About

Many people in Boston area know me, Vera Wilkinson, from my work with nearly 20,000 dogs through my dog training and behavior consulting business, The Cooperative Dog. The fact that my entry into the pet care and training world was initially through cats – not dogs – may come as a surprise.

For as long as I can remember, there’s always been more than one cat in my life. In fact, as a child in the 70s, I remember nursing several of our cats in their final hours as they were dying from what I later learned was feline distemper.

Fast forward to 1991, first there was Pepe, the athletic kitten and then, my Luna love, an orange and white domestic long hair appeared on my doorstep. Going about the business of trying to find his home unsuccessfully, I met several veterinarians. Shortly after meeting the team at Boston Cat Hospital, I began my pursuit to get into veterinary medical school. That plan was interrupted by the arrival of my heart dog, Szap, in 1995 and shortly after, I started my first business, The Pet Needs Company.

It was during that time that I really learned how to handle cats to administer medications including subcutaneous fluids and oral medications as well as insulin injections for diabetic cats. As a cat sitter from 1993-2001, I also learned a great deal about cat behavior and how medical conditions show themselves through behavior change. Sadly, through that work, I also saw how the poor quality of care provided by humans adversely affected the quality of life of their cats.

I am now in my third decade of deriving all of my income from my work of helping people to train their puppies and dogs and to resolve behavior problems. I hold a few professional certifications, the most important to me is certified dog behavior consultant that I achieved in 2007. From 2008 to 2011, I served as the Chair of the Dog Division of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and received the 2009 Dog Division Member of the Year Award. In that position, I served on the application review committee assessing the qualifications of aspiring dog and cat behavior consultants.

In examining my professional affiliations, you will learn that I refer to and apply science in all of my training and behavior work with animals and humans. Doing so, in my experience, provides the simplest and most effective results possible. Just as my dog training business tagline ‘practical training for everyday life’ suggests, I seek to keep things simple and straightforward in providing cat behavior help.

I look forward to working with you and helping you to better understand your cats – and dogs!

Vera

PS All of the pictures on my blog are of my cats. I will be sharing their stories there.