“There are already three dogs with me in the car,” she warns us.
Why was the meeting with Tammy Pieters set for 6:45 a.m. in front of the city hall park in Montreal East, when she lives in Montreal North? It’s because she keeps a Doberman named Mila… with her masters. “It’s the first time they’ve gone on vacation. Mila is a survivor of Lebanon and she is very anxious, ”says the trainer and dog walker.
In the backseat, Mila tames Tammy Pieters’ dogs, a standard poodle and a Boston terrier named Hitch and BB. She must get used to it since a little later in the day, we will be nine living beings on board.
On the control panel, there are post it with the names of all the beasts that Tammy Pieters and her contractors (she’s desperate for more!) will take to the air during the day, whether it’s for walks or going to the dog park. This makes you dizzy, as do the many sets of keys in the central compartment.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
The numerous bunches of keys in the central compartment of Tammy Pieters’ vehicle
“It’s a lot of management,” agrees Tammy Pieters. Besides, the ringtone of his phone will be heard countless times.
In our mind, the clientele of dog walkers was concentrated in well-to-do neighborhoods like Outremont and Westmount. This is not true: that of Tammy Pieters is rather in Rosemont, Anjou, Saint-Michel and Saint-Léonard.
“I have a large sector in the East and there is a whole range of clienteles,” she points out.
Another cliché to abandon: that dogs are better off in big houses than in small apartments. “The important thing is what you do with your dog and when he sees other dogs. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Tammy Pieters wore a t-shirt that presented her as she is: The Dog Mother.
From the first stuffed animal that Tammy Pieters has to pick up, from an elderly woman with health problems, we see how much she is also a confidante for the owners of the animals.
Tammy Pieters does business with couples who have canine disagreements. And like a babysitter, she must reassure “parents” by sending them a photo of their animal. “They just got on the plane,” she said after reassuring Mila’s masters.
A vocation
Tammy Pieters has been surrounded by dogs since 2006, which suits her solitary nature, which she explains by spending four months in an incubator after her premature birth, and her need for stability caused by multiple moves.
Tammy Pieters wanted to be a mother, but changed her mind when she learned that hers suffered from schizophrenia. A mother who died of cancer just before her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “My life has not always been easy, but I am wounded “, insists Tammy Pieters.
At 35, when panic attacks paralyzed part of her daily life, Tammy Pieters discovered how much the dogs of her friends, whom she had to take care of, brought her great relief.
From then on, she began to read everything she could about canine psychology. “I was going to the dog park to film them. Learn their body language, how to correct others,” she says as we are caught in traffic congestion on the Metropolitan highway.
Tammy Pieters first established a clientele and found her calling by volunteering. Even treatments for Hodgkin’s lymphoma did not prevent her from working in 2015. “Lucky I had my dogs,” she confides before going to pick up Angus, a 140 lb doggie who is in pain. the paw.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
When Tammy Pieters walks through the fenced area, the dogs start following her.
At the Jean-Talon dog park
It is obvious when we arrive at the Jean-Talon dog park, in Saint-Léonard, where we will go twice a day: everyone knows Tammy Pieters. “Hi, Angela,” she says to a woman of Russian origin who arrives with her two big beasts: Boris and Adele.
Angela had written to Tammy Pieters earlier to be at the dog park at the same time as her. “Boris is a dominant dog and Tammy knows how to help me calm him down. »
I would love to write a book about the dynamics at the dog park.
Tammy Pieters
“Everyone talks to each other here. We have sangria aperitifs on Friday evenings, ”underlines Nancy Digiulio, introducing us to Rex, a former street dog from Italy.
Suddenly, the hearts of everyone in the park stop beating when a little off-leash dog comes within two hairs of causing an accident while crossing Jean-Talon Street.
Conclusion: the Pomeranian jumped out of the window of his owner’s car. “He heard the other dogs,” says Tammy Pieters.
The deep nature of different dog breeds and their need to socialize should not be underestimated. “The pack spirit comes out,” she says as we drive the second cohort of dogs back for the day before picking up a third in Rosemont.
We had proof of this with Mila. After seven hours in his company, it was a completely different hound frolicking joyfully in Pelican Park. “We can see that she is well,” rejoiced Tammy Pieters.
The program planned for the rest of the day? Two other individual walks, calendar management, not counting the night at the masters of Mila.
Strange to sleep with customers? “My work is so physical that at the end of the day, I fall asleep! As long as I’m with my dogs,” says Tammy Pieters.