The Humpers, The Hoarders and Pee – What I wish I knew before professionally working with animals With Melissa McCue-McGrath

Pet professionals work as translators between the human and animal world. Much of our work is advocating for both dogs and people. But, in our unregulated industry, new trainers and behavior consultants might not be fully prepared walking into their first classes, their first private session, or their first behavior consultation. We might find ourselves in a humorous situation, like having to explain humping to second graders, or find ourselves in a more challenging circumstance involving hoarding, debilitating anxiety, or behavioral euthanasia. Our ethics and convictions may be challenged as we grow into this work. How can we advocate for, and better prepare, the next generation of pet professionals? It’s important to talk about our first years working in public-facing, animal-centric industries so we seasoned professionals can set our trainers up for success. Those first few years are where pet professionals learn how much “I love dogs” may have gotten them into this field, but caring for the people is just as critical to ongoing success.

Learning Objectives

• Newer trainers will learn foundational skills if they are in a situation for which they are ill-prepared
• Long time professionals will recall what it was like when they first started
• All will laugh at schadenfreude and have food for thought regarding professional boundaries/how to ethically refer and build a team to help pets.

Your Presenters- Melissa McCue-McGrath

Melissa McCue-McGrath grew up with what she affectionately calls an accidental sled dog family in Midcoast Maine. She spent most of her 20 years training dogs and working challenging behavior cases in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2015, Melissa wrote Considerations for the City Dog, a book targeting the urban dogs and families who are left out of conventional training books. She has spoken internationally on the factors intrinsic to city life that makes things tougher on pet owners, and pet trainers, particularly with behavior cases in these densely populated environments.

She gave up the conveniences of ride shares to come back home to Maine. Melissa’s family resides with one ancient cat, 17 bougie chickens, and Captain Love, one of the dogs involved in a nationwide study on training pet dogs to detect invasive species. She is the host of the BewilderBeasts Podcast, which covers the spotted lantern fly (episode 67: Doom Bloom) and the dogs who were trained to find them (episode 96: The Maine Six). Her latest book, Misadventures of the World’s Okayest Dog Trainer, is expected to be out this winter.

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