Hyderabad: An MCom graduate from Mumbai with a finance certification and a stable government bank job would usually be looking at settling down in life. Astha Pathak, who had moulded her life and had almost made peace with it, too was thinking on the same lines. But as they say, opportunity knocks at the most unexpected time. One life-changing moment made her transform from being a dog-fearing person to a dog-loving one, and is now doing much more.
“I was raised in a family wherein we were forced to get scared of dogs due to the subconscious fear with which we are introduced to them at an early age. For a long time, I was always scared of dogs, and when a relative died due to a dog bite, the fear got more entrenched in my mind. It was in 2017 that I had a life-changing moment when I saw a frail mother dog struggling to feed her puppies and yet being scared of humans. Slowly, I started overcoming the fear of dogs and started my dog-loving journey by feeding strays,” says Astha, who now runs a dog training and a behavioural company called Petpamp.
Post that incident, the bug of doing something for dogs bit her and she quit her job as a bank manager and travelled to the US. There she saw the way dogs are treated, trained and respected. So, in 2019, she decided to start Petpamp to help pet parents bond better with their dogs by understanding their psychology. She also wants to make pet parents understand that just having a dog at home is not enough and we need to make the right kind of effort if we want to connect more with the dog and make it part of their family.
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“Many people either adopt or buy a dog just to overcome their boredom and then when they are unable to take care of the dog, they abandon it. Once the cute puppy phase fades away, pet parents realise the huge responsibility. The lack of time from the pet parent leads to a lot of confusion and frustration among the dog and then it turns violent. Through my counselling sessions I want to create awareness among pet parents about the responsibility of getting a dog home and what kind of lifestyle changes one needs to make,” she informs.
Other than providing regular command training to dogs, Astha also helps in changing the behaviour of older dogs. From training puppies that are as young as 45 days old to even three-year-old full-grown dogs, Astha can train a dog of any kind. In her first interaction session, she tries to understand the dog through almost two hours of counselling sessions which involves the pet parents as well. Then, depending on the needs she prepares a customised training module for the dog and trains accordingly.
She has done various courses related to dog training from various trainers from across India and has been researching this subject for the last five years. She plans to open a dog training centre in Gachibowli in the next few months wherein she can help other girls interested in this field to get a chance at becoming dog trainers and behaviorists.
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