We are so excited to announce our newest member of the Blue Door Family, Wendi Tabor. She is an awesome animal trainer, an avid studier of all things animal, and our fantastic new Client Coordinator. If you haven’t had a chance to speak with her on the phone yet, I’m sure you’ll love her as much as we do. Her excitement about animals and their people is just infectious!
Welcome to Wendi Tabor, Client Coordinator Extraordinaire!
I’ll let her tell you a little about herself.
“I love animals and I love people. So, helping animals and their people comes pretty naturally for me. I’ve always had animals, from tiny hamsters to horses. Currently my husband and I have four dogs, four lizards, a plethora of fish and a tarantula. My husband will tell you straight up the tarantula is ALL MINE, as she was a rescue and only had seven legs when I took her in to care for her.
I had my first official job with animals mucking stalls at a local barn to earn time to ride and practice in their show ring. I didn’t do so well showing as I was having too much fun plodding around on my horses and never took on the competitiveness others had. My first paying job while in high school was working for a professional dog handler. I learned to handle show dogs, and one of my job duties was to help train dogs for the show ring in handling classes as well as obedience/socialization for show dogs or puppies who were retiring and/or going to pet homes.
While in college, I took a position with a local veterinary hospital, and that is where my passion took off. I started entry level, and after my college graduation I stayed on with the same veterinary practice and worked my way through the ranks and spent ten years as their hospital coordinator. I organized communication and hospital flow, and was the main go between between doctors, clients, fellow staff, outside vendors, reps, and local
rescues and other community outreach programs. It was a wonderful career, so professionally and personally rewarding; I loved it so! Unfortunately, a life event forced a move of over a thousand miles, and I had to leave the job I loved. The move was rough, and I couldn’t quite find the perfect job fit in my new city, so after a couple tries, I decided it was time to go back to something I loved and knew, DOGS.
I spent a year studying and practicing positive reinforcement dog training, and became a mentor for Petco Corporation to regionally train their prospective dog trainers. During this time, my husband and I started our small rescue for alternative pets like reptiles, as there are many rescues for dogs and cats, but not so much for alternative pets like lizards.
Recently, I suffered a debilitating injury and as a result was unable to continue to train dogs or mentor trainers. Because of this, I sought out options to get back to my passion, veterinary work. I was so happy When Dr. Dawson asked me to join her team. Blue Door Veterinary Services shares the same love for animals and their people as I do. I look forward to speaking and/or emailing with you soon!”
If you haven’t seen any of her blog posts about training tricks and tips, then check out our blog for some of the amazing advice she is sharing with you all!
Join me in welcoming Wendi to our Blue Door family!
-Dr Dawson