Let’s talk about SFTD's origins with co-founder Kate Senisi

In 2011, Annie Grossman and Kate Senisi were both trying to figure out how to make a business out of dog training. They met through the Association for Professional Dog Trainers' message board, and discovered they lived a block away from one another in Manhattan. They also discovered they had complementary talents: Kate had an eye for detail, a background in graphic design, a head for organization, and a passion for dealing with aggressive dogs; Annie had an entrepreneurial spirit, writing skill, and lots of creative ideas. They decided to join forces, and together turned Annie's living room into a dog training classroom--they called it School For The Dogs. Here, Annie and Kate discuss SFTD's early days and their paths to becoming trainers. Notes: AnnieGrossman.com/podcast22 Training videos: Tawzer.com Music: "Sister Kate" cover by Lloyd Davis lloyddavis.bandcamp.com/track/sister-kate Sponsor: Is your Inbox messy? You need SANEBOX! Get $15 off at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Sane Partial Transcript: Annie: This week, School for the Dogs’ podcast is sponsored by Sanebox , the email service that is designed to make dealing with email a breeze. Sanebox gives you a powerful set of tools that can work just about any email client. It’s kinda like artificial intelligence for your inbox. Sanebox will automatically sort your email for you, defer your email for a more convenient time, set up reminders and more. Get a two-week free trial plus $15 off when you sign up at schoolforthedogs.com/sane . **Music** Annie: So I am sitting here with my- what do I even call you… Kate: Partner in Crime? Annie: My partner in crime. My partner, not in sexual way… Kate: yes, I always worry about when I say.. introduce you as my partner. I clarify it with… business partner? Annie: Business Partner. She with whom I founded School for the Dogs. Kate Senisi. The one, the only and Kate has certainly been one of the most important people in my life. Kate: Well Thank you. Annie: in the last decade. Kate: And you in mine. I think we are also friends. … I’m just kidding. Annie: Kate, do you want to be friends? Kate: I don’t know it might interfere with our working relationship. Annie: Laughing Kate: Is it possible? Annie: No, I really feel so lucky that we found each other when we did and I, so, I brought Kate on to talk about how she got into dog training and talk about some of the things that we both love about dog training. I think one thing, among many things, that we both have in common is we both get really excited about geeking out on training and I knew early on that that we were going to be friends for a long time when we were curled up on your couch drinking wine watching, like, Kathy Sdao.. Kate: Oh yeah the Tawzer days.. Annie: recorded videos of DVDs of seminars on Saturday nights together after dog training all weekend or figuring out how to become dog trainers all weekend, we would watch videos about dog training with our dogs. I remember one of those nights thinking like, “This is it. I have found a certain kind of soulmate.” Kate: I found an equal nerd partner. Annie: So Kate and I started working to gather pretty soon after we first met which I believe was in 2011 Kate: I think so. Annie: And at that point we were both. We had studied dog training on our own in different ways, which we will talk about in a minute. I think we were both at the point of trying to figure out how to parlay our interest and knowledge into work... Full transcript at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe