How Poochability Came to Be

On October 26, 2004 my life changed forever. Sadly my husband passed away in his sleep at age 60, I was only 51. I had to reinvent myself and quickly. Luckily the Guardian Angels were watching over me and two amazing situations came before me. In my dog-training club, Valley Hills Obedience Club, George Geiswein, the go to guy for dog training equipment, wanted to retire. We had formed a friendship for a few years, so he encouraged me to take over his G & C Dog Training Equipment business. He showed me how to make leashes, what products and materials I needed and little by little I was getting a grasp of what this business would entail. However sadly George soon passed away himself and so I was left to figure it all out on my own. I never knew how strong I really was until then. Around this same time another good friend in the club decided to retire as well, Ira Greenberg, the Beginning Obedience Training Class instructor, as well as many, many other club hats over the years. He too suggested I take over his class and with the Boards approval in 2005 I began teaching on Tuesday nights. For years I had taught horseback riding, trained horses from foal to old nag, so would just have to re-write some of the details involved in dog obedience training. I asked Walt Hanlon, another dog trainer, to come and help me get started and the two of us were a great team for a few years before he stepped down and I took over completely.

As my personal business was getting started I needed a name. I was talking to a friend of mine saying there was so many possibilities in this business. He quickly jumped on the name, “oh so many Poochabilities of this business”, a play on the words pooch and poss. That is how I decided to call my new business Poochability and off I went.

Also in 2005 the new AKC sport of Rally was becoming more popular so I enlisted a fellow club member and good friend, Sarah Sykes, to teach Rally with me for VHOC. To this day it still is a very popular class and trials are filled with exhibitors. It is a great way to get a foot in the door of obedience training and entering trials.

Today my business is booming, have over 50 students in my classes, some for a long, long time and appreciate their loyalty and friendship. I have added many more products to my line of equipment being made and sold. Have hired workers to make some of these products or its parts and try to set up vendor booths at shows when I can. But just like George, I too still sell out of my car most of the time. I have come a long way, getting business licenses, Tax id#, calculating taxes owed, researching where to get different products etc. Who knew I could do all this. Well I guess my Guardian Angels did… Thank you everyone who has made my new life happy and prosperous, could not have done it without all of you.

Fondly,

Laurie