K9 Cuisine had the honor to interview Brian Pierce, an animal lover and dog walker. We hope you enjoy his story below!
K9 Cuisine: What is your story-how did you get into walking dogs?
Brian: I have been caring for pets, on and off, for over 7 years. I started my first pet care business in Berkeley, CA in 2002 and have been going strong since. In 2007, my family moved to New Jersey where I started working with animals again part time until this past January when I launched my new business here in Jersey. I began in this line of work after becoming a product of the dot-com bust in San Francisco. I was working freelance and comtemplating my career plans. I realized how much I loved walking my dog every day and began researching what it would take to do it for a living. Soon afterwards, I became a full-time dog walker.
K9 Cuisine: What is your secret to success?
Brian: Easy…treat every animal as if they were your own. This way, you know you are providing the best care possible for each of your clients. Being flexible with clients helps also. Let them know you are working for them and not the other way around. Always remember that you are providing a service, one which can be easily taken away from you if you do not do the best job.
K9 Cuisine: What makes you different?
Brian: My personal touch and attention sets me apart from other walkers and pet care professionals. I prefer to go above and beyond my particular call of duty. Not only does this please my clients, it also makes my clients talk to others about me and I get more clients to please!
K9 Cuisine: What is it you love about dogs?
Brian: Dogs don’t judge. They don’t argue (with me). They are always so happy to go out with me and love getting the chance to run and play. It makes me happy to see how happy they can be.
K9 Cuisine: What is the neatest part about your work?
"Brian's dog, Bodhi"
Brian: Being my own boss (except for all of my clients which are my bosses). I love working for myself. I feel like I have more control over my career and my success and failures. And being around dogs, I just love them!
K9 Cuisine: What are your future plans?
Brian: I can see my company becoming the best pet care service offered this side of the Hudson. I was voted Best of the Bay Dog Walker in SF in 2005. There is no reason I can’t do that again and more. I plan on growing more and more, but constantly maintaining the personal touch that has made me so successful.
Brian: I am a guy that has had a variety of careers. It’s not so much that I can’t settle on anything, but I get bored after a couple of years. But now, I have found something I love to do and I know I am good at. I am a pretty fun guy that is always looking at life thru fun-colored glasses. I see the funny in everything. I am light-hearted and goofy…which makes things more difficult for my wife! Corie is a wonderfully patient woman that understands my quirks and celebrates my weirdness…thankfully! I probably relate better to our 2 kids, Kelsie (5) and Dylan (2). Kids make more sense to me than adults! They are our whole lives and we love how silly and goofy they can be too. I am originally from Shreveport, LA and am a graduate of LSU.
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K9 Cuisine is a provider of premium dog food. We’re committed to providing our customers with the knowledge, and the products, to help their faithful friends be the best they can be.
We are honored to have interviewed Christine Barnett, lover of dogs and pet therapist.
K9 Cuisine: What is your story-how did you get into helping animals?
Christine: Since the day I was born, I have always had a dog. As an only child, I counted my dogs as my best friends. My dog passed when I got divorced, and I was on my own with no animals. About 5 yrs ago, I received a surprise Christmas gift…a kitty, which was my first cat and a total surprise to me. I immediately loved her. She was a rescue and had been living as a stray at the animal shelter. She had been picked up off the street , homeless and pregnant at only 1 yr old. At the shelter, they gave her an abortion. When she was brought to me, she put her head on my chest and fell asleep. She slept for almost 3 days straight, walking only to eat and visit the litter box. She seemed emotionally and physically exhausted.
Having this close relationship and basically nursing a grieving mother back to emotional mental health made a huge impact on me and my understanding of animals and their feelings. Soon thereafter, I decided to go to a volunteer orientation at the San Francisco animal care and control where I found a tremendous need. I started working with Give a Dog a Bone, which is a quality of life program for long term, legal custody dogs. These are the forgotten dogs, the neglected, abused, brutalized, forced to fight and breed. Many people do not know about them, however anytime someone is hurt, dies, is arrested, jailed, cited for cruelty – we take these dogs. While its the most heartbreaking thing I have ever done, it is also the most important thing in my life. Many have to be euthanized, but i give them endless love as long as they are with us (and beyond – I never forget any of these dogs). This morphed into working with Grateful Dogs Rescue, a group of angels who rescue dogs slated for euthanasia. Many of the dogs in Give a Dog a Bone are rescued by GDR, and I have been able to continue my socialization and healing work that starts in the SF ACC and then ongoing after they make it out of the shelter. It’s wonderful to see the dogs outside in the real world!
K9 Cuisine: What is the secret to your success with the your business-how have you gotten to where you are today?
Christine: I am a Reiki specialist and perform energy healing for people and animals. My secret? I found my passion. My calling is to be a friend to the animals. I volunteer, take classes, and I have become a Reiki Master and a Spiritual Animal Healer.
K9 Cuisine: What makes you different?
Christine: I will never stop trying to make a difference in the lives of all animals and of all the people who have a connection with an animal. It could be as simple as talking with someone on the street and telling them that they are a wonderful guardian to their animal – this causes a mental shift for many who see animals as possessions and people as owners. I take every opportunity to better the lives of animals. I am also a licensed psychotherapist and have helped people deal with their issues for years. I believe that my background as a mental health clinician and my current spiritual practice of Reiki allows me to help people and animals from both a scientific and spiritual perspective. I am always seeking additional ways to help. I incorporate Tellington T Touch with the Reiki I do on animals, which is slightly different from what others do.
K9 Cuisine: What is it about dogs that you love?
Christine: Dogs are so zen – right here, right now. I admire their ability to forgive and trust, and find this to be the most incredible quality any being can carry. People hold grudges- dogs are the embodiment of love, compassion, joy, lightheartedness, and simplicity. Even if they have been abused, starved, or beaten, when you come to them with a loving kindness and a soft voice, their little tails start thumping.
K9 Cuisine: What is the neatest part about your work?
Christine: Helping people and animals open the only thing that really matters – love. It’s so rich to bring animals and their guardians to a place of understanding one another and respecting one another. Animals and people can have amazing experiences of the simplest, purest nature, and it is astounding. This is something I love to see: joy. Playing in the shelter park with a dog who never learned to play and seeing them bounce and chase after a ball is an uplifting feeling. Another very important part of this work is helping animals cross over. This is an indescribable experience and I am always deeply honored to be part of the transition from this life to the next realm.
K9 Cuisine: How can people find out more about you and your work?
Christine: I have a new website featuring my reiki practice and also my reiki products: www.SassyMonkeyReiki.com. You can also visit the sites of Give a Dog a Bone http://www.gadab.org and Grateful Dogs Rescue http://www.gratefuldogsrescue.org.
K9 Cuisine: Tell us a little about you!
Christine: I am Christine Barnett, MFT and DD, and a working and licensed psychotherapist for the past 10 years in SF, CA. My love for animals has been lifelong and my current focus is on spiritual animal healing (both in person and distant) and in co creating more effective human/animal relationships. I am an Usui Reiki Master who has received approximately 200 attunements to date. I am an avid animal rights advocate on many fronts from local city government to national and international issues. My specialty is in energetic healing of emotional and physical traumas and with animals crossing over. I am currently studying for my Doctorate in Metaphysics. I also a vegan chef and am more than happy to share my recipes to save more animals!
K9 Cuisine: What is your story-how did you get into helping animals?
Signe: I’ve always had, valued, and respected animals since I was a child. At one point had considered becoming a veterinarian. When I moved to New Mexico, I read about a cat with a serious heart condition that needed surgery. I contacted Barbara Bayer, president of CARMA (Companion Animal Rescue and Medical Assistance) in Corrales, to see if I could help. Even though, fortunately, someone else had already stepped in to help the cat, I inquired about other animals that had special needs. In the interim, I volunteered to socialize cats to be ready for adoption to loving homes. While doing so, I met and worked with cats who were less likely to be adopted because of disability, age, or temperament. One by one I adopted them.
Tony, for example, was a large orange long-haired cat with a lion face and huge soft green eyes who had been hit by a car. CARMA located him at the pound where he was covered in feces and dragged his hind quarters. With assistance he regained some unsteady walking ability. With his spinal cord injury he was also semi-incontinent, losing control any time he became aroused. Once in my two-story home we played up- and down stairs racing games As a result, he had to learn to negotiate the stairs and also hop onto my bed to sleep with me. In what seemed like no time, he was tearing around the house, as if he had no disability at all.
Just a few of the other cats that I adopted were an old, scarred cat with broken teeth from chewing on rocks; a blind cat who had impaired kidneys from a severe infection in her youth; a kitten missing part of its brain, due to its mother having had distemper, who could only hop awkwardly and died several weeks later of seizures; an old skeletal cat with 8 rotten teeth that had to be removed; two-legged Maine Coon, with functional legs on the right side and short stubs on left who could run when he whirled his tail like a propeller; kitten with hydrocephaly and movement problems, not expected to live; and a kitten who lost one eye to a razor-sharp foxtail seed pod and lost sight in the other due to raging infections.
K9 Cuisine: What is the secret to your success-how have you gotten to where you are today?
Signe: My success as an animal socializer and adopter has mostly to do with my understanding, empathy, and valuing of animals and my considerable patience with them. I’m a Social Psychologist and cognitive-behaviorist by training so I tend to see animals in their environmental and historical context. I know that whatever started a behavioral or emotional problem is not necessarily what is maintaining it today. I also know that you don’t get cooperation by trying to make an animal bend to your will. You have to understand what will provide the animal with what it wants and needs at the same time providing you what you want and need. It’s a sensitive dance. I have one large palomino-colored long-haired cat who was abused and abandoned. He was wary, unsure whom to trust, and never let down his guard. Yet after several years, he has come to look forward to jumping on my lap and cuddling up on my chest for petting. He’s still a bit wary but has come a long way toward feeling kitty security.
K9 Cuisine: What makes you different?
Signe: What makes me different is that I can put myself in the place of the animal and sense wherein the problems lie and how best to address them. Being a psychologist helps. Also in my life I’ve had to care for elderly parents that required sometimes extraordinary tolerance and patience. I can step back from a problem to assess it objectively, so I’m not immobilized or stuck in the quicksand of emotion. I also don’t panic in emergencies, act impulsively, or respond in anger. This type of temperament helps to maintain a secure and unconditional love environment for the animals. Cats are especially sensitive to the emotional cues of humans.
K9 Cuisine: What is it about animals that you love?
Signe: While I’ve had many dogs and cats and love them both, I care for cats now because of where I live and that cats don’t absolutely need to go outside, whereas dogs do. All my 18 cats are house cats because there are many dangers for them here, from snakes, coyotes, raccoons, bears, hawks, owls, fleas, ticks, poisonous insects and insecticides to ferals who may be ill or infected with FeLV or FIP. I love the individual personalities of my animals, their quirks, antics, likes, and dislikes. They are infinitely fascinating if you regard them are companions rather than objects you “own.” I’ve found that dogs and cats can be your very best friend. They will listen when others don’t. They don’t judge you when you do something stupid or embarrassing. They’re always there for you and provide the most basic of human contact: touch. If you provide the necessities of life and affection, they will provide unconditional love in return. They’re the gift that keeps on giving.
K9 Cuisine: What is the neatest part about your work?
Signe: The neatest part about my work with cats is when they understand what I’ve been trying to communicate to them and respond appropriately, because they choose to, not because they have to. Also there’s nothing quite like having a dog or cat show that it’s glad to see you when you appear and then want to share its attention and affection with you.
K9 Cuisine: Where do you see pet rescue going?
Signe: No-kill rescue groups are likely to continue and expand as people who care about animals see the increasing need. They will also want to be a replacement for animal control and shelters that kill unadopted or unclaimed animals after a short stay (and that may have reputations for abuse or lack of appropriate care). In difficult economic times people who care about animals are even more passionate about striving to do their best to help as many as is possible of the every-increasing horde. I believe that because of the programs and work of many larger animal protection organizations that their education efforts are slowly shifting the country’s feelings about animals in a more positive direction. The biggest problem for smaller no-kill rescue groups is finding funding and having a large group of volunteers to act as foster parents. Recruiting enough people to foster is a huge understaking.
K9 Cuisine: How do you fit into that-what are your future plans?
Signe: CARMA, which is an all-volunteer, no-kill, 501(c)(3) non-profit rescue group will continue to look for more ways to educate the public, provide medical assistance and foster housing to animals waiting for adoption, have adoption clinics every week, and continue to create events by which to raise funds and awareness to get more volunteers. Currently CARMA has arrangements with local veterinarians and with local merchants to supply them with damaged pet food and litter packages. CARMA has been recognized by the state of NM, has received grants from large corporations as well as supplies of building materials from local franchises. They are also setting up a vehicle-donation program. When I have the time, I send out press releases and stories to the print and electronic media to help keep CARMA in the spotlight. CARMA works with other rescue groups throughout the country and has had many “waggin’ trains” to transport dogs and cats to rescue groups or no-kill shelters in other states, such as those that help FeLV or FIP cats. CARMA will keep doing what it has been, try to expand it reach and influence, and help as many homeless animals as possible.
K9 Cuisine: How can people find out more about you and your work?
Signe: CARMA (Companion Animal Rescue and Medical Assistance) is located in Corrales, New Mexico, and has been a 501 (c) (3) non-profit for many years. It rescues animals that are abused, abandoned, neglected, or at risk of being euthanized. Adoption clinics are every Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 4 p.m. CARMA has a fee of $85-$100 for cats and dogs. The fee pays for the spay/neuter and age-appropriate vaccinations. The application process involves filling out a paper application and then going through a verbal screening with one of their members. They also do a home visit before adopting out the animal. Animals who are currently looking for loving homes can be found at http://tinyurl.com/m5n5ht
One of CARMA’s principal goals is to work with local Animal Control organizations to intercept animals before they are euthanized. CARMA is working closely with Corrales Animal Control to facilitate the transfer of animals into foster care or adoptive homes. CARMA stresses local involvement, but will reach out to all communities to assist animals in need and to identify safe and appropriate placement. And it is always looking for foster homes for its dogs and cats. You can contact CARMA at P.O. Box 1233, Corrales, NM 87048, (505) 342-8070 or at barbaracarma@msn.com.
K9 Cuisine: Tell us a little about you!
Signe: As a Social Psychologist, I emphasize the need for socially effective interpersonal skills and personal marketing strategies and tactics. I teach individuals how to confidently and successfully present and promote themselves. My latest book of five, “Diagonally-Parked in a Parallel Universe: Working Through Social Anxiety,” is going into its 2nd. Edition. I also have a home-study program on mastering Small Talk. Currently I work with self-conscious professional service providers to help them confidently toot their own horns, be known, liked, and trusted, make money with integrity, and forget about “selling.” It’s through a trust-based relationship marketing program. www.ConfidentSelfPromotion.com. As long as I can do so, I will continue to foster and adopt special needs cats, like the two three-legged kittens that should be available to me soon to foster.
