Pet Sitter in Thousand Oaks, California

Hello, my name is Matthew! I'm 37 years old and have enjoyed a successful career as a website developer and online marketing expert, specializing in WordPress-based eCommerce websites. However, as much as I enjoy my career building/maintaining websites and helping businesses increase their online sales, for years I felt like something was missing in my professional life and that I was meant to work at a job that felt more fulfilling. That is, until I began working as a volunteer at the Ventura County Animal Shelter a couple of years ago during COVID. I've always LOVED animals, especially dogs, and recently have been looking for a way add working with animals part-time to my part-time work with small businesses and their digital marketing needs. Unfortunately, since my formal education was focused towards a degree in 'Computer Information Systems', I haven't taken the necessary courses to work at any local veterinarian clinics or animal shelters. That's when I stumbled across petsitter.com and realized that this was the perfect fit for me! A greater cause where I could give back to my community, the animals I love, while also maintaining part-time work in the online fields which I've spent the last 13 years of my career working in. I still work part-time as a web developer and digital marketing specialist for an online auto-parts store in Chatsworth. Then I spend the majority of my "downtime" volunteering at the Animal Shelter and spending time with my long-time girlfriend who lives in Redondo Beach. I just recently finished my dog handling certification classes at the Ventura County Animal Shelter and am now a LEVEL 3 Certified dog walker/handler. Which basically means I'm qualified and have experience handling the largest and most aggressive dogs that are housed at the Camarillo and Simi Valley shelters. I've grown up with dogs always in the home and have owned my own dog who passed away a couple of years ago. He was a big 105-pound German Shepherd/Husky/Rottweiler mix who I named "Dodger" due to my love of sports and for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. I'm an active guy who enjoys spending time outdoors. I'm also pretty well-known among my family and friends for my dog training abilities which are always reward-based, mostly using the dog's favorite treats. I enjoy working with all different breeds, sizes, and personalities when it comes to our furry best friends. I try to teach them new tricks whenever I can and/or they are willing, as long as that's okay with the owner. If not, I usually stick to throwing a good frisbee, tennis ball and/or Kong toy for them to chase after and/or fetch. I would love to assist you when you're away or working by giving your dog(s) the attention he/she/they deserve. Ideally, this would involve working on some very basic training like 'sit' and 'heel', but this isn't a requirement. Anything that you and your dog feels comfortable with, I'm willing to carry out. I also enjoy giving them a good brushing with a 'Furminator' brush if they're long-haired and/or shed a lot, and am no stranger to giving them a bath. I look forward to hearing back from you as well as meeting you and your pup(s)!! :-) Oh and I almost forgot to mention, I do have my own YouTube channel which I created to try and help get some of the dogs at the shelter to find their "forever homes". The channel has over 12,000 views in a year and it really did help to get some of the long-term dogs at the Camarillo shelter to be adopted, including our German Shepherd named "Bear" and Bulldog named "Bubba". Unfortunately, PetSitter doesn't allow links to be posted in this description. But In case you're interested in viewing some of my videos, the channel is called "Dog Eat Dog World" which you should be able to search on YouTube to locate my channel. Thank you for your time! -Matthew