Colin’s Pack Featured in The American Reporter
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Changing lives and improving the human-dog connection one day at a time: Meet Colin West, the brain and soul behind “Colin’s Pack.”
The LA native, who always was surrounded by dogs and their unconditional love, decided to create a “pack” that could bring dogs and humans closer to create better well-being and emotional, physical, and mental health for them.
The world has seen the rise of tons of professionals, business owners and others who focused on attaining their personal gains and goals. How often has the world witnessed the rise of individuals who pushed boundaries, eventually positively impacting others and “changing lives?” We couldn’t help but notice how a young and determined man Colin West decided to be among these professionals who could pass on the good among dogs and humans, creating something as unique as “Colin’s Pack.”
The LA native, born in Santa Monica, grew up in the Pacific Palisades, went to Paul Revere and then Loyola high school, and moved to Northern California to finish college. He felt the most connected with animals and nature from a very young age as he was also highly inspired by “The Dog Whisperer, with Cesar Millan.” During college, he became obsessed with working with dogs and dog psychology. He had a dog named Samson, adopted another named Layla in 2008 and pretty much raised another puppy named Charlie, of one of his friends. Raising these three, he discovered many new things and how physically or mentally they would get affected by problems like aggression, anxiety and more. In 2009, during his senior year, he felt the need to start his own dog hiking business; after his graduation and moving back to LA, the recession hit, and he had to go through several challenges in life. By 2010, he was sure of initiating his dog hiking business and started everything from the ground up.
Working day in and day out, Colin West dived deep into building his business with the genuine aim to better the well-being of the four-legged souls and create for them better physical, mental and emotional health. This is how Colin’s Pack came into existence, which today has risen as a one-of-a-kind dog hiking company based in Santa Monica, CA, serving Santa Monica, Venice and the Pacific Palisades. They run hikes Monday-Friday in the mornings and an afternoon pack on Saturdays. According to Colin West, Pack Hikes is something that fulfils them on a mental, emotional and physical level and provides them with the missing link they lose when humans take them into their world. The company’s services include mainly pack hikes, where dogs can come together to help, heal each other, get each other past fears, and temper each other’s aggressive nature, if necessary.
Colin has made a decision to dedicate the rest of his life to healing himself, and the lives of many dogs, and sharing a message of love and healing. He has many plans to expand his services under this broader mission of “changing lives,” and building a business that serves God and the world. He feels he’s making great progress in this direction, and he believes that working with dogs and sharing this wisdom is a perfect way to accomplish this, because we have so much in common, and by healing dogs and sharing their stories of rehabilitation, and the causes and solutions to their behavior, we can often heal and understand ourselves better in the process. You can find him regularly on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media, sharing messages of love, rehabilitation, and personal notes and thoughts.
Colin’s own healing journey has taking him to face his deepest fears around love; having lived so long having separated himself from love, he is now on a mission to share the love. Humans, like dogs, are social animals, and though many dramas can come up to get in the way of that successful socialization, by healing ourselves we are able to better share that love. He encourages everyone drawn to this movement to reach out, and believes that we are all in this together. Thank you for reading!
