November 2, 2023 • 31 mins
Paw & Order Dog Training was established in 2013 in Pittsburgh by Elissa Weimer-Sentner. She served as a Combat Military Police Officer from 2007 to 2014. After graduating at the top of her class from California University of Pennsylvania, Elissa completed a highly selective Professional Dog Training Program as an outstanding graduate in 2012 and began her career as a professional dog trainer.
The Business that Created a Family
In 2014, Steve Sentner hired Elissa to train his Shiba Inu, who was showing signs of aggression as a 6-month-old puppy. He would turn out to be more than just a client; the two started dating after their training was completed and they got married in 2015. In 2016, Elissa chose to change her business name to Paw & Order, at which time, Steve retired from his corporate career to manage all marketing and business operations.
Once your dog learns what they are supposed to do, there are no limits. Contact your local trainer today to set up a no-obligation evaluation. https://www.pawandorder.com/
The Business that Created a Family
In 2014, Steve Sentner hired Elissa to train his Shiba Inu, who was showing signs of aggression as a 6-month-old puppy. He would turn out to be more than just a client; the two started dating after their training was completed and they got married in 2015. In 2016, Elissa chose to change her business name to Paw & Order, at which time, Steve retired from his corporate career to manage all marketing and business operations.
Once your dog learns what they are supposed to do, there are no limits. Contact your local trainer today to set up a no-obligation evaluation. https://www.pawandorder.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
And welcome in this is the CEOsYou Should Know Podcast. I'm your host
Johnny Hertwell, let's say alo toour CEOs, Elyssa Weimer and Steve Settner.
Thank you for joining me, Thankyou for having us so tell us
everything we need to know about pawand ordered dog training. I guess the
big thing that I want everybody toknow is that we are very different.
We are a very different company overall, with how we treat our employees,
(00:30):
with how our visual our vision isfor the actual company. So I got
into this because I love people.I didn't even have a dog when I
became a dog trainer. Yeah,I was military police for six years.
I had no time for a dog, and I actually I was going to
school CALU, I was interning withthe FBI. Actually got hired as an
agent out of school, and Iturned it down and decided I didn't want
(00:54):
to do that anymore. I didn'tlike the being in the military and being
told what to do. I justalways feel like I have that problem with
authority and with the FBI. Ijust thought that was too strict and I
wanted to do something different with mylife that made me feel just happy.
I guess I was looking for happiness, not money, all right, So
what makes you different then? Sowhat I want for everybody is I like
(01:17):
to help people. So I'm init because I see the problems that people
have with their dogs nowadays, andI see how happy I am with all
of mine. We have twelve dogstotal. Now, as crazy as that
sounds, we keep acquiring, butjust waking up and having these reliable dogs
that love you and unconditionally love youno matter how you look in the morning,
(01:38):
where you know whatever you want todo, the dogs ready to go,
and you can have that partnership witha dog. That's why I got
into this. I see the dogsthat struggle. A bunch of my dogs.
Most of our dogs were rescues orhad prior pass that made them unadoptable,
and the fact that we took themand now they're demo dogs, it
just shows that you never need togive up. There's always an option,
(02:02):
and our trainers and myself especially arealways hungry for that knowledge. If I
can't figure it out, I'm goingto go figure it out, and I
bring on our team. Most ofour team are my employees, were prior
clients who had dogs that were notable to be fixed by other trainers or
were told that they could not befixed. And just the chain of events
(02:23):
that have happened with Pawn Order ofhow we've changed other people's lives is just
that's that's it for me. It'snot about the money, It's about the
happiness, you know. It's justmy humble opinion. And tell me if
I'm wrong here, and I thinkyou'll agree with me. I don't know
if pawn Order is the best nameever, but it's closed. It's got
to be closed. When did youcome up with a name? And how
(02:47):
were you able to? You know, paw an Order is one of the
best names ever. How did that? How did that come about? So
actually I started out in twenty thirteenas three Rivers doing and then we changed
the name in twenty sixteen. Wejust got three Rivers. There's three rovers
everything out there. We wanted tobe something a little bit more and more
(03:08):
unique, and one of my trainerscame up with pawn Order Dog Training,
and I was like, that's brilliant. Because I was law enforcement and I
criminal justice degree, military police.I was with the FBI for a while,
intern with the Attorney General's Office incollege as well, like this is
perfect for us, and everyone lovesLaw and Order. It's one of our
favorite shows. And bone yeah,yeah, everybody sees it and like we
(03:31):
will drive our car down and Ifeel like we're going to have a cross
a car accident because people are likepawn Order, that's amazing, bastantly taking
pictures. Well, oh my rwindows down and have our dogs stick their
heads out the window just to helpthem with the show. What is your
what is your role in the withthe business. I'm still trying to figure
that out now. I'm a reallygood distraction. I do not train dogs.
(03:54):
I handle all the boring stuff,anything that doesn't have to do with
the client, so marketing, operations, human resources, it, website,
anything that has to do so Ido all the training of the people and
with the employees. He does allthe things that I can't do. We
have a very amazing balance. Youknow. I am so lucky. We
(04:16):
are both so lucky with the dynamicthat we have in our household that I
have him to help me and meto help him. How many dogs do
you guys have? Twelve? Justtwelve, and not only dogs. We
have two cats, three peacocks,two micro cows, a donkey, of
horse ducks, chickens, and twomini pigs. So you brought yeah,
(04:41):
actually, Cagot he was here.So we actually have Captain Hook here with
us now. And Captain Hook isa mix. Yes. So he came
from the Great Pyrenees Rescue of Pennsylvania. His family all had mange and we're
severely malnourished, and we took themin for five weeks.'re more.
We got them healthy and adopted andI wasn't planning on keeping any of them,
(05:03):
but this one took my heart.Ah, that is so sweet.
So take us to the beginning.Where did this? Where did this?
Where did you start? Where?Where do we start with this? So
when I first started, like Isaid, I was, I was going
to become an FBI agent. Ialways thought that's what I wanted to do.
And when I realized I didn't wantto do that, I was like,
(05:24):
I want to work for myself.I just I feel like I don't
do well working for other people.I got this go getter and I want
to just constantly go, go,go, and don't be held back and
growl. Did you think you weregoing to become a private detective? Maybe
I don't know. I don't know, so I was completely open to be
honest, and this opportunity fell intomy lap where someone said, I will
(05:46):
train you to train dogs. Andin twenty thirteen, I was honestly like,
is this even a thing? Youknow? Is dog training a career
that I can make money with?And I had a lot of people,
my family especially, were very upsetbecause they thought I threw away my college
degree. I had this amazing internshipand job opportunity and all of a sudden,
I just turned it down and Itook a huge risk and I started
(06:11):
a dog training business. I wentto school, learned, I was really
good at it and really liked it. I was like, this doesn't even
feel like a job. Well,what makes you good at it? So
the fact that I don't know howto explain this, but I feel like
I can tune into a person anddogs energy and just being able to read
the room and be able to changethings on a dime if something's not working,
(06:35):
or escape a conflict with a dogbefore it even happens, or escape
a conflict with people. It's justthis job. It's not just training dogs.
It is a huge skill. It'sa craft. I always tell my
trainers, this is a craft,not just a job, not just dog
training. You have to master yourcraft and you can never stop learning.
(06:59):
And are you training dogs and thepeople? Yes, I say the dogs
especially. Let's say, if yousend your dog to a board and train,
when your dog goes home, yourdog knows everything that they're supposed to
know. Now it's my turn tomake sure you know what you're doing,
and so your dog knows that youknow what you're doing. So my reference
of dog training is maybe television?Is that Is that a good way to
(07:19):
train dogs? When you see someof the dogs that are you know,
on Animal Planet and things like that, Is that a way that you do
it? Are you are you afan of that kind of training technique?
Which, if you had to specify, what do you mean? Well,
yeah, I don't want to mentionparticular names. Yeah, I gotcha,
Okay, but you know some ofthe things that you see on television.
(07:40):
Do you see some of those andgo maybe that's not the best way to
Absolutely. Yeah. We actually hadAnimal Planet reach out to us many years
ago that think they wanted to doa trailer and a stuff with us,
and we just ended up not doingthat because when you bring in the media,
everything just changes because now I don'twant to tailor my self for the
(08:01):
camera. I want to tailor myselffor the dog and the people. So
if when you get these these celebritytrainers, they're doing it for the clicks,
right or doing it for the views, I don't ever want to be
like that. It's reality TV thatis not based in reality on all.
Right, So when somebody comes toPaw and Order, what are what are
(08:24):
some of the frequently asked questions thatyou get? What are some of the
problems that you see. I'd saywe get problems from across the board,
dogs jumping on people, like,well, my dog ever be able to
stop jumping on people when they comein, or running away going after other
dogs. My dog hates other people. What can I do? It's rare
(08:46):
that we find a dog that wecan't fix, but most people have tried
other things. We're not their firstdog trainer, and a lot of people
don't have that hope, So wehave to be able to build that hope.
I know we can help people.I know we can get them where
they need to be, as longas it's a team effort between the between
the dog trainer, the human andthe dog. And a lot of people
think they can just learn how totrain their dog through YouTube and you know
(09:11):
internet research. I did that aswell. I tried. I had dogs
all my life, and when Iwas living on my own and got my
first dog on my own, Ineeded help. I thought I could learn
everything I could. I've had dogs. I'm like, I can handle this
well. I was one of thosepeople that could not handle that. And
(09:31):
that's what actually led me to reachout to at the time through Rivers Dog
Training. So I messaged them,saw their website, and they got back
to me, gave me a quote, and I said, nope, I
just thought it was too expensive.So I went to somebody else and I
had them come to my townhouse atthe time and meet my dog. And
(09:56):
let's just say it didn't go well. I won't go into details, but
I they weren't going to be ableto fix my dog. So I had
to reflect and say, Okay,I got to call that expensive company.
So I call them, set upan evaluation with Alyssa here didn't know her
at the time, and she cameand met my dog. I hired her
as my dog trainer and we didabout four or five lessons together and then
(10:22):
well we ended up getting married.And I was going to say we got
married so fast. Oh Okay,I was like, Okay, it just
led to it's just call me misterobvious. But that's how you met.
That is how it is how wemet. Yeah, and that's really how
I guess pawn Order started because Iwas three Rivers and we rebranded and we
partnered together, so I was thesole owner of Three Rivers dog Training.
(10:45):
I met him and I was like, we are a perfect, perfect power
couple for this company. Let's let'sjust share this because I spent my career
in corporate America working in marketing,and I thought I was really happy,
had a good job. I thoughtI was happy, and then we took
this on and twelve dogs, chickens, cats. I can't imagine my life
(11:09):
any other way. Yeah, howmuch land do you guys? Twenty two
acres? Okay, I was gonnasay, so we've moved, we've we
started in just a regular house inRobinson. I was going to just holp
it. We have every two years. We live in a condo. We
have all these Yeah, we startedin the condo. My townhouse. So
we met in twenty fourteen and welived there until twenty fifteen. Early twenty
(11:33):
fifteen, moved to a really niceour forever home twenty fifteen, a beautiful
house in Robinson on a cul deSac neighborhood. Loved our neighbors. Everything
was great, and then we realizedfairly quickly, we're outgrowing this house.
Forerever home was just a little toosmall. I think we're like four dogs.
At the time, were like,oh my gosh, I think we
have a limit Robinson Township. Wehave to move. So let me ask
(11:58):
you a little bit about dog training. I've been a dog lover all my
life. I had Welsh Corgi's growingup, and I've had labs over the
last thirty years. And there's certainbreeds that are easier to train than others.
Yes, yes, and no.Because I can, I can bring
(12:18):
in a German Shepherd, and theirpersonalities can range from very very easy to
train and wants to please, versusvery protective and weary. Of all people,
I do get that asked a lotis even like, what's your favorite
breed to train? And I don'thave one. We have his shebi Enu
was one of the hardest dogs I'veever had a train, and none of
my mentors are the schoolings ever preparedme for what I had to deal with
(12:41):
with his dog's aggression. And he'sa shebino. So anybody listening that has
a sheba or nos a shep andknows what they're like. They're more like
cats. They're extremely smart and smarts, so intelligent. He's probably our smartest
dog. But he's stubborn, andhe was really stubborn back then. And
I won't even say so, Ihate the word stubborn. Yeah, so
I don't necessarily think there are stubborndogs, but I think there are ways
(13:03):
when you find that dog that youquote unquote say as stubborn, and it's
really like you haven't learned how tocommunicate with it properly. With that dog,
just like a person, you're likeboth stubborn, Yes, what's that
dog's love language? You know?What can we do to communicate and so
we can get both get what wewant or give me an example of a
maybe a really tough situation and thenkind of a source of pride that you
(13:26):
were able to figure out that youknow you know that that. Yeah,
so we both dog. No,no, no, Well, I am
very proud of Steve Stock. Butwe had one dog that came a trainer
recommended this client to us because itbit her. I think the dog was
only ten months old. It wasa border Collie, and she took the
dog for a board and trained.This was her fifth trainer, I want
(13:48):
to say, and bit her reallybad in the face. So they came
to me. This dog was absolutelyso fearful that the owners could even put
a leash on the dog, thedog would bite. We got the I
got a before video of me justtrying to like reach towards the dog to
put a leash on, and thedog tried to run away, defecated herself,
(14:13):
screamed like like that's terrified, andwe got to the point at the
end of her born train. We'vehad. We had her for a while,
six or seven weeks, I evenmaybe even eight weeks, because I
had to start with just building thatconfidence clicker training this dog, being comfortable
with her, allowing me to putequipment on her. She's a flight wrist
too. She's border crawling fast,and she wasn't great with other dogs,
(14:35):
and she was very fear for allof other people. If she didn't know
you. And we got to thepoint where and that owner picked her up.
I have it on video and theygo, she's not trying to kill
me, Like literally is like here. I even showed them. I was
like, try to put this gleashon, Hope the leash and they went,
oh, my gosh, it's different, different dog a muzzle. They
pulled the muzzle out of the dog, shoved her face and there was a
(14:56):
tails wagon and they're like, ohmy gosh, she didn't try to eat
me. And I'm like, yeah, this is your dog now, and
we I mean, this dog knewall the basic commands, was reliable on
and off leash at the end ofthis training. And that was all done
within two months. And that's along board train for us. We normally
do three four weeks for behavioral casecan be more than that. So tell
(15:18):
us about your team. So,how many employees do we have? Steve
love in total, Love in total? Most of that's for the Pawn Order
Pittsburgh location. I'm going to getto your other locations in the yes.
So my crew. I'm very proudof my crew. It's taken us a
long time to get like the perfectbalance of everyone. But my first trainers
(15:39):
were just clients, clients who haddogs that saw what we were doing and
believed in it. So you trainyour your employees the Elisa way. Yes,
so this is your way, myway, which changes constantly. So
we teach dog training schools now andso I have everything all out and about
(16:00):
of like, here's this issue,here's three hundred ways to solve it.
This doesn't work, try this,try this, try this. That has
just been evolving throughout the years,just like humans. There's one way of
learning and it will continue evolving.Sure. Now tell us now, you
are not only in Pittsburgh. Now, yes, how many other locations do
(16:22):
you have? We have nine totallocations, not including Pittsburgh, so ten
including us that started in twenty twenty. Company basically came to us shortly after
we rebranded to upawn Order. Andthey're a franchise maker, that's what they
do, and they go out andsearch for small businesses that they think will
(16:42):
make a good franchise. So theyreached out to us in twenty sixteen or
seventeen. We weren't ready. Wesaid, well, that's an interesting idea.
We never really thought about that,but we couldn't at the time,
and in twenty twenty they reached backout and we kind of looked at each
other and said, why not let'stry something new. That was never something
(17:02):
that I wanted to do either.So how many total locations do you have
now? Ten? Ten? Andhow many did you spawn in twenty twenty
oh, twenty twenty. Well,yeah, it was COVID time, Like
we just launched it. So we'relike, yeah, so we sold one
right away and then the next wherewas that location? That was north of
the Pittsburgh market. So we havewestern Pennsylvania totally covered from Erie all the
(17:26):
way down to Washington. And actuallythe majority of our franchises were sold to
people that we either knew already andhad a good relationship with, or somebody
that we you know, front ofa friend type of thing, somebody that
we trusted. We did get acouple that cold called us. Didn't cold
(17:48):
call us, but they saw wewere advertising for franchise opportunities and they would
reach out and we'd interview them.And the problem though, is I'm picky,
picky and proud, very proud ofwhat we have, so I have
stopped offering franchises past what we havealready because it is a craft and I
(18:08):
don't want to have to worry aboutthe quality when I'm too far away.
So again, they're doing it yourway, you want my way. They
have liberties to do it their ownway. They're pricing structure and all that.
But it's they've initially went through ourtraining and mentor program, which is
a very very very hard school.But the thing about her way of training
(18:30):
is it's not necessarily my way orthe highway type of deal because her way,
our way of training dogs is soopen it really is best for the
dog. You know. They thetrainers, whichever trainer it is, whether
it's Alyssa here or one of ourfranchises, they look at the dogs,
(18:52):
see what the issues is issues are, and they come up with a game
plan. It's not Okay, thisis the dog and this is what we
do for every dog. So andthat won't work. Some dogs don't react
to the same, you know,style of training. So while yes,
she teaches all our other trainers andfranchisees how to train dogs, it's an
(19:15):
open book, you know, there'sjust not one recipe for each dog.
So it's not like so it's notlike a McDonald's franchise where you know everything
is the same, you have toallow some sort of flexibility, especially when
it comes to dogs, because everydog is different. Yes, so I
(19:36):
get it now because when I wastalking about TV dogs and training, I'm
not a big fan of those theway they do it. To be honest
with you, I'm glad that weagree on that. So that's that's that's
that's encouraging. So are you opento more franchise, you know, opportunities
down the road. I don't thinkso. I think one of my big
(19:57):
goals is, you know, weI feel like we are a stable in
the dog training community at this pointwith me being the chair of the IICP,
the International Association of Canine Professionals,I'm the Therapy Dog Committee chair.
We've presenting at conferences last year,we've presented in Minneapolis. So I think
at this point I would prefer thatthe trainers that already have that hunger for
(20:21):
learning come to me, and thenI will teach them everything I can and
they can go and do what Idid and just then learn. Take what
you like for me, go doit your own way. There's enough trainers
or there's enough dogs out there foreverybody, and I want I would rather
see better dog trainers helping people.More dog trainers helping people then have to
(20:41):
worry about me branding them like,oh you are pawn Order if you come
to my schools. All right,So where's the where do you see the
future for pawn Order? Oh boy? So I am constantly, I would
say, getting bored, but alwaystrying to expand my expertise. So we
you know, we do behavior modsmodification for dogs that need it. We
(21:02):
do puppy turnkey puppy. We getthe dog from a breeder. You can't
do potty training that come to us. We do classes are We have our
board and train program, which isamazing. Nobody in the country has a
born train program like we do.But now I did narcotics training. So
I me and my dog Zerra,we did the unthinkable. We were the
(21:26):
first female handler and dog to wina national competition against police dog trainers that
I was told I would never beable to win. Why we wouldn't get
into that's Is it a female thing? Is it? Uh? Yeah,
yeah, I believe a little bit. But that'll be a topic for another
(21:47):
conversation. So I'm not doing thatanymore. That's bs, I'm not allowed
to compete anymore. Oh yeah,he's also not a police officer, so
some people thought that was unfair.The little blonde girl's beaten. All are
jealous. Now they're amazing. Ilove those guys. Are great. We
went every year until we want andkept doing really well. But that's okay,
(22:08):
So moving on. I now,since I got out of the detection
training, I still train some dogsfor detection for the I still do some
setwork for clients, so just somethings, some fun things for the dogs
to do, to sniff around youhave essential oils, or there's fun little
games where you can teach your dogto sniff out your glasses or your cell
(22:29):
phone, your keys, things thatyou're going to lose anyway. Just I'm
a more practical dog trainer than anythingelse. I'm not one that competes in
shuts in or anything like that.I'd rather have my dogs do all kinds
of fun tricks that are going tobenefit me, like go get something out
of the fridge, or go cleanthis up, clean up your toys.
So once she or our other trainerstrained the dogs, our clients are so
(22:52):
happy and that they love it.But they want to do more with their
dog at that point. So that'sanother cool thing you asked the very beginning.
What separates us? We have adventures. All our clients are invited to
join a private group where every weekendand sometimes during the week one of our
trainers, many of our trainers willhost these little get togethers for their clients
(23:17):
where they'll bring their dogs to atrail or a lake or a bar just
to get together with a bunch ofother dogs. And they're humans. People
have met friends that way, theymet good friends. I mean, our
company has brought a lot of peopletogether. We have we have we really
have well bonding you when you takethe dog to the dog park, it's
a bonding experience like, Hi,how are you, what's your name?
(23:38):
What's your dog's name? We reallywant to know about the dog. It's
like when you're on vacation and yousee somebody wearing a Steeler shirt. You
can just go right up to thembe like you're from Pittsburgh, so am
I you know? Or they're notFromguality you know if they're bringing the dog,
obviously you have exact the love ofdogs. And it's really cool because
everyone's been through some type of trainingwhich is similar. Everyone's training similar but
(24:00):
not exactly the same. So ifyou have a dog that you want to
keep that training going with other gooddogs or good people that are going to
be respectful of your dogs space,it's good to have the hundreds of people
all together at one time that wecan form those friendships with the dogs,
with the people that are lifelong.We do lifelong commitment with our clients,
(24:22):
so we want to make sure wefollow them from start to finish. So
what kind of community service do youguys do? So we work with the
Humane Society right now, every Wednesdayor Thursday, I take all of my
dogs, and most of them atleast I guess, not always all of
them, but we dog test allthe dogs that come in. The dogs
that are coming into the Humane Society, the one that I work with,
(24:44):
are usually coming from the streets oranimal control or surrender, so we don't
know their history. And the lastthing I want, or that the Humane
Society wants or anybody, is foryou to come in to adopt a dog.
You bring your dog in to domeet and great, Now there's dogfight.
Know ahead of time, what's thisdog's personality like you know, so
we can fit the people with theright dogs and even think that that would
(25:07):
be something that would be necessary.Nobody does that. Yes, And I
have so many different sizes of dogsand personalities, and my dogs are trained
to communicate with the other dogs.I want to know if that dog's being
rude and my oldest dog gives ajust a slight correction is not the right
word, but signals yeah that likeyou're being too much. Does that dog
back away? Does the dog takehe? Does it not? Does is
(25:30):
it over sensitive? Does it likedogs? Is it not like dogs?
Does it not like rude dogs?Is this better for a calm dog or
small like if you're going to pairthem up, or no animals at all?
You know, I'd rather just liabilityis huge. We don't want anybody
to get hurt. And the WashingtonArea Humane Society is on it. I
mean, they are very honest whenthey adopt the dogs out, and I
(25:52):
see almost every single dog before theyget adopted out to test. Do you
train just dogs? So I juststarted training animals for film and TV.
That's going to be a whole separatestart of the business. Where with getting
the website, Yeah, everything outup didn't mention this. Yeah, so
have you started? Have you hadany leads going into motion pictures? So
(26:12):
we just got back from about amonth a little over a month ago from
a training course in Indiana with JoelSilverman and Brian Renfro, which are amazing
dog trainers or animal trainers for filmand TV. So they are my mentors.
They taught me everything I need toknow, at least to get started.
And I know most of the thingsanyway, it's just as little nuances
(26:36):
when it comes to the directors andyou know this, who to talk to
the crew, where to station myselfand getting the dog. The dog's listen
to me. They'll listen to theirowners, but now I got to get
them to go listen to somebody else, an actor who is not going to
train with the dog. They're justgoing to act right way. For me,
I might be twenty thirty feet awayand I needed, without talking,
be able to get the dog tofollow through with a whole entire scene.
(27:00):
So who's your movie star? SoI brought Captain here. He was even
as a baby. I had thisfrom a year ago. I was like,
I want to do this with him. So he is learning all the
things, and he's just absolutely amazingand loves people. As you've met him,
Yeah, he's perfect. And mymallon was was well the narcotics dog.
(27:21):
So I'm retiring her and I'm goingto do movies with her or commercials.
The only bad thing is I needdoubles or triples of dogs usually for
movies and films really, just likeactors have doubles. Yes, yeah,
dog, Yeah, it's funny.So like German shepherds are really easy to
duplicate, but Captain's going to behard. So let me ask you about
(27:42):
captain. What what What are someof the things that Captain does that that
may appeal to a director or somebodytrying to casting a dog? Yes,
what kind of What's what's so specialabout Captain? So Captain first of all,
his look, yeah, he isright, he has his code,
is beautiful coat, different like thecolors in his coat, and he's just
(28:03):
striking. He's got this smile thatis just it warms your heart. He
is so smart, easy to please, food driven, and is just so
easy to work with. So whenI'm looking when people want to cast dogs
and dog trainers, the best thingyou can do for a director or anybody
(28:23):
producing a movie is saving them time. Time is money in the film world,
So I don't want them spending threehours trying to get this shot with
this dog and this trainer's not ableto get the shot. You know,
my dogs are going to be preppedto be able to do anything at any
time. What was some of thethings captain? Can he bark on command?
Yeah, so he's working on that. All my dogs do that,
(28:47):
so he might not do that oneright here. I brought other things to
do tricks, but I don't thinkhe'll do the bark. But maybe we'll
try a little bit. But hecan pick things up. He's holding things
in his mouth. I've taught himso like basically to act dead. He's
working on wounded. So he's goingto fall down and kick on his back,
legs on his side and die.He has to learn how to stop
(29:11):
his tail from yes here. Nowhe's learning to not be so happy when
he pretends to die. He's onlyone. He just turned one, probably
a week baby. Yeah, he'ssuch a baby, so much to learn.
He does probably does spin, yeah, yes, he's no. We've
(29:33):
done different things where I've set himup to come into scene, put his
back, paws on the couch,go around the couch, jump on it,
put his head down, look down, look sad, look happy,
walk slow, walk fast, goto different platforms, back up, yep.
So I needed to be able togo in different directions. Stop when
I tell him to look certain ways. So if I wanted to look left
or right because think about the shot, or the director wants him to walk
(29:56):
straight and then look over his shoulder, you know, so you can actually
say, what's the command to dothat? Or is that like some sort
of hand gesture or something. SoI usually will have two trainers, at
least when I'm working with a dogon film or commercials, where I might
send him out and then I'll havethe other trainer get the queue from around,
(30:17):
like looking a certain way. SoI have different people in order to
make this work. So it's ateam effort, like it's a lot.
It's so fun. Yeah, behindthe scenes, that is really cool.
Are you excited? Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. He is such
a pressure right now, is awI got to get a picture of this.
(30:38):
Look at that. That is socute. Oh my god, his
face, like he's just so cute. He's got these beautiful colors. Yeah,
all right, all right, thishas been an absolute pleasure, the
meeting you both, and you know, once again, congratulations on the greatest
name of any business I've ever interviewedand Order Dog Training. Thank you so
(31:02):
much for coming in. This hasbeen an absolute pleasure. If you want
more information, the website is pawand Order dot com. This has been
the CEOs you Should Know podcast,showcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy.
Part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communitieswe serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell,
thank you so much for listening.
And welcome in this is the CEOsYou Should Know Podcast. I'm your host
Johnny Hertwell, let's say alo toour CEOs, Elyssa Weimer and Steve Settner.
Thank you for joining me, Thankyou for having us so tell us
everything we need to know about pawand ordered dog training. I guess the
big thing that I want everybody toknow is that we are very different.
We are a very different company overall, with how we treat our employees,
(00:30):
with how our visual our vision isfor the actual company. So I got
into this because I love people.I didn't even have a dog when I
became a dog trainer. Yeah,I was military police for six years.
I had no time for a dog, and I actually I was going to
school CALU, I was interning withthe FBI. Actually got hired as an
agent out of school, and Iturned it down and decided I didn't want
(00:54):
to do that anymore. I didn'tlike the being in the military and being
told what to do. I justalways feel like I have that problem with
authority and with the FBI. Ijust thought that was too strict and I
wanted to do something different with mylife that made me feel just happy.
I guess I was looking for happiness, not money, all right, So
what makes you different then? Sowhat I want for everybody is I like
(01:17):
to help people. So I'm init because I see the problems that people
have with their dogs nowadays, andI see how happy I am with all
of mine. We have twelve dogstotal. Now, as crazy as that
sounds, we keep acquiring, butjust waking up and having these reliable dogs
that love you and unconditionally love youno matter how you look in the morning,
(01:38):
where you know whatever you want todo, the dogs ready to go,
and you can have that partnership witha dog. That's why I got
into this. I see the dogsthat struggle. A bunch of my dogs.
Most of our dogs were rescues orhad prior pass that made them unadoptable,
and the fact that we took themand now they're demo dogs, it
just shows that you never need togive up. There's always an option,
(02:02):
and our trainers and myself especially arealways hungry for that knowledge. If I
can't figure it out, I'm goingto go figure it out, and I
bring on our team. Most ofour team are my employees, were prior
clients who had dogs that were notable to be fixed by other trainers or
were told that they could not befixed. And just the chain of events
(02:23):
that have happened with Pawn Order ofhow we've changed other people's lives is just
that's that's it for me. It'snot about the money, It's about the
happiness, you know. It's justmy humble opinion. And tell me if
I'm wrong here, and I thinkyou'll agree with me. I don't know
if pawn Order is the best nameever, but it's closed. It's got
to be closed. When did youcome up with a name? And how
(02:47):
were you able to? You know, paw an Order is one of the
best names ever. How did that? How did that come about? So
actually I started out in twenty thirteenas three Rivers doing and then we changed
the name in twenty sixteen. Wejust got three Rivers. There's three rovers
everything out there. We wanted tobe something a little bit more and more
(03:08):
unique, and one of my trainerscame up with pawn Order Dog Training,
and I was like, that's brilliant. Because I was law enforcement and I
criminal justice degree, military police.I was with the FBI for a while,
intern with the Attorney General's Office incollege as well, like this is
perfect for us, and everyone lovesLaw and Order. It's one of our
favorite shows. And bone yeah,yeah, everybody sees it and like we
(03:31):
will drive our car down and Ifeel like we're going to have a cross
a car accident because people are likepawn Order, that's amazing, bastantly taking
pictures. Well, oh my rwindows down and have our dogs stick their
heads out the window just to helpthem with the show. What is your
what is your role in the withthe business. I'm still trying to figure
that out now. I'm a reallygood distraction. I do not train dogs.
(03:54):
I handle all the boring stuff,anything that doesn't have to do with
the client, so marketing, operations, human resources, it, website,
anything that has to do so Ido all the training of the people and
with the employees. He does allthe things that I can't do. We
have a very amazing balance. Youknow. I am so lucky. We
(04:16):
are both so lucky with the dynamicthat we have in our household that I
have him to help me and meto help him. How many dogs do
you guys have? Twelve? Justtwelve, and not only dogs. We
have two cats, three peacocks,two micro cows, a donkey, of
horse ducks, chickens, and twomini pigs. So you brought yeah,
(04:41):
actually, Cagot he was here.So we actually have Captain Hook here with
us now. And Captain Hook isa mix. Yes. So he came
from the Great Pyrenees Rescue of Pennsylvania. His family all had mange and we're
severely malnourished, and we took themin for five weeks.'re more.
We got them healthy and adopted andI wasn't planning on keeping any of them,
(05:03):
but this one took my heart.Ah, that is so sweet.
So take us to the beginning.Where did this? Where did this?
Where did you start? Where?Where do we start with this? So
when I first started, like Isaid, I was, I was going
to become an FBI agent. Ialways thought that's what I wanted to do.
And when I realized I didn't wantto do that, I was like,
(05:24):
I want to work for myself.I just I feel like I don't
do well working for other people.I got this go getter and I want
to just constantly go, go,go, and don't be held back and
growl. Did you think you weregoing to become a private detective? Maybe
I don't know. I don't know, so I was completely open to be
honest, and this opportunity fell intomy lap where someone said, I will
(05:46):
train you to train dogs. Andin twenty thirteen, I was honestly like,
is this even a thing? Youknow? Is dog training a career
that I can make money with?And I had a lot of people,
my family especially, were very upsetbecause they thought I threw away my college
degree. I had this amazing internshipand job opportunity and all of a sudden,
I just turned it down and Itook a huge risk and I started
(06:11):
a dog training business. I wentto school, learned, I was really
good at it and really liked it. I was like, this doesn't even
feel like a job. Well,what makes you good at it? So
the fact that I don't know howto explain this, but I feel like
I can tune into a person anddogs energy and just being able to read
the room and be able to changethings on a dime if something's not working,
(06:35):
or escape a conflict with a dogbefore it even happens, or escape
a conflict with people. It's justthis job. It's not just training dogs.
It is a huge skill. It'sa craft. I always tell my
trainers, this is a craft,not just a job, not just dog
training. You have to master yourcraft and you can never stop learning.
(06:59):
And are you training dogs and thepeople? Yes, I say the dogs
especially. Let's say, if yousend your dog to a board and train,
when your dog goes home, yourdog knows everything that they're supposed to
know. Now it's my turn tomake sure you know what you're doing,
and so your dog knows that youknow what you're doing. So my reference
of dog training is maybe television?Is that Is that a good way to
(07:19):
train dogs? When you see someof the dogs that are you know,
on Animal Planet and things like that, Is that a way that you do
it? Are you are you afan of that kind of training technique?
Which, if you had to specify, what do you mean? Well,
yeah, I don't want to mentionparticular names. Yeah, I gotcha,
Okay, but you know some ofthe things that you see on television.
(07:40):
Do you see some of those andgo maybe that's not the best way to
Absolutely. Yeah. We actually hadAnimal Planet reach out to us many years
ago that think they wanted to doa trailer and a stuff with us,
and we just ended up not doingthat because when you bring in the media,
everything just changes because now I don'twant to tailor my self for the
(08:01):
camera. I want to tailor myselffor the dog and the people. So
if when you get these these celebritytrainers, they're doing it for the clicks,
right or doing it for the views, I don't ever want to be
like that. It's reality TV thatis not based in reality on all.
Right, So when somebody comes toPaw and Order, what are what are
(08:24):
some of the frequently asked questions thatyou get? What are some of the
problems that you see. I'd saywe get problems from across the board,
dogs jumping on people, like,well, my dog ever be able to
stop jumping on people when they comein, or running away going after other
dogs. My dog hates other people. What can I do? It's rare
(08:46):
that we find a dog that wecan't fix, but most people have tried
other things. We're not their firstdog trainer, and a lot of people
don't have that hope, So wehave to be able to build that hope.
I know we can help people.I know we can get them where
they need to be, as longas it's a team effort between the between
the dog trainer, the human andthe dog. And a lot of people
think they can just learn how totrain their dog through YouTube and you know
(09:11):
internet research. I did that aswell. I tried. I had dogs
all my life, and when Iwas living on my own and got my
first dog on my own, Ineeded help. I thought I could learn
everything I could. I've had dogs. I'm like, I can handle this
well. I was one of thosepeople that could not handle that. And
(09:31):
that's what actually led me to reachout to at the time through Rivers Dog
Training. So I messaged them,saw their website, and they got back
to me, gave me a quote, and I said, nope, I
just thought it was too expensive.So I went to somebody else and I
had them come to my townhouse atthe time and meet my dog. And
(09:56):
let's just say it didn't go well. I won't go into details, but
I they weren't going to be ableto fix my dog. So I had
to reflect and say, Okay,I got to call that expensive company.
So I call them, set upan evaluation with Alyssa here didn't know her
at the time, and she cameand met my dog. I hired her
as my dog trainer and we didabout four or five lessons together and then
(10:22):
well we ended up getting married.And I was going to say we got
married so fast. Oh Okay,I was like, Okay, it just
led to it's just call me misterobvious. But that's how you met.
That is how it is how wemet. Yeah, and that's really how
I guess pawn Order started because Iwas three Rivers and we rebranded and we
partnered together, so I was thesole owner of Three Rivers dog Training.
(10:45):
I met him and I was like, we are a perfect, perfect power
couple for this company. Let's let'sjust share this because I spent my career
in corporate America working in marketing,and I thought I was really happy,
had a good job. I thoughtI was happy, and then we took
this on and twelve dogs, chickens, cats. I can't imagine my life
(11:09):
any other way. Yeah, howmuch land do you guys? Twenty two
acres? Okay, I was gonnasay, so we've moved, we've we
started in just a regular house inRobinson. I was going to just holp
it. We have every two years. We live in a condo. We
have all these Yeah, we startedin the condo. My townhouse. So
we met in twenty fourteen and welived there until twenty fifteen. Early twenty
(11:33):
fifteen, moved to a really niceour forever home twenty fifteen, a beautiful
house in Robinson on a cul deSac neighborhood. Loved our neighbors. Everything
was great, and then we realizedfairly quickly, we're outgrowing this house.
Forerever home was just a little toosmall. I think we're like four dogs.
At the time, were like,oh my gosh, I think we
have a limit Robinson Township. Wehave to move. So let me ask
(11:58):
you a little bit about dog training. I've been a dog lover all my
life. I had Welsh Corgi's growingup, and I've had labs over the
last thirty years. And there's certainbreeds that are easier to train than others.
Yes, yes, and no.Because I can, I can bring
(12:18):
in a German Shepherd, and theirpersonalities can range from very very easy to
train and wants to please, versusvery protective and weary. Of all people,
I do get that asked a lotis even like, what's your favorite
breed to train? And I don'thave one. We have his shebi Enu
was one of the hardest dogs I'veever had a train, and none of
my mentors are the schoolings ever preparedme for what I had to deal with
(12:41):
with his dog's aggression. And he'sa shebino. So anybody listening that has
a sheba or nos a shep andknows what they're like. They're more like
cats. They're extremely smart and smarts, so intelligent. He's probably our smartest
dog. But he's stubborn, andhe was really stubborn back then. And
I won't even say so, Ihate the word stubborn. Yeah, so
I don't necessarily think there are stubborndogs, but I think there are ways
(13:03):
when you find that dog that youquote unquote say as stubborn, and it's
really like you haven't learned how tocommunicate with it properly. With that dog,
just like a person, you're likeboth stubborn, Yes, what's that
dog's love language? You know?What can we do to communicate and so
we can get both get what wewant or give me an example of a
maybe a really tough situation and thenkind of a source of pride that you
(13:26):
were able to figure out that youknow you know that that. Yeah,
so we both dog. No,no, no, Well, I am
very proud of Steve Stock. Butwe had one dog that came a trainer
recommended this client to us because itbit her. I think the dog was
only ten months old. It wasa border Collie, and she took the
dog for a board and trained.This was her fifth trainer, I want
(13:48):
to say, and bit her reallybad in the face. So they came
to me. This dog was absolutelyso fearful that the owners could even put
a leash on the dog, thedog would bite. We got the I
got a before video of me justtrying to like reach towards the dog to
put a leash on, and thedog tried to run away, defecated herself,
(14:13):
screamed like like that's terrified, andwe got to the point at the
end of her born train. We'vehad. We had her for a while,
six or seven weeks, I evenmaybe even eight weeks, because I
had to start with just building thatconfidence clicker training this dog, being comfortable
with her, allowing me to putequipment on her. She's a flight wrist
too. She's border crawling fast,and she wasn't great with other dogs,
(14:35):
and she was very fear for allof other people. If she didn't know
you. And we got to thepoint where and that owner picked her up.
I have it on video and theygo, she's not trying to kill
me, Like literally is like here. I even showed them. I was
like, try to put this gleashon, Hope the leash and they went,
oh, my gosh, it's different, different dog a muzzle. They
pulled the muzzle out of the dog, shoved her face and there was a
(14:56):
tails wagon and they're like, ohmy gosh, she didn't try to eat
me. And I'm like, yeah, this is your dog now, and
we I mean, this dog knewall the basic commands, was reliable on
and off leash at the end ofthis training. And that was all done
within two months. And that's along board train for us. We normally
do three four weeks for behavioral casecan be more than that. So tell
(15:18):
us about your team. So,how many employees do we have? Steve
love in total, Love in total? Most of that's for the Pawn Order
Pittsburgh location. I'm going to getto your other locations in the yes.
So my crew. I'm very proudof my crew. It's taken us a
long time to get like the perfectbalance of everyone. But my first trainers
(15:39):
were just clients, clients who haddogs that saw what we were doing and
believed in it. So you trainyour your employees the Elisa way. Yes,
so this is your way, myway, which changes constantly. So
we teach dog training schools now andso I have everything all out and about
(16:00):
of like, here's this issue,here's three hundred ways to solve it.
This doesn't work, try this,try this, try this. That has
just been evolving throughout the years,just like humans. There's one way of
learning and it will continue evolving.Sure. Now tell us now, you
are not only in Pittsburgh. Now, yes, how many other locations do
(16:22):
you have? We have nine totallocations, not including Pittsburgh, so ten
including us that started in twenty twenty. Company basically came to us shortly after
we rebranded to upawn Order. Andthey're a franchise maker, that's what they
do, and they go out andsearch for small businesses that they think will
(16:42):
make a good franchise. So theyreached out to us in twenty sixteen or
seventeen. We weren't ready. Wesaid, well, that's an interesting idea.
We never really thought about that,but we couldn't at the time,
and in twenty twenty they reached backout and we kind of looked at each
other and said, why not let'stry something new. That was never something
(17:02):
that I wanted to do either.So how many total locations do you have
now? Ten? Ten? Andhow many did you spawn in twenty twenty
oh, twenty twenty. Well,yeah, it was COVID time, Like
we just launched it. So we'relike, yeah, so we sold one
right away and then the next wherewas that location? That was north of
the Pittsburgh market. So we havewestern Pennsylvania totally covered from Erie all the
(17:26):
way down to Washington. And actuallythe majority of our franchises were sold to
people that we either knew already andhad a good relationship with, or somebody
that we you know, front ofa friend type of thing, somebody that
we trusted. We did get acouple that cold called us. Didn't cold
(17:48):
call us, but they saw wewere advertising for franchise opportunities and they would
reach out and we'd interview them.And the problem though, is I'm picky,
picky and proud, very proud ofwhat we have, so I have
stopped offering franchises past what we havealready because it is a craft and I
(18:08):
don't want to have to worry aboutthe quality when I'm too far away.
So again, they're doing it yourway, you want my way. They
have liberties to do it their ownway. They're pricing structure and all that.
But it's they've initially went through ourtraining and mentor program, which is
a very very very hard school.But the thing about her way of training
(18:30):
is it's not necessarily my way orthe highway type of deal because her way,
our way of training dogs is soopen it really is best for the
dog. You know. They thetrainers, whichever trainer it is, whether
it's Alyssa here or one of ourfranchises, they look at the dogs,
(18:52):
see what the issues is issues are, and they come up with a game
plan. It's not Okay, thisis the dog and this is what we
do for every dog. So andthat won't work. Some dogs don't react
to the same, you know,style of training. So while yes,
she teaches all our other trainers andfranchisees how to train dogs, it's an
(19:15):
open book, you know, there'sjust not one recipe for each dog.
So it's not like so it's notlike a McDonald's franchise where you know everything
is the same, you have toallow some sort of flexibility, especially when
it comes to dogs, because everydog is different. Yes, so I
(19:36):
get it now because when I wastalking about TV dogs and training, I'm
not a big fan of those theway they do it. To be honest
with you, I'm glad that weagree on that. So that's that's that's
that's encouraging. So are you opento more franchise, you know, opportunities
down the road. I don't thinkso. I think one of my big
(19:57):
goals is, you know, weI feel like we are a stable in
the dog training community at this pointwith me being the chair of the IICP,
the International Association of Canine Professionals,I'm the Therapy Dog Committee chair.
We've presenting at conferences last year,we've presented in Minneapolis. So I think
at this point I would prefer thatthe trainers that already have that hunger for
(20:21):
learning come to me, and thenI will teach them everything I can and
they can go and do what Idid and just then learn. Take what
you like for me, go doit your own way. There's enough trainers
or there's enough dogs out there foreverybody, and I want I would rather
see better dog trainers helping people.More dog trainers helping people then have to
(20:41):
worry about me branding them like,oh you are pawn Order if you come
to my schools. All right,So where's the where do you see the
future for pawn Order? Oh boy? So I am constantly, I would
say, getting bored, but alwaystrying to expand my expertise. So we
you know, we do behavior modsmodification for dogs that need it. We
(21:02):
do puppy turnkey puppy. We getthe dog from a breeder. You can't
do potty training that come to us. We do classes are We have our
board and train program, which isamazing. Nobody in the country has a
born train program like we do.But now I did narcotics training. So
I me and my dog Zerra,we did the unthinkable. We were the
(21:26):
first female handler and dog to wina national competition against police dog trainers that
I was told I would never beable to win. Why we wouldn't get
into that's Is it a female thing? Is it? Uh? Yeah,
yeah, I believe a little bit. But that'll be a topic for another
(21:47):
conversation. So I'm not doing thatanymore. That's bs, I'm not allowed
to compete anymore. Oh yeah,he's also not a police officer, so
some people thought that was unfair.The little blonde girl's beaten. All are
jealous. Now they're amazing. Ilove those guys. Are great. We
went every year until we want andkept doing really well. But that's okay,
(22:08):
So moving on. I now,since I got out of the detection
training, I still train some dogsfor detection for the I still do some
setwork for clients, so just somethings, some fun things for the dogs
to do, to sniff around youhave essential oils, or there's fun little
games where you can teach your dogto sniff out your glasses or your cell
(22:29):
phone, your keys, things thatyou're going to lose anyway. Just I'm
a more practical dog trainer than anythingelse. I'm not one that competes in
shuts in or anything like that.I'd rather have my dogs do all kinds
of fun tricks that are going tobenefit me, like go get something out
of the fridge, or go cleanthis up, clean up your toys.
So once she or our other trainerstrained the dogs, our clients are so
(22:52):
happy and that they love it.But they want to do more with their
dog at that point. So that'sanother cool thing you asked the very beginning.
What separates us? We have adventures. All our clients are invited to
join a private group where every weekendand sometimes during the week one of our
trainers, many of our trainers willhost these little get togethers for their clients
(23:17):
where they'll bring their dogs to atrail or a lake or a bar just
to get together with a bunch ofother dogs. And they're humans. People
have met friends that way, theymet good friends. I mean, our
company has brought a lot of peopletogether. We have we have we really
have well bonding you when you takethe dog to the dog park, it's
a bonding experience like, Hi,how are you, what's your name?
(23:38):
What's your dog's name? We reallywant to know about the dog. It's
like when you're on vacation and yousee somebody wearing a Steeler shirt. You
can just go right up to thembe like you're from Pittsburgh, so am
I you know? Or they're notFromguality you know if they're bringing the dog,
obviously you have exact the love ofdogs. And it's really cool because
everyone's been through some type of trainingwhich is similar. Everyone's training similar but
(24:00):
not exactly the same. So ifyou have a dog that you want to
keep that training going with other gooddogs or good people that are going to
be respectful of your dogs space,it's good to have the hundreds of people
all together at one time that wecan form those friendships with the dogs,
with the people that are lifelong.We do lifelong commitment with our clients,
(24:22):
so we want to make sure wefollow them from start to finish. So
what kind of community service do youguys do? So we work with the
Humane Society right now, every Wednesdayor Thursday, I take all of my
dogs, and most of them atleast I guess, not always all of
them, but we dog test allthe dogs that come in. The dogs
that are coming into the Humane Society, the one that I work with,
(24:44):
are usually coming from the streets oranimal control or surrender, so we don't
know their history. And the lastthing I want, or that the Humane
Society wants or anybody, is foryou to come in to adopt a dog.
You bring your dog in to domeet and great, Now there's dogfight.
Know ahead of time, what's thisdog's personality like you know, so
we can fit the people with theright dogs and even think that that would
(25:07):
be something that would be necessary.Nobody does that. Yes, And I
have so many different sizes of dogsand personalities, and my dogs are trained
to communicate with the other dogs.I want to know if that dog's being
rude and my oldest dog gives ajust a slight correction is not the right
word, but signals yeah that likeyou're being too much. Does that dog
back away? Does the dog takehe? Does it not? Does is
(25:30):
it over sensitive? Does it likedogs? Is it not like dogs?
Does it not like rude dogs?Is this better for a calm dog or
small like if you're going to pairthem up, or no animals at all?
You know, I'd rather just liabilityis huge. We don't want anybody
to get hurt. And the WashingtonArea Humane Society is on it. I
mean, they are very honest whenthey adopt the dogs out, and I
(25:52):
see almost every single dog before theyget adopted out to test. Do you
train just dogs? So I juststarted training animals for film and TV.
That's going to be a whole separatestart of the business. Where with getting
the website, Yeah, everything outup didn't mention this. Yeah, so
have you started? Have you hadany leads going into motion pictures? So
(26:12):
we just got back from about amonth a little over a month ago from
a training course in Indiana with JoelSilverman and Brian Renfro, which are amazing
dog trainers or animal trainers for filmand TV. So they are my mentors.
They taught me everything I need toknow, at least to get started.
And I know most of the thingsanyway, it's just as little nuances
(26:36):
when it comes to the directors andyou know this, who to talk to
the crew, where to station myselfand getting the dog. The dog's listen
to me. They'll listen to theirowners, but now I got to get
them to go listen to somebody else, an actor who is not going to
train with the dog. They're justgoing to act right way. For me,
I might be twenty thirty feet awayand I needed, without talking,
be able to get the dog tofollow through with a whole entire scene.
(27:00):
So who's your movie star? SoI brought Captain here. He was even
as a baby. I had thisfrom a year ago. I was like,
I want to do this with him. So he is learning all the
things, and he's just absolutely amazingand loves people. As you've met him,
Yeah, he's perfect. And mymallon was was well the narcotics dog.
(27:21):
So I'm retiring her and I'm goingto do movies with her or commercials.
The only bad thing is I needdoubles or triples of dogs usually for
movies and films really, just likeactors have doubles. Yes, yeah,
dog, Yeah, it's funny.So like German shepherds are really easy to
duplicate, but Captain's going to behard. So let me ask you about
(27:42):
captain. What what What are someof the things that Captain does that that
may appeal to a director or somebodytrying to casting a dog? Yes,
what kind of What's what's so specialabout Captain? So Captain first of all,
his look, yeah, he isright, he has his code,
is beautiful coat, different like thecolors in his coat, and he's just
(28:03):
striking. He's got this smile thatis just it warms your heart. He
is so smart, easy to please, food driven, and is just so
easy to work with. So whenI'm looking when people want to cast dogs
and dog trainers, the best thingyou can do for a director or anybody
(28:23):
producing a movie is saving them time. Time is money in the film world,
So I don't want them spending threehours trying to get this shot with
this dog and this trainer's not ableto get the shot. You know,
my dogs are going to be preppedto be able to do anything at any
time. What was some of thethings captain? Can he bark on command?
Yeah, so he's working on that. All my dogs do that,
(28:47):
so he might not do that oneright here. I brought other things to
do tricks, but I don't thinkhe'll do the bark. But maybe we'll
try a little bit. But hecan pick things up. He's holding things
in his mouth. I've taught himso like basically to act dead. He's
working on wounded. So he's goingto fall down and kick on his back,
legs on his side and die.He has to learn how to stop
(29:11):
his tail from yes here. Nowhe's learning to not be so happy when
he pretends to die. He's onlyone. He just turned one, probably
a week baby. Yeah, he'ssuch a baby, so much to learn.
He does probably does spin, yeah, yes, he's no. We've
(29:33):
done different things where I've set himup to come into scene, put his
back, paws on the couch,go around the couch, jump on it,
put his head down, look down, look sad, look happy,
walk slow, walk fast, goto different platforms, back up, yep.
So I needed to be able togo in different directions. Stop when
I tell him to look certain ways. So if I wanted to look left
or right because think about the shot, or the director wants him to walk
(29:56):
straight and then look over his shoulder, you know, so you can actually
say, what's the command to dothat? Or is that like some sort
of hand gesture or something. SoI usually will have two trainers, at
least when I'm working with a dogon film or commercials, where I might
send him out and then I'll havethe other trainer get the queue from around,
(30:17):
like looking a certain way. SoI have different people in order to
make this work. So it's ateam effort, like it's a lot.
It's so fun. Yeah, behindthe scenes, that is really cool.
Are you excited? Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. He is such
a pressure right now, is awI got to get a picture of this.
(30:38):
Look at that. That is socute. Oh my god, his
face, like he's just so cute. He's got these beautiful colors. Yeah,
all right, all right, thishas been an absolute pleasure, the
meeting you both, and you know, once again, congratulations on the greatest
name of any business I've ever interviewedand Order Dog Training. Thank you so
(31:02):
much for coming in. This hasbeen an absolute pleasure. If you want
more information, the website is pawand Order dot com. This has been
the CEOs you Should Know podcast,showcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy.
Part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communitieswe serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell,
thank you so much for listening.
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