Roman: The Dog That Started It All (Part 2)

When Roman and I met Taylor, he was only supposed to be in Nova Scotia for a brief period. He had plans to head back to the Yukon to work at a sled dog kennel. Normally, I wouldn’t introduce Roman to a man so quickly, but since Taylor was a dog person, I figured Roman could third-wheel our first date at the beach. Many of our early dates were spent with Roman at the beach since it was during Covid times, and there wasn’t much else we could do. I think it was months before Taylor actually took me out to dinner… Don’t worry, that won’t be a part 3.

Covid also meant there wasn’t much tourism for the sled dog industry, so Taylor ended up sticking around a little longer. He did go off to train teams for one more Iditarod winter season, which meant he could only see Roman on FaceTime.

Throughout the years, Roman and I continued our weekly group classes with Ted Efthymiadis—it became our Saturday afternoon ritual. When Taylor returned from his last season running dogs, he was trying to figure out how he could continue working with dogs closer to home. He looked into different options, one of which was talking to Duke Ferguson. I suggested that he come to one of our group classes to chat with Ted, since Ted had previously worked with Duke. Taylor scoffed at the idea of group classes, especially after running in the mountains with packs of feral dogs. Pretentious much? But he decided to come anyway. Of course, Taylor and Ted hit it off, and that marked the beginning of Taylor’s first mentorship in the pet dog world. Thanks, Roman!

After some time working for Ted at Mango Dogs, Taylor and I started to feel the itch to get out of the city and start our own company. After much debate over the name, Kinfolk was born. Now, I get to work alongside Taylor, and he really mentors me in the dog world.

Roman now has a little brother, Bo, and the two of them work with us and other dogs every day. Roman has come a long way—from being an absolute lunatic that I couldn’t even walk, to becoming a demo dog, helping us rehabilitate challenging dogs—and he’s even been on the news! I truly believe Roman was the catalyst for where we are today.