Dawn has been an animal lover from the beginning. Growing up she worked at pet stores, stables, and volunteered at the zoo. As soon as she graduated high school she moved away to California to attend college at the
Moorpark College Exotic Animal Training and Management Program.

After college Dawn went to work at Six Flags California training animals and educating the public about them. She spent the next six years raising and training several species of animals. Dawn wrote educational programs and traveled all over the Los Angeles area doing outreach.

Dawn moved back to her home state of NJ to be closer to her family. Here she worked from home as a regional training manager for a nationwide dog training company. She was responsible for training and supervising over 50 dog trainers on the east coast. During this time Dawn also worked at a local animal shelter and trained dogs. Dawn was invited to speak several times on Fox New Channel's pet program. She also started her dog Lady in commercials and movies with the help of an agent in NYC.

A few years later, Dawn got the opportunity to move to the mountains of Tennessee. Her family said they planned to retire there in a few years, so she left.
She kept her job as a manager for the dog training company and worked from home in a beautiful mountain setting with four acres surrounding her. The property was perfect for boarding dogs and "Just Fer Paws" was born. Dawn immediately became active with the local humane society and met The Comedy Barn owner at a fund raiser. He fell in love with her two dogs and the tricks they could do. The current trainer at the theater was leaving that year and Dawn was offered the opportunity to find and train dogs for the show. Dawn left her manager job and spent the next four months finding and training the dogs for the show. That was almost seven years ago and she loves it just as much as day one.

Dawn has stayed active in pet training and throughout the last 10 years has attended seminars on everything from aggression to temperament testing.
Through out the last several years her dogs have been featured in several news stories, go to senior centers for pet therapy, traveled to Pet Star, worked at Camp Gone to the Dogs, been featured in commercials, ads and videos and performed at several charity events and schools.

On September 25, 2005 Dawn married her sweetheart of two years. Doug was not only the first man to meet all the animals and not run, but he was the first to accept them as his own. Nevada was the ring bearer and Miss Ellie showed up in a wedding dress to try and steal Doug. They live with 11 dogs, 1 cat, & 4 chickens. In May 2008 they added their first HUMAN child! Life is good!!