More Than Just A Dog Trainer

It's common to get labeled as your profession, but dog trainers are more than just dog trainers!

For most of my life, I have solely identified myself with my career. But, I am much more than what I do for a living.

This is a (strange and different) post about - me. Because - why not?

I am more than just a dog trainer.

🐈‍⬛ I am a cat person. Yes. Many of you might actually already know this lol. I 10/10 prefer cats over dogs, despite my career. I have three amazing boy cats who have my entire heart: Sweeney Todd, Majicou, and Arjuna. (And maybe this is also why I prefer my owner directed aggression dogs because perhaps they are more cat like lol).

🌱 I am a vegan. I stopped eating animals for ethical reasons in 1999, and then stopped consuming all animal products by 2003. I’ve never looked back since.

🧘🏽‍♀️ I am a yogi. While I practice asana in the hot room for several hours each day, six days a week, I also embrace the yogic lifestyle to the best of my ability, “off the mat,” as we say. After all, yoga is not just the 90 minute class you take in a class. There are morals & ethics, scriptures to study, the sister sciences to implement, community, and a whole new perspective on life, one that has entirely changed mine.

💪🏽 I am physically active. I strength train at least three days a week and I love to hike and do other challenging things.

📖 I am a student. I love learning and being immersed in the vast depths of knowledge. A teacher of mine often says: “Knowledge has no ledge.”

📚 I am a reader. I love love love to read. Books provide guidance, support, comfort, as well as entertainment. My favorite things to read are poetry, self improvement, yoga scriptures, and animal related fiction.

🏝️ I am a beach lover. You’ll usually find me there on my days off.

📝 I am a writer. It’s always been a creative outlet for me and I enjoy writing about my mental health journey as well as gratitude for the people and things in my life that I value.

📿 I am a mantra chanter. Chanting mantra, singing mantra, and doing japa meditations have been life altering.

🌙 I am a moon lover. Nothing in life is predictable, but the moon phases are! We can follow the phases of the moon and use her cycles to align our goals and intentions with something greater than ourselves.

🌅 I am a routine embracer. I preach about routines a lot in my career but that’s also because I have also experienced the incredible benefits that daily routines can provide - especially for those of us with anxiety.

🪬 I am tattooed. Lol - surprise! I think that tattoos are a beautiful form of self expression where we get to decorate our temples and most of us heavily tattooed people have a lot of stories to tell.

🗝️ I am disciplined. Growth, enlightenment, and liberation don’t come by chance. They come through facing the challenges that we don’t want to face - doing the things that we don’t want to do - time and time again. My overall character has improved immensely ever since I started to really value discipline.

🐚 I am a sheller. I love shelling. I think it’s a great mindfulness exercise and there’s so much to learn and explore.

🫂 I am a community member. I never knew that I needed community until the day I realized I needed community. The last couple of years have really taught me how important it is for us, as social beings, to be immersed in support by like minded people. One of my teachers always says, “we dance together as one,” and that is not limited to a vinyasa class, it’s dancing in this life together, as well.

✨ I am a Libra Sun, a Scorpio Rising, and a Leo Moon. I think astrology is fascinating and we have so much to gain from it. I have so much air, fire, and stagnant water in my chart, with virtually no earth elements. No wonder I’m always seeking out ways to ground myself.

💚 I am a love. We all are. Green represents the color of our heart chakra, and it’s always been my favorite color.

And to all of my fellow dog trainers, I would love to see you share your own blog post on how you are #MORETHANJUSTADOGTRAINER because I think it’s so important that we honor and value our individuality in the industry.

🐾