wings of Love Avian Rescue.
- In college I realized that I did not, in fact, want to be a vet. Instead, I double majored in Linguistics and Psychology. Due to health issues and family stuff, I had to drop out two months before I graduated.
- Because I saw a lot of success working with horses and birds using kinder, more empowering and ethical methods (although admittedly still more coercive and aversive than I am now), I had some weird cognitive dissonance about the difference between how I was working with horses and birds vs. how I was working with dogs and cats, which my brain explained away by believing that predator species needed more coercion and “discipline” than prey species.
By my late 20s, I was in a pretty dark headspace. All I wanted to do was help animals, but it broke my heart to see how we were causing so much fear and aggression. I was told many times over, and believed, that “we have to hurt them to help them.” But it really messed me up.
Through the avian community, I learned about Dr. Susan Friedman and was interested in learning more from her. Because I had majored in Psychology, I really wanted to hear what she had to say about the application of the behavior sciences to non-humans. So in 2008, I took the first course from her–a free introductory course called “Parrot Behavior Analysis Solutions” or PBAS. That course no longer exists, but in the very first lesson of PBAS I was just sobbing. Everything she said made so much sense, it was so cohesive, and most of all it was such a relief to know that no, in fact, we do not have to hurt them to help them.
I was hooked. I took every course she had available, I dove into every textbook I could find and afford, and I started following around behavior professionals who worked with different species like a stray kitten, not giving them much choice but to mentor me. I just knew that helping humans and animals to better understand each other and work together harmoniously was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and I was going to figure out how to do that, by hook or by crook.
But the thing is, my mentors were great, but they never signed up to be mentors and they weren’t set up to give me a comprehensive education. I did the best I could by stray-kittening as many mentors as I could find, reading as many books as I could get my hands on, and just diving in and doing the work with as many species as I had available to me (which, admittedly, was a lot). But I made a lot of mistakes. I had to learn a whole lot of lessons the hard way. My learning curve was a 90 degree angle. And I pro bono’d myself into poverty in the process.
So in 2016 I discovered another passion: helping other behavior professionals get to where I got without having to go through what I went through to get here. Allie and I have been developing and refining our mentorship program ever since then, and with Ellen added to our team we’ve ended up with PETPro, which is a mentorship program that I would have killed to have available to me when I was starting out. Our unofficial tagline is, “We messed up so you don’t have to.” And that truly is my passion: helping people to acquire the knowledge and skills to do this job well without all the painful mistakes I had to make. By doing that, my ability to help humans and non-humans live together harmoniously increases exponentially. And, really, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.
Ellen
Honestly, I got here through chaos, privilege, and a bit of whimsy. I went to college at the University of Washington and lucked out that they had an Animal Behavior program that was supported by both the Psychology and Biology departments. There, I was able to learn from some incredible animal behaviorists and researchers who truly believed in me. After finishing my Bachelor of Science in Psychology, I went on to gain as much diverse experience as I could. I worked as a Procurement Analyst at Boeing (someone stole my sandwich, and that was the last straw), and independent contractor running preference tests in home for dog toys and cat food for large corporations, managed a dog daycare, volunteered in wildlife rehab and at zoological institutions, and was the teaching assistant for the Certificate in Applied Animal Behavior at the University of Washington.
In 2015, my partner had the opportunity to join a company in Florida, Natural Encounters Inc, and we left the PNW to embark on a Southern adventure. After joining the team at Natural Encounters, I had the opportunity to work on multiple teams, including the show team at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where we facilitate free flight educational bird shows, and the Ranch team, taking care of the birds at home base, raising baby birds, facilitating professional education workshops, and leading facility tours. In 2017, with the help of Griffey, I completed the Karen Pryor Academy – Dog Trainer Professional course earning my KPA-CTP.
In 2018, we were ready to return to the PNW, and I joined the team at Ahimsa Dog Training, helping puppies gain life and social skills, leading group classes, and really shifted my focus from my direct training skills to my people coaching skills. Again, with the help of Griffey, I fell in love with canine conditioning and fitness, and worked with Lori Stevens to learn skills to help Griffey, and other dogs, feel comfortable and empowered in their bodies.
Once the pandemic hit in 2020, my partner and I made another move down around Oakland, California. Once there, and with the whirlwind that was 2020 and beyond, things moved quickly. I published in the Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens with my mentor Dr. Eduardo Fernandez, and my partner Nathan Andrews; releasing research completed during my undergrad. I completed Julie Naismith’s Separation Anxiety Pro Behavior Consultant program, earning my CSAPBC. I joined the training team at East Bay SPCA, running classes and seeing private clients, and jumped at the opportunity to join Pet Harmony as a Behavior Consultant.
Since the chaos of 2020, I’ve taken on the roles of Behavior Consultant, Operations Manager, Mentor and Co-Owner at Pet Harmony. In addition to my work at Pet Harmony, I’ve returned to the world collegiate learning as a Teaching Associate with the University of Washington in their Certificate for Applied Animal Behavior. I’ve taught courses on creating safe spaces for pets, presented at conferences on working with clients, and continue to strategically seek out learning opportunities from amazing mentors and teachers.
Our fearless leaders, left to right; Allie, Emily, and Ellen. Pet Harmony co-owners and work wives.
Claire
I’ve always been the “animal girl” of the family. I was the neighborhood dog sitter, the kid people called to “come feed the cats while I’m gone,” and the one who would attempt to teach my dog tricks in the backyard without any information or instruction (she was a pro at “Get it!” by the time we were done!)
In middle school, I got really into musical theatre and thought that would be the path I would pursue. I went to college and got my Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre (while walking dogs for some side cash), and after saving some money at home, moved to Chicago to start auditioning!
Cue my quarter life crisis realizing that I didn’t want to live the lifestyle that musical theatre would likely require of me, despite my heart being entirely smitten with it. I sat down, thought about what I truly cared about, and realized it came back to animals, especially dogs and cats. As evidenced by my childhood, I loved spending time with animals and caring for them. I’ve also always been fascinated by behavior. Much of my theatre training was spent analyzing thought processes and what drives people to do and say the things they do. In fact, that was one of my favorite parts! When I realized that there existed a role in the animal world that would allow me to embrace all of those things, I excitedly dove head first into learning everything dog via dog daycares and attempted to connect with anyone who might be willing to mentor me.
I jumped around to a few different doggy daycares until I ended somewhere where there was a training department that gave me foundational knowledge. During this time, I read Canine Enrichment for the Real World, which guided me to look up Pet Harmony for help with my own pup. It was through further conversations that I learned about the Pet Harmony Mentorship Program, the precursor to PETPro. I got to meet some of my future coworkers there, speak with mentors that helped me to continue growing my knowledge and skills, and join an invaluable trainer community that I’m honored to be a part of today! From time spent there, I was able to formally join the Pet Harmony team. They have been absolutely integral in helping me learn and grow my skills.
Today, I work with all types of animal behaviors, helping families and their pets feel confident and safe. The best part is that I am in a constant state of learning, which means the job never gets stale! I’m absolutely working my dream job and I’m so grateful for what I do.
Corinne
Look, I just really like brains, I like communicating, I like exploring, and I like connecting with others. While all my kindergartener classmates wanted to be superheroes or work in the Doritos factory, I wanted to be a teacher. As I got older, I became obsessed with music and band class–playing my oboe and mellophone consumed my waking hours. When it came time to apply for college, I felt the internal pressure to prove my intelligence by doing something highly academic while also fulfilling the budding feminist inside of me so I went to the University of Illinois and was a Molecular and Cellular Biology & Gender and Women’s Studies double major so that I could become a gynecologist… but I couldn’t stay away from music classes and ensembles. One day, I eventually stared at myself in the mirror (literally, I was so emo), cried for about 30 minutes straight, and decided to switch majors to Music Education.
After graduation, I worked at the Walt Disney Company in a few different roles, then got my “Big Girl Job” teaching band at a Grammy-award winning high school, and fell totally in sync with my purpose as a connector. I loved teaching music and I loved how ensembles connected so many people through creating something together. I thought this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.
So how’d we get here to the animals? Opie Dog! I first started volunteering as a dog walker at our local shelter because I wanted a dog so badly, but couldn’t have one yet. One day, I walked into my regular volunteer shift, the stars aligned, and I met eyes with my soul mate Opie. I called my human soul mate Tony, told him this, and we adopted Opie as a 1 year old. He was filled with joie de vivre, including all the delightfully naughty things. What was going on in this puppy dog’s head?! I started to consume everything I could about dog training and with every book I read, I started realizing that I can replace “dog” with “freshman” and it all still reads the same. Training is a way to connect with another learner and it was so similar to teaching my band kids. The humane society connected me with Allie Bender, she took me under her wing (I got to read Canine Enrichment for the Real World as a manuscript!), and I began working as a dog trainer on the side. I studied more, I learned more, I taught group classes, and I spent more time working with behavior cases. After my second kid was born, we decided to take a break from teaching in a brick and mortar school with human brains and now I’m doing behavior consulting with pet and human brains.
Band Teacher and Pet Behavior Consultant may seem like two different things, but at the core of both is learning, connecting, and growing with others.
MaryKaye
Ask 100 different dog trainers and behavior consultants how they got to where they are and it’s likely that you will get 100 vastly different answers. Here is a part of my story:
I always had a strong love of and interest in animals, including human animals but I was especially interested in behavior. I was also really obsessed with dogs as a kid. I mean really for realz obsessed as evidenced by the multiple dog books in my little kid library. I toyed with the idea of being a vet but I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford tuition for that many years plus…math. Stick a pin in this one, because I also thought about being an animal trainer but I had no idea how to go about accomplishing that so instead I earned a BA in psychology, because behavior.
My first job post college was as a case manager in a social service agency that provided services to senior citizens. It was my first real foray into applying how behavior works in the real world.
When my first born son was old enough to enter preschool, he was enrolled in an early childhood Montessori school. I was once again bitten by the behavior and learning bug and I was smitten by the approach that the Montessori education system utilized to help students learn at the pace that was right for them. So I did the only logical thing I could think of and joined the staff at the school where my son was a learner. I did that for almost two decades, devoting time to both the preschool and kindergarten classrooms as an educator. Truthfully, my years as an educator of young children was incredibly impactful in terms of being able to look at behavior through the lens of curiosity rather than judgment. What a gift to me!
I started volunteering in animal shelters because, remember, I was a lover of dogs and wanted to get back to spending more time with them. And, hardly shocking to anyone that knows me, it was the dogs who were struggling the most in the shelter system that I was drawn to. I went on a learning rampage and started attending every local seminar, webinar and any other opportunities my brain could muster in an attempt to make life even just a little bit easier for the dogs who were exhibiting the most complex behaviors.
Remember the pin I told you about at the beginning of our wee little journey (the one about being an animal trainer?) It only took me a few decades to discover that there are actually people and programs out there that you can utilize to help you reach your goals. One of those people was none other than Allison J. Bender. I am not embarrassed to say that I quite literally stray kittened her and she was instrumental in helping me forge my path as a trainer and consultant on the Pet Harmony team. I knew what I wanted and she helped me with the how. And here I am, several years later working to help clients and shelters address complex behaviors and growing and learning alongside a team that is incredible!
From left to right: Claire, Corinne, and MaryKaye
Veronica
How it started: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. After that I was in employee benefits consulting for a few years, because, why not? While challenging, it was not personally rewarding for me. But it did provide a strong foundation of customer service skills and appreciation for “complete counseling.”
Middle: I’ve been in veterinary medicine since 2009. I did this on a whim, starting off as a receptionist for a specialty vet hospital after leaving my consulting job and wanting to start over. Once I saw what the nursing staff was doing, I was hooked. I wanted to know all the things and how to care for sick animals. I became licensed after finishing tech school in 2013.
Later: I’ve spent most of my vet med career in emergency & critical care and in management roles. I’ve always had an interest in behavior because of my pets’ behavioral issues. I took classes and webinars to learn how to better support them through their struggles.
Now(ish): I switched to veterinary behavior after the pandemic. The pandemic was hard on vet med staff, I was ready for something new. I started working for Insight Animal Behavior Services and flourished with all the new concepts I was learning. I also saw the need for science based trainers with a true understanding of maladaptive behaviors. After getting my KPA-CTP I felt there was still something missing, so I joined PetPro. It was the missing piece I was looking for. It embraced the client’s journey and treated the animal as a whole. Then one day the stars aligned, and I joined the Pet Harmony team.
Tiffany
How I managed to live most of my adult life without a dog is beyond me. But I rented and moved around a lot and wanted to be responsible or whatever. Until that fateful day in November of 2018 when I found a scruffy little staffy with sad eyes staring back at me on Petfinder…but since everyone else so graciously started at the beginning, I will too.
I grew up in the middle of a corn field in Ohio, where my brother and I ran wild with every type of pet you could imagine. Cats, bunnies, chickens, hermit crabs, hamsters, racoons, a goat named Spunky, a pony named Topper, and a handsome German shepherd-malamute mix named Sam. I spent my career shadow day in middle school following around my vet. Like so many people who grew up in the 80’s/early 90’s, I thought I wanted to be a marine biologist. I spent the first couple of weeks of my summer break my junior year snorkeling in the Florida Keys as part of a marine biology class I had taken. My very first job was walking dogs and cleaning dog and cat kennels at a local vet clinic that also did pet boarding.
But I had allergies. And I couldn’t do math. And life happened. And college happened. I spent half of my time with the English majors of Bowling Green State University over in East Hall, and the other half in the spectacularly retro Life Sciences building with the bio majors, and caring for reptiles and amphibians in the herpetology lab. Before I started grad school, I got an internship working with a bunch of herpetologists with a small branch campus of a major university based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (Side quest: I met the love of my life here when all 6’ 6” of him came striding into the office, muddy from catching snakes, wearing a thrifted “World’s Greatest Grandpa” shirt. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.)
But animals would have to wait. Armed with a Master of Arts in Scientific and Technical Communication, I wanted a career and health insurance or whatever. I spent 17 years working around the Midwest with engineers and software developers writing training, specs, manuals, and assorted instructional content. I decided that earning a living and having a passion for something could be two different pursuits, so I studied to become a yoga teacher and started doing that on the side. But those degrees (and the student loans I’m still paying off), didn’t guarantee anything. Like other elder millennials, my career weathered two major economic crises, and I was laid off both times. I learned to pivot, and picked up some teaching experience as an adjunct instructor of composition and technical writing.
During lockdown in 2020, I had some time to think. Petey and I spent a lot of time in the woods, and Big Man and I spent a lot of time putting together puzzles and discussing how we might navigate a career change. I began shadowing a trainer locally and teaching group classes. I enrolled in what was then called the Pet Harmony Mentorship Program so I could stray kitten the heck out of Emily. I learned the fundamentals of behaviorism, the mechanics of training, how to speak dog (body language), and, of course, the Pet Harmony Enrichment Framework. I worked for my spot in the program by helping review the work of other mentees in the first stage of the program. When the Mentorship Program emerged from its cocoon as PETPro, I got a magical email from Emily one night with the subject “Would you like to work for us?”
In my work with Pet Harmony, I have the opportunity to apply every bit of my life experience into an absolute dream job; something I truly thought would never be possible for me. It looks something like this:
- Tech writing and instructional design skills – As Content Lead, I manage the blog, lead quarterly content meetings to generate topics, edit and upload content for the blog and podcast, and edit and moderate social media posts for our Social Media Manager (hey Twinfany!). I also help create presentations because I’m the weirdo on the team who enjoys making Powerpoints, and Allie allows me to indulge my creative delusions of being a graphic designer by giving me fun projects. Additionally, I get to help with a lot of back-end stuff in our learning management system, as I have years of experience learning new software quickly to write instructions.
- Teaching skills (from both adjunct college stuff and yoga) – As a mentor in PETPro, I lead applied office hours. Often my topics revolve around writing, document usability and accessibility, or creating resources. I also hold office hours for self-care, and like to teach the occasional yoga class for folx in the program.
- Training and behavior skills – Obviously I wouldn’t be here without my experience as a trainer. I see clients as a behavior consultant, which I believe I have Petey to thank for just as much as any coursework I have completed. Life with a pet who is on a complex behavior journey brings its own lessons. I understand the struggles of other humans on this journey on a different level, including the limited bandwidth, the need for creative solutions, and the additional support required. I also get to see the enrichment framework in action, as our life requires its ever-evolving, iterative application to ensure the needs of the beings in our household are met.
From left to right: Veronica and Tiffany
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
I know I’m not the only member of this team that credits the rest of the team with helping them become the trainers, consultants, mentors, and human people they are today. Since I’m curating and posting the blog, I get to speak for all of us when I encourage anyone interested in doing what we do for a living to find your people. Be a stray kitten. Trial and eval. Build your network. Lean on your community. Meet your needs. Working in an unregulated field is tricky, but it also brings together curious, compassionate, creative humans, and I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be part of this team.
Here’s to harmony,
The Pet Harmony Team
Now What?
If you’re a pet professional looking for your community, check out PETPro. If you’re a pet parent looking for help from people who care as much about working with you as you do about finding workable solutions for the issues you and your pet are having, we’re here to help.
Copyright 2025 Pet Harmony, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy
Results are not guaranteed because behavior, human, canine, or otherwise, are not guaranteeable.
