As Nature Intended w/ Teena Patel

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After Coming From Africa, Teena Discovered A New Path In The United States Around Doggy Daycare

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About The Episode

Teena Patel was born and raised in Kenya, East Africa. When she was seven years old, her dad held a sibling academic child to learn the times tables the quickest, with the winner getting a prize of their choice. Teena beat her brother and asked for a dog. There weren’t any breeders or pet shops in Kenya, and they were usually only for affluent families or individuals. Her parents researched and found one person in all of Nairobi who had a bunch of Jack Russel’s, and so they got one from her. That’s where it all started.

When she was around 16, Teena moved to the United States. She soon found herself studying for a degree in psychology in college, but she still was planning (or at least hoping) to go back to Kenya and pursue her childhood dream of wanting to work with elephants. Shortly before graduating, she realized it wasn’t that realistic anymore. With a semester left, she started looking into dog occupations and came across dog training.

As part of her research into that possible career path, Teena found a dog training program in New York City that was for six weeks. She delayed her last undergrad semester and went to go do that program. That jumpstarted her journey into researching daycares all over the country. After continuing to keep looking into it at every level, and getting her MBA in the meantime, Teena eventually had her idea locked down for her own training program around enrichment. The University of Doglando was born, an enrichment center for dogs.

This was at a time when there was only 32 doggy daycares in the United States at the time, and none in Florida (where she was based). Doglando opened in Orlando in 1999 and has been going since. It’s a constantly growing and changing environment, and now there’s even a program for passing down that knowledge to others interested in the field, too.

About The Guest - Teena Patel

Teena Patel is the Founder and CEO of the University of Doglando, a dog training and behavior company based in Orlando, Florida. After originally being raised in Kenya, Teena came to the United States in her teenage life. While she was interested in working with animals from a young age, she discovered the idea of dog training and found her passion in that field. Incorporating her experiences from Kenya into her practice, Teena has aimed for Doglando to be a place where dogs can be in an open environment and to have them live in the most natural and enriching way possible.

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