My Story

My name is Jeff Kanarish, and I am a dog behaviorist, and an airline pilot, and a writer, and a gardener, and an amateur chef–Jeff the Chef, and a small business start-up specialist, and an artist, and a Florida Gator, and a . . . and a . . . and. When people ask me, “What do you do?” I answer: “I’m not authorized to tell you.” It saves time.

If you have few minutes, I’ll tell you what qualifies me to keep a website about small dogs, besides the ability to pay for a monthly subscription to a web-hosting service and my knack for windblown, pedantic word-craft? With apologies, here are all of the “I’s:”

1. For four years, I had been the Senior-Director-in-Charge-of-Almost-Everything at Kelsey’s Dog House, since its opening in November of 2005. Kelsey’s Dog House is a dog grooming, boarding and daycare facility specializing in small dogs. My wife and I built the place from scratch. Today, the business continues under a new owner. When we owned Kelsey’s Dog House, my duties included everything from dog care to garbage collection to training dog handlers.  At any given hour we had from 15 to 40 dogs in our care. While we groomed any size dogs including Mastiffs, Great Danes and Irish Wolfhounds, we usually had a multitude of miniature, toy and teacup pups in boarding. Kelsey’s Dog House is not a veterinary clinic by any means, but we cared for small dogs with every sort of ailment, disability, and behavioral quirk you can imagine. I have learned that small dogs are different from their larger cousins for very specific reasons. At a 24-hour-a-day operation, that learning curve was very steep.

2. I have a diploma in the bottom of my junk drawer that says I have a degree in Psychology.

3. I practiced what I learned in school–behavior modification–for almost three years at an institution for the mentally challenged. Though I did not enjoy the experience overall, it taught me a lot about how environment shapes behavior. I had a chance to apply this knowledge every day at Kelsey’s Dog House.

4. I spent what felt like a lifetime as an officer and fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, including some combat flying in a place with a lot of sand, but not much beach. I learned a bit more about leadership, and self-discipline, (including how to use a Piddle-Pak in an unstable fighter jet with no autopilot. Fly the jet into the dirt, or relieve myself? It’s a toss up.)

5. I was instrumental in building two start-up businesses that served a global clientele. (Ugh, that sounds like an inflated statement on a concocted resume, and yet, it’s completely true.) Through one of these businesses, I instructed the high mucky-mucks at Fortune 500 companies on leadership and organization techniques that I learned from my time in the military.

6. Simultaneous with the dog business, I balance a career as a pilot and an instructor at a major airline in Atlanta whose name begins with “D”, flying mostly to Latin America. I’m not sure what this has taught me, other than I work a lot.**

7. The Missus and I own two small dogs, who operate at opposite ends of the dog-behavior spectrum. One dog, Kelsey, a Schnauzer-Poodle mix, is submissive, at times fearful, but completely obedient. The other, Royce, a Miniature Pinscher is feisty in the extreme and, at times, hard to handle. For better or worse, we interact with dogs, both at work and at home, every waking hour of the day, (except when I am at the major airline in Atlanta whose name begins with “D.”)**

There you have it, or, as I have learned in my second month of Spanish lessons, aqui tu tienes. To summarize, a B.A. in Psychology makes a good drawer liner; behavior modification works, but the practice of it may drive you nuts; trying to fly a fighter jet while piddling into a bag with a 3-inch, floppy plastic opening is a bad idea; high mucky-mucks at Fortune 500 companies like fighter pilots; wash your hands before feeding dogs if you have just carried the garbage outside; working in two businesses is tiring; and a bad day with dogs is still better than a good day doing just about anything else without dogs.

These are my qualifications for commanding a portion of your precious time with this website. Please hop aboard and enjoy the ride.

Your Friend,

Jeff Kanarish
Senior-Director-in-Charge-of-Almost-Everything
Kelsey’s Dog House

**Though I live to hear stories about your mis-handled luggage; and your long flight delays; and about the ridiculously high cost of flying; and the obnoxious time spent shuffling through airport security lines, please reserve those comments for a site about airline flying, which this is not. Thank you. J.K.

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