Finally, just before Melinda’s 13th birthday, she got her first dog—a black cocker-spaniel puppy named Maggie. Melinda began to put all her knowledge of training and socialization to work, so Maggie would be the best dog ever. Unfortunately, the other members of the family were not on the same page. “Maggie quickly discovered that my dad would bend to her every whim and spoil her,” Melinda laughs, “so she ended up becoming his dog, rather than mine.” It was a formative lesson about dog training and about relying on others to share her level of commitment.
As a young adult, Melinda got her regular dog fix by pet sitting, dog walking, studying to become a veterinarian (a path she determined she wasn’t passionate about), and working for a pet-sitting company. All of this experience helped her discover her own standards for pet care and motivated her to launch her own business. She took a National Association of Professional Pet Sitters course and learned everything from animal behavior, nutrition, and housing, to first aid and general care for animals. Melinda began to build her own business as a certified pet-care professional while working as a positive-reinforcement dog trainer (an approach she endorses to this day). Within the first year, Melinda’s was named one of the city’s Top Five Pet Care Companies, and in the five years since she went out on her own, she has built a thriving business that offers a range of pet sitting, day care, boarding, and training services.
An early client who had four trained German shorthair pointers, all trained as gundogs, rekindled another fascination from Melinda’s childhood--hunting. In Wisconsin, the schools would empty out when deer season came around because everyone would be off at their cabin hunting with their family. “It seemed like something that ‘normal’ families did together,” Melinda says, “and I really wanted that.” Although her parents never allowed Melinda to take up hunting, they did buy her a camouflage coat and a BB gun one year for Christmas. She didn't get to use the BB gun much, but she wore the camouflage coat down to the last thread.