What Is A Dog In The Family?

Finding a sustainable way to help dogs, dog owners and trainers at scale.

About two years ago I left my well paying job leading a small electronics system design and manufacturing team because I just plain got burned out. After 35 years of intense work in deep and challenging technical areas creating cool stuff that people all over the world use regularly, I no longer found joy in the work. I was largely focused on people management and I was, frankly, a lousy people manager. I had been doing technical consulting work for about 10 years when I decided to try out a regular full-time role again, and it just wasn’t for me.

I had enough money saved up to last for a few years while I relaxed a bit, and looked for something new and interesting to do. I had been volunteering at a local no-kill shelter for about 8 years at the time, and I just fell in love with this work — working with dogs and cats who needed homes, needed love, needed care, and who gave back more than I ever would have expected in love, and joy, and fulfillment. So as I surveyed the landscape trying to determine where I wanted to spend my time as I approach my twilight years, I was pretty sure that finding a way to help animals was the right path for me to try.

But how to help animals?

Well, I could have chosen to retire and just continue to volunteer, but I didn’t feel like I was quite ready to do that. And volunteering, as heartwarming and wonderful as it is, limited how many animals I would be able to help and how much I could help them. Walking dogs and playing with cats is wonderful and enriching for shelter animals, many of whom had never had significant care in their lives. But still, the number of animals that I could affect, and the amount of help I could provide in the short time I was with them was just too limiting. In addition, there aren’t many ways as a volunteer that would allow me to directly aid dog owners and dog trainers. Yes, there are a few places where you can interact with folks as a volunteer, but largely this sort of work is performed by the staff.

Perhaps I could study to be a dog trainer and start a dog training business. This had some appeal though I am a little old to be starting down this path. That said, I have some skills in handling dogs that I’ve developed over the years as a volunteer, and I felt pretty good that I could make this happen. The problem again becomes how many animals I could actually help and by how much. Again, this option seemed to be too limiting without much opportunity to grow this to scale, helping many animals in many ways. It did however have some opportunity to help dog owners, and to work with other trainers, but largely this is a one-on-one service – a valuable one, but not one that could touch the numbers of animals or people that I was hoping to help.

I could try to start a rescue, or to work as an employee in a shelter or with a rescue. But neither of these felt right to me. Starting a rescue or a shelter can consume your life and while the fulfillment and joy of saving lives is grand, it is largely a thankless job and there are limits to what can be done in a short time. The shelter where I volunteer saves thousands of animals each year, but it has been in operation for 30 years, and is a model of what can be done with a large initial endowment and a substantial volunteer population. Recreating these conditions is a daunting task, and while I am sure someone could do this, I don’t think that I can 

There are many smaller rescues run by volunteer groups. They help to save many animals from the streets, from abuse and from euthanasia, however the number of animals that any given group can touch is still extremely limited, with the constant worry of finding resources — fosters, medical care, etc. — so much time and energy in this path would be spent on fundraising. I did not want to become just another voice in the ether asking for money to help a good cause.

So I began to think about how to create a sustainable, market driven business structure that could satisfy my wishes : 

• I want to touch thousands of animals each year and make a dent in the massive number of dogs that are surrendered to shelters to be re-homed or euthanized;
• I want to help  dog owners learn how to integrate dogs into the family and where to find the resources they need to aid their dogs;
• I want to help dog trainers develop and expand their businesses, to find new clients, to get their message out to new audiences and clients without having to be technical and business whiz-kids as well as great dog trainers.

An online community and business offering information to dog owners and services and platform to dog trainers seems to be the right pathway to achieve these goals, so A Dog In The Family is born. 

Our mission is to create Happy Dogs In Happy Homes.

If you have a dog in your family or you’re someone who’s looking to bring a dog into your family, please sign up for our mailing list here. We will be launching our monthly newsletter and web page shortly where we will provide useful information and resources. In addition, we will shortly be launching our social communities which you will be invited to join.

If you are a trainer and are interested in joining our community, please stay tuned. We will soon be offering ways for you to find new clients, to communicate with our client community, and other resources and ways for you to get your message out to our community and to the dog owning public at large.

Thanks or your time, and we look forward to meeting you in our communities!