Meet The Staff
Dana
Dana is the owner of Fuzzy Buddy’s, fulfilling a childhood dream she didn’t even know she had! Her dog Mango inspired her to throw aside her work as an artist and devote her life to the dogs back in January 2000. She established City Critters, a dog walking and training service. She took over ownership of Fuzzy Buddy’s in September 2005. She is obsessively interested in dog training and how dogs learn. She loves reading about dogs, going to seminars to learn more about dogs, playing with dogs and training dogs. She also loves running around Green Lake with her Border Collie mix, Jedi. They can be found there most evenings. She holds the advanced certification of CPDT-KSA (Certified Pet Dog Trainer- Knowledge and Skills Assessed) and enjoys teaching dog training classes at Fuzzy Buddy’s. She shares her life with Jedi the Border Collie mix, Cleo the poodleX, and Dillon and Finley the human puppies.
Viva
Viva comes to us from the Maryland/Virginia area. She was the grateful parent to Puppet for 18 years! Now she enjoys the company of a cat named Moxie, and two children, Zeke and Eli. She has worked at Fuzzy Buddy’s since 2005. She finds her time at Fuzzy Buddy’s to be rewarding and especially enjoys learning more about dog body language. Viva has spent some time in Fuzzy Buddy’s dog training apprenticeship program and is a big advocate of positive reinforcement-based training, both with dogs and in human relationships!
Brooklyn
Brooklyn’s dog handling experience began over ten years ago volunteering at the Seattle Humane Society. They started working at Fuzzy Buddy’s in June, 2010. Since then, Brooklyn has logged over 17,000 hours keeping the play safe in the Fuzzy Buddy’s playroom. As a side project, Brooklyn is obtaining hours training cats.
Brooklyn is always excited to learn new things about the animal world and attends dog training conferences each year to keep current on dog training methodology. Brooklyn is passionate about helping people and dogs understand each other better and has found that positive reinforcement-based dog training is the most effective way to make that happen.
Brooklyn lives on Alki Beach with her dogs, Batman, Buffy, Daisy, and Dottie, and her cat, Mr. Man.
Clair
I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest all my life, I love this area and all the hiking, camping and exploration it has to offer. When I’m not at work I’m usually hanging out with my husband Dan and my two rescue dogs, Pandora and Kiki, who love to share pictures of themselves on Instagram 😉 I love going to conferences and learning more about dogs and all animals. I have racked up over 9000 hours working at Fuzzy Buddy’s! I recently opened my own dog collar company, Adventure Bear Dog Collars, which I am super proud of and hope to grow in the future. I’ve worked at Fuzzy Buddy’s since September 2011.
Laura
I grew up in Shoreline and now live in Edmonds with my dog Sasha the Siberian Husky. I’ve always loved animals and can’t imagine a life without wagging tails welcoming me home every night. I love learning all about about how dogs’ minds work and how we can use positive reinforcement to reach new levels of communication and understanding with our canine companions. I look forward to every day I get to spend time with the pack! I’ve been at Fuzzy Buddy’s since October 2014, and I couldn’t be happier here.
Emily
Emily worked at Fuzzy Buddy’s over a decade ago, from 2008 to 2011 and came back in December 2021 to give her loving attention to the doggos. It is so nice to see her smiling face in the playroom again! She has not had a chance to write her bio yet!
Eli
Eli grew up at Fuzzy Buddy’s, spending many hours in the office area in his youth while his mom worked–graduating from bouncy seat to pack-n- play to exer-saucer to free reign as the years passed. He was made official staff in April 2020 and primarily does after-hours and weekend cleaning.
Yumi
My dog and I were Dana’s students in a Basic Manners class in 2012. There I saw Fuzzy Buddy’s kindness to dogs. Since I grew up with many types of dogs, working at Fuzzy Buddy’s makes me happy every day. I have been walking dogs at the Seattle Animal Shelter since 2017. I started working at Fuzzy Buddy’s in September 2021.
Aspen
Aspen has been at Fuzzy Buddy’s since July 2022 and has not written a bio yet!
Keegan
I have loved animals my entire life, and have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by them from a young age. I currently live in Everett with my two cats, three crested geckos and a Russian tortoise that I enjoy caring for every single day. While in high school, I attended a Veterinary Tech course that gave me some great experiences including the chance to intern at a privately owned zoo up in Anacortes where I was able to care for wolves, cougars, foxes, turtles, caiman alligators, and one especially ornery porcupine. I have since realized my passion with animals is not in the veterinary field, but still had the need to be working with animals in some capacity- which is how I became involved in dog training and, eventually, came to find Fuzzy Buddy’s in March 2023! The drive from Everett is more than worth it to see my fantastic coworkers and the wonderful dogs that attend day care on a regular basis.
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