About

ImPAWSible Possible traces its roots back to 2005 when founder Cat left her job as an aircraft dispatcher and took a leap into the unknown after finding that there were no suitable jackets and harnesses for the Calgary climate for her then Jack Russell Terrier, Darwin. This pet clothing business quickly expanded to include dog walking, running, and pet sitting services. As these services grew Cat’s passion (or some would even say obsession) for dog training and behavior was ignited as she saw her clients and their dogs struggling with problem behaviors. This ultimately led to the birth of ImPAWSible Possible in 2009.

Another pivotal moment for ImPAWSible Possible occurred in 2011 after Cat rescued a dog named Mouse from the Bow Valley SPCA in Canmore, Alberta in Canmore AB. Mouse’s 2-year shelter stay combined with the difficult first six months of his life as a stray puppy, led to an entangled web of behavioral challenges that became evident as he attempted to adapt to his new life in Calgary. Despite Cat’s education and commitment to Mouse’s training and behavior modification, Mouse’s progress remained quite limited, leading to relationship breakdown, stress, and intense frustration and confusion for Cat. Around this time Cat started to recognize similar patterns in her clients’ dogs. This was the beginning of a personal and professional crisis for Cat. Either Cat was in the wrong career, or she was missing something.

Determined to help Mouse and her client dogs Cat took another leap into the then-unknown lenses of attachment, emotion, cognition, developmental psychology, sensory integration, and ethology looking for answers. Within these lenses, Cat found transformative insights that changed not only the trajectory of her life with Mouse but also the way that she would come to understand dog training, behavior, and the human-canine bond. As Cat started to apply these different lenses Cat finally found what she was looking for — lasting solutions that didn’t simply train Mouse but rather empowered Mouse to train himself. As Cat started to implement these lenses into her everyday practice with clients and their dogs Cat found herself at the next roadblock in her career. How to piece all of the moving parts together and explain certain behavior patterns that were more than the “sum of the parts”, and how to cohesively integrate everything that Cat was doing together. Cat slowly came to realize that she was trying to solve an evolving 3-dimensional puzzle with a 2-dimensional key.

Cat came to discover that all of the problems that had faced with Mouse and that she was encountering in her practice are interconnected and interdependent. In other words, everything is connected. The behaviors that we see over here are connected to the behaviors that we see over there, and when we change one “thing” over here, there are ripple effects throughout the entire system. Behavior does not occur in lines, but rather in loops. We need a different set of “glasses” to “see” all of the hidden patterns, and connections and to make sense of what otherwise looks like a completely unrelated set of problem behaviors. And once we “see” then everything changes. The lens that provides us with our glasses is Systems Thinking. We have to look at things in a different way to “see”, and once we see, then everything changes.

And that, in a nutshell, is the story of ImPAWSible Possible. A small business built on a passion for dogs and people, with a relentless pursuit of training that transforms, even in the face of adversity. ImPAWSible Possible offers a range of services locally and internationally including mentorship, education, and of course, dog training and behavior services. We hope that you will come and experience the ImPAWSible Possible difference yourself.