CALGARY’S SOCIAL CLUB FOR DOGS – See Spot Run Dog Walking. Photo Credit: Patrice Alsteen, https://www.flickr.com/photos/168902888@N08/48222655086/

Looking for a social gathering for your dog? Meet Acara Kada of See Spot Run Dog Walking!

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My name is Acara Kada, and I own/operate See Spot Run Dog Walking in YYC. I am going into my 9th year of dog walking, and I mostly service Mckenzie Towne and its surrounding neighborhoods; offering pack walks of up to 9 dogs, as well as private one-on-one visits (ideal for puppies, senior visits or aggressive dogs who can’t join the pack).

Social media is a huge part of my day and I love to share pictures of the dogs so other people can enjoy what I get to experience with the dogs. They are hilarious, mischievous, brilliantly clever, honest, caring and playful with each other and I try to capture that with pictures and posts.

 

Dogs are very social creatures and my slogan “A Social Club for Dogs” portrays my pack. Some of my dogs have been friends for over seven years; that’s 49 year long friendships in human lives!

I connect like-minded dogs in the packs and from there, their friendships bloom. They bring out the “inner dog” in each other through socializing, and they teach each other new things like how to swim, play fetch and walk calmly on a leash. They also learn proper dog manners, such as how to play correctly and what’s acceptable and what’s not. The biggest lessons are always with the puppies and the adult dogs. I can correct a puppy all day long on a particular behavior before it understands what I want from him/her, but if one of the older dogs corrects the puppy, that puppy learns almost instantly. It’s fantastic!! I use Buster a lot with my younger dogs. He is a unique and patient alpha male.
One of my favourite stories with Buster happened years ago. While walking along with a lab who was swimming up the Elbow River, I was to the point where I could no longer follow him alongside the banks and Buster could sense the stress in my voice and my body language. Buster charged out into the river and swam out to the lab, where he crossed in front of him and led him back to shore. The dog tried to head back into the river and Buster cut in front of him again leading him directly to me to be leashed. Never before or since have I seen anything like that and to this day I still tell that story. Buster is a chocolate lab rescue and I have been walking him nearly nine years. He’s a very special pack dog who receives a lot of respect amongst the other dogs. It’s always so adorable to see them connect. That is my favourite part of being a dog walker.  I love to watch the dogs play and use their body language to teach and to learn. I’m always trying to break down what they are telling each other, and break the infamous “doggie code”. I feel like I have a great understanding of all the dogs in my pack, but I’m still learning every day from them. Because of that, I try to keep them on their toes by trying new things with them. I recently started doing more on-leash pack walking. It is not easy, but as we get better at it, I see tremendous improvements in the dogs energy levels. They are getting a mental workout alongside their physical off-leash workout and the blend of the two is creating very balanced calm dogs.

Recently I visited a dog walker in California where I learned new techniques with walking dogs on leash in a pack environment. In California, there are not a lot of off-leash areas, so they need to walk dogs mostly on a leash. I noticed that there were a lot more pit bulls in their packs and also that they are some of the calmest dogs that I have ever seen walking in a pack. That experience inspired me to try that with my pack here in Calgary, and we have been working on it ever since.
My goal each and every day is to have a calm pack. It’s good for me, it’s great for the dogs, and it’s also something that the public likes to see with a dog walker. Calm is good!

“Keep calm and walk on.”

 

Follow Acara, and her regular and fun updates on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Or you can visit her website at seespotrundogwalking.com or email her at [email protected].