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About
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Welcome, Dog and Cat Lovers!
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I’m Vera Wilkinson. I’m a long time professional dog trainer and behavior consultant now in my third decade of deriving all of my income from my work with dogs and their owners and more than a quarter of a century of advocating for cats. I look forward to helping you along your journey in your pet related business. I’d love to hear your story of the dogs and cats in your life. Here’s mine.
My love for animals began at birth. I grew up with literally dozens of cats and dogs. I heard the story of me as a two year old ‘counting’ our dog Lassie’s teeth many many times and after my Mom’s passing, I found a pretty beat up picture of me doing so. Our pets were always a source of joy though their lives were often not of great length or the best of quality. I nursed cats dying of distemper before I was a teenager and saw one of my dogs get hit by a dumptruck. That was not the worst of it however. When I left home for college, I had no desire to take responsibility for an animal life. But, wherever I lived, I spent quality time with someone else’s cat or dog grooming them or chucking a ball on the beach or taking really long walks. I got ‘my fix’ living with people who had animals…
It was Pepe, ‘the athletic kitten’, who left us way too soon and Luna, my orange and white cat love who lived twenty plus years that brought me around. It was early 1995 when my partner brought Szap home that everything changed. He was the best unplanned happening in all of my life. I do what I do because he came and led me directly to my life’s work.
I started The Pet Needs Company in 1996 solely as a dog training business in Brookline, Massachusetts. In the beginning, I only offered done-for-you day training which later became my Stay Home N Train alternative to sending dogs away to be trained by a stranger in a kennel. I regularly took Szap to dog parks – Griggs, Amory, Downes, Lynch, Larz Anderson – and met folks looking for my help with dog care. This led to me hiring two wonderful young men who walked my clients’ dogs through 2005. I changed my business name to The Cooperative Dog in 2007 and have enjoyed flying solo ever since. For more information: The Cooperative Dog and Boston Cat Behavior Consulting.
I’ve been teaching and coaching for nearly forty years. When I was 18, I started a basketball camp for young girls in my hometown in Vermont and a few years later, they won state championships! I coached high school field hockey, basketball and tennis at Palmer High School in western Massachusetts before going to Keene, NH to teach environmental science to elementary and middle-school children for Nature’s Classroom which, by the way, is the reason why I moved to Boston in the first place — to teach on Thompson’s Island. All this prepared me well for working with families with dogs.
I take my continuing education seriously and maintain several certifications, professional memberships and licensing. I received my CPDT-KA (certified professional dog trainer) certificate on March 8, 2003 and have fulfilled my 36 continuing education units for recertification in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018. In 2017, I hit my tenth anniversary as a CDBC (certified dog behavior consultant) through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) where I served as the Chair of the Dog Division from 2008-2011; the Co-Chair of the Application Review Panel from 2009-2011, the Education Committee and received the 2009 Dog Division Member of the Year Award.
Locally, I’ve filmed two WGBH Children’s TV shows – Fetch With Ruff Ruffman in 2007 and Arthur in 2012. In between those shows, I created the Kids & Dogs Project (and its mirror, Dogs & Kids Project) to address child-dog safety and vice versa. I feel like I’m a broken record in saying that everything to do with dogs is about education.
I’ve written all this to say that I’ve reached that giving back time in my life and in my work. If you’re looking for serious, comprehensive, non-judgemental guidance in learning about dogs and developing your training skills; want (and need) a bigger and perhaps different view of your behavior consulting process and help with cases; are tired of lecturing your daycare staff about keeping an eye on the dogs or you need some help learning how to properly handle and care for shy, scared, reactive or aggressive dogs or how to administer medications to cats in your clients’ homes — please do not hesitate to reach out to me for more information on the services I offer.
Vera
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