meet Paula ford

If there's one thing I believe without question, it is that animals have a wealth of wisdom for how to live a happy life. If we understand how to listen and learn from them, we become wiser, and our lives are better.

After I retired from a clinical laboratory career teaching and supporting patients, families, students, and co-workers, I could focus more fully on following my passion for supporting and enhancing animals' lives. I never considered how much animals would have to teach me and how profoundly they would alter the course of my life.

I began fostering rescued animals, worked in sheltering, coordinated volunteer transports for rescue animals, and owned and operated a not-for-profit dog rescue for more than a decade. These experiences showed me, again and again, the need for people and animals to learn to live together differently. They wanted more contentment, less stress, and more freedom as they went about their daily routines. These experiences also taught me about the potential within people and animals for resiliency, a willingness to forgive, and the ability to learn and understand one another in transformative ways.

I am a professional, choice-based, fear and intimidation-free dog trainer and the area's only certified teacher of animal-guided meditation in the Let Animals Lead®️ system created by Kathleen Prasad. I live in the Elizabeth City area with my husband and continue the lifelong joy and honor of also sharing my life and home with multiple dogs. I'm an avid student of the garden and habitat provider for bees, butterflies, bunnies, and all critters in need of support who find their way to our home!

My purpose and passion remain supporting people and animals through teaching unique yet practical solutions for transforming their daily experiences into ones filled with contentment, more freedom, and a new way of partnering together as committed allies.