Emily Strong (she/they)
PETPro Mentor & Author
PET HARMONY CO-OWNER
Hellooooo!
Over more than three decades of hands-on work, I’ve been lucky enough to work with an extraordinarily long list of species — dogs and cats, of course, but also livestock, exotics, a handful of wildlife species, and (yes) a wasp. Somewhere along the way I discovered my favorite learners to work with were actually humans.
The turning point came in 2008, when I stumbled onto the work of Dr. Susan Friedman and took my first course in applied behavior analysis. It reframed everything I thought I knew about working with animals, and I spent years afterward chasing down every mentor, book, and course I could find to keep learning.
The catch: none of those mentors had actually signed up to train someone from the ground up, so I pieced my education together the hard way. That’s why building a real, structured mentorship program eventually became my mission.
I see you working hard for pets and their families. Let’s build you a sustainable career!
From Animal Welfare Work to Behavior Consultant & Co-Owner
Animals have been my thing for as long as I can remember. I started volunteering at a local shelter the day I turned old enough to qualify, and by my teens I was working as a kennel tech and then a vet tech. From there, my path wound through aviaries, wildlife rehab, a variety of veterinary practices, and eventually full-time behavior consulting.
After meeting in a Utah shelter, Allie and I built First Train Home together, co-authored Canine Enrichment for the Real World, and launched a mentorship program so other behavior professionals wouldn’t have to learn everything the hard way, like I did. That program eventually grew into PETPro, where our unofficial motto is still “we messed up so you don’t have to.” By 2019, it was obvious that merging our businesses made more sense than running them side by side, so I joined Pet Harmony as co-owner.
I’m committed to a Least Inhibitive, Functionally Effective (LIFE) and science-based approach to training and behavior modification — and to teaching people about the animals they love.
These days I live in Seattle with my partner, two dogs, a bird and a rabbit.
Mentoring the Next Generation of Behavior Consultants
My focus now is mentoring inside PETPro. I spend my time helping trainers and behavior consultants build the skills, confidence, and business practices they need for a sustainable career. The same kind of guidance Allie and I wished we’d had when we were starting out.
Whether I’m working with a mentee or reviewing a tough case, my process starts the same way: understand the whole picture before reaching for a solution. Symptoms — a reactive dog, a stuck business, a case that isn’t progressing — are rarely the real problem. My job is to help people find what’s actually underneath it, and build a plan they feel confident carrying out.
