About Strutt Your Mutt

• ABOUT INEZ
• BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE
• GIFTING TO THE COMMUNITY
• VOLUNTEER WORK

Howdy doggie families,

This is Inez, owner of Strutt Your Mutt welcoming you to explore this unique and valuable service of alternative dog pet care, kenneling and not just your basic dog walker. 11 years of professional pet care experience lets you know you have found the right helping hands.

We all love our hounds dearly, and with our busy lives occasionally we need to call a professional dog service to give a helping hand.

This type of pet service is a fantastic job but requires great care and certain skills to manage canines. The bottom line is these pups are your four-legged family members and SYM takes what we do seriously. We show our dedication and responsibility as a business by being licensed, insured, bonded, obtaining special use permits and continuing to educate ourselves in this field of animal care.

NOTE: SYM may work with independent contractors for its leashed services it provides and during seasonal parts of the year will utilize additional help for other Strutt Your Mutt services. All contractors are interviewed and selected with great detail and care!

ABOUT INEZ
I am a Colorado girl at heart, born and raised in a small valley nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. My younger days were full of many wonderful outdoor adventures as I was blessed to grow up on my family's 3000 acre working Guest Ranch. The Ranch has been in our family for over 65 years raising grass fed free range beef, quarter horses, alfalfa, and bringing great joy to families from all over the world with the fantastic fun of guest ranching. Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch has been dedicated to the environment for years with responsible land and livestock management. Our family also is devoted to protecting the lands for future generations by installing conservation easements on parts of our land to ensure future generations an opportunity to experience this small but precious gem on Earth.

Needless to say my upbringing instilled an awe and respect for nature and all her creatures and of course, I'm sure you can imagine, DOGS were always a huge part of the landscape!

Seven years ago my husband finished up his Ph.D. in wildlife biology (I fondly refer to him as my "bird nerd.") and we headed to Oregon. Our small family (two little boys + doggies) soon found ourselves lovin' the great wonders and magic of Bend! We believed it was a fantastic place to settle down and raise our kidos… And it has turned out to be exactly just that!

I now have two very handsome talented teenage boys who are very active guys with fabulous spirits! I am fortunate to have a family that cherishes all the grand things in life… family & friends, the great outdoors and its inhabitance, music, food, laughter and last but certainly not least, we love each other!

Along with children getting older so do our dogs. We wished our old girl Diente of 16 and a half years on her way to the Happy Hunting Grounds in late September of last year. It's been difficult time for all of us left behind to carry on without her sweetness. She was our "Girlie & Missy moo" who supported us through the thick and thin with nothing but love…who we loved dearly in return. Her human clan misses traveling the paths with her here on Earth but we also understood it was time for her to journey on. We are sure she is on an outstanding adventure and just feel blessed to have had her as part of our family. Peace to you our sweet Diente.

As I journey on in life here in Oregon professional pursuing SYM. I am honored to roam the beauty of this wonderful land with such extraordinary furry companions. Moving through the woods with a group of canines is an experience that heightens your senses to a degree that many have forgotten, and with great delight it gives back the gift of intuitive communication.

Dogs are awesome and unique beasts… who demonstrate how to take the world in a loving embrace. And when given the opportunity to run as a "tribe" they rejoin their ancestors, rejoicing in bits of their old souls.

I am grateful to be able to continually expand my knowledge and care of canines by taking classes, chatting with educated dog folk and through a variety of literature. But what I find most fulfilling is just hanging out as "alpha mama" and observing hound behavior while out on the trail. It is a glimpse into a world (I think) we humans secretly admire.

****Dogs are profoundly aware. And with all my heart I believe them to be teachers of forgiveness and being present in the moment.

They share this insight with cool wet noses, wiggly bodies, thumping tails, slobbery sticks and balls, grunts, growls, and howls, noses to the ground in hot pursuit, heads out the window, glee in seeing an old buddy or finding a new one, sprints down the road, kisses, flying over sagebrush, nuzzles, thoughtful quiet gazes, a spirit of youthful amazement, peaceful snoozes, forgiving licks, excitable greetings at the front door, mournful expressions as you leave without them, dinner dances, and the list could go on and on!!!

They are truly a precious part of this Planet and are more than exceptional best friends!

Always wishing you inspiration, discovery, and many joy rides on happy tails,

BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE
*2 years in Durango CO caring for dogsled teams and care work with a family rescue operation that rehabilitated abandoned/abused long-haired German shepherds.
*4 years in Manhattan KS of owning and operating TLC an all animal care out of town service.
*7 years in Bend OR of owning and operating STRUTT YOUR MUTT a professional dog exercising pet care and alternative boarding service.

Inez and family have always been active through the years with rescuing and placement of abandoned/abused doggies and helping them navigate into loving homes along with providing dogs sanctuary in their own home as a host family. See detailed info below in regard to background experience.

Living in Durango Co in 1992 pursuing my art degree in illustration I began to gravitate back to animals by finding myself "horse ranch sitting" for a variety of families to make ends meet while attending school. This then led to care taking a couple of families that raced dog sled teams. A Native American friend of mine once said to me smiling, "You know many Native Americans in the past referred to the horse as a big dog." I always carry this thought around fondly because I have found similarities through out the years. Care taking the dog sled teams was a wonderful opportunity for insight into a pack situation and I found myself naturally navigating toward this intriguing animal. The care could be challenging at times but it was ultimately a true joy and I loved the ability to study the behaviors along with learning about how they interacted with me.

Another horse family soon called who also offered sanctuary to abandoned or abused beautiful longhaired German shepherds. This ranch worked to rehabilitate these dogs and then find them appropriate forever homes. It was a delicate process and took great time along with great patience to assist these dogs into recovery. Although I only cared for three of these dogs over a period of a year I learned many lessons in helping them regain their confidence to trust again. This is when I realized that dogs are teachers of forgiveness and we all should take note. I didn't know it at the time, but I was just naturally returning to my love of the world of animals and incorporating it into a passionate profession. This was really the beginning of my entry into the world of professional pet care.

In 2000, while my husband worked on his masters at Kansas State University I started and operated a "all" animal care out of town service called TLC. Once again I was helping make ends meet but also finding it to be so much more, something I truly loved involving myself in. The animals were definitely the main attraction for me but I also formed wonderful bonds with their human kin and this connection is still something that I find so extremely cool about what I do for a living. I see it as the best of both worlds…the human and the animal world. It's an experience that has made my life oh so rich (and I'm not talk'in green stuff here!) Once our family established ourselves in Bend I began to zero in on the pet care world again. I wanted to find my niche in this profession and offer something that was somewhat unique and valuable. It was clear to me that it was a "dogs world" in Bend, and so I moved in the SYM direction. A trail guided service along with alternative boarding offered clients a well-rounded type of care. I believed it was a fantastic fit for the area and active dog needs. My background of growing up on a working guest ranch gave me the experience of trail guiding, just on top of a horse! It all just seem to blossom from that point on. Now with 11 years of professional experience I am extremely grateful to all the doggie families that had faith in me in the beginning as a person, a business, and most of all as a caretaker of their precious four-legged family members. I have watched some of those families grow with kids and some of those families say goodbye to dearly loved furry friends. But I have also been blessed to see new four legged family members welcomed into loving arms!

I do what I love and I love what I do through and through. Animals are a tremendously huge part of my soul.

GIFTING TO THE COMMUNITY
SYM is a big believer in the saying, "It takes a village." Our community is full of wonderful folks and services. Strutt Your Mutt supports, schools, local organizations and non-profits throughout our community with a variety of gifting…it's a great way to give back and support one another's efforts in making Bend and our world a sweet place!

VOLUNTEER WORK
As a member of my community I continue to gift my time to volunteer work with both animals and people through the Central OR Partnerships for Youth Mentors for Children of Prisoners program and the Bend Animal shelter. I have bigger dreams of one day providing a type of outdoor trail space with a simple program that would incorporate dogs, children, and elders interacting to find the healing connection. It is a dream that I am determined to make reality, stay tuned!

Don't let your dog miss the Strutt Your Mutt bus... call today!