You might not believe it, but yes, that man had a dog on his head.
Taky Cheung is not your average dog walker. Often spotted on campus, Cheung walks up to 11 dogs a day. Ten of those dogs are attached to his belt via a leash, and one sits comfortably on his head.
Cheung walks and trains his clients’ dogs all over Los Angeles: The Americana at Brand, Santa Monica Pier, LA Live, Little Tokyo and most recently, USC.
Cheung trains lots of dogs, but he only owns one furry friend, which happens to be the dog on top of his head. Her name is Mimi, and she is a Jack Russell-Pomeranian mix.
“I saw the way a human father would put their daughter on his shoulders, so I tried it with Mimi. I used to hold her from behind to help her balance on my shoulders but noticed she would spread her legs and could balance herself,” Cheung said.
Cheung immigrated from Hong Kong to America in 1997. He has no family in the United States and said Mimi brings him a lot of comfort.
“With Mimi, I feel the love. I feel that she loves me, and all of my family members are in Hong Kong. So she is my only family member in America. She is like my daughter,” he said.
As I walked through USC’s campus with Cheung, he told me how he went from a dog hater to a dog trainer.
“I had a cat, but when my cat died, I was so devastated,” Cheung said. “I started to try to understand dogs. They love to be with humans, but they don’t know what is acceptable in our world. I began to realize the reason I hated dogs was because of the dog owners.”
Cheung adopted his first dog from a shelter and quickly learned he had a hidden talent for teaching dogs how to behave.
“I trained [my first dog] to do all kinds of stuff. She could skateboard, do handstands and catch treats,” he said.
Mimi’s balancing act proved to gain the attention of USC students.
“I saw a man with a bunch of dogs and a dog on his head. It was really cute, and I took a photo,” said Anne Fitzgerald, a sophomore media, arts and practice major at USC.
Cheung and Mimi’s trick also proved to uplift the spirits of students on campus.
“My dog just passed away last week. It made me happy to see so many dogs, especially the one on top of his head,” said Victoria Martzloff, a junior theater major at USC.
Cheung said he walks his clients’ dogs at USC because of its busy nature.
“I take them to places with lots of people, cars and other dogs and let them get used to it. We live in a city, and there is no way to avoid crowded areas,” Cheung said. “They don’t react. We walk and just enjoy the nice weather.”
Cheung has been training dogs full-time for eight years. Some of his current clients have been with him for more than four years.
While many would love to play with dogs for a living, he said the lifestyle is not as glamorous as it seems.
“Sometimes I find poop in my car, poop in my bed,” Cheung said.
Even through the bowel movements, Cheung considers dogs man’s best friend.
“I don’t consider them pets. I will say that a cat, bunny or goldfish are pets. But dogs are more than pets,” he said. “because they understand you.”
This article has been updated to reflect a correction regarding where Cheung immigrated from.