Featured Chiks:Shawna Duffy & Lenyx Carter

Shawna & Lenyx are the co-owners of The Canine Collaborative! They offer dog trainings, structured walks and socials on the North Shore! We can't wait for you to meet them!

Tell us a bit about your company! What do you do? What is your mission?
The Canine Collaborative is a dog training business that focuses on building relationships between dogs and their people as well as bringing people within the community together. Our mission is to educate dog owners on how to better understand their dogs. We offer private and group training, structured walks and pet sitting. Recently, we have incorporated training events, which has always been an important aspect that we wanted to bring to the community and our clients. At these events we are able to connect with other local businesses and offer our clients a real world opportunity to get connected with their dogs and practice healthy socialization in social settings.

How did you get started with your business? What made you decide to join this industry?
Lenyx and I have had dogs and all other types of pets our entire lives. We learned a lot from our grandmothers, who instilled in us a great love and respect for all animals. In our early twenties we both started working at (separate) doggy daycares and learned so much about dog behavior while building strong relationships with the clientele. We met in 2017 and began running a local daycare together. From there, we immediately started dreaming up the possibilities of some day owning something for ourselves. We wanted to offer something different, as we saw so many dogs with many different personality needs. It was clear that daycare was not a "one-size-fits-all" concept for the dogs. We quickly brainstormed how we could incorporate training with natural fulfillment and bringing people together and there; TCC was born.

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What does it mean to you to be a small business owner on the North Shore?
Being able to service the North Shore has humbled us and given us the opportunity to give back to clients that we have known for many years. Each step has seemed like the natural progression in building ourselves. By helping the dogs in our area we feel as though we are directly helping the community. There has a domino effect when training our clients. When we work with them and collab with other small businesses we in turn are connecting with the local guests who aren't our clients. Having fulfilled dogs out and about sends a message about the people and the community they serve and provides everyone with a sense of harmony.

What is your favorite part of being a business owner?
Being able to fully provide a level of service that we are proud of has always been the goal and we are so happy and at times truly amazed that we get to wake up and do this every day. The feeling of no limitations in what we want to do and what we aspire to do in the future is a major gratitude that we acknowledge daily.

When you were growing up, what is your ultimate dream job? If it's this, how does it feel to have met your dream?! If it was something different, how did your dream change over time?
I think both of us have always been connected with animals and the idea of a typical 9-5 was never in the cards for us. This job fits our lifestyle as well as our mentality in that we love hosting and bringing people together and we love getting creative and doing things in a way that no one has thought of before. I believe of dreams will change and the great thing about this business is that it can be very versatile and change with the people and the dogs in it.

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Every business owner faces challenges. How are you empowered to overcome yours?
The dogs are what empowers us every day. Being a trainer and working closely with people puts you into their lives on a personal level in a way that has challenged us to always be ready for curve balls and new circumstances. This has shaped us into the business we are today and though at times it can get busy and have stressful moments, just like any other job, adapting to each dogs needs has kept us motivated. We couldn't be more ready and willing to give these dogs and their owners everything we've got. To see their relationship grow and to watch the progress right in front of us is something that has always drawn us in.

Tell us (in one word) how you would describe your bosschik business!
powerful

Anything else we should know about you, your business, or just a fun fact?!
We are two best friends, only children, fight like sisters, love like sisters, north shore natives- literally the definition of "townies" (& proud!), thirty and thriving! And we just want to say thank you for thinking of us. Beth Cronin is a gem of a human and we feel so lucky to have met her and miss Lola. We are ready and willing for whatever the future holds!

Where You Can Find Them:
Website | Facebook | Instagram