Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela and Michael Galvin.
Michael and Angela both grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts. They have always had a love for animals. Working with animals has always been their dream. They currently have two children – a husky mix, named Hugo and a lab mix, named Oki. They love to be in nature and go on hikes with their dogs. They know how hard it is to find someone you can trust to take care of your pet when you are going away so they wanted to build a pet care business that people could trust to treat their furry loved one as one of their own.
Michael was a union carpenter for over 10 years and decided to change his career in 2010. He worked in a doggie day care for almost two years gaining valuable experience working with hundreds of dogs, learning all about the different breeds and their temperaments. He loved working with the dogs so much that he realized he found his true calling in life. Michael decided to follow his heart and turn his love for animals into a full-time career in 2012. Nothing made him happier than being outside with his four-legged friends!
Angela is a public school special education teacher and has worked in special education for 13 years. She has always had a passion for helping people and animals. Nothing brings her more pleasure than watching a two-legged child or a four-legged child learn a new skill. She also received her dog training certification and is currently gaining as much hands-on experience as she can with her own dogs and dogs from the Pawsitive Dawg family. At first, she helped Michael out in the evenings, on weekends, and during school vacations but fell in love with all of the animals in her care. After some careful planning, she joined the business full time at the end of June 2015.
Over the past two years, they worked hard to build an amazing team of professional pet care providers who are not only employees but have become part of their family. Their employees have helped Angela and Michael build their business to where it is now by providing exceptional pet care services. Pawsitive Dawg has loved and cared for over 200 animals in the past 5 years.
Over the past 5 years, Angela has worked with many dog trainers, read many great books, and done tons of research on the different training methods available to help her dog, Oki, who is very reactive to other dogs. There are so many trainers to choose from and many trainers who have different training philosophies. When she worked with Janet Vera, the owner of For the Love of Dogs, she was amazed with how much progress Oki has made. Janet has taught Angela many new skills and training techniques for working with fearful dogs which has totally opened a whole new opportunity for her. Even though she is a certified dog trainer, she is still getting as much hands on experience working with her own dogs and her dog walking clients before she promotes herself as a “certified professional dog trainer” and earns the letters behind her name. In the next year or so, Angela plans on taking the Behavior Consultant Certification test to become certified by the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT). Angela has a special place in her heart for dogs with special needs. Her experience in special education has given her the patience for working with dogs who need extra love and support.
Has it been a smooth road?
Being a small business owner takes a lot of very hard work and planning! When Michael and Angela first got married in 2004, they knew they wanted to work with animals later in their life but had to carefully plan how they were going to make that happen before they could both leave their full-time jobs to become completely self-employed.
It wasn’t until 2012, when they finally decided to make their first leap of faith! Michael worked solo for the first 2 years with Angela helping out whenever she could during her time off from teaching. They didn’t have any extra income for advertising so they built their business by word of mouth and customer referrals. The original plan was to have Michael as the only dog walker for 5 years and then Angela would join full time and then maybe after a year or so, they would eventually look into possibly hiring employees. They weren’t sure at the time if they wanted to hire employees or stay a two-person team.
Unfortunately, at the end of 2014, their business plans changed drastically. Michael became really sick and eventually in February of 2015, had to stop walking dogs all together. Angela was still teaching full time, trying to take care of her sick husband, and looking for help to take over all of Michael’s walks so they wouldn’t have to close their business that they worked so hard to build. It took some time but Angela finally found some amazing dog walkers and pet sitters that she could trust to take care of the animals just like her and her husband did.
As the months went on, she realized that she had way too much on her plate between teaching, caring for her husband, running the business, and now managing employees. She knew something had to give before she got sick herself and she needed to spend more time with her husband. That’s when she decided to take time off from teaching to pursue her other passion in life. Hard work truly does pay off and she couldn’t be happier with her decision! Michael hopes to return to the business once he gets better. In the meantime, he is Angela’s biggest cheerleader!
Since Pawsitive Dawg operates every day of the year from 6am until 10pm, finding down time and personal time has been extremely challenging for Angela. Besides working with all of the animals, there is also a significant amount of admin work to do. There are days she can have up to 12-14 visits per day and 4 hours of admin work. She has a hard time saying no when a client requests services. If she doesn’t have an employee available and she has room in her schedule, she will try her best to make sure they don’t have to turn away any of their current clients when they are looking for services. Unfortunately, because Pawsitive Dawg’s schedules fill up quickly, they sometimes have to refer new clients to other pet care providers.
Angela knows that having a healthy balance between work and personal life is essential to a successful business. The most important goal she has set for herself these next few weeks is to create a daily work schedule, carve out some personal time each day, and actually stick to it.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Pawsitive Dawg was created to provide customers with a variety of services that meet human, canine, and feline needs. They will treat your furry loved as one of their own. They offer many options that can be customized to meet your pet’s needs. Dog walking and pet sitting visits range from 20 minutes up to an hour. They also offer individual or small group leashed hikes.
Pawsitive Dawg takes the well-being and safety of your pet very seriously so they specialize in individualized pet care services. In 2016, they became proud members of the Pet Professional Guild. Their goal is to provide the highest quality, force-free, scientific based pet training and pet care for each animal under their care. They are dedicated to maintaining and fostering the physical, social, and mental well-being of all of their furry friends. As Force Free pet care professionals, they adhere to a very strict code of conduct, which means that they do not use any tools or training technique that they believe will cause any pain or discomfort.
When you hire Pawsitive Dawg, you can be confident that you are hiring professional dog walkers and pet care providers. You can be assured that they only hire the best staff! If they cannot find someone who is up to their standards, they put a hold on taking on new clients. Their employees go through a very thorough interview process which takes about 2 weeks. They fill out a screening survey, have at least one phone interview, two in-person interviews, 3-4 references checks, and have a background check done. They also go through training for at least 2 weeks before they take on any new clients. Employees come to Pawsitive Dawg already Pet First Aid & CPR trained or become certified during their two week training period. They also participate in professional development opportunities throughout the year.
They specialize in individual visits because you are paying for them to take care of your pets. Therefore, your pet will be their only focus during their visit. If you sign up for a group walk because you have a social pup and want him/her to meet new friends, they will never walk more than two (2) large dogs or three (3) small dogs at one time.
If you have special commands you’d like them to use or have anything you would like them to work on with your dog, they have two dog trainers on staff working towards becoming professional dog trainers certified by the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT). They also work with a wonderful force free trainer named Janet Vera, the owner of For the Love of Dogs, so they would be more than happy to provide a consultation and develop a plan to help you and your pup be happy as possible or refer you to her if the problem is outside of their expertise.
Their visit reports are automatically sent to your email after each visit using our scheduling software. They like to be detailed in their notes so they can make note of anything that’s different with your pet’s behavior or potty routine. They encourage lots of communication between the Pet Care Manager, Dog Walker, and Pet Parent, all of which can be seamlessly integrated into their scheduling portal.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Waltham is a great place for a dog walking and pet sitting business! We are a family-orientated, working class community so there is a huge demand for professional pet care providers.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pawsitivedawgwalking.com
- Phone: 617-840-3198
- Email: pawsitivedawgwalking@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pawsitive_dawg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pawsitive-Dawg
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