SFTD Trainer Mike Wolf on changing careers at 50, navigating urban dog parks and working with puppy owners

Longtime East Villager Mike Wolf wondered into School For The Dogs a few years ago and... never left. Mike started out as a walker with us, and now leads puppy playtimes, School Yards, does Day School sessions with us and also does Day Training sessions with our clients. He was one of our first apprentices, and is currently completing our Professional Course. Interested in becoming a professional dog trainer? Our next Professional Course will be held entirely online! Interested? Fill out an application at http://schoolforthedogs.com/professionalcourse21 --- Partial Transcript: [intro and music] Annie: Glad to have you on School for the Dogs podcast, you have been a School for the Dogs employee and, et al, for a long time now. Mike: More than three years. Annie: Oh my goodness. Mike: I know. If we can still be measuring time, feels a little arbitrary, but. Annie: So, I know a little bit about how you came to us, but why don’t you share a little bit about how you ended up at School for the Dogs, and then we can talk about like the stuff that you’ve been doing work-wise. Mike: Okay. Well, I don’t consider it a very direct path. It’s either a third or a fourth career for me, depending upon what you consider a career. But I worked in the music industry for like 25 years and that led to a job in music journalism as a writer and editor. Annie: You worked at record stores, didn’t you? Mike: Oh I worked at record stores, that was a bit more recently actually. But starting in the late nineties, I began writing professionally, which was a surprise to me because I had never gone to journalism school or anything like that. But I had a background in working in music. So I guess I just had a certain type of info or a certain type of a background. Annie: What were you doing in the world of music? Mike: In the world’s music. Well, let’s see, I started at college radio, which doesn’t sound too unique, but it quickly led to an internship at a record label. This was all in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the indie eighties, by the way. And so the internship at a record label led to a job at the record label. That led to a part-time job at the record label next door, that led to also deejaying at a club downtown, that led to full-time work at one of the record labels, deejaying at a club. DJing at radio city. Like I was doing, I was really lucky. I had a ton of really fun experiences in a fun, really fun music city, Minneapolis from like the mid eighties to the mid nineties. Then I had a two year detour in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, still doing music stuff, working for a record label that’s based in New Zealand. And then I made the move to New York and really tumbled into — like, I dunno, it’s definitely a function of my privilege, but I’ve recently just kind of stumbled from one job to the other and from one career to the next. I very suddenly with very little writing experience began working full-time at Time Out New York at the beginning of 2000. Which was really a really cool and overwhelming time to be involved in media in New York. And music was always kind of just like this overwhelming, engulfing experience. To be a big music fan and to get to work in the music industry, I was very lucky. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe