It’s just before 2 on a Friday afternoon when Craig Michaels picks me up in front of the Atwood Avenue storefront for his dog training and hiking business, Doggy by Nature. There are already several dogs in the back of the Chevy Tahoe, including Michaels’ tiny, ewok-looking dog Chuy, who immediately plops down in my lap. We make a couple more stops and then head out of town.
There are now nine dogs, ranging in size from a large hamster (Chuy) to a small horse (Rio), with us in the truck, plus Carl, Rae, Maggie, Rose, Cooper, Lola and Roxie. When we reach our destination, Michaels lets the dogs out of the SUV; tails wagging, they fall into formation and start down the trail. They know exactly where to go.
Throughout our hike the dogs run free, at times bounding through tall grass or down a ravine to a freshwater spring. But they always return to the trail, falling back in line. Michaels walks alongside, occasionally snapping his fingers or calling out, “Here pup,” or “C’mon Rosie.”
Rosie, a fluffy golden retriever puppy with giant paws, eventually runs out of gas and gets put on a leash so she doesn’t fall behind. The doodle-type dog she lives with, Maggie, has been running ahead and back to check on her. Within a few minutes Rosie gets her second wind, and by the end of the hike, she’s leading the group of dogs.
We hike for over an hour up and down the hilly landscape. Right before getting back to the truck, the dogs run back down to the spring to drink and splash around while Michaels sits on a rock and pets whichever pup comes close to him.
What’s obvious early on is that Michaels trusts the dogs and they trust him.
“I wanted to help change the dog culture here,” says Craig Michaels.
In 2006, Michaels, originally from Milwaukee, was living in Los Angeles working as a graphic designer. “And then one day we all lost our jobs,” Michaels says.
Shortly thereafter, he was playing pick-up basketball when one of the other players told him that he should work as a dog trainer and hiker, like him. Michaels told him that he needed “a real job.” But he decided to join him for a day — and that was it. “I knew right away that this was what I was going to do,” Michaels says.
Michaels soon moved to Austin, Texas, and started his own dog business, based on the same model he followed in Los Angeles, where he trained dogs while taking them out into the wild to hike.
When he moved to Madison three years ago to work at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, he knew he wanted to start a dog hiking and training business here, too. But he found that people weren’t as receptive to the idea. “A lot of people are stuck on kennels or dog walking,” Michaels says. “But I wanted to help change the dog culture here.”
Michaels met his first client, Marissa Johnson, at the dog park. Johnson, one of the owners of Grampa’s Pizzeria, says she was busy working on opening the restaurant at the time and couldn’t take her dog to the park every day. She looked at dog walking services but “knew that wouldn’t be enough for Carl. He loves to run free and play with other dogs.”
While out and about, the dogs socialize and stick together.
After a few meetings, Carl was comfortable with Michaels and it wasn’t long before he couldn’t contain his excitement when he arrived. Johnson says that Carl’s behavior has changed drastically since working with Michaels: “He stays closer and listens better when off leash.”
Once Michaels had his first client, word of the service began to spread.
Cass Hanson, another client, loves knowing that her puppy, Juan, is getting quality time outdoors. “Juan is all smiles on Thursday evenings,” Hanson says.
Michaels now works with about 30 dogs, taking groups out on hikes twice a day Mondays through Thursdays and once on Fridays. The Friday group is relatively small compared to the others, which have about 15 dogs per group (when Michaels has an assistant). He charges $25 a hike.
New dogs start on a leash; Michaels works to train them to eventually be off leash. The goal is that the dog will join the group and be trusted to hike and obey commands to stick together. Michaels says most of the dogs are ready to be off leash after a few months.
Driving to and from hikes — “the transport,” as Michaels calls it — is important for socialization, too. “On the way to a hike, all of the dogs are in the back of the truck hanging out, and on the way home they usually fall asleep in a big pile.”
Doggy by Nature 310-592-7151, info@doggybynature.com
