When I was young (about 6-7?) I was chased by 3 large dogs. I was really scared and was trying to defend myself by picking and throwing small rocks to keep them away from me. I ran back to our house just to be cornered against a wall, crying. I was yanked by my mom's boyfriend through the window behind me and given a thrashing for even daring to threaten his dogs.

What was supposed to have been a traumatic (and possibly lifelong phobia) experience with dogs got turned around by my mom sitting me down gently and explaining that the dogs merely wanted to get to know me. She slowly gave me the basics to greeting and touching dogs, to playing with them. Fortunately I was very curious and gave these dogs my hand. My history with dogs started here.

I have owned a total of 5 dogs (on my fifth now), and have engaged (doggie sat/walked/stayed with, etc., not merely greeted) with at least 10 other dogs.

The dogs I owned were:

1) Blue - Chow-Alsatian mixed mutt, my first dog and the most incredibly intelligent mutt

2) Yellow - a stray mutt, possibly mixed Goldie and lab, that started out coming near my house in USA, but gradually got calmer and willing to enter our hours

3) Jade - a litter sister of Xian who was rescued from the wild as part of a litter of mutt puppies

4) Xian - sister of Jade, and the weirdest of my American dogs. Very protective of the group and rather aggressive towards anyone else.

5) Haru - my current Singapore Shiba dog who has been with me for the last 10 years. Very feline behavior for some weird reason...

I think I have a strong affinity with dogs and I'm blessed that they like me quite well too!

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I'm pretty new to walking dogs for others through a paid platform, as I've always done this as a favor for friends and neighbors. I am a full-time professional working from home (past 8+ years) so I do have quite a bit of flexible time day/night. Looking to start with walking doggies nearby my place first 😆