We recently connected with Mandy Crist and have shared our conversation below.

Mandy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

My story starts as a young 17 yr old that got first job managing 60 dogs a day at a local doggy daycare. With this position I found my passion was in dog behavior. It also showed me the struggles that we create putting so many dogs in a small space together. I chose to learn more about our canine friends medically and went to school in 2003 to be a veterinary technician. I graduated in 2005, worked in urgent care and general practice in the Veterinary field. I loved what I did. Dental cleanings, monitoring anesthesia, helping animals, helping people and being a shoulder to lean on when decisions became difficult. I quickly worked my way up to management and led my team and often training the veterinarians which has little to no experience in dog and cat body language. Understanding body language very valuable in our field as many people start in the field with little to no experience in behavior and what body language means. If my team was trained and paying more attention to the signs the dog or cat are saying, we had far less instances of staff and animal injuries. We were able to change our handling of that patient to help support the animal and their stress level in most occasions, especially when not an emergency.
Dogs and Cats were my focus for 18 years of my veterinary technician career medically and behaviorally.
I will always love the job and have the greatest respect for everyone that is in this business. After 18 years I wanted to start my own business, being a bit more flexible for my family and having more hands-on work in behavior on a regular basis. I wanted my business to be modeled for the urban living client and their dog. Our expectations for our dogs and what they can handle in daily life has grown drastically. Our backyard dogs are now traveling the city with us, going on regular vet visits, and grooming appointments. These are all great things, but many of our dogs were not built to handle these situations and don’t come pre-loaded with the skills for this situation. Don’t get me wrong, all of these are great things we are doing for our dogs, many dogs these situations can be stressful for and in return be stressful for the owner.
To help these puppies and these owners, I wanted to think a bit outside the box and come up with a program that would build the skills for the puppies and help teach the owners the tools they need for their puppies to grow into adults that can successfully navigate urban living including vet visits and grooming/handling.
One of my toughest hurdles is this being such a unique program, it takes a bit more client education up front to help them understand what we offer and what they are gaining from a program like this.
Our industry is as politically polarized as the world around us. We have a vast amount of training styles out there and 100s more in between. Puppy owners are constantly trying to teach themselves off the internet from any video that pops up. This commonly leads to confusion and owners getting stuck quickly not knowing what direction to go next or not seeing the results they expected. I find a lot of time is spent educating the client on many levels. Helping clients understand where to find resources, helping them with videos, write ups, and handouts has been the best way to find the most success for our clients and puppy students. Many clients learn in different ways and have different times of the week that they are more available to sit and truly pay attention to what they want to learn. This is a program that offers that, which I know many clients find important. I find that the biggest part of my business is having incredible staff that I truly trust and are well trained. I absolutely know my clients keep me going everyday. I love seeing their puppies and the growth in them, but it is truly the client that makes it all worth it. I feel so lucky to have found incredible people that are motivated to learn and doing so well with training their puppies.
I will never forget that no matter how big or small we are. This is not about me. My business is really the team and my incredible clients or there would be no business at all.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Mandy Crist, I am the owner of City of Tails.
City of Tails started in 2023.
We offer a puppy school program that offers a similar set up to a child preschool for toddlers. Our puppies ages 9 weeks to 9 months have professional trainers working with the puppy one on one, social play time, relaxation time and adding enrichment such as intentional sniffing time ( they love that), settle mat skill work, and the practice of puppies adapting to new things in the environment, practicing skills with things such as umbrellas, wheelchairs, kids, and noises including different sounds and noises. We also offer training for the real life, such as being handled at the vet or groomer. Having puppies gain these skills early and helping the owner know what to do to help the puppy in these situations is some of the most important skills we can offer for success and maintaining a solid relationship for life.
We are giving puppies and their owners the tools to feel comfortable and manage a life in an urban setting. Dogs are more and more involved in our lives. We live in a town that is very dog friendly near Fort Collins Colorado. Many people bring their dogs with them everywhere and it is really devastating to the family if their puppy is not successful and is fearful or getting really upset in some environments.
Owners feel like they are failing commonly due to the lack of understanding and support that it often takes for a dog that is able to pretty much have the same skill set as you would expect a service dog to have. I wanted a school for dogs that did not use aversive techniques, that would work with the client’s work schedule, get energy out of the dog/puppy but also be enriching and highly educational. It was vital to bring in times and space for the puppy/dog to be able to use their natural coping skills to relax or unwind if getting too stimulated. As trainers it is easy to see when they are needing sniff breaks, a quick walk in a calm space, or even some crate time to calm themselves. Often times just like children, puppies may not even know exactly how to handle being too tired or too upset. That is what we are here to figure out. We relay this information to the client as well and many times this can help the owner at home to handle behaviors they are seeing when the puppy are too tired and may need a break.
As I have mentioned this really is quite a unique program we offer, it is not a “doggy daycare” but if someone were to compare them, the only thing they would find that was similar is that we do have social times. Our social times are managed by trained professionals that do understand dog body language and we also keep our play groups small to help play sessions not get overwhelming for all puppies involved.
We also offer the training which owners can find in training classes. Puppy training classes may not work for everyone due to schedule conflicts and may not be the best way for the client to learn. We are able to support the many different learning types and on the client’s timeline. We also are able to give a solid base foundation to the puppy with our trainers being able to teach the puppy one on one. This can help the client be more successful and get quicker results at home.
When I first started this program I was unsure what I was going to find and if anyone would be interested. We regularly have clients that join for a month or two and that is what meets their puppies’ goals and the client’s needs. What I have found incredible is most of our clients stay until their puppy “ages out” of the program. They will stay for months, and I have to “kick” them out! Their puppies become part of our family. Those puppies gain better social lives than we have as adults. It is fantastic! I have been working on a “teenager” program for dogs from 1-2 yrs of age for these puppies to move into, this can also be a rather tricky time, but that program is still in the works.

Any advice for managing a team?

I try to keep in mind the things that motivate me. I know we are not all motivated by the same things. Motivation is not 100% by pay. There are many dynamics to keeping team motivated and keeping high morale.
I find that we communicate a lot. I want my team to feel heard about their ideas about the business. When they feel like part of the team that is huge.
I tend to give a lot of food on a regular basis. I buy my team coffee, snacks, and lunch. I don’t have single person that just expects it. They all really appreciate this, and I believe this is a way to show that I really appreciate all they are doing.
I make sure they hear me talking positively and encouraging. I tell them quite frequently that I appreciate the hard work or if they stayed after and did more. I want them to know it is noticed.
I also make sure to help talk to them about their goals for the next few months in our line of work and what I can do to help support this and help them stay on track with these goals.
High morale in my line of work is the trickle down from the coworkers and management as well as the person’s individual self-worth in the company.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

My strategy for increasing clientele is really a lot of networking. I go to a lot of events. I meet dog/puppy people frequently.
I try to work with many businesses around me. An example is I worked as a Veterinary Technician for 18 yrs. I have very long term trusting relationships with many veterinary clinics. I find that working with them and helping them get the word out about my services has been very helpful. I also work closely with other trainers that may not offer my exact services but can recommend me to help their client in my specific area.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cityoftailsdogs.com
• Instagram: cityoftailsllc
• Facebook: City of Tails