Tamara Meyer is a dog trainer with something of a dream job: She hangs out in the woods with dogs. Her Manhattan-based business, Shape Up Your Pup, brings groups of dogs to trails near the city every day. Annie met her when she was very pregnant and was looking for ways to make sure that her young dog, Poppy, got some good exercise. Annie asks her about the origins of her business, her journey to becoming a trainer, and gets tips on how to work with dogs -- one or many! -- off leash.

Shape Up Your Pup

https://www.shapeupyourpup.com/

Tracking collar mentioned: Garmin Astro 430

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/545353

Bear bells

https://amzn.to/2VXCV85

---

Partial Transcript

Tamara Meyer:

Hi everyone. My name is Tamara Meyer. I am the owner of New York City-based dog hiking and training company, Shape Up Your Pup, which I founded in 2017. Dating back, I have always felt very connected with animals and drawn to them, obviously dogs, especially. But as a kid I needed to stop and pet every dog that walked on the street.

It’s funny, cause I actually did not grow up with dogs in my early age. I spent actually 18 years of my life begging my parents to get a dog. And it was literally years and years and years of begging and begging. And my mom being very stubborn was always saying no, just simply based on her thoughts about the house being stinky and hair everywhere.

And I just wouldn’t budge either, so I totally persisted and finally convinced my parents in 2007 when they agreed to get a dog. I had my heart set on a lab and I just felt that a lab would fit in perfectly with our family. So I did tons of research and we were paired with our amazing dog when he was around eight weeks old.

But that moment that he came home truly carved kind of my life path. And I oftentimes get emotional talking about my dog Simba because he unfortunately passed three years ago. And I have so much to be grateful to him for, but he’s really the reason behind every milestone I’ve accomplished the last four years. And of course the biggest one being starting my own company.

Annie:

Did you go to college? Did you study anything relating to dogs in college? Or did you work in any areas before?

Tamara:

So it wasn’t until I really graduated from college that I knew I needed to set myself up for this career where I wanted to have really professional experience working with dogs for around two years. Cause I was just thinking very far ahead, and I was planning out, you know, what do I need to do to get myself to have the most experience I could? Work with every kind of dog, every breed, every temperament, and really set myself off on that path.

So right out of college, I began working for a local dog walking and training company in my town, knowing this was the first step to gaining professional experience. I just wanted to get as much exposure and learn all I could about dogs. So I shadowed trainers, and I trained with my own dog whenever he was up for it.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dogtraining.substack.com