My pet care background

Hello, and welcome to my On Point blog. My name is Amanda and I am the proud owner of On Point Pet Sitting. I will be honest, I have no idea if anyone will ever read these blogs, but I've read that they make the Google algorithm happy and they may help provide the pets of St Albert (and maybe the world?) a better quality of life; and what devoted pet parent doesn't what that? So why not give it a try?! Anyways...

For my first blog, I thought I would share some of my background with pets and my experiance with their care. Growing up

Ever since I was born, I have been around animals of all forms, throughout the years, I was around chickens, rabbits, horses, cats, and of course, dogs. I grew up in a very rural area in British Columbia and the animals were viewed more of 'having a purpose' than simply being a companion and something to love. But that didn't stop me from building a bond with many of them, especially as I grew to learn what basic care needs they had.

Learning to care for animals

When it came time to go to high-school, I enrolled in an agriculture elective course and took it for a couple of years. In that class, I learned even more in depth care of animals, particularly farm animals. It just fed into my love of animals, and sparked the idea of maybe wanting to be a veterinarian when I grew up. That dream never did prosper, but that love for animals sure did!

My first dog

When I moved to Edmonton, I was 19 and fresh out of high-school, but it did not take me long to start my own pet owner journey. My boyfriend at the time and I had decided that we wanted to add another cat to our home, so we made a trip to the Edmonton Humane Society. Being more of a dog person myself, I always wanted to give some love to the dogs that were up for adoption, so we walked their hallways first. At the time, the Humane Society let people go into the rooms with the dogs without supervision, and there were printed papers with the pet's details on them. You'd take those papers to the front and advise them that you wanted to adopt. Anyways, we came across a room full of black lab puppies and my heart melted. Sadly, there was no papers at their room, so we assumed they'd all been spoken for, but that didn't stop me from giving them some cuddles anyways! We went into the room and loved on these babies for a few minutes, and then, the unimaginable happened. A staff member came by the room and dropped off all freshly printed papers for each puppy in the little cubby. I immediately grabbed all of them, looked at my boyfriend and said "pick one". We spent more time with the pups, and settled on one of the females. She stole my heart, and we took her home with us that day. Her name from that day forward was Bailey and she was my shadow until she passed away almost 12 years later.

Everyone makes mistakes It makes me ashamed to say this but, admittedly I made many mistakes through the years with Bailey. At the time, Cesar Millan was someone I thought knew so much about dogs. His methods, coupled with the mentality growing up that animals aren't companions lead to poor choices being used with her training. Despite my poor choices, her genetics also played a role, and thankfully Bailey grew up to be such an amazing dog. The boyfriend at the time didn't last, but Bailey did. She was with me through so much, and was my constant. It didn't take me long to realize how much I depended on her and saw her as my companion. It made me see that the training methods that I had used while she was growing up, were not something that I ever wanted to subject my companion to.

Doing better

When Bailey was 9 years old, I decided it was time to brave adding a second dog to my home, Jäger. It had been so long since I had a puppy and, with realizing my mistakes with Bailey, I wanted to ensure that I did not make the same mistakes. I did so much reading and research on puppy training and was introduced to the idea of 'fear free' methods. It was an absolute game changer for me and was something I was very dedicated to do. At the time as well, my girlfriend, Shasta, was making the transition to being a veterinary technician, so also I utilized her knowledge quite a lot.

Working at the vet clinic

After years of pursuing a career in law enforcement, I learned that I would rather babysit animals instead of humans but I also knew that you can't just walk into most vet clinics without experiance. So I reached out the the vet clinic that Shasta was working at and asked them if I could put in some volunteer hours with them in order to gain some. They were happy to give me to opportunity and at first it was a couple hours a week, then it was a couple days a week, then I wanted to be there from open to close every day. I fell in love with the amount of knowledge I was gaining and the passion I saw from the vets there. I simply couldn't get enough, and I didn't want to miss anything. It didn't take them long to also see my passion and dedication, so they offered me a job. I learned so much from the vets and the technicians there, I used to joke with them that they would get annoyed with me because I asked so many questions. I became 'fear free' certified and learned even more positive methods of dealing with animals and their body language. The last 3 years have been filled with countless things I have learned about cat and dog care in particular.

Education and advocation vs judgement

I became very passionate about advocating for the pets. I can't tell you how many times a pet owner would call in and say that their pet "wasn't in pain" while simultaneously limping. Honestly, it's shameful how many people think their pet limps around for fun. At times, it was difficult to not judge the owners, but then I would remember being the same ignorant pet owner with Bailey. So instead of coming from a place of judgement, I tried to come from a place of education and advocation.

Why I started On Point Pet Sitting

There were many times when clients at the vet clinic would ask about who they could trust their pets with if they ever had to leave town. Most of the time, we would simply point them to the bulletin board but didn't know anyone to recommend. At the same time, the media would be talking about pet sitters who were being caught on cameras abusing and neglecting the pets they were entrusted with. The thought of someone ever harming my pets, for lack of a better word, enraged me. I could never imagine treating an animal the way and if someone ever did to mine, well let's just say I wouldn't be on this side of the bars. So I decided that I wanted pet owners to have at least one person that they could trust to care for their pets while they couldn't. It was as simple as that. Why Follow the Blog?

When I was at the vet clinic, I always tried to encourage them to utilize their social media platform to try and educate the public on important pet care topics to help advocate for a better quality of life. Unfortunately, they did not see the value in this so it never happened. But through this blog, I’m excited to share helpful tips, advice, and resources to support you and your pets.

Thank you

If you've read this far, I thank you. As I said, I have no idea if anyone will read these, but I have to have faith that they may help someone's pet out there and make Google happy. I plan to use these blogs as a place to be authentic, helpful, and maybe entertaining sometimes. So thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you come back! Until next time, Amanda