By Hannah Mendelson knew who she was from a young age: an animal lover.
“I’ve known I was gonna get into animals from a very young age,” said Mendelson. “As all little kids, I wanted to be a vet. Then I found out that vets have the highest suicide rate out of any profession, and I was like… no thank you.”
Hannah is a graduating senior and an Anthrozoology major from Rancho Santa Margherita in Southern California. While earning her bachelor’s degree, she has built and run her own pet care business. The business does everything from pet-sitting, and grooming to official dog training.
Her animal experience started when she was just 8-years-old, when she first walked a golden retriever in her neighborhood. Things didn’t go quite as planned.
“The dog saw f-ing something,” said Mendelson. “And then dragged me off my ass so I was covered in blood.”
Mendelson, feeling scared, didn’t walk the dog again. She recalls feeling quite bad about it, because she did really like the dog.
Even with her scarring injury, Mendelson never gave up on what she loved and pushed forward past her fears.
Mendelson’s love for animals eventually led her to Carroll. Her mom encouraged her to look at Carroll, because at the time, it was the only school with an anthrozoology program in America. When she visited campus, Mendelson was immediately drawn in by the old-style brick buildings and the Canine Centers state of the art training equipment, like the scent wheel.
“I didn’t know how to read it, but I went, yup that’s awesome,” said Mendelson.
Hannah came to Carroll with her own service animal, her rescue mutt dog, Bailey. Bailey is a testament to Hannah’s training capabilities, as she can hold a perfect heel and has won many ribbons through AKC, the American Kennel Club.
“There’s a group of tests called the CGC’s, which stands for Canine Good Citizenship test,” said Mendelson. “There are three of them, and as of, I think, last weekend, Bailey’s achieved all three.
Inspired by her own mother Hannah has been running her own dog training and grooming business since 2021. Naming the business was easy, Bailey Barks Pet Care welcomed Charlie in 2021 as its first client. Charlie was her sister of course, a very aggressive dog breed.
Deep breath, warm smile, and Mendelson was in business.
“I did not know anything,” said Mendelson. “Bless my own heart.”
Although Mendelson was mostly self-taught, she was determined to expand her knowledge while at Carroll. In order to secure her internships she called anyone in the area with training experience to ask for internship opportunities. Mendelson landed four different opportunities working for both professors and trainers.
Her business offers more than grooming and personal care. She provides dog training using a variety of training techniques including off leash work, extreme fear and reactivity training, and service work. Mendelson’s business is built on her personal mission statement about training dogs.
“Dog training should be about what the person wants,” said Mendelson. “Not what society deems is a well-trained dog.”
Mendelson wants to continue to learn and grow, expanding her knowledge. She’ s particularly interested in bite sports, which test obedience, tenacity, and endurance of a dog.
In bite training, dogs are stimulated using noise and are required to remain peaceful until told to attack. Once permitted, a dog attacks a decoy, a person in a bite protective suit, who then measures the strength of the attack.
Dogs can go through bite training to either compete against other dogs or to be someone’s personal protection.
Mendelson quickly discovered, however, that she will face challenges in becoming trained and respected in the field of bite training: Bite training is a male-dominated field that seems reluctant to welcome women. Bite training is also expensive, another barrier.
“I’ve found it to be very difficult to break into this industry, for the specific niche,” said Mendelson. “It tends to be a very, very, very male-dominated field, and people aren’t too keen on training a girl.”
Rejection after rejection did not stop her. Seemingly inspired by the resistance, she kept reaching out.
“It was really hard to find someone to train me for bite sports, everyone talked down to me,” said Mendelson. “I needed to get this job. I knew it was something I’d thrive in, so I persisted.”
Eventually, her relentless persistence paid off. She recently found a bite sport trainer who is willing to train her as a decoy through an apprenticeship.
“It’s my dream avenue,” said Mendelson. “I never thought I’d actually be able to get into bite sports, let alone straight out of college. So the opportunity is crazy.”
On campus, Mendelson helps out with Collar Scholars, which lets students adopt and raise puppies who later become professional service animals. Mendelson especially appreciates how each person shares their work online.
“All of them have Instagrams to document what raising a puppy is like,” said Mendelson. “As a service dog handler, that is a wildly crucial thing for the public to know.”
Isabella Fields, from Indianola, Iowa, is president of Collar Scholars and one of Mendelson’s close friends on campus.
“Hannah’s always there for whatever you need whenever you need it,” said Fields. “She’s honestly one of my biggest cheerleaders.”
Collar Scholars allow students on campus to raise puppies for the service training program, Mendelson helps the club as a “puppy sitter.”
“She did all of the qualifications, and did all the testing and knows all the commands so she can pretty much handle any of our pups on campus,” said Fields. “She helps out when raisers need a puppy sitter if they have a lot of classes or a lab.”
Mendelson doesn’t just puppy sit. She often helps Fields directly with training questions and facilitates training classes.
“If I have a training question, I even go to her sometimes,” said Fields.
When she’s not helping out or training animals, Mendelson spends her free time advocating for causes that help animals and trainers. When a Montana Senate Panel held a hearing about changing Montana laws to protect service animals and handlers, Mendelson and her friend attended the hearing.
“I actually got up to talk. I was shaking,” said Mendelson. “That was one of my proudest moments.”
The Senate Bill 300 did pass, and it is now a felony to harm or purposely distract a service animal in Montana.
By helping others, helping animals, and cracking open glass ceilings, Mendelson has grown immensely both professionally and personally.
Carroll Anthrozoology professor, Margo Demello, recalled meeting Mendelson.
“She didn’t appear to me as a fully formed person until she was a sophomore,” said Demello.
Demello watched Mendelson grow stronger as she launched her dog training business.
After the self-questioning that came with freshman year disappeared, Demello saw Mendelson blossom into a self-assured young woman. Demello could see herself in Mendelson.
“She has big feelings and big thoughts. She takes up space in a way that I admire,” said Demello. “I love a woman who takes up space, and is unapologetic.”
Demello admired Mendelson’s work with Toby, the chihuahua corgi mix. During the training process, Demello called Mendelson her “third therapist” because of how vulnerable dog training can be.
“Training a dog again means training a person, which means having to deal with that person’s insecurities and vulnerabilities,” said Demello. “I cried with her probably three different times.”
Mendelson has learned dog training requires people training. She’s welcoming those challenges and Demello admires her courage to walk fearlessly into the wind.
“Looking at her now, I think she was the kid in elementary school who got yelled at all the time for talking too much and for being too loud,” said Demello. “And that is exactly the set of traits that I think have served her well and will continue to serve her well as an adult.”
Looking back at her time here at Carroll, Mendelson also feels she’s grown the most in her self-assurance. She has put in the mental and physical work to build up her confidence.
“I had it beforehand, but I strengthened it,” said Mendelson. “I weightlifted here.”
She couldn’t have done it alone; however, without the community of friends she’s made on campus, and support from home, she wouldn’t have been able to push through the challenges she faced.
“My parents were a driving motivator during my hardest times at Carroll,” said Mendelson. “They pushed me to stick with it even when I was ready to quit, and I’m so grateful they did.”
There’s one more bar to jump however, Mendelson is fighting the nerves and excitement that come with crossing that stage and saying goodbye to those friendships that have pushed her.
Even self-assured Mendelson is scared of what the future will bring.
“Being an adult is weird,” said Mendelson. “It feels so far in the future and it’s so hardcore in two weeks.”
With graduation approaching, Mendelson is reminded of the achy and teary feeling that came with saying goodbye to the graduates last year, especially close friend Abby Merz.
“I’m feeling sentimental about everything,” said Mendelson. “I cried when Abby left and I’m feeling the same type of way…I don’t even know how to word it.”
In these moments of tearful anxiety, Mendelson reminds herself of what she has prepared for post-grad, and that the connections she’s made here will last a lifetime.
“The friends I’ve made here have made everything worth it,” said Mendelson. “They have been there for me at my best and worst.
“They changed my life forever.”
