Land on Your Feet (LYF) Cat Behavior Consultant Mentorship with Katenna Jones
Working as a behavior consultant, whether you’re a beginner or one with years of experience, can be frustrating. It’s difficult to grow your business when you’re juggling so many hats, and without others to go to for support, it can be an isolating career, often leading to compassion fatigue and burnout.
Even harder, there’s resources available for dog trainers and behavior consultants, but very little that’s specifically targeted at cat behavior consultants and trainers. While working with cats and helping them stay in homes is becoming more widespread, it still can feel like cat consultants aren’t given the full attention they deserve!
Join LYF!
LYF is a monthly mentorship program designed to help you build your cat behavior consulting business through group support, peer accountability and expert assistance with everything from feline behavior and training to business and marketing. LYF is designed to help you grow in your chosen field and help more cats and their families.
How is this different from other mentorships?
Kitten loads of great resources include at least six live online meetings with mentors, recordings of live online meetings, guest speakers, a recommended list of regularly updated resources, a cat behavior body of knowledge and fellow mentee directory.
Your LYF Mentors
Katenna Jones, ScM, ACAAB, CCBC, CDBC, Certified Fear Free Trainer
Through Jones Animal Behavior, Katenna Jones provides in-person and virtual behavior consultations as well as educational seminars to pet owners, rescues, and other pet professionals. She speaks at international events, contributes to a wide variety of publications, and is author of Fetching the Perfect Dog Trainer: Getting the Best for You and Your Dog. Katenna began her career as a shelter volunteer in 1999 and went on to earn her Master’s Degree from Brown University where she studied animal behavior, learning and cognition. Eventually, she became a cruelty investigator, worked for American Humane Association and also for the Association of Professional Dog Trainers. Katenna is an Associate Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Certified Cat and Dog Behavior Consultant, and a Certified Fear Free Trainer. She shares her RI home with two cats, chickens, and ducks.
Mychelle Garrigan, MSW, CDBC
Mychelle Garrigan runs Firelink Digital Marketing which focuses on small to medium businesses and non-profits, with a special niche for pet care professionals. She provides a full range of online business services include website design, copywriting, SEO, Google analytics, and web accessibility audits. She also has a specialty in helping individuals develop online course platforms, whether it’s on their own website or using pre-configured learning management systems. She also works with many pet care professionals providing digital marketing services to help grow their businesses.
Mychelle’s professional background includes over 20 years working in administration, development and marketing/communications positions in the non-profit world. She currently serves on the board of the Sioux Empire TNR Coalition, which seeks to bring a TNR community cats program to Sioux Falls, and is a foster home for The Kitten League.
Mychelle has a long history working as both staff and a volunteer for various shelters and rescues. She is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the IAABC. She has been a regular writer for several websites on dog and cat behavior and training and small animal and reptile care. She also served for many years as editor for both the IAABC and the APDT journals and as the Technical Course Manager for IAABC’s online education program and was the website designer for their award-winning journal. Mychelle lives with her dogs Kaylee and Jack, cats Ranni, Howl, Raven (AKA Spicy Cat), Duncan, Ciara, Maeve and Quinn, Torrent the cockatiel, Ivy the bearded dragon and several foster kittens in Sioux Falls, SD.
LYF Includes
Online Group Meetings
Monthly group meetings to review cases and techniques, business concerns and questions and general peer support.
Discussion Group
LYF will have a private Facebook group for discussions as well as Facebook lives and meeting groups.
Live Consult Observation
Sit in and watch actual live cat behavior consultations online to learn more about how to work with clients effectively.
"Colony" Work Sessions
Working on your own as a behavior consultant can be a lonely business. Mentees will be able to join our weekly "colony" co-working sessions on Zoom.
Resources
Group resources include recordings of online meetings, recommended books and videos, a cat behavior body of knowledge and more.
Bonuses!
Bonus items will include guest speakers and a 20% discounts on all courses and conferences on Hippocampus Online, as well as discounts on 1:1 consulting sessions with the mentors.
How to Sign Up
- The LYF mentorship is a monthly subscription for $50/month.
- Monthly rate is set to auto-renew unless you cancel.
- You can start and stop the mentorship at any time.
- Questions? Email us at [email protected]!
FAQs:
We have one meeting per week. The first meeting of each month is the first Friday of that month at 11 am Eastern. Subsequent meetings alternate Mondays at 8pm EST (for informal sharing and chatting about life as a cat behavior consultant) and Fridays 11am EST (focused on specific topics). Occasionally we also feature special guest.
Absolutely! In addition to the live meetings where the mentors will be in attendance, you’ll have access to the Facebook group where mentors will respond to your posts. On top of all that you’ll have nice discounts on one-on-one sessions with a mentor to talk about anything you want.
No! This mentorship is designed for anyone who wants to work with cats in a behavior consultant role. We welcome beginners and experienced mentees alike! Our goal is to create a mentorship where you not only learn from us but also from each other, and find an open, supportive environment. In fact you don’t ever have to work as a behavior consultant if you don’t want to! You can just gather this knowledge for your own personal reasons.