Meet Noelle Farr | Dog Trainer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Noelle Farr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Noelle, other than deciding to work for yourself, what else do you think played a pivotal role in your story?
Deciding to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
As humans, we naturally drift towards whatever is the easier path. But as we walk there, we often realize we are unfulfilled.
There is a piece that I believe comes with all humans-a piece that must be expressed. For each one of us, that part is unique. It screams desire to be seen heard and understood…and it is demonstrated by creation.
Creation is made by that which has not been done yet. And that is something unknown. And unknown things scare us.
Doing things we don’t know yet are vital for anyone who creates. And doing something we don’t know is uncomfortable. But it must be done for us to live our fullest most authentic lives.

What should our readers know about your business?
I spent nearly 30 years of my life just getting by, and doing the things I thought I should. I would try to find jobs I enjoyed, but most of the time I was looking for something that was flexible enough for school, and paid enough to pay my bills.
Growing up in Maryland, we had hot humid summers and long, very cold, overcast winters. Each winter I would go through months of depression, but continued to work whatever job I had. I felt I had no choice.
After going through a difficult breakup, I decided to do something about where I lived. Although I had only $900 in savings, I borrowed another 2k from a brother, packed all my belongings and dog in my car, and drove across the country to California.
My sister had offered to have me stay with her family for a few months while I looked for work. It was significantly more challenging than I’d expected, but I was in love with San Diego’s seemingly unlimited sunshine. For the first time in my life, I felt one step closer to how I actually wanted to live it.

The next few years were challenging. I went through various jobs and a few relationships. I had to give my dog back to my ex temporarily when I was working full time and going back to school to get my Master’s in Special Education. That was absolutely devastating to me.

The next couple years were spent at various schools where I grew an increasingly sick feeling in my stomach. I was becoming more and more unsure this is what I wanted to do in my life. But now I had student loans to repay in addition to even more bills than before.

I had two intense emotional breakdowns at one of the schools-which had never happened to me before in my life. I had some crazy random health issues come up as well.
One day, as a student was having an “episode” (I worked with kids with some severe needs), a teacher commented on needing to make the kid a whole new “de-escalation” plan as the one they’d made before was clearly not working to help him. It was not that she said it, but that she’d had a light of such passion and excitement in her eyes while saying it. The passion to do the work she loved to do.
…A passion that in that exact moment, I realized I would never have for this job…

It was a sickening realization that I now had the ball and chain of student debt, again very little savings, and still didn’t have a job I loved. But I finally came to terms with myself and realized that I simply could not live my life doing something I did not care deeply about. No matter what happened, I simply had to find my passion.

I decided I could get a part time job I didn’t love, but sort of liked to pay enough for some of my bills, and I would search the earth until I found something I did love. Even if I had to go back to minimum wage. I didn’t know how it would work, all I knew is I could not be a hypocrite to myself.

The one thing I KNEW I was fascinated by and would be happy working with was animals. I had very little experience on paper working with organizations with animals, but I knew I loved them and would be good at it.
So I applied to every job I found with animals. I was turned down again and again due to not having written experience. They were confused why a teacher with a Masters degree wanted to work at a rescue, walking company, pet store, and everything in between.

I finally found a job as a dog walker for a tiny company. It sounded as if I would have room to grow here, learn dog training and potentially working dog things like bite work that Police K9s did.

But shortly after, I was illegally fired (for the first time in my life), and COVID hit.

COVID ended up being one of the best things to happen in my professional life.

I found out later the real reason for me being fired was due to how eager I was to learn. How many questions I asked. The person in charge apparently felt threatened by my curiosity…

I started my own small dog walking company, but quickly realized how many people were in search of training. They kept asking me training questions and I felt I could not charge for something I didn’t really know much about. I had trained my dogs growing up in 4H, but it was primarily compulsion-based, and I didn’t love that.

So I reached out to a semi-local facility where they did board and trains and bite work. I asked that I be able to learn from them in exchange for doing some work for them with a flexible schedule. They took me on immediately, and by the second time I went there, they asked if I would maybe be interested in managing their facility when they moved in a few months.

At first I laughed thinking they were joking. They weren’t. I told them I’d think about it, but wanted to practice training dogs as much as possible in the meantime.

One day, I was handling a dog when someone told me that the dog needed a break. I asked them why, I had only been working the dog for 5 minutes or so. They laughed and said “Noelle, it’s been 30 minutes, she’s tired.”

It was then that I realized I had been so immersed in what I was doing working with the dog, that I’d been completely in flow. It was effortless. My heart was happy, I was 100% focused on how to help the dog and bring their energy up, that I’d lost track of time.
In that moment, I knew I’d found my passion. I would be working with training likely for the rest of my life.

I ended up managing the facility, employees and dogs shortly thereafter. I learned more than I possibly could have I think anywhere else. It was crazy and amazing and I’m so grateful that I was able to experience that.
It was a very quick introduction into the dog world: rescue and working dogs alike.
I learned how many ego-driven people are in it, and how that can affect the dogs. But I also found some incredible humans along the way, and I decided I would live in this world as authentically me as possible. Whether I actually impacted it on a larger scale or not, the biggest thing for me was to be genuine and try to focus on helping dogs and humans.

About a year or so later, I started my own business. There were a lot of people supporting me, and I kept feeling more and more in alignment with my purpose.

Shortly after moving and setting up my dog training business, my social media accounts all began taking off. The one thing I had been told not to do (share my knowledge), was the one thing that so many needed. And it brought me a steady flow of clients.

One of the craziest things about all this is that about 3 months before all this happened, I set a bunch of seemingly impossible goals for the next year. They weren’t just a list of things I wanted, but they were things I set my intention on with as much feeling as I possibly could. In addition to visualizing them. Then promptly letting them go. I had no idea HOW I would achieve them. I thought they were almost impossible. But within 3 months I hit almost half those goals. Within one year, I hit every single one and then some.

During that whole first year, I kept waking up as I had imagined when I’d intended those goals: I woke up excited and filled with more gratitude than I could have ever imagined.
I never knew someone could feel so excited and light every day to do work. I had hoped. But I didn’t know until I risked it all and just tried.

My work has been my passion ever since. While I am still not exactly where I want to be, I realize I probably never will be. Because to me, continuing to learn, grow and improve who I am and what I do is so important. The moment I decide I know it all is the moment that growth halts.
And I believe as humans, we are meant to create. And by creating, we find alignment within ourselves. We attract the most incredible humans into our lives that reflect that creation. We are given such a payment of gratitude that there is little else in the world that compares.
Go after your dreams. Don’t get stuck on the how. Focus your intent, fuel it with energy, then let it go and chip away at the little uncomfortable things that move you a bit closer to it. Then open your eyes and watch the magic happen.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to thank everyone. There are so many pivotal humans in my life, and dogs who have made me a better trainer and human as well.
The relationships in our lives are the mirrors for us to understand ourselves better as part of the whole.
I am so grateful to everyone in my life.

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