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A lifelong Love For Animals
Jacob "Jake" Folger, the founder of Click-A-Pet started early in his work with animals. His love for them started with numerous family pets that included monkeys, dogs, cats, birds, snakes, raccoons, descented skunks, horses and farm animals.
Jake's first real job was at an animal shelter in Winchester Virginia when he was 14 years old. At 16, he worked at a Wild Animal Managerie, his primary position was as the caregiver for the big cats, two lions and a Siberian tiger, and an elephant named Elly. Later in his teens, Jake worked with injured and abandoned animals caring for those that were the most in need. He helped to medicate and keep them comfortable, most importantly he helped with his love for them.
In Jake's 20's. he worked as a large animal Veterinarian's Assistant, mostly aiding in animal births of cows and horses. And then as a Veterinarian's Assistant at a small animal clinic. And there he assisted with surgeries such as spay, neuter and c-sections.
After several years of owning a business in a non-pet related industry, Jake found himself back working with animals, his first love of life. He worked at a dog daycare center in North West Washington as the caregiver for the night boarding dogs. It was a cage free facility, and at night, Jake slept with as many as 12 dogs right in his bed with him! His connection with the dogs was so strong and he felt that working with animals had to be what he was meant to do.
Jake started looking into different aspects of the pet care service industry and found that training might be fun and rewarding work. However, he found traditional training methods to be abusive towards animals. He continued to research training methods and decided that Clicker Training which is reward based, positive reinforcement was definately the way to go. Jake first attended a Clicker Training Seminar in Kentucky with Dr. Deborah Jones PHD and he loved this method of Training.
After much practice with dogs, reading countless books and watching videos on the subject, Jake started his business, Click-A-Pet on October 1st, 2001. After a brief time, Jake began offering dog walking and pet sitting as well. Jake, now, can also train cats, teaching obedience just like he does with dogs and trick training for both species. In October of 2009, Jake began offering a 24/7 pet taxi along with errand running services.
Since the beginning of Click-A-Pet, Jake has never looked back. "This is where I belong." Jake says with a grin.
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