Schanda Strawder grew up surrounded by animals, in a small Texas town where she always had a dog at her side. That love never faded, even after she and her husband moved to Florida more than 30 years ago.

One of her first jobs here was with a veterinarian, where she earned her certification as a vet technician. She stayed in that field for seven years before moving into health care, but the pull of animals never left her.

“I was given the opportunity to go back to school to get certified to teach basic K9 obedience, and I knew I could make a difference in the lives of dogs and their owners while returning to what I love,” she says.

That love is easy to see when she talks about her own dogs. Roscoe, a rescue found behind a convenience store, arrived at her home full of fear and bad habit

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