At School For The Dogs, we've been lucky enough to be able to mentor a handful of aspiring dog trainers through our apprenticeship program. One of our current apprentices, Anna Heyward, first came to us as a client. Anna, a writer who is originally from Australia, has fostered dogs in NYC for years; last year, she took in a dog whose separation anxiety was beyond anything she'd ever seen. She came to School For The Dogs after consulting with several dog trainers. Some suggested the dog was just being dramatic and that she just needed to let him manipulate her; others told her to use a shock collar on him. In this episode, Anna explains how her experience fostering dogs in New York City and her work with our trainer Anna Ostroff led her to rethink everything she thought she knew about behavior, and ultimately pursue a career in dog training. 
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Partial Transcript:
Annie:
So,  I’m about to share with you is a conversation with one of School for  the Dogs’ apprentices, Anna Heyward. And I wanted to talk to Anna for a  bunch of reasons. I’m really interested in how people are finding their  way and to the world of dog training, whether that’s because they aspire  to doing it professionally or not. And I met Anna when she started our  six month apprenticeship. And we’ve gotten to know each other this year a  little bit. And Anna is a very talented writer and recently I read an  essay she wrote, a not yet published essay about her experience  fostering. Specifically fostering one very difficult dog. And I was just  so moved by what she wrote and how she wrote about the experience of  being a temporary home to a dog who has behavior issues that are extreme  and what that mean. What it meant-meant both for her, for the dog. What  it helped her learn about the world. What she learned about the people  around her, her family, her loved ones through this very difficult  experience of being a foster, a foster mother to two dogs.
And so I was thrilled when she said she  would talk to me a little bit about her experience as a fosterer on  the  podcast. But I… before  I share with you this conversation, I just  wanted to mention another Anna who you’re going to hear about a little  bit in this episode because Anna Heyward would not have come to School  for the Dogs without Anna Ostroff, who is a woman I just love so much.  And I was, I’m trying to think about how do I express my feelings… it’s  like, I feel like it’s such a special thing when you get to mentor  someone and then you see them being a mentor to someone else.
And I should specify  I’m talking about  as a mentor, but I think more of sort of Kate and me and School for the  Dogs as an entity, a mentoring entity, I guess, is sort of how I think  of what we’re doing in a lot of ways to shape people to be better dog  owners, if not dog trainers and Anna Ostroff came to School for the Dogs  about four years ago with a very sweet and shy young dog named Ginger  and her husband, Alan.  They are theater producers and had, I believe  had pretty recently before coming to us, won a Tony for a Broadway play  that they produced. And I just enjoyed getting to know them as these  very interesting people with an interesting theater background. So they  were clients with whom I became friendly.
Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast


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