Follow your passion - Canine love

How many of us have the courage to follow our passion instead of opting for the safe route of taking up a regular job? Through this column, we share extraordinary stories of ordinary people who turned their passion into a profession.
Not many would think of dog training and behaviour modification as a viable career. But Pranita Balar, 27, found her métier as a dog trainer because it gave her more joy than her corporate career.
This management studies graduate from Mumbai's Mithibai College took a postgraduate diploma in media marketing to work in the corporate sector. “I first worked as a management professional.However, I did not enjoy the work, so I shifted to media planning,“ she says. The new profile did not excite her. “Mundane jobs with zero challenges had exhausted me mentally and I was on the lookout for something more exciting,“ she adds.
Fond of dogs, Balar decided to research options in the pet industry. She came across an organisation that not only trains those interested in canine training, but also provides similar services to owners.“At Canine Can Care, I took a two-week course in behaviour training which required us to interact with different dogs to apply what we learnt in class,“ she explains. “During my interaction with the dogs, I realised that this was my true calling and I immediately decided to set up my own organisation.“
Once Bark n Bond came into existence in 2012, Balar says, she barely had a client or two a day. But, today, she handles nearly 10 clients a day. “It takes about five-six months to make a name for yourself in the mar ket. While word of mouth is the fastest means of attracting a clientele, efficient social media marketing, too, helps,“ she explains.
“At present, I am the CEO and the clerk, so I handle everything from logistics and planning to actual dog train ing,“ she says. Whether it is dog behaviour modification, obedience training, aggress sion consultation or a camp where pets travel with owners for a weekend get away, she has to be hands-on.
“The work provides me a new chal lenge every day because no two dogs are ever the same and techniques applied on one may not yield results in another case.
So, I constantly have to be on my toes,“ she explains. Further, her job not only re quires her to treat dogs as creatures with emotions but also involves interacting with owners and helping them under stand what is best for their pets. Accord ing to her, people skills are the key. One of the challenges she faces is teaching clients to understand how to communi cate with their pets.
Despite spending the same number of working hours now as she did in her previ ous jobs, she does not find it exhausting.