Our Story

Love a Little is a startup pet care business that I, Faith, am developing with the help of my partner, Tyler (aka the IT guy building this website), both native Mainers. I'm sure many of those reading this can relate to a lifestyle that has always revolved around animals. I've always grown up around critters, not just dogs and cats, but also small rodents, reptiles, and amphibians. This love for living things inspired me to pursue a Bachelor's degree in animal behavior from UNE, which only served to further that love and desire to continue learning and caring for animals.

After I received my degree, I moved to New Jersey for a couple of years to work on a farm animal sanctuary where I cared for hundreds of farm animals every day. Despite the fact that I primarily work with your usual domesticated house pets now, I still absolutely adore any opportunity to work with farmed animals and am happy to provide a farm sitting service that seems to be a challenge to find. After a few years in NJ I returned to Maine, because let's face it, Maine has so much natural beauty, it's just impossible to stay away. Once back, I had the privilege of working at the ARLGP for 4 years, building up my handling skills and my knowledge of dog behavior. I started as a canine care technician, but by the time I left I was teaching group classes and assisting the public with their pet's trouble behaviors.

As much love and fulfillment as that job gave me, doing non-profit compassion work for a total of 6 years takes its toll. Working at the place that provides a safe landing for so many animals can be emotionally and physically draining and eventually the burnout just really started to weigh me down and I knew I needed a pivot. The logical pivot was to continue working with animals, but merely changing the sphere of my work to animals already in homes. I still give time to the shelter when I can in the form of fostering and will hopefully start volunteering for walks again as well. My hope is that families with newly adopted dogs will also see me as a valuable resource to help them as these pups decompress in their new homes.

I adhere to the LIMA (Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive) style of interacting with pets, and am Fear Free certified. This means that I primarily use positive reinforcement with handling and working with dogs. It's important to me that the animals I work with only see me as a bringer of good stuff and never as something to be afraid of or a predictor of punishment. Due to my preferred style of care, I will not be using prong collars/shock collars or any other aversive walking equipment on any of the dogs I walk or care for. Whatever you need, even if it's not directly animal-related, please reach out anyways. There's no harm in asking and our primary goal is to just be a resource for the community. If we can't do it, we can help you find someone who can. We are based in Hollis Center, Maine and serve the local area.