What a fun time we had in San Francisco attending a dogTEC Dog Walking Academy. Both Brad and I obtained a certification for individual and group Dog Walking. This was a 4-day course delivered in a variety of mediums to include lecture, video analysis, demos, hands-on exercises and field trips. The topics we studied were pack management, dog communication and body language, aggression in all it’s forms (what it means, how to prevent it and what to do about it), safety and fight protocols, client and dog screening, as well as small business practices.
In addition to focusing on group and individual dog walking, we also were certified in Pet First Aid and CPR after studying topics such as dog/cat anatomy, vital signs, emergency situations, rescue breathing, CPR, choking actions, bleeding injuries, as well as stroke, burn, poison, snake bike and seizure protocols.
It was certainly time well spent and we really enjoyed the practical part of the course where we took our pack of 5 dogs for an hour walk at Point Isabel, a 23 acre, off-leash dog park that sits right on the San Francisco Bay. We’ve now added Dog Walking to our menu of services and look forward to working with our clients helping them exercise their canine kids!
