Who is MoellerDog?
About Kim Moeller
Kim Moeller with her dog Kitty.
Kim's excitement for training started 14 years ago when she decided to enroll her new dog Mocha in a puppy class. In that class, she fell in love with training and decided to switch careers. She started working at the San Francisco SPCA in 1998 and graduated from the renowned SF/SPCA Dog Training Academy in 1999. As a certified dog trainer and behavior counselor, her talent for working with dogs, especially those who are aggressive toward other dogs, was noticed. Kim enthusiastically took on these challenging cases and was awarded special certification for dog-dog aggression in 2002 by Jean Donaldson, head of the SF/SPCA Dog Training Academy. Now a recognized expert in dog reactivity, Kim has written articles for various publications and given lectures on leash reactivity and dog park etiquette in the bay area.
Kim instructing the "growly dog class".
An excellent instructor, Kim has taught basic and advanced public classes at the San Francisco SPCA for over ten years. Through her involvement teaching in the community, she has seen the need for new programs. Kim personally developed the successful "growly dog class" for dogs who are reactive to other dogs on leash. She has taught this much needed class for the last eight years.
While classes are a great tool for training, Kim realizes that many dogs need help in specific areas that can't be addressed properly in a class setting. Often, dogs need extra attention to work on a particular issue that a class structure can't provide. Some dogs are also too overwhelmed in a group, making it hard for them to pay attention and learn. In addition, many people have a hard time fitting classes into their busy schedules. Kim has been offering private consults and training sessions for the last ten years, providing dogs and owners with personalized attention and tailored training.
In addition to dog training, Kim has also been actively involved as a professional dog walker in the San Francisco community for over ten years. Seeing regular exercise as a healthy part of a dog's life and the difficulty of many owners to provide this much needed activity, Kim started offering to walk the dogs of her friends and clients along with her own dog Mocha. Before she knew it, Kim had a regular pack that she took to popular dog parks in the bay area.
Kim walking dogs at Fort Funston.
Her expertise in managing dog-dog interactions has given Kim a unique perspective toward the dog walking profession. As dog walking has become more and more popular, there is a need for recognized professional standards. A dog walker isn't necessarily a trainer and yet all walkers need to know how to competently deal with the inevitable confrontations with other dogs and people in our public spaces. Recognizing this need, Kim co-founded the Dog Walking Academy in 2003 to give dog walkers the necessary training to control their packs and maintain a safe environment in our public parks.
Read what people have to say about Kim
About Kristine Payne
Kristine has been around dogs, cats, rodents, reptiles, and birds her whole life. She is a San Francisco native and until recently she worked at the renowned SF/SPCA in the dog and cat departments as well as providing adoption counseling to owners who adopted a dog or cat from the shelter.
She understands the need for off-leash exercise and daily romps on the beach – she discovered this fact quickly when she got a young Yellow Lab named Samson. She started noticing the days they didn’t make time to go out for heavy exercise, he would get extremely destructive around the house, chewing and eating everything in sight, including the baseboards of the walls and the furniture. Samson gets plenty of exercise now that he goes on the daily excursions with MoellerDog, and since then he has become a much calmer, mellower Lab!
Kristine not only handles the group walks, but she also provides private walks for those dogs that cannot be in off-leash playgroups. She provides daily on-leash walks for these dogs and also does training with them. Training can include anti-jump, loose leash walking and leave it and she can even provide training for those dogs that bark and lunge at other dogs on leash!
In addition she loves interacting with cats so she also provides the cat visits for MoellerDog. So when people go out of town Kristine comes over for a visit and makes sure they are given extra attention and that they have food and water and a clean litter box.
Kristine is not only passionate about animals, but she continues to educate herself in the field of animal behavior. She is a graduate of the Dog Walking Academy and is certified in pet first aid and CPR.
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