Kathy Callahan

Kathy Callahan, CPDT-KA, is a puppyhood coach and pack therapist living in Alexandria, VA. She is amazed that she now gets paid for talking to people about dogs, something she has always done for free, ad nauseum. She and her husband Tom are technically empty-nesters, but anyone who’s been to their fur-filled home will find that a ridiculous description. 101 Rescue Puppies: One Family’s Story of Fostering Dogs, Love, and Trust is her first book.

Kathy took in her first rescues as a junior at Dartmouth. (She bottle-fed the kittens for a term, and then like all impulsive, short-sighted college kids, bestowed them upon her parents.) She spent her twenties in magazine publishing in Washington, D.C., sneaking her 100-lb dog into the office when she could. Kathy married Tom a year after their chance encounter in a dog park, and during their two-year adventure in South Africa (with their four big dogs), Kathy wrote for an animal magazine and worked at the local vet. Back in the U.S., Kathy delighted in nurturing their two daughters amid a dog-filled pack. She taught preschool, and did therapy dog work in elementary schools. In 2012, the family took what turned out to be a fateful step in fostering two puppies. That was 200 foster dogs ago. Somewhere in there Kathy figured out that she could stop wondering what she was going to do when the girls left the nest, because she was already doing it. She’s now a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, and she delights in coaching people and their puppies into a great pack life.