When you spend your days navigating a job market as tight as veterinary medicine, it's easy to feel like you're hiring on hard mode. But every so often there's a moment, a spark, where everything just clicks. For O'Brien Veterinary Group, that moment happened on Hound.
This is the story of Toby Boeckman and Sarah Kudrak, two seasoned recruiting leaders who turned a notoriously difficult hiring landscape into a string of wins that changed the trajectory of their clinics.
The Humans Behind the Hiring
Toby Boeckman carries 14+ years of recruiting expertise spanning technical staffing, executive search, consulting, and internal TA leadership. The last year and a half has been fully immersed in veterinary medicine: learning the rhythm, the challenges, and the heart of this profession.
Sarah Kudrak brings 12+ years of Talent Acquisition experience, including seven years at Charles River Laboratories building and leading TA teams. She started in consulting, recruiting across diverse industries before honing her craft in vet med.
Together, they make up OVG's recruiting powerhouse.
Who OVG Is and Why They Needed a New Approach
O'Brien Veterinary Group owns and manages community veterinary practices across the U.S., often stepping in to relieve DVMs from the operational load that weighs heavily on small clinics. Many of their hospitals sit in rural communities where the need for veterinary care is high but available talent is limited.
They had the mission, the passion, and the practices. What they needed was reach.
Why Hound Entered the Picture
Hiring in rural markets is a challenge that can stump even the most experienced recruiters. Toby and Sarah needed a bigger pipeline, a way to reach candidates beyond traditional job boards, a tool that didn't require weeks of onboarding, and a platform built specifically for veterinary medicine.
Hound checked every box.
First Impressions: Simple, Fast, Intuitive
For a team juggling dozens of open roles across multiple states, speed matters most. Their first reaction to Hound:
Results: Three DVM Hires and a Much Warmer Pipeline
2025 brought a milestone: three veterinarian hires directly through Hound. For OVG, that wasn't just a number. It was three clinics finally fully staffed, three communities gaining access to care, and three DVMs stepping into roles where they felt confident and supported.
One unexpected advantage was Hound's transparency. When candidates viewed their employer profile, OVG received alerts that turned cold outreach into warm, contextual conversations.
For rural hiring especially, that's a significant shift. And with messaging built directly into the platform, initiating conversations with job seekers felt natural and immediate.
The Human Side of the Partnership
When asked about working with Hound, Toby and Sarah didn't hesitate.
Their Advice to Other Employers
Their recruiting wisdom distilled: lean into feedback, experiment with different messaging and approaches, and understand that every role and region may require its own strategy. Treat Hound like a living tool, not a static job board.