Meet Dan and Yana Carlson of Walk A Pup in North Shore

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan and Yana Carlson.

Dan and Yana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We met in 2003 when Yana was still in college and I was a struggling musician. I had always been the friends and family pet sitter, and I had a beautiful orange kitty named Roaw at the time, but we didn’t have a dog of our own. We arrived at the name Walk A Pup long before we actually started the business in 2006 and finally got our Weimaraner, Nesta.

Word of mouth spread and we found our niche in offering the only type of dog walking structure that made sense to us as dog owners; incorporating behavior training using positive reinforcement methods into all areas of our services. We have been lucky to meet some incredibly inspiring trainers and animal behaviorists, and study under some of them.

Now more than 10 years later, we are married with two human kids, Roaw has since passed on but our Nesta girl is still our best employee that comes to work with us and helps other pups and their families. Our team of handlers has expanded from the two of us to a total of 18 and we cover most of the North Shore. This has been a dream from the beginning and we are grateful to be living it and doing something we love each and every day!

Has it been a smooth road?
Every road has ups and downs, and we like to look at failure as a lesson to be learned. We are perpetually adjusting and improving what we do and who we are as people, business owners, dog handlers, parents, bosses etc…

That being said, our road has been fairly organic in the way our business has grown and the path we have taken along with it, both personally and professionally. We believe in H.O.P.E (as stated in our handbook) Honesty, Optimism, Passion and Effort. As long as these virtues are at the forefront, challenges are overcome and benefited from!

The one struggle that hits the hardest and is not so easily overcome, is the loss of the animals we take care of. Sharing the grief with their families is something that is so very important to us, however the difficulty and heartache that comes along with that will never get lighter.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Walk A Pup story. Tell us more about the business.
Walk a Pup provides pet sitting, play groups, dog walks, in home dog training and group obedience classes. We stand out from the crowd in the industry by incorporating behavior training into our dog walks to provide an even balance between mental and physical stimulation. Through consistency in our reward based handling techniques, and a rotation of handlers, dogs quickly develop good habits through practice and reinforcement.

In our training classes and private sessions, we create a fun learning atmosphere for both the dogs and people that aids in the process of learning how to communicate with each other. #havefunwithyourdogs has become the hashtag and backbone of our training philosophy.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Like many in the pet world, we have our hands in a few different aspects of the industry, pet sitting, dog walking, and dog training. They are all growing steadily and changing in their own ways.

The behavior/training aspect is growing and continuing to grow in a positive way as people discover how rewarding and effective it is to train using positive reinforcement methods.

Both the dog walking and pet sitting world is changing for the better, mainly with the aid of technology. With the use of GPS trackers, webcams and social network check ins, where there was once a question of trust, there is now added security.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.walkapup.com
• Phone: 781-454-9609
• Email: dan@walkapup.com

Image Credit:
Photos by Renee Gannon

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