Hello, my name is Ivan Lee, and I’m the president of The Dog Journal. This project has been so much fun and hard work, that I decided to dedicate a section of this issue to tell you my story and how this all became a reality. 

Working in the dog breeding industry for a number of years, I’ve travelled a lot and have been to a lot of different educational seminars, expos, etc. Seeing all the innovation and hearing all the education made me think “Isn’t there some way we can pull this all together into a magazine so that readers across the globe can have a go to source for news, innovation, education, etc.” 

Over the last few years, I’ve been cultivating this idea, and talked to more people in the industry like myself, and I found a lot of support for the idea! The only thing that kept me from starting the project was the fact that I didn’t have logistical experience, and couldn’t see my way into this by myself. I had the idea, but couldn’t find a way to bring it to reality. 

On an otherwise normal day in the summer of 2022, I happened to be talking to a rep from The Busy Beaver. I shared my idea and vision for this magazine I thought would be a hit, and after a little silence, he said “We need to meet. We’ve wanted to do something like this for years, but we don’t know where to go for content.”

Needless to say, we ended up not long after that in a meeting with the brains of the Busy Beaver and myself. That first meeting was lively, the ideas flowed, and by the time I left, I was scared and excited at the same time. I knew I had sold myself and the idea well, and as is usually the case when we get pushed out of our comfort zone, I suddenly had a lot of doubts. Within the course of the next month, the three of us had multiple conversations and meetings, and eventually the concept for The Dog Journal took shape and emerged. At that point we began reaching out to experts within the industry, and being overwhelmed with the support we received, decided to run with it. 

The rest is history, as you might say, and as I sit here writing this, I’ve just returned from a trip to Ohio where I toured the printing press and watched the first issue go through a part of the printing process, and actually got the opportunity to carry back a few actual copies of the first issue of The Dog Journal. 

Since this has become a reality, my days consist of collecting articles, reaching out to people in the industry, and thinking through big picture ideas for the company. I get to talk to lots of great people, and watch all kinds of really good information be broken down into good, solid, actionable content. My goal is to bring this content to you in a way that is fun, educational, and digestible. We see a lot of great opportunities for the future, and we can’t wait to continue this journey with our subscribers. This has been a humbling experience, and I would like to thank all those of you who support The Dog Journal. Without all of you we couldn’t continue!