Community & Business
7 March, 2025
Dogged to follow her dream
“I’VE always been a bit of an odd person,” Taylor Skinner admits. “I’ve always dealt with animals better than humans.”
The owner of a new dog boarding and training centre in Mareeba considers the whys and hows of going from a troubled teen in Kuranda, to a young business owner carving out a reputation for training specialty dogs across the country.
It is a story of hard work and a devotion to the underdog – she is well known for her volunteering at the Mareeba Animal Refuge where she works with aggressive and nervous dogs so they can eventually find homes. She also plans on providing an option for these dogs to stay at her daycare facility in quieter times so they can socialise with other dogs.
So how did she get here? Taylor’s career trajectory is a bit of an animal-loving odyssey that began in late high school.
Acknowledging she had had a bit of trouble settling at school, she was “separated from classes”.
“They made me go to work experience one day a week,” she says with a smile.
Through local contacts, she secured work at the Kuranda Zoo, which she loved. After graduation, she went to the Melbourne Zoo and worked with the primates, then returned to Kuranda, followed her interest in reptiles and became manager of the venom zoo.
Fast forward a few years, and Taylor had a full-time job with Pet Barn in Smithfield, where she took on the dog obedience training course.
“I had an aggressive dog at the time, but they only trained you to do basic obedience in those days… Once I got that, it didn’t really solve my dog’s issues, or why he had aggression issues, so I started studying more,” she said.
She also confessed to a weird fascination with aggressive dogs after she was attacked at the age of 11.
“I had two sets of plastic surgery on my hands - and I always wondered why (the dog) did that.”
With more qualifications, Taylor opened her own training business for advanced dog training, and completed a canine psychology course, while still working.
A move to Green Cross veterinarian clinic as their dog trainer also gave her the opportunity to train as a vet nurse and she spent 18 months working in both fields. Sadly, her own dog got sick, and she was involved in a lot of his surgeries. The trauma left her never wanting to be in a surgery again. She returned to store management, but “hated retail” and left for stress reasons.
A quiet part-time job at a pet café gave her time to build her dog training business.
“I also got the chance to start working with NDIS and with clients with dogs who didn’t feel comfortable taking them out. I went and did support work with them and their dogs,” Taylor says.
“That’s when I touched base with assistance dogs.”
It was also a time to move back to the Tablelands, so she settled in Mareeba, where she had a strong client base.
Her fascination with aggressive dogs and her interest in assistance dogs also led to some interesting self-discovery.
Taylor has three dogs, her eldest, Kanobi, is a Koolie who was aggressive, Finan is a “goldador” (a cross between a golden retriever and a labrador), and her latest, Harlo, is an 11-month old golden retriever.
“Each dog that you have often displays a part of you, or where you are at in your life,” Taylor said.
For Kanobi, his aggression was based on fear.
“I was unfortunately in a domestic violence relationship at the time, so that’s why he had fear-aggression, because I was constantly scared to death, or he was.”
Taylor also learned two years ago that she had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, ADHD and was on the autism spectrum. Her second dog, Finan, as a companion dog, picked up on it.
“When I got Finan, I was really not well, mentally, so he wanted to help all the time because he’s bred to want to do that,” she said.
“Now he doesn’t care about anything at all because I’m medicated,” she says, bursting into laughter. “I’m mentally sound, so he’s happy with the world.”
Her latest pup, Harlo, is a golden retriever in training to be her own assistance dog. Assistance dogs have proved to be a great asset in helping their humans overcome anxiety attacks and other stress-related behaviours.
Taylor has come full circle with the help of dogs and by helping dogs.
And her knowledge is fascinating for any dog owner. An example is that over-coddling a dog, not socialising them enough, and not letting them experience sounds and different environments when they are young can make them nervous or fearful.
Another handy tip is to teach your dog to “shake it out”.
“When a dog shakes their body, they’re actually pushing off uncomfortability and anxiety, so if my dog gets really riled up or whiney about something, I say ‘shake’ and he shakes it off,” Taylor says.
“It’s a build-up of energy and dogs naturally do it, but sometimes it’s good to remind them.”
Taylor rounds off her advice with a little dog philosophy.
“I believe in nurturing your dog, not pushing it too far to do weird stuff. The best thing for dogs are boundaries, rules, but also love and affection. If you don’t have both you don’t have good communication.”
And yes, she does let her dogs sleep on her bed now and then.
