Community Highlights: Meet Natalie Welds of The Scallywag Dog

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Welds.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up in Baltimore, my mission has always been to kick down doors, take names, and shine a light into the darkness for others to understand more about themselves and the world around them. My “story” has always been pretty unconventional, pursuing multiple career paths and interests in the arts, anthropology, and animal welfare to make a humanitarian difference in the world. Hurdling the odds set before me in childhood and a lot of hard lessons of achieving-failing-learning-doing better-leveling up along the way, I have come to find that you must consistently bet on yourself time and time again, especially as a female entrepreneur. I graduated from Wagner College’s prestigious BA Theatre & Speech program with honors to then working as a professional actor in theatre, Off Broadway, television, films, and hand selected to become a student of the Wynn Handman studio in NYC. While acting, I was also inspired to pursue other avenues other than the arts. Minoring in anthropology in college, I studied abroad in Kenya, was a logistics intern for the International Rescue Committee in Baltimore welcoming refugees into the United States from all over the world, and worked with Liberian refugees on Staten Island as my job throughout undergraduate school. Along this path of acting and socio-cultural anthropology, I then became interested in how human and animal welfare cyclically impacted one another in communities. Putting it all together, I was accepted into University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Vet masters program. Graduating in 2022, my research paired all three avenues into one with promising findings on how responsible anthropomorphic storytelling can improve human welfare as well as the welfare and safety of misunderstood animals such as wolves, sharks, pit bulls, snakes, etc. To make a very long story not so short, I am now the CEO, founder, and certified dog behavior consultant of the humane dog training and behavior company The Scallywag Dog LLC in Denver, a nationally and internationally nominated and award winning actress, mentor to graduate students at University of Pennsylvania Penn Vet this fall, a senior dog behavior and training consultant at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, and dog mom to my rescue pup Pearl.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For anyone in the arts, it is RARE to have a smooth road to “success”. Also, the definition of “success” for one individual may vary greatly from my personal definition, which is to find harmony between my careers, my personal life, and my purpose. While you have to have a thick skin for the massive amounts of rejection and critiques, you must stay hopeful that what belongs to you shall come to you as long as you are prepared for it. Being denied on my first try into the BA Theatre & Speech program at Wagner College was a punch in the gut to say the least…but I knew that I needed to level up. It wasn’t and is never enough to just “want” something. I enrolled in non-major theatre classes within the school, booked an amazing vocal coach in Manhattan who transformed the way I sung, woke up at 8am for ballet classes, and flung myself into different organizations and clubs to be more informed, confident, and prepared for my second attempt into the program (which was a success!).

Smooth sailing as an entrepreneur – what does that look like!? Ask any entrepreneur and I think we may all say it is a wild ride we didn’t necessarily know we were taking when launching a company. My very first setback was launching my company and booking my first Scallywag client in NYC mid February of 2020. Exactly 1 month later, due to Covid-19, my company was forced to shut down before it even took off. As I have said, there are lessons to be learned even if we don’t see them in the moment. Shifting from dog obedience and puppy group classes, I realized I wanted to ethically take on behavioral dog aggression and phobia cases for a more individualized one-on-one counseling approach (still utilizing positive reinforcement and science based education though!). Once again, I dove into classes, business seminars, and applied to some of the best graduate programs for animal behavior and welfare I could find. As a first generation college graduate, being accepted into an ivy league let alone now WORKING at an ivy league is one of the proudest moments in my career that I wouldn’t have even thought about without the setback of the pandemic. Running my company full time in NYC and NJ from 2021-2024, I am looking forward to now working in the Denver metro-area!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The Scallywag Dog is an in-person and virtually accessible positive reinforcement, science based, and humane methods dog behavior and training company with a mission to increase the welfare of both dogs AND humans. My specialty is helping caretakers understand and ease their dog’s maladaptive behaviors in aggression, reactivity, and phobias so everyone feels a lot happier, healthier, and more joyful for the long term. My company also provides supportive and individualized puppy training so your unique puppy can grow into a happy, healthy, well adjusted adult dog. Along with behavior consulting, I am an animal and story/media content expert to increase compassion and public safety within communities through scientific education. Lastly, The Scallywag Dog holds seminars, webinars, and in-person events such as our pit bull guardian meet-ups that will be launching in the Denver-metro area soon too! As titled, we represent and assist the underdogs, the behaviorally misunderstood, and the rough and tumble “scallywags” everywhere so that both humans and dogs can live a more fulfilling, joyful life.

As the CEO and founder of The Scallywag Dog, I am recommended by veterinarians, veterinary behaviorists, and dog rescues around the country. I am an animal welfare scientist holding a MSc degree in animal behavior and welfare from University of Pennsylvania Penn Vet, a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, Certified Professional Dog Trainer Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA), and Fear Free Shelter certified. I was also an AVMA welfare contestant in 2020 through Penn Vet, completed Michael Shikashio’s Aggression Dogs Master Course, and have experience working in veterinary hospitals, shelters, sanctuaries, and rescue.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Such an important and good question! I think for a long time I thought if I achieved more, did more, proved myself, ran faster, hustled, I would be “happy”. Telling myself if I got xy or z and THEN I would finally get to be “happy” does not a happy life make. A wise professor of mine, Michele Pawk, told us in undergrad “If you aren’t happy now, you won’t be happy when you get your big break (on Broadway) either”. I am finally starting to understand this within the past few years and it has been key in staying present through both highs and lows in remaining grateful for whatever comes my way.

Happiness to me is waking up and snuggling my dog for a few lingering morning minutes. Being able to sit and drink my coffee or tea in the moment without habitually checking my phone. Having a good meal out on the town with friends. Cultivating my female friendships – I truly have the most wonderful, badass, inspiring women in my life! Learning something new such as starting mixed martial arts in 2019. Being a bit silly and singing in the car at the top of my lungs. Belly laughs. It isn’t the highest of high achievements because I have learned they are fleeting, it’s the simple moments that make me happy 🙂

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thescallywagdogco.com/
• Instagram: @thescallywagdog
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescallywagdog
• Other: https://nataliewelds.com/