Meet Eric & Christine Schwartz | Founders

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric & Christine Schwartz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric & Christine, how does your business help the community?
We manufacture healthier options for dog treats that enhance the lives of your dogs. Our products have added nutritional ingredients that contribute to a healthier dog without adding any of the bad ingredients in typical products.

We donate a portion of our sales every month to dog rescues. There are thousands of dogs that need forever homes and there are great rescues across the country that house them and help them get adopted. These rescues rely on donations to pay for food, medicine, vet visits, etc.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
This is Christine, ever since i was a child i loved animals, all animals. I used to tell my parents one day i’m going to do something related to animals. I proceeded with life, school and work until i graduated college. Started out in the financial industry, on Wall Street. Then moved on 10 years later to the physical contract security business. I start off expaining this because this experience gave me the business knowledge i have today. Back to animals, there was never a time I didn’t have a dog, a cat and a few birds. Each dog i had growing up i trained myself, not having any idea of what i was doing, meaning no education in the subject of dog training. My dogs were trained by word and hand signals and one dog even saved my life. April of 2009 my now husband and I had 3 female dogs and 1 of them became dog reactive at about a year old. Needless to say our house became a difficult one. I started reading books on reactive dogs and started to re-train each dog from the beginning. I learned that the one dog was in need of Behavior Modification which I knew nothing about. I read and worked on the dogs every day.

Fast forward to August 2019 we adopted another dog, (2 of the 3 girls were alive, the dog reactive dog was one of them). We worked with a woman who was a professional dog trainer and 2 time PHD in Behavior Modification. She helped us integrate the new pup with the other 2. Her and I took to on another and I hung on to her every word and attended her dog training classes with the pup. From there she saw potential in me and i became her apprentice. within a year she hired me as a dog trainer with her company. within that year, i studied, I read all the books she gave me. today december of 2021 I am still a basic obedience trainer with her and a low grade behavior modification instructor. This was all possible because this woman saw in me what i knew I had in me all along.
How did I get so good at working with dogs and behavior BEFORE I met her? I was a volunteer at a shelter for years then moved out of shelter life and volunteered and still volunteer at a rescue. At these places is where you learn how to read dog behavior and control 12 to 20 dogs in a yard at any time. Break up fights, prevent fights, prepare dogs to be adopted out, do intake of rescued dogs, socialization.

My life passion has come to fruition, I still work 20 years at the Contract Physical security company an executive, I work with the rescue and I am professional obedience trainer, a member of the IACP and awaiting my certificate of CDT, Certified Dog Trainer from the IACP. This exam took 7 months to complete. I’m super excited to have achieved this title, not because I want a title, but because it is a huge accomplishment. I didn’t go on line and take some course and get a certificate in the mail, i had to do months and months of work just to be eligible to submit the exam.

This is Eric, my professional background is in both sales and marketing. I have over a decade of digital marketing experience within the human nutracuetical space (vitamins & supplements). None of it came easy, I am self taught in the digital marketing space having learned social media, SEO and paid advertising with 3 major supplement brands. I, like Chrisitne, have a passion and love for dogs. I didn’t really understand what went on with dog rescues until Christine started volunteering and showing me all the hard work that the rescues do and they all rely on donations. Paw Power is our way of helping them out and making the world a better place.

Eric and I decided we wanted to do more, do more with animals and together we came up with Paw Power Nutrition. This was a long time conversation and this year we made a conversation turn in to a reality. The brand is to have products that are 100% healthy for dogs, nutritional and have value. We also want everyone to know we give back every month, we give a different rescue a donation from the prior months sales. I also provide unsolicited free advice on dog training on our website and have questions and answers in our group.
None of this was easy, I didn’t come from a wealthy family, everything i have I got it from rolling up my sleeves and working for it and now my husband and I are doing the same.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We were inspired by all the great dog rescues across the country

Website: www.pawpowernutrition.com

Instagram: @pawpowernutrition

Facebook: @pawpowernutrition

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Image Credits
Kelly Milo