Patrick founded Patrick's Pet Care in March 2012 as a dog walking company in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. His values for operating a pet care business are based on a genuine love of animals, a commitment to do the right thing, and a personal approach to meeting the needs of all the animals and people who depend on Patrick's Pet Care.

Patrick’s journey to start a fear-free, force-free grooming practice began in 2017 when he recognized the demand for grooming services and sought more education about how it all works. “How hard could it be?,” he thought. He soon found out, it’s much harder than it seems. While enrolled in his first grooming school he recognized that the completely unregulated grooming industry was dominated by force and efficiency-based practices that he would never willingly subject his own dog to. In particular, he was horrified to learn that many groomers employ a practice called “learned helplessness” to force animals to comply with painful and frightening techniques in order to get a “perfect” haircut, fast. Basically, by teaching the dog that it has no hope of escaping, it reluctantly submits to frightening processes that often cause pain in the name of speed. No wonder so many dogs are afraid of the grooming process, he realized. He also recognized that most groomers are not deliberately bad, neglectful, or abusive people, they just don’t know how to communicate with the dogs and have found through trial and error that their fear and control based methods work under pressure, which they do. 

Rather than perpetuating these aversive methods, Patrick sought another way. A way that allowed him to get the same (or better) results, without fear and force. Before going any further in grooming education, he enrolled in two world-renowned force-free, fear-free dog training academies to learn how to communicate with dogs and teach them that the grooming process does not have to be scary or painful and can actually be fun. In one of the academy lessons on husbandry training (which is what zoos employ to enable exotic animals like elephants and whales to consent to medical treatment) he watched a hyena willingly open its mouth and offer its leg for a blood draw without force at the Denver Zoo. You can watch that video here. It was in that moment he realized that the same techniques could be applied to dog grooming. 

After becoming a certified force-free dog trainer, Patrick completed another, less aversive, dog grooming program and then created his own, unique least invasive, minimally aversive (LIMA) dog grooming program that he has since begun teaching to others. It takes more time up front, but that time is a priceless investment in creating a safe, compassionate, positive, and ultimately efficient grooming experience for everyone involved. 

Fundamentally, Patrick aims to create thriving relationships between people and their canine companions, using science and consent based methods without fear, pain or force. Patrick is a member of the Pet Professional Guild, a certified force-free dog trainer, certified fear-free dog groomer, and a Certified Professional Animal Care Operator (CPACO).