Meet Grace Henke of Mensa Mutts

Today we’d like to introduce you to Grace Henke.

Grace, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in Beijing, China. My mom was an elementary school teacher and my dad was a QA engineer. And my family fostered/dog-sit several dogs when I was young, several of them come to mind:

A Pekingese, from my mom’s coworker: it’s a huge “family event” every day before the walks, as the dog would put up a fight and tried to bite us when we tried to put a leash on him. One person would hold the dog, the other use a towel to cover the muzzle, then the next person put the leash on the dog; and of course he didn’t know any commands, hump everyone’s legs almost daily (now I know that such a bad thing, lol), and extremely dog reactive, almost got lost when we fostered him and he tried to chase another dog. The dog eventually got lost and never found it when outing with the owners.

People said because the breed was stupid and not trainable.

A Miniature Schnauzer, from a relative: the 70-year-old relative fell downstairs and ended up in the hospital because the dog was pulling so hard. My family fostered him, everything was great till the dog was left alone. The neighbor complained: everyone knows there’s no one in your home because your dog screaming murder whole day long, and what people didn’t know was he shredded my mom’s clothes as well. We didn’t know what to do, we tried to put him in the bathroom, we tried to put a muzzle on him, but nothing helped… At the end, I heard the dog was dropped off somewhere far away from the city by the owner.

People said because the dog grew up that way and could not be fixed.

An Alaskan Malamute puppy, from a friend’s friend: we couldn’t get the dog potty trained, drove my mom crazy and we didn’t know what to do. Shortly after the dog returned to the owner, the owner passed away.

 I couldn’t provide any help when the friend called me, the dog was given away as the family couldn’t control him…

Just when I had no luck with dogs, there was this neighbor has this little white dog that was so well-behaved, and he showed off his dog all the time, but when we asked him how he had done it, he would shake his head and having the victory smile on his face without saying a word, hinting us it’s a secret…

Having a well-behaved dog was a mystery.

Fast forward two decades later, after I earned my bachelor’s degree in Economics in Beijing, pursued a Master’s Degree in Statistics in California State University, East Bay. After negotiating a 15% raise and a promotion, I quit my bay area startup job and decided to start my dog training business.

It all started when in 2015, my husband and I picked up this Taiwan street dog named Stevy that we’ve never met before (the rescue spelled his name this way and we didn’t change it) from the San Francisco airport.

Stevy was shy, timid and reactive. He’s vomiting almost daily due to high anxiety, and he would put up a fist when we tried to cross any intersections because the cars approaching would totally freaked him out, he would be screaming murder in the middle of it and totally embarrassed me, lol.

He would try to bite me when I tried to trim his nails, or being “not so nice” when the vet tried to give him a physical exam. He’s also scared of my husband for two months, he would run to the other room when my husband walked in the house.

With the not so proud memories with dogs when I was growing up, I spent all my spare time training my dog, taking him to places, and continue to research any “better” and more effective ways to communicate with him, and how I can help him to be more confident and finally out of his shell.

Stevy has now become a social butterfly, loves people and crave human affections and petting, and learn to enjoy himself with other dogs without freaking out during doggie plays; I occasionally joking about he’s TOO happy now and it makes me almost :uncomfortable” because that’s not the dog I adopted nearly six years ago… Where did THIS dog come from, sometimes I asked myself, lol.

I was so passionate about working with my own dog, I got involved with a local Taiwan dog rescue organization and organized and co-hosting training sessions with another facility for about three years.

During those years, I witnessed over 1000 families go to obedience training and continue to struggle with their dog’s reactivity and fearfulness.

I just knew there’s something missing between the mechanics of obedience training and actually solving the behavioral challenges.

I gotta help the owners to truly communicate and connect with their dogs!! Just like I did with mine!

And that’s when Mensa Mutts founded, aim to truly help the owners to communicate with their shy, fearful, reactive dogs more effectively, and living a fuller life with a more relaxed and well-behaved dog.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I had to work on my own confidence a lot during the journey of starting and growing my business. It was a risk to take when I quit my job, but all these years passed since I started my business, I’m a much happier person now compared to when I was working the corporate job.

Every business decision I made, I went through some “debates” inside of my mind, pros and cons, is this worth the investment? What’s the plan if this didn’t work? What’s the plan if this did work?

2019 my husband and I welcomed our first child, a beautiful baby girl. While it’s exciting to be a mother for a little human, it surely didn’t make “have it all” easy when it comes to balancing marriage, motherhood, business and housework.

Then pandemic hits, while I was feeling grateful and lucky to be able to spend more time with the family and my daughter, I also put constant effort into the business to deliver effective training virtually, and I will launch my first online course this year as well.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mensa Mutts story. Tell us more about the business.
As the #1 Taiwan dog training expert in the US and an anti-obedience fearful dog expert. I founded the dog training company Mensa Mutts – Bring out the Mensa in your mutts.

I specialize in work and focus in the field of fearful, reactive dogs (most often Taiwan dogs/ Formosan mountain dogs), over the years I have developed a unique tried and true training system that defies a number of typical training norms.

 By channeling my intuition and observation, I was able to formulate a training system for dog owners that fills that gaping hole left by mere obedience training or other traditional training methods.

Rather than focusing on obedience, I unearth the root of the issue and advise owners in behaviors and signs to look for, as well as helping the dog gaining the skills of relaxation and self soothe. The owners are able to help their dogs learn to calm themselves as they grow in confidence and learn to relax when unsettled.

I work with dog owners who have “tried everything” but are still struggling to communicate with their shy, fearful, and reactive dogs. And I help them to live a fuller life with a calmer, more relaxed, and well-behaved dog.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I love this question!

Prior to adopting my Taiwan dog Stevy, I probably sent over 50, maybe even 100 applications to the local rescues to adopt a dog locally.

I got rejected from them all! (Bad luck you may say)

That led me to adopt a dog from Taiwan. And that led me to meet one of my greatest mentors, Brent Cooper, when I was training Stevy with him.

Who would have thought, I often share with my clients, difficult dogs make great owners, if it’s not because of Stevy, I might have never developed the training methodologies and started the business in the first place. That certainly was the good luck.

Pricing:

• Free copy of “Debunking the 2 Biggest Dog-Industry Norms and discover 3 Techniques You Can Use Now to Help Your Reactive Dog” at http://mensa-mutts.com/

Contact Info:

• Website: http://mensa-mutts.com/
• Phone: 8886080682
• Email: grace@mensa-mutts.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mensamutts/

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