Walt Disney used to say “It all started with a mouse.” For Scott Malvestiti, owner of Canine in the City and creator of Dog Park Ready, it was a dog…in particular Sergio, a shy, worried Pit/Sighthound mix, he first saw laying in the lobby of the San Francisco SPCA. In 1997 Scott moved to his native San Francisco, back home from Southern California.
One of the benefits of moving closer to home was the opportunity to get a dog. Little did he know that decision would change his life forever.
Even before the final adoption he spent time at the shelter with Sergio, outside his kennel or at the Doggie Daycare, he even attended one of the first clicker training classes offered at the SPCA with Sergio and it was during this class he realized this was his dog.
It’s a long story, but in short order…after his adoption, Scott pursued getting Sergio trained and socialized, which amounted to about 3 hours a day in the neighborhood dog park and the opportunity to meet the local dog walkers. Scott bonded with one in particular and this walker asked Scott to substitute while he was on vacation for a couple of weeks. That opportunity led him to start his own dog walking service, and Canine In The City was born. Business flourished with a focus on working with dogs with issues…AKA dogs other dog walkers didn’t want. In the summer of 1998 Canine in the City opened a daycare/training facility called Citydog Playcare, which afforded the opportunity to work with more dogs in a controlled environment.
Canine in the City was blessed and honored to be featured in the Bay Guardian\’s Superlist issue and to receive the award for Best Dog Walker in the 2002 SF Weekly\’s Best of San Francisco issue.
In July 2016 Scott and his wife Gina moved their family across the country to Atlanta, in the hopes of finding a better place to raise their children. That move also refocused his attention on training. In San Francisco, Canine in the City is still providing off leash walks at a private ranch, but in Atlanta our focus will be using our past 20 years of experience working with large packs to provide training, both individual and in a small pack, through our Dog Park Ready program.