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The Dog Trainer Who Reminded Me What Really Matters · Every Pawprint! Every Story!

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to another episode of Every Paw Print, Every Story.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Dan Popovic.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And for you new listeners to this podcast, a little bit about this podcast, or obviously you're wondering what this podcast is about.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Simple.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's about our pets, our dogs, our cats.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: We invite families and friends in to just come in and sit, have a fun conversation.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: You might laugh.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about the fun stories, the goofy routines that our fur kids have.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: You may cry.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We do talk occasionally about pet loss.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: It happens.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: You may get inspired.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think today you'll get inspired.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a lot of fun shows in the past or interviews in the past where folks have started up various types of businesses as a result of their fur kids.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: But hopefully, most importantly, you feel supported in your journey and wherever you're at with your fur kids.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So enough about me, not so much about me, but enough about talking about this.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Want to jump right in today.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to welcome Dave from Hiram, Georgia, or Dallas, Georgia.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show, Dave.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, happy to be here.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Happy to have you here too.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And just for the listeners, what this one's kind of fun.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, this is how it works, I think, right?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we had, gosh, uh a couple episodes ago, we had Melissa uh interviewed her in Dursky, um, husband, dynamic duo, they're in Ackworth.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they have a golden retrievers meetup group.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was just a fun story.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So listeners go back and listen to that.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: She wants to create this golden Colorado concept, which I think is fascinating.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Dave, I don't you I don't know if you want to talk or if you know more about that, but it was fascinating to learn that once a year they have a bunch of golden retrievers that meet from everywhere, and she wants to do the same thing here.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, that's pretty cool.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's cool as well.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: But so you so you're you were on their show, you're connected.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So for the listeners, this is how Dave and I got kind of connected.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: He saw the interview, the podcast reached out.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for doing that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is how it works.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, jumping into it, how many fur kids do we have a part of the family today?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Three.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was waiting how many hands were about to show up.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: I do think three is probably the limit for now, at least until the skin kids get old enough to help take care of them.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love skin kids versus two-legged.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so let's whatever order you want to go in, uh, let's let's talk about those three.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: How did they become family?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: What are their names?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: So, in order from like oldest to youngest, we have Colt, Molly, and Dexter.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: So Colt, he um I mean he's probably about nine years old now.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: I got him at the same time as Molly, and they were approximately one to two months uh apart.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: He was just a slight bit older.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: He is some sort of mutt.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm thinking border collie something.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh he was advertised as a German Shepherd Dalmatian mix, but I don't know about that.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I definitely see some border collie, maybe some golden.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh who knows, man.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and Molly, she's my little uh what we assume to be a rat terrier or some sort of terrier mixed with a black lab.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: She is a funny-looking thing.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: She is an amazing personality.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: Then Dexter, he's actually, I didn't get him.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: My wife did, and you know, when we got married, you know, he became part of the family.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: She she had him before we had met.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: So that's how that's how that happened.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was yeah, go ahead.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Keep nope, keep going.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I was basically just like Dexter or sorry, Colt and Molly, they were my that I like went out myself and got.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: It was uh I I met him through a co-worker at like my first high school job or whatever.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then you know, when I was becoming an adult graduating high school and all that, those are my first two, like my dogs, not like my parents' dogs that I grew up with, but mine.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: And it's kind of sad because now they're getting old.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they don't act old, thankfully, but um, and they're still really healthy, but it's kind of like, man, I feel old, my dogs are getting old.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, wow, high school was like forever ago now.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's just funny.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's I don't know how when you say old, how old are they?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh around nine.
• 4:33
  unknown: Okay.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then Dexter would be around eight.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: So just at the beginning of senior citizen.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, well, it sounds like they're still beginning, it's you gotta get them the senior citizen discount cards, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um for their food.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I love the yeah, right.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love the names.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Any any rhyme or reason behind the names, or did they come with the names?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: So Colt and Molly came with their names, and I didn't want to change them.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um and Dexter, my wife, did name him on purpose.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: She thought if she gave him a smart sounding name, he would be smart.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it backfired.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: And it's uh Dexter from Dexter's lab, the cartoon, not from like Dexter, the serial killer dude.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's well, I was gonna say, I I don't know either.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there go shows you my age Dexter cartoon is like that.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: That one I don't know.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's after me or dating myself.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then yeah, I think it was like what early 2000s, late 90s.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: I have no idea, honestly.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: I remember I used to watch it, but that was so long ago, man.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking dexter, but that's that's still kind of in the the the smart area, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but so when you say he's backfired, like what what does that mean?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is he just slow?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: Is he running to things or he makes it a point to give himself a a daily concussion, not a like twice a day.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: He's just a goofball, man.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: He is yeah, I mean he he is like smart, he's just oblivious and does not pay attention to anything.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: And he's just wild.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: But he loves working, he knows commands and stuff, and he's he he's never like done anything bad, he's just a goofball.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh uh all three of them get along.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, obviously they will will have to with what you do, which we'll get into, but uh when we you know, all three of them when you first got them and they all became part of family, any any issues there, resource garden or anything like that?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they definitely did, especially like so Colt and Molly came from the same home.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: So they were pretty much good to go, like right when I got them.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: Molly was just a little bit timid with people, actually.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: She's much, much different now.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it was like when Dexter was introduced that we got a little bit of some like pecking order stuff, and never really anything bad.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um honestly, it really could have gone a lot worse, and it just kind of naturally got really a lot better, and they were cool with each other, they eat next to each other every day.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the kids actually feed them, and um yeah, they I mean they they play rough, but so long as it doesn't knock anything over, they're fine.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care if they do that.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like any any um like funny routines that not necessarily daily or maybe weekly that just kind of make you laugh or make you be like, wait a minute, why do they do that?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: How did that how did that come to be?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Colt, it feels like a re uh weekly or twice-a-week routine with how the weather's been, but every time there's the slightest little bit of thunder, he is turning into the biggest baby.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: He like snakes his way onto the couch, like a little, I guess, like a little snail just trying to squeeze in the cushions and getting in my kid's laps, and they're like covering him with blankets, and he's like laying belly up like this, just soaking it all all in and is milking every ounce of attention you could possibly get out of it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and um so that's one of our little weekly routines.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: Molly, she she really likes to uh she is extremely high drive.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: So when we're throwing a tennis ball with her, she is going crazy for it.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: She is very very fast at getting to the ball and like kind of very playfully possessive, like the growling, like the play growling where she doesn't ever actually bite her, it's not really scary, but she does she just loves it so much.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're not playing with her, she just likes to curl up in a ball for the rest of the day.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: She's like this little just lump in her bed just pretty much the whole day.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: And whenever someone new comes over or someone she hasn't seen in a while, she just licks their shins like crazy.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: She just cannot control herself.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's funny.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: But she she's she's got personality, man.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh yeah, then for for Dexter, you know, he he he's kind of been our best dog with the kids overall.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh he was always letting them like roughhouse with them, play the play with them, ride the ride him.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think he's as big of a fan of that anymore because they're getting bigger.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: But um, yeah, and all three of them, I mostly take Colt with me to work, but I will take Dexter and Molly depending on what we're working on the throughout the day.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, all around, they're just they're really well-behaved dogs.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I have like good demonstration worthy commands on Colt and somewhat on Dexter too, but they're all just really well behaved.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: They go outside off a leash, and we don't have a fence.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I can kind of watch them and they're good, and they they come with call perfectly.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, they're just they're just good dogs.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's a good segue.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk a little bit about, like you said, you've you've got these commands, so obviously you've got skills a lot of us don't have to kind of navigate challenges, if that's even the right way to say.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what so but start from the beginning?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: What so well let's go.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So the name of the company is canine coaches, right?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: How did the idea come to be?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: What was the inspiration?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, I've been training dogs pretty much ever since I graduated high school, about the same time I got Colt and Molly, so just under 10 years now, or it's coming up on 10 years here in a couple months.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I, you know, I've done it out of my name and almost informally for a long time.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: Then I uh I was actually in the military for a little bit in the reserves, and when that, so I was kind of like part, I was you know, like part-time military, then part-time doing this, and because and the schedule was very invasive, so it was hard to just focus on one thing uh and really formalize it.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: But now that I'm out and you know, we moved around a little bit, now we're back uh about where I grew up, or the general area where I grew up in Georgia.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we you know decided to sit down and formalize it, make an LLC, apply some of the business skills I learned.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: I was actually in real estate development for a little bit and uh kind of just applied it to you know luxury service and dog training.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: And um yeah, it's that's pretty I guess that the name specifically is I really wanted I I've helped with and ran board and trains before, and I've done private lesson formats before, but I really wanted to solely focus on the private lesson format for multiple reasons.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh one being that I think that it's it is genuinely better quality uh and more lasting impact and it's more efficient.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's really expensive to take care of a lot of other people's dogs, and you have to pass that on to your your clients.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas with a private lesson, like it don't get me wrong, it's not it's not cheap, and especially with gas uh and you know wear and tear on your car.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: But um, you know, for the most part, when I'm home, my work is done.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and on top of it, I get the opportunity to teach people how to train their own dogs.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm not necessarily like uh, you know, the the name is supposed to vaguely imply that I'm coaching you how to train your dog.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm your your coach, not your dog trainer, just about okay.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Love that, that makes sense.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm so okay.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So then you're going directly to the homeowner's home into that environment.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And coaching, mentoring, the yeah, the person on how to effectively train their dog on the various like what are some of the common common things that that you typically see that you're training for?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would imagine leash pulling is probably one of the most common.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for the most part, every dog has really very rarely do I see a dog that has like just good overall obedience.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I when I'm talking about obedience, I'm talking about like functional command work, reactivity work, behavior modification.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of have it as like this catch-all term, like pet pet dog training.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because I know that people like split it into all these different subcategories that I just think that um don't really make any sense to me.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: So usually like I get a dog that doesn't come when called, it's jumping, being really, really rude at the door.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Uh reactivity is very common, and really reactivity is a very general term, and it doesn't tell me a whole whole lot.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: You could you could be uh talking about a dog that's very fearful of people or other dogs, or reactivity could also mean they just want to play.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Reactivity just means they react to something, doesn't tell me why.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I get a lot of reactivity, but you know, until I see them and I really dig deeper, you know, I I I I'll see if it's an aggressive thing, if it's a play thing, if it's a fear thing, or combination sometimes.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: But um, yeah, that's that's pretty much what I work with.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: Just anything that would be considered functional obedience, commands, leashwalking, healing, coming when called, barking, reactivity, so on.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's one thing you made the one comment you made, or actually it made me smile or made me laugh.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: You said rude at the door.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean exactly?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: So like barking, jumping.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like being an obstacle when somebody's trying to come.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like just, you know, you're tripping over the dog, or you know, your mother-in-law comes over and you know, she's getting scratched up, that sort of deal.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I know that uh yeah, sorry, that's what I thought.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just laughing.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know that too well.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: That that book over there in the background uh was inspired by Marley, and oh yeah, that's what she did.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you came home, she really greeted you, and you got a 75-pound Doberman greeting you, and yeah, you know it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, so I had to laugh because I'm like, okay, I know that too well.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um then like typically, how long do you advise with like the sessions in which you do?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: How how you know how how long?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: My most like common workflow is I see people for about 10 10 weeks or 10 sessions.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: That's not like the only thing that I offer, but that's just like what most people choose to do, like a medium to long-term type of deal, uh, where we like go over everything because that's also where like let's say I'm doing a 10-session plan, like everything after five is pretty much we're meeting out in public in stores and parks, etc.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of people really like that stuff, and I do too.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: Because I really like making sure that it's not just a living room dog, or it's not just your dog is only stable in you know a couple rooms in your house.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: I want them to be good in the in your house, in all the rooms that you maybe rarely take your dog in.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: If you really thought sat down and thought about it, there's probably a couple areas in your own house that um your dog probably's never been in before, just a time or two, and it may be novel to them to be in there.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then you got your front yard, your backyard, and your side yards, and then um stores, parks, and uh it's just really good for all around, just making sure that the stuff you're working on in your house is actually translating and is actually usable when you want it to be.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then so except if if it's 10 sessions, if somebody listening to this, you know, you know, signs up, gets you 10 sessions, it might be once a week, maybe twice a week.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, my most typical is once a week.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Once a week for people.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: I typically see people weekly.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: I give them very specific homework to do.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what that was my next question.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is if there's like a workbook or something you leave with them.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I have a it's pretty nice.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: I wish I, you know, it's they're in my car right now, but I had it's like a you know sheet with lines on it, and it has like general information on it, and I write on it before I leave X amount of reps of Y, X minutes of this per day, per week, whatever.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um I like to be very specific, and I like to, and really, especially in the beginning, less is more quality or quantity type of approach, because everyone has a job, or at least most people do.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: If they can't, if they don't, they probably can't afford me, honestly.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um and you know, and this is America, like most people are working like 60 hours a week.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I find that like a good five to fifteen minutes, at least most days in that week in between seeing me is just is more than enough if you're doing it correctly.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um I don't think that you really need to work with them like an hour a day uh and like burn yourself out, and you know, sometimes you do it, sometimes you don't, and really just kind of build up this backlog of training you need to do.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: I just think that a quality over quantity approach, less is more short and sweet, especially at the beginning.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: Over time, if you're trying to do more advanced stuff, you can build up your their stamina a little bit, like their mental stamina, their attention span.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh because I tell this to everybody, the the brain burns calories too.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um that's supposedly at the very least why human beings take so long to grow, despite us not being like animals that are two tons plus in size.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um so like when you're mentally challenging them, they are going to gas out, uh, especially in the beginning, if you're doing it right.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: So you don't need to push them like crazy, especially in the beginning.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, very cool.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would assume, like you said, that that first session, there's probably like you said, there's certain things you're doing, keeping it simple, coaching, you got the you leave them with the a workbook of things to do.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: So then the second session comes around.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is it you kind of all right, let's preview how things went in this past week and where we saw improvements or where we didn't, where we didn't, maybe we focused there kind of thing.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so how I like to do it, and what's really worked out for me is because one of the biggest um problems, like a dog trainer who goes and does private lessons will run into is people not doing their homework or people like not doing it enough.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: And one of my well, one of my answers to it is just make it shorter and actually doable, like focus, uh, which we just talked about.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: The next thing I really like to do is I kind of alternate categories um about every week, depending on you know, depending on the dog, whatever.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: So like first week will be your basic functional commands, first step.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: Then second week will be like leashwalking.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: So technically, even if you didn't do your homework as much as you should have, uh, or as well as you should have, we're kind of working on a completely different category of things.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_03: So you have an extra week to work it.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_03: And one thing I've also learned is, and this kind of ties back to what I was talking about earlier, I'd almost rather um someone like let's say someone does their homework two to three times a week instead of five to seven.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: I would rather them work with their dog correctly a couple times than like try to do a bunch of stuff that I didn't show them how to do yet and get bad training in.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: Because sometimes sometimes no training is better than bad training because that's another repetition that you kind of have to undo, and usually they're able to get to the next step.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: And also, um like for my first session is usually a planning session.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: So part of it is for like session commitments and stuff like that, but another part of it is for the actual training strategy itself.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: One, it's to make sure that their dog is like, you know, they have a chance to actually get to know me.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um and then next, it's just to make sure we have like the basic squared away, like we have a regular leash and collar, like I don't like retractable leashes, or you know, like if your dog's pulling, I don't really care for a harness for training.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: I like you know, Martingale collars or whatever.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: And the biggest thing, especially if we're talking about a regular obedience case, is you know, I like to use treats at the beginning.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not like a treat-only person, but it is the most effective way to teach the commands, not necessarily to enforce when they don't want to do it, but most dogs like they know sit, and then everything else, it's just a lack of understanding.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: And treats are by far the easiest way for those functional position-based commands, like you're down, your place, coming when called, even.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I like to, in that planning session, make it very clear that you know, don't feed your dog right before I come over.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like feed them after, or you even use their food as like for the session.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I always tell them, you know, if we can get them to work for minimum wage, then we can only go up from there.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: So that's um that's another reason why it's very important.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: Uh like, you know, a lot of people like free feed their dogs, and I'm not gonna like like I don't really care like on a spiritual level what you do, but we do need to make sure we're setting the stage because a lot of it is just planning correctly.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: Things can go so smooth if you just plan accordingly and make some small changes before we actually really get to work.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, love that that makes sense.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um definitely aligned, and then uh I'm I'm curious in the beginning stages with like you know you know Colt Molly or Dexter, um did any one of them kind of get some of this training for you from you, or did one of them in particular, like Dexter, he he needed it because he was the slowest.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or or as you perfected some of the training, was it with with the help of the fur kids?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so definitely.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: And um, like Colt comes with me to work almost every single day.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um he's he's like a like he's like he is used for work basically as a distraction dog.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: He's pretty relatively calm, so he's with me every day.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I try to squeeze in training when I'm using him as a distraction dog, usually like off-leash healing or recalls or stuff like that, or just you know, enforcing his stays.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like I don't need a leash for that dog.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: He he's really, really well behaved.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, uh when I got into dog training, it was basically all about bite work to me.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I I loved watching police canines, that's really what got me into it.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care, I still enjoy it, but I don't really like I'm not as gung ho about it as I was when I was a teenager or in my early 20s, but like I really wanted Colt to do bite work, and I actually did get him to for a while, but you know, you need employees for that, you need um people who know what they're doing, and he's getting old, and I really think he's I think he's happier, and I think he's more it's more utilitarian for me to just focus on his obedience and just you know bring him work to bring him to work with me, keep him calm, um, you know, just give him some attention, you know, do some functional commands with him.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: I've done some like demos with him, or I'm doing tactical heals, I'm doing off-leash heals, I'm doing like 200 yard recalls with him, stuff like that.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, he's a very well-behaved dog.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: Very cool.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_03: I've done a lot of work with him.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the the term you use, I gotta go back and ask you that because I'm not sure.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: But would you say by buy what was the term you use with the canine?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Bite work, where you're teaching the bite people.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, gotcha.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you're getting the dog to bite people.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: So you're training the dog to bite people, yeah, like with a bite suit, the sleeves and stuff like that.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I actually used to do that with Colt, but I haven't done it with him in years.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just letting him settle down.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: And he's you will you if you met him, you couldn't tell that he's ever done that type of stuff.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: He's never bitten anyone for like for real.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: He's only ever done it on like a suit or a sleeve.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: But um, yeah, that's what got me into it.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: Is I just wanted to train every dog to bite for protection purposes.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: But now I'm uh I still enjoy bite work and I would like to get back into it one day, but it was I mostly just want dogs to chill out a little bit.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hence the like you said, the the police, the the canine reference, like you said.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that is that kind of the bite work?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a is that a main thing that they're working on?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I know there's probably other things, but um yeah, you usually for police canines, you're usually looking at bite work and scent work, and everything is like kind of a subspecies of that firework or apprehension is what they is the technical term for it, is you know, when they send a dog to go bite somebody and hold them down so that they can arrest them non-lethally.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um whereas you know, scent work that includes your drugs, your bombs, as well as your people.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um they also have stuff for like firearms and whatever, but I mostly uh most of my experiences with drugs and bombs and people, trailing as they call it.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: So um, you know, they'll have dogs that are single purpose, meaning that they only do one, or multi-purpose, where they do two, like some people consider it three, uh three jobs all at once, and then attached to that you are always gonna have, or at least you should have, a high-level obedience with all of them.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but that's how I really got into this.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: I actually went to a school where I was basically working with a bunch of working dogs and um well as well as just high-level obedience with regular pet dogs that didn't have like a a job, so to say.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: But but yeah, that's that's how I got into this.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: Is I was in a bite suit just about every day for a while and got really sweaty and got a lot of bruises from it.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: It was really nice.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and remind me, I think you had mentioned it, but so you've grown up with dogs pretty much throughout your whole life, is that right?
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, yep.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, my parents always had a dog.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we had a Chesapeake Bay Retriever when I was real, real young.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: Then we had a American Bulldog, German Shepherd, and a Conne Corso, and an Australian Shepherd.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: Not all at the same time, but you know, um over my childhood, we had those dogs.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, as soon as I became you know 18, graduated high school, I already had my own dog, two of them.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right now we have Dexter too.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then the driving forces and factors behind what you're doing, the inspiration.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay, very phenomenal.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know we're getting close to time here, so that that um that's really cool.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can people find you?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's in?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'll definitely make sure we get the links added in the description of this and the article, but um, yeah, shout out how people can find you.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so website is canineed.org, like canineeducation.org, whatever.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you can find me caninecoaches LLC on Facebook very easily.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's the like logo with a lab wearing a hat.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um you can find me on Yelp, Google pretty easily.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we have yeah, we have a TikTok too.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: Basically, the only social media we don't have is a Twitter, because I don't know how that works.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, we have next door, but um yeah, you can pretty much just find us on any social media except for Twitter for now, and just kind of can on coaches LC.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh one easy way to tell if it's us is if you're seeing a bunch of owners training their dogs.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: Usually most of my videos I'm holding, like a little camera or whatever, uh, my phone, and like it's it's pretty much owner-led training.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: I just guide them along the way, and um yeah, and where I'm probably one of the most like active in showing what training looks like.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of other dog trainers, whether because I I'm not saying like it's for any particular reason, but we show like everything.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've I've seen some of those posts and some of those videos, so that's phenomenal.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then I guess do you have a a I'm I'm assuming you have a limited training radius.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything virtual?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I do have Zoom classes.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I have Zoom classes, and I do um we're working on some educational content this year.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Hopefully we have it done by this year.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's just luckily we've been so busy that I haven't really had time to do stuff like that.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, uh, we have Zoom classes as far as radius.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'll drive pretty far, so long as I don't have too many uh at once.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like I don't mind driving an hour plus, um depending on the traffic and stuff like that.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll usually like make it more efficient to where like I'm seeing like this person, this person, this person, this person, or if I'm doing a far drive, I'll you know, see like you know, like at least two of them in that same sort of period and then you know come back home.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, I I don't mind driving far so long as it fits the schedule.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so yeah, again, we'll make sure for the listeners of this that we get that information listed in the uh uh description of the podcast, yeah, article, links to find you.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh as we close out this show, I always love ending like with an inspirational note or something.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel like there's one here.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: What gosh, with with your working with dogs and families, what is it like what's the inspiration you get from your fur kids?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just or just dogs in general.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_03: Man, I don't know, it's so weird because like it's like asking a fish what water feels like.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: Because like when your life is literally dogs, it's just like so normal to you.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you know, oh man.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know the inspiration, you you know what?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: No, I I have a good one.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_03: I guess when it comes to um that they inspire me to have okay, you know when I was a kid, and you know, you would have like the family dogs, and you know, let's get let's get a little sad here.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: You know when you have to like you're a kid or whatever, especially when you get to like that middle school teenager age, and you know, your dog starts getting old, and then before you know it, you know, you have to put them down, or they just you know, nature takes it course its course, and then you're like, man, when he was a puppy or when he was younger, I was all over him, and then as he got older and life got busier, you're just you know, you didn't spend as much time with him and give him as much attention as you wanted to.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: So that's one thing that does really inspire me.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's great.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um kind of it's it does make me really grateful, is because you know, when you're working, you know, you're spending time with your dog in a productive way, you know.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's really cool for me that I get to kind of you know do my duty as an adult and provide for my family and pay my bills while also not forgetting about you know our dogs.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I love it.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's something that does inspire me.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember, you know, having like these dreams of, you know, like, you know, before, you know, you know, my first dogs, you know, before y'all get um old and you know die on me, you know, I want you to have a like a nice big yard to play in.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: I want to work with you on all these things because I think you'll have so much fun doing it, play with the kids.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: You kind of have all these dreams that line up with yours that include your dogs, you know, the property you want to own, like other animals for them to be around, and kind of like a lifestyle.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I get to kind of work on all of it at once.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I I love that.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's great.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a great answer, too, because yeah, too, you it's a beautiful life in a very short time frame because they're not with us here long enough, which sucks.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um you're having a huge impact on that and making the most out of it.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's phenomenal.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um gosh, Dave, I I as we close today, just thank you for being on the show.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoyed hearing your story, meeting you.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: We'll definitely keep in touch, um, and we'll definitely get all of your information out there for the for the listeners.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go anywhere just yet, but yeah, thank you for being on the show today.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.