Elise Mac Adam and Annie first met in 2002 when Annie wrote up Elise's engagement announcement for her column in The New York Observer. Both of them were terrier lovers, writers, and native Manhattanites: They became fast friends. When Annie and Kate first started School For The Dogs in 2011 and running classes out of Annie's Manhattan living room, Elise and her dogs were among their first clients. Elise, her sons, and her husband, have worked with half a dozen of School For The Dogs trainers over the last decade, with three of their dogs. She has, overall, clocked more sessions than any other single client. Eventually, she had to make the difficult decision to rehome one of her terriers. She and Annie discuss how rehoming a dog can feel like both a success and failure at the same time, and the silver lining of this difficult experience: It led her to decide to enroll in the School For The Dogs Professional Course. 

Apply to the Professional Course at http://schoolforthedogs.com/professionalcourse2022

Next cohort begins August 31. 

Episodes featuring other graduates: 

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/meet-our-trainer-anna-ostroff/

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-190-our-newest-sftd-certified-professional-trainer-ionelee-brogna-on-shock-collars-horses-schnauzers-trick-training-and-learning-empathy-by-selling-used-books/

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-93-school-for-the-dogs-trainer-erin-whelan-on-how-dog-training-changed-her-life/

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-111-school-for-the-dogs-trainer-em-beauprey-on-conformation-cats-bespoke-dog-walking-and-training-trainers/

---

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Elise Macadam is here with me today. I am excited to talk to you because I think you're the only person – you're probably the person I've known longest who's been on this podcast. No, I guess I talked to my friend, Daisy, who I've known since I was 14, but second to maybe Daisy, in 200 plus episodes. You are someone who knew me from my previous life.

Elise:

I knew you from many previous lives, probably.

Annie:

And who I have now known as a friend, as a client and as an apprentice.

Elise:

Yeah. We go way back.

Annie:

And you've known me as well. You wanna tell the story of how we first met?

Elise:

So I met you when I was ghostwriting a book about wedding resources in New York City. And you were writing engagement column.

Annie:

Yeah, I was writing, I was at the New York Observer in, it must have been 2002?

Elise:

Yeah, probably.

Annie:

And I was the assistant to the editor and I wrote a weekly column where I interviewed three different couples who were getting married, and it was called The Love Beat: Countdown to Bliss. And it was a bit of a scramble sometimes to find couples, ‘cause this was long before social media. I had all these like hacks of finding couples. I remember seeing a woman with a big diamond ring on the subway and like writing her a note, slipping her a note once or going to places where people register and like going up to people.

Elise:

Oh, that's so awesome. I didn't know you did that.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe