Jessica O'Donoghue and Animals’ Smile have been working with animals, from pigs and horses to birds and iguanas, for the past 29 years which has been an exciting and educational journey. My career working with animals began in 1983 with the addition to the family of my first Old English Mastiff (Mastiff) and has expanded to a wide variety of facilities and families throughout New England, New Mexico and Colorado. For a lot of people, their pet is the most important relationship in their life and I feel the same way about my animal companions. I am so lucky they have entrusted me with their lives.

Sharing your life with an animal is the most rewarding and giving relationship one can have. It is a relationship that involves the animal's behavior, the influence of health, environmental factors, and the human element on that behavior.

Dog training has thankfully become a more humane way of teaching that encourages the animal (and human) rather than breaking them down through punishment and fear. Dogs don't teach each other that way. We shouldn't either.

I share my life with a number of rescued animals; three senior Mastiffs, a couple of Chihuahuas for fun, a cat for good measure, and a husband, son and daughter in-law. I also volunteer for Great Plains Mastiff Rescue and Big Dogs-Huge Paws as well as Kindred Spirits Animal Sanctuary. Animals give so much to me that I need to give back to them in some small way.