Hop To It

Hi! I'm Brett. I'm so glad you're here!

I grew up on the East Coast and moved to San Francisco ten years ago. Spent a good chunk of that time in tech before I burned out — and the thing I always came back to, no matter what, was dogs. I've loved them my whole life. I feel more like myself around them than just about anywhere else.

A lot of that is Hop. He's my ride-or-die, the dog I met at a shelter in the East Bay in 2022, who's been by my side from day one. When I first adopted him, he had intense reactivity around other dogs — not aggression, just this total overarousal. Lunging, barking, up on his hind legs, dying to get to every dog he saw. The few times he actually did? He just licked their faces. Completely harmless — but living in that state of hyperarousal isn't fun, and watching him struggle wasn't either.

As a woman with ADHD, I know what big feelings feel like from the inside. So I was on a mission. I tried trainer after trainer and kept hitting walls, until I finally found an incredible woman who actually understood him — the right tools, a balanced approach, and a real sense of what was going on underneath the behavior. I still work with her today, and her philosophy is woven into everything I do with dogs.

What clicked for me was when Hop's trainer shared her perspective that Hop didn't have a manners problem, he had a state-of-mind problem. Once we stopped trying to manage the symptoms and started understanding the root cause, everything changed. Today he can walk past other dogs without losing his mind. He's still enthusiastic — that's just Hop — but he's not that guy at the party trying to rage when no one else is. His growth has been incredible, and he's the reason I believe, down to my bones, that with patience and the right tools, almost anything is possible.

When I moved back to San Francisco in 2024, I lost the person who'd been my anchor through all of it — Hop's trainer, who'd lived right down the street from us and was basically my core support system. Suddenly I was on my own, trying to hold onto everything we'd built together while also just being a single dog mom. I interviewed dog walker after dog walker, hoping to find someone who could take some of that off my plate without undoing the work. Nobody fit. Either they had no experience with reactive dogs, didn't want to deal with one, or only offered big group pack walks — the last thing Hop needed at that time. Hop To It exists because I never found that person in this city. Now I get to be that person, for you.

That's what I bring to your dog. I'll treat them like my own — patient, communicative, and genuinely invested in getting it right for them, not just getting through the walk.

Walking dogs through this city is how I get to do two of my favorite things at once: explore San Francisco and spend my days with the creatures I love most. It's part of a bigger reconnection to myself and what actually matters — and I'm grateful for it every day.

When I'm not with the pups, you'll find me at the pottery wheel, baking something, out on a run, hosting friends at home, or deep in a psychology book or true-crime podcast.

I know handing your dog off to someone new is hard. I don't take that lightly — and I promise they're in good hands.