Community Corner

Andrea's World: Rehab for Man's Best Friend

Andrea Smith offers dog wellness training to enhance the human-canine partnership!

Last week, Bed-Stuy resident Andrea Smith and her videographer were on their way to the Brooklyn Bridge to film for a reality show pilot about Andrea’s life as a busy dog trainer in New York City when she suddenly got a phone call:

A friend of Andrea’s had spotted an abandoned pit bull tied up on the stairs of Von King Park’s outdoor amphitheater. And, the friend reported, the dog looked cold, frightened and stressed.

Within minutes, there Andrea was, along with her videographer at Von King Park, trying desperately to untie the shivering female dog on the verge of choking from her own tangled leash. 

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It was a very sad and scary moment, Andrea recalled, and they had to act quickly. She notified the police, who then called the ASPCA. Meanwhile, her videographer, sat watching from the sideline, bawling at the entire scene.

Long story, short: After much thought and trepidation, Andrea’s videographer ultimately decided to adopt the abandoned dog, which they named JoJo, making for a happy ending to an otherwise tragic story. Right?

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Wrong. The next day when the videographer tried to introduce the new dog to her boyfriend, JoJo turned vicious and attacked him. The videographer's first thought, of course, was she that she had made a grave mistake. And so she called Andrea for advice about what to do…

Ummm, I’m a dog behavior trainer, remember? Hello??? Andrea recalled of the conversation, laughing.

Today only one week since her rescue and after working with Andrea, aside from shy eyes and a slightly hesitant stance, JoJo seems to have come a long way. She sits, stands and walks on Andrea’s command, wags after a treat and even hints a smile, if you talk to her real sweet.

Watching her interact with JoJo, it’s clear Andrea is a bonafide “dog whisperer” and has a keen instinct for the job.

Funny thing is, Andrea, who originally is from Washington, DC, did not grow up around dogs, and so she didn’t discover her "gift" for relating to dogs until about 15 years ago, when she moved to New York City. She came to work as a fashion model. But after two years of that, she grew bored and decided she wanted to be an animal doctor instead.

“I was taking veterinarian courses but discovered I didn’t like working around blood. So I was done with the vet thing quickly,” she said. “I wasn't sure what I was going to do as a career. So I got real depressed.

“Then one day I was sitting in the dog park just watching them run around. And then I got up to walk out of the park. And I turned around and saw that all the dogs had stopped running and were standing at the fence just looking at me,” she said.

“So I went to the ASPCA, and I was like, ‘Look, use me. Just teach me. I want to work with dogs. I want to learn the way animals communicate; I want to communicate with them.’”

She started volunteering at the ASPCA in 2001: “It was hard work. They put me in the basement with the seriously abused and neglected dogs, and they were biting and lunging and I had to figure out how to maintain my safety in that environment. But it gave me the skills I needed to figure out how to work with stressful dogs.”

Then, following the towers collapsing on 9/11, she volunteered to work with the search and rescue effort, calming the rescue dogs each day after they returned from Ground Zero.

“One thing about service dogs is that if they don’t get the results they’re trained for, they get stressed out. So they were looking for bodies, and they couldn’t find any unfortunately. So they were highly stressed out. And somehow I could feel the stress and the tension.”

She tells the story of how one day, a big fight broke out between ten or so German Shepherds. Andrea instinctively jumped in the middle and singlehandedly broke up the fight and was able to completely calm the dogs without getting mauled.

Following that incident, the ASPCA gave her a merit. And with that piece of paper, she started her dog behavior training business, Drea Dog World.  Andrea specializes in rehabilitating stressful and abused shelter dogs, but she works with all types of dogs.

“I have my Upper East Side clients, Upper West Side clients; I have my artsy SoHo clients; I have my cute puppies and my naughty puppies… So it’s from one end of the spectrum all the way to the other.”

She trains in one-hour increments and says, depending upon the severity of the behavior problem, it could take up to six months.

“But I’ve also been able to train a dog in five minutes,” she said laughing.

Her success rate is so excellent, she’s able to maintain a steady referral base that keeps her busy—on top of the reality show pilot she hopes will get picked up by a network.

“We’ve been shooting for like two months, and we’re almost at the end of it to the point where we going to pitch it,” Andrea said. “It will be different from ‘The Dog Whisperer,’ number one, because it’s based in New York City, not LA. And as New Yorkers, we have an entirely different set of dog issues here in this urban setting.”

Finally, Andrea Smith has found her professional calling-- one she discovered by following her own instincts.

And as for JoJo, the way things are looking, she too will get her happy ending. After all.


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