Lily came to us from a no-kill shelter in Waco, Texas. She was rescued amongst many other dogs from a hoarding situation where we suspect she lived with not only dogs, but cats (she definitely has some climbing skills, and loves climbing trees). She’s small but mighty- never did we think that a 12 pound Chihuahua mix would be our walking, hiking and traveling companion every day since March 2020. We had just adopted her and were on the airplane back to Boston from Texas in 2020 when we learned that everything would shut down to COVID. Cue the iconic pandemic puppy!

Stephanie grew up with dogs and cats in the suburbs of a moderately-sized city in Texas. Nico also grew up in the suburbs of a moderately-sized city in France with a dog. They both knew how to take care of a dog when you have a house with a yard, but taking a dog on a walk in the city is something they had never done before. Living in Texas also meant dogs stayed inside more because of the heat- there were not the same opportunities for hiking year-round so socialization was not something that was as stressed.

We created this site because we are hopeful it can be a helpful resource for others in our situation- when we adopted Lily there was not a set of resources that were given to us that could help us with the transition. Google, YouTube and other applications are amazing and have helped us so much on this journey, but we hope this page can be a soft landing page for you to turn to when first trying to grasp a new challenge, whether it be loose leash walking, separation anxiety, or just looking for some fun activities to do when the weather is less than ideal.

With patience and persistence, our training journey has led us to new friends and adventures in Boston and beyond!