March 18, 2025 • 19 mins
Jim and his wife Marilyn had been fostering and training dogs for many years before seeking professional advice for their business. SCORE Mentor Greg Bedel joins Jim on this episode of My Cincy Small Business Story to talk about the business, For Paws Canine Obedience Training.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello. My name is Michael Dawson, your host of Scores
My SINSI Small Business Stories. In this episode, I'll be
talking to Jim Davinni, owner of four Paul's K nine
Training and pet sitting company. Also, we have Greg Beadle
from Score. He's Jim's mentor. We'll find out more about that,
but first we'll be right back after this message.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Did you know twice as many small businesses survive past
five years when they have the support from a mentor.
My sincey small business story is brought to you by
the volunteer mentors of SCORE Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit organization
that helps launch hundreds of new small businesses and even
more jobs in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana every year.
Our vision is to give every person the support they
(00:46):
need to thrive as a small business owner. Visit score
dot org slash Greater Cincinnati to request a free business
mentor or share your own expertise. You can also listen
and subscribe for more stories about overcoming challenges, clearing obstacles,
and owning a successful small business.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Welcome, Jim and Greg. How you guys doing today? I'm
doing well?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Good good So, Jim, before we get into some of
the questions or specific about your business, why is it
important to have your dog trained and it make sure
that it's obedient? What are the what are the like
you know, positive reasons for doing that.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Well, there's so many dogs out there that aren't trained.
And as you'll walk along with your dog or if
you're just walking you know, in your neighborhood, whatever, on
a daily basis, you're gonna see dogs that are pullyed
and barking and maybe all fleash all together and running
up to you, running up to your dog, and those
things are pretty unacceptable in today's world, at least for
(01:47):
those people who have well behaved dogs. So we're looking
to really get the dogs to be well mannered, become
a family member, but a good family member. You know,
everybody at this point in time that has a pet,
whether it's a cat or a dog, or a ferret,
you can, whatever else might be parrot, you know, they
(02:08):
want to have them as part of their family. And
our goal is to get those dogs to be not
a be in so much, but at least trained to
the point where you know they'll listen, they won't yank
on a lead. They're not pulling you down on the ground,
they're not pulling you towards another dog or another human.
And that you can get them to sit, you can
(02:30):
get them to lie down, you.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Can get them to stay.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
You can do all those things outside, inside or wherever.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Very good. Yeah, I know how distress distressing it is
to be walking a dog and have another dog kind
of come up and sometimes aggressively, and it kind of
spooks your dog. And I think the training is very critical.
I hope more people take advantage of that. So tell
me how you got started in this business.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Sure, so years ago, I'm gonna say twenty five thirty
years ago, my wife was involved with rescue and she
did a lot of pets sitting I'm sorry, pet fostering,
excuse me, not sitting with fostering, and we ended up
with dogs at our home that would stay with us
for a week to a month or maybe two months.
(03:20):
My wife was really in charge of finding a forever
home for them. So I got involved with that just,
you know, naturally, because they were in our house. We
ended up with a lot of puppies. So we probably
over the years, had one hundred puppies come through our home.
And so I started working with them to house break them,
(03:41):
to get them to sit, to get them to wait
at the door, and do those kinds of things, and
I found out I was pretty good at it. And
along with that, I also found out that I could
communicate with dogs really well. So in our training, a
big part of it is body language, and I learned
that by doing this over a period of time, so
(04:03):
we don't use verbal.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Commands in the very beginning.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
We only use body language, so looking at the dog
from our eyes to their eyes and making sure that
we're communicating to them, because if you started inside your head,
it chosen your eyes or face and so on. Little
by little, I decided that over a period of time.
I was in the corporate world, by the way, and
I started doing the dog training part time. But that
(04:27):
was only after I mentored with an individual who was
already in the dog training for about fifteen years, and
he gave me the opportunity. Of course, I had to pain,
but he gave me to hang with him for about
eighteen months before I actually went out and started training
on my own, and that's how it all pretty much began,
(04:48):
and that was I started my business about sixteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So how did you get connected with Score? Good question.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I had a friend, actually it was a of someone
I worked with who was a mentor with Score at
one time, and he said to me, when I started
this business, he said, you ought to reach or after
I was in the business for the law, he said,
you ought to reach out to Score and see if
they might be a good fit. And so we talked
(05:18):
about it from time to time, but I never engaged.
And finally one day I said, I called him and
I said, do you know how I get in touch
with him? He said, just look it up online. I did.
I called built out the information online, sent it over
and they put me in touch with Greg.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So Greg, how has Jim's growth as an entrepreneur been.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think it's been excellent, Michael. Many of our in
business clients come to us because they don't need our
support to run their business because they're experts in it already.
They're really looking for as some perspective and difference of
ideas and the opportunity to share their thoughts with somebody
that's vested trying to help them but isn't in the
(05:59):
day to day business. So we hope that that's what
we've been providing for Jim. Our focus has been recently
on the financials and using those more effectively to grow
the business. But overall it's been a strategic discussion and
as with any business, a lot of personnel issues that
we got go over and try to help in that regard.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Also, how many years have you been working with him?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I believe we started late twenty two. Didn't we Jim.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Twenty two or twenty three? But it was October twenty
two or twenty three? I can't I saw it recently,
and then I can't remember what year.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It was twenty two because it was just after the pandemic.
I do remember.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So, Jim, someone comes to you and they would like
their puppy to be trained, walk me through how that works.
How long of a process is it? I guess it
would vary from animal to animal, but just kind of
a broad overview. If someone were to come to you,
what would process be? Sure?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
So, and I'll tell you it's it's not so much
animal to animal. It's as much as it is human
to human. We train the humans to train the dogs.
Seventy percent of what we do is training a human,
thirty percent is for the dog. And believe me, that
makes it a lot tougher. If we were just training dogs,
it'd be a lot easier. We love it though, don't
(07:23):
get me wrong. You know, I've been in the people
industry for a long time. I came out of corporate
sales and I was doing that part time along with
this before I actually started doing this full time. What
it looks like is this, you know, we'll have an
initial phone call. Our names out there. We get referrals
from other clients, from veterinarians, from our website, you know,
(07:46):
across the board, from a lot of different people. I
partner with a place called Alley's walk About, and Ally's
walk About refers me, and I refer them as well.
We do have a partnership, so but it's separate businesses.
Actually I'm on their property and I lease it from them,
and I have a building that I renovated on their property.
(08:06):
It's actually a barn, and so I'm blessed to really
have that facility. And it's four and a half acres
and we have dog park here as well, So there's
a lot going on that's exceptional. What it looks like
is this, someone will call and more than likely they'll
talk to me or one of my other trainers. Well,
(08:27):
I have a conversation, and my first question to them
is what are your goals for your pup or your dog?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
So we have a puppy culture which is for six
months and younger, and then we have a levels one, two, three,
and four. I can get into that in a little bit.
We're a little bit different than most trainers in most
organizations who trade dogs. But the main thing is is
I want to find out what their goals are. Why
do they get this dog? What they want to do
with the dog? Is just going to be a family dog?
(08:56):
Do they want it to be a therapy dog? Do
they want it to do so out and hike and
take it out on a lake or river or whatever.
And that's going to depend on the amount of training
along with how intense the training might be. We offer
a lot of different programs which might go from one
(09:17):
on one private sessions to classes to we do some
service dog training. Again, I certified therapy dogs and we
work with something called Canine Good Citizenship through get AKC.
So there's a number of different ways we can go.
We offer in our classes, we offer anywhere from sixteen
(09:39):
to ninety six sessions is a package that you can
buy and that's going to determine how far you really
want to think you want to go with your dog.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
We've been talking with Jim Davinni, owner of four Balls,
Knine Training and Pet Setting. So the last couple of
dogs we've had have been rescue dogs, generally trying to
give them, you know, a nice place later in life,
you know, to live it out, or older dogs trainable.
If someone does rescue a dog and it happens to
(10:12):
be not a puppy, can they be trained.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks. That's
entirely possible. I've had dogs that are ten years and
a little bit older. You know, if a dog gets
to be fourteen or sixteen years old, I might question
what they want to do or why they want to
do it, and if they come to us at that
point in time, it might be because the dogs reactive,
(10:35):
reactive or aggressive. You use the word aggressive earlier, and
I want to make sure that I clear the air
of this because there's a huge difference between a reactive
and an aggressive dog. Aggressive dogs are classified in five
different categories of a bite situation. You know, whether they're
air bodying or whether they make contact tells somebe that
(10:58):
contact is reactive. Dogs just want to get to you.
They might jump on you, they might scratch you accidentally.
They might even nip you accidentally, but they're not aggressive.
So those are two entirely different things.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
So what have been some of your challenges and opportunities
as you develop this business.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, well, I think my business is no different than
most small businesses. One of the largest hurdles I have
is hiring people. I've had a lot of people come
and try to work with us, a lot of young
people who didn't work out for one reason or another.
But the folks that I actually have working with me
(11:39):
tend to be a little bit older. Now I have
a gentleman with me right now that's about ready to
get out of the military, and he trained canine dogs
in the service, so he actually has his own He
was able to adopt his own door and has him
with him. But you know, that's a tough thing to
(11:59):
do for me, simply because I'll end up most of
the time with someone who doesn't have any experience in
dog training. So I developed the program for the dogs
for the humans for those people who want to train
with us to become an assistant trainer and then a
certified trainer. It takes twelve to eighteen months for that
(12:23):
to happen. They get some pay pay while they're doing this,
but at the same time that program is worth eight
to ten thousand dollars. We don't charge them a dime
for doing that, but there is a commitment on the
other end, so they have to sign a non compete
with us, and they have to stay with us for
two years, the year that is going to take them
(12:45):
become a trainer, and then the next year. We want
to get something out of our investment. So we don't
want somebody to just use us to go to another
facility or another trainer and work with them or start
their own business right away. We would support that toe,
but we certainly want to have some return on the
other end for the person to stay with us and
(13:06):
work with us for a while. It's a lot of effort,
a lot of time, and some expense too for us
to do that. Another thing is we are always looking
for different services making sure and as Greg Well knows,
you know, just keeping our expenses, knowing what our revenues
are what our costs are, and Greg's been great at
(13:27):
making those things happen for me and making me understand
how important all those things are. So that's you know,
like I said, like other small businesses, we've got the
same hurdles.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
So what is your market area, Jim?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
We are located in Kenton County and it's pretty centrally located.
We're in Erling or Kentucky, but we reach out to
Boone County to Campbell County. We even go into Hamilton County, Ohio,
and we pull from there. But most of our businesses
coming from like Fort Mitchell and Erlanger and Crescent Springs
(14:04):
and Covington and you know, all the areas directly around
us Crestview Hills.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Is the training always done at your site or do
you take some of the training back to the home
of the families that own the dog.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
We certainly go to the family's homes, and especially when
they are having issues with their dogs that have to
do with say resource guarding their house or resource guarding them,
we want to see that, we want to experience that
that will allow us to help them. So behavior modification
(14:40):
is huge in this business. There's not a lot of
folks who do it, and the only way you really
become good at it is with experience.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You could take.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
You can have all the webinars, seminars, you can read
all the books. You can do it whatever you want to.
As far as that's concerned, nothing substitutes for you know,
pure on a alternated experience. And so I've been doing
this for sixteen years. One of the things I've learned
is every dog, just like every human, is different. They
all have different personalities and dispositions, and reading the body
(15:13):
language of a dog is huge, and that's what we
try to train humans to do, is read their dog's
body language better than we can, and that will get
them further than anything else they can do as far
as working, having a bond with the dog, and getting the.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Dog to do what they wanted to. Yeah, my son
had a dog. They live out west, but you could
open the back door and everybody could leave and the
dog would sit there until he got the command that
it was okay for him to exit the house. I
always thought that was pretty amazing. I've got two dogs
that'll do the same thing. All of my dogs. I
(15:50):
opened the door and they were just out that's one off.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
That's one thing we work on in classes and one
to ones in your home and our facility. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Okay, I'm going to change the topic here just for
a moment. Greg, tell me a little bit about your
tenure with SCORE.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, I'm in my sixteenth year with SCORE. I left
the corporate world early and opened my own small business consulting,
and I've found this to be an amazing adventure meeting
a lot of interesting and people like Jim and others,
and it's been very fulfilling in that regard. I just
(16:29):
finished four years as a chairman of the chapter and
I'm looking forward using that time to spend more time
with clients.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Jim, just why don't you tell us how we can
find your business? Sure?
Speaker 4 (16:44):
So we you know our business, it's called for Paul's
K nine Training. We also as a subtitle is Expert
The letter K the number nine training dot com is
our website.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You can do.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You can get it through four polls or expert Knine
Training dot com. The phone numbers eight five nine, eight
oh two, six oh seven six, and of course we're
on Facebook and Twitter and.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Any any age dog would be welcome for training. Unless,
as you mentioned earlier, the dog was very old, and
you know, it may not be necessary at that point.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
I will tell you we get a lot of rescues
and shelter dogs and those dogs are usually a little
bit older when they when people adopt them, So we
try to prepare people ahead of time. And there's we
call it giving the dog too much attention or you know,
(17:45):
And what happens is we as humans when and especially
this is especially true with rescues. You know, they haven't
had anything, and normally we don't know their history. But
what takes place is they come into a home and
the first thing the humans want to do is they
feel sorry for them. So everybody gives them all this attention,
and before you know it, they're you know, they're resource guarding,
(18:07):
their separation, anxiety. There's a lot of negative things that
come as a result of that. And we don't want them,
not to treat them.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Like their puppies.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
But dogs come to us sixty to seventy percent of
the time, and if we give them attention every time
they come to us, they're going to expect it. And
then we're reading the book, or we're trying to work,
or we're trying to watch TV, whatever it might be.
There's they're palling you, they're jumping on you, they're licking you,
and they want that attention, so that that creates more
issues than anything else, any one other thing.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Jim, how about giving us that web address again and
your phone number? Sure?
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Our phone number is eight five nine, eight oh two
six oh seven six and the web addresses expert expe
er T the letter K the number nine training, tr
AI n I n G dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Are you on social media as well?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We are?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You want to give us where we can find you there?
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yeah, so's it's just Facebook dot com at Expert Knine Training.
So it's e x P e r T the letter
K number nine training.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
We've been talking today with Jim Devinni, owner of four
Paul's Knine Training and Pet Sitting, along with Greg Beetle
from SCORE. Thank you both very much for being on
the program today. As always, if you would like to
sign up with a mentor or would like to become
a mentor, go to score dot org and click on
(19:45):
the appropriate link. Please subscribe to this podcast, share the link.
Thank you for listening
Hello. My name is Michael Dawson, your host of Scores
My SINSI Small Business Stories. In this episode, I'll be
talking to Jim Davinni, owner of four Paul's K nine
Training and pet sitting company. Also, we have Greg Beadle
from Score. He's Jim's mentor. We'll find out more about that,
but first we'll be right back after this message.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Did you know twice as many small businesses survive past
five years when they have the support from a mentor.
My sincey small business story is brought to you by
the volunteer mentors of SCORE Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit organization
that helps launch hundreds of new small businesses and even
more jobs in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana every year.
Our vision is to give every person the support they
(00:46):
need to thrive as a small business owner. Visit score
dot org slash Greater Cincinnati to request a free business
mentor or share your own expertise. You can also listen
and subscribe for more stories about overcoming challenges, clearing obstacles,
and owning a successful small business.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Welcome, Jim and Greg. How you guys doing today? I'm
doing well?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Good good So, Jim, before we get into some of
the questions or specific about your business, why is it
important to have your dog trained and it make sure
that it's obedient? What are the what are the like
you know, positive reasons for doing that.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Well, there's so many dogs out there that aren't trained.
And as you'll walk along with your dog or if
you're just walking you know, in your neighborhood, whatever, on
a daily basis, you're gonna see dogs that are pullyed
and barking and maybe all fleash all together and running
up to you, running up to your dog, and those
things are pretty unacceptable in today's world, at least for
(01:47):
those people who have well behaved dogs. So we're looking
to really get the dogs to be well mannered, become
a family member, but a good family member. You know,
everybody at this point in time that has a pet,
whether it's a cat or a dog, or a ferret,
you can, whatever else might be parrot, you know, they
(02:08):
want to have them as part of their family. And
our goal is to get those dogs to be not
a be in so much, but at least trained to
the point where you know they'll listen, they won't yank
on a lead. They're not pulling you down on the ground,
they're not pulling you towards another dog or another human.
And that you can get them to sit, you can
(02:30):
get them to lie down, you.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Can get them to stay.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
You can do all those things outside, inside or wherever.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Very good. Yeah, I know how distress distressing it is
to be walking a dog and have another dog kind
of come up and sometimes aggressively, and it kind of
spooks your dog. And I think the training is very critical.
I hope more people take advantage of that. So tell
me how you got started in this business.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Sure, so years ago, I'm gonna say twenty five thirty
years ago, my wife was involved with rescue and she
did a lot of pets sitting I'm sorry, pet fostering,
excuse me, not sitting with fostering, and we ended up
with dogs at our home that would stay with us
for a week to a month or maybe two months.
(03:20):
My wife was really in charge of finding a forever
home for them. So I got involved with that just,
you know, naturally, because they were in our house. We
ended up with a lot of puppies. So we probably
over the years, had one hundred puppies come through our home.
And so I started working with them to house break them,
(03:41):
to get them to sit, to get them to wait
at the door, and do those kinds of things, and
I found out I was pretty good at it. And
along with that, I also found out that I could
communicate with dogs really well. So in our training, a
big part of it is body language, and I learned
that by doing this over a period of time, so
(04:03):
we don't use verbal.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Commands in the very beginning.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
We only use body language, so looking at the dog
from our eyes to their eyes and making sure that
we're communicating to them, because if you started inside your head,
it chosen your eyes or face and so on. Little
by little, I decided that over a period of time.
I was in the corporate world, by the way, and
I started doing the dog training part time. But that
(04:27):
was only after I mentored with an individual who was
already in the dog training for about fifteen years, and
he gave me the opportunity. Of course, I had to pain,
but he gave me to hang with him for about
eighteen months before I actually went out and started training
on my own, and that's how it all pretty much began,
(04:48):
and that was I started my business about sixteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So how did you get connected with Score? Good question.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I had a friend, actually it was a of someone
I worked with who was a mentor with Score at
one time, and he said to me, when I started
this business, he said, you ought to reach or after
I was in the business for the law, he said,
you ought to reach out to Score and see if
they might be a good fit. And so we talked
(05:18):
about it from time to time, but I never engaged.
And finally one day I said, I called him and
I said, do you know how I get in touch
with him? He said, just look it up online. I did.
I called built out the information online, sent it over
and they put me in touch with Greg.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So Greg, how has Jim's growth as an entrepreneur been.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think it's been excellent, Michael. Many of our in
business clients come to us because they don't need our
support to run their business because they're experts in it already.
They're really looking for as some perspective and difference of
ideas and the opportunity to share their thoughts with somebody
that's vested trying to help them but isn't in the
(05:59):
day to day business. So we hope that that's what
we've been providing for Jim. Our focus has been recently
on the financials and using those more effectively to grow
the business. But overall it's been a strategic discussion and
as with any business, a lot of personnel issues that
we got go over and try to help in that regard.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Also, how many years have you been working with him?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I believe we started late twenty two. Didn't we Jim.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Twenty two or twenty three? But it was October twenty
two or twenty three? I can't I saw it recently,
and then I can't remember what year.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It was twenty two because it was just after the pandemic.
I do remember.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So, Jim, someone comes to you and they would like
their puppy to be trained, walk me through how that works.
How long of a process is it? I guess it
would vary from animal to animal, but just kind of
a broad overview. If someone were to come to you,
what would process be? Sure?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
So, and I'll tell you it's it's not so much
animal to animal. It's as much as it is human
to human. We train the humans to train the dogs.
Seventy percent of what we do is training a human,
thirty percent is for the dog. And believe me, that
makes it a lot tougher. If we were just training dogs,
it'd be a lot easier. We love it though, don't
(07:23):
get me wrong. You know, I've been in the people
industry for a long time. I came out of corporate
sales and I was doing that part time along with
this before I actually started doing this full time. What
it looks like is this, you know, we'll have an
initial phone call. Our names out there. We get referrals
from other clients, from veterinarians, from our website, you know,
(07:46):
across the board, from a lot of different people. I
partner with a place called Alley's walk About, and Ally's
walk About refers me, and I refer them as well.
We do have a partnership, so but it's separate businesses.
Actually I'm on their property and I lease it from them,
and I have a building that I renovated on their property.
(08:06):
It's actually a barn, and so I'm blessed to really
have that facility. And it's four and a half acres
and we have dog park here as well, So there's
a lot going on that's exceptional. What it looks like
is this, someone will call and more than likely they'll
talk to me or one of my other trainers. Well,
(08:27):
I have a conversation, and my first question to them
is what are your goals for your pup or your dog?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
So we have a puppy culture which is for six
months and younger, and then we have a levels one, two, three,
and four. I can get into that in a little bit.
We're a little bit different than most trainers in most
organizations who trade dogs. But the main thing is is
I want to find out what their goals are. Why
do they get this dog? What they want to do
with the dog? Is just going to be a family dog?
(08:56):
Do they want it to be a therapy dog? Do
they want it to do so out and hike and
take it out on a lake or river or whatever.
And that's going to depend on the amount of training
along with how intense the training might be. We offer
a lot of different programs which might go from one
(09:17):
on one private sessions to classes to we do some
service dog training. Again, I certified therapy dogs and we
work with something called Canine Good Citizenship through get AKC.
So there's a number of different ways we can go.
We offer in our classes, we offer anywhere from sixteen
(09:39):
to ninety six sessions is a package that you can
buy and that's going to determine how far you really
want to think you want to go with your dog.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
We've been talking with Jim Davinni, owner of four Balls,
Knine Training and Pet Setting. So the last couple of
dogs we've had have been rescue dogs, generally trying to
give them, you know, a nice place later in life,
you know, to live it out, or older dogs trainable.
If someone does rescue a dog and it happens to
(10:12):
be not a puppy, can they be trained.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks. That's
entirely possible. I've had dogs that are ten years and
a little bit older. You know, if a dog gets
to be fourteen or sixteen years old, I might question
what they want to do or why they want to
do it, and if they come to us at that
point in time, it might be because the dogs reactive,
(10:35):
reactive or aggressive. You use the word aggressive earlier, and
I want to make sure that I clear the air
of this because there's a huge difference between a reactive
and an aggressive dog. Aggressive dogs are classified in five
different categories of a bite situation. You know, whether they're
air bodying or whether they make contact tells somebe that
(10:58):
contact is reactive. Dogs just want to get to you.
They might jump on you, they might scratch you accidentally.
They might even nip you accidentally, but they're not aggressive.
So those are two entirely different things.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
So what have been some of your challenges and opportunities
as you develop this business.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, well, I think my business is no different than
most small businesses. One of the largest hurdles I have
is hiring people. I've had a lot of people come
and try to work with us, a lot of young
people who didn't work out for one reason or another.
But the folks that I actually have working with me
(11:39):
tend to be a little bit older. Now I have
a gentleman with me right now that's about ready to
get out of the military, and he trained canine dogs
in the service, so he actually has his own He
was able to adopt his own door and has him
with him. But you know, that's a tough thing to
(11:59):
do for me, simply because I'll end up most of
the time with someone who doesn't have any experience in
dog training. So I developed the program for the dogs
for the humans for those people who want to train
with us to become an assistant trainer and then a
certified trainer. It takes twelve to eighteen months for that
(12:23):
to happen. They get some pay pay while they're doing this,
but at the same time that program is worth eight
to ten thousand dollars. We don't charge them a dime
for doing that, but there is a commitment on the
other end, so they have to sign a non compete
with us, and they have to stay with us for
two years, the year that is going to take them
(12:45):
become a trainer, and then the next year. We want
to get something out of our investment. So we don't
want somebody to just use us to go to another
facility or another trainer and work with them or start
their own business right away. We would support that toe,
but we certainly want to have some return on the
other end for the person to stay with us and
(13:06):
work with us for a while. It's a lot of effort,
a lot of time, and some expense too for us
to do that. Another thing is we are always looking
for different services making sure and as Greg Well knows,
you know, just keeping our expenses, knowing what our revenues
are what our costs are, and Greg's been great at
(13:27):
making those things happen for me and making me understand
how important all those things are. So that's you know,
like I said, like other small businesses, we've got the
same hurdles.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
So what is your market area, Jim?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
We are located in Kenton County and it's pretty centrally located.
We're in Erling or Kentucky, but we reach out to
Boone County to Campbell County. We even go into Hamilton County, Ohio,
and we pull from there. But most of our businesses
coming from like Fort Mitchell and Erlanger and Crescent Springs
(14:04):
and Covington and you know, all the areas directly around
us Crestview Hills.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Is the training always done at your site or do
you take some of the training back to the home
of the families that own the dog.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
We certainly go to the family's homes, and especially when
they are having issues with their dogs that have to
do with say resource guarding their house or resource guarding them,
we want to see that, we want to experience that
that will allow us to help them. So behavior modification
(14:40):
is huge in this business. There's not a lot of
folks who do it, and the only way you really
become good at it is with experience.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You could take.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
You can have all the webinars, seminars, you can read
all the books. You can do it whatever you want to.
As far as that's concerned, nothing substitutes for you know,
pure on a alternated experience. And so I've been doing
this for sixteen years. One of the things I've learned
is every dog, just like every human, is different. They
all have different personalities and dispositions, and reading the body
(15:13):
language of a dog is huge, and that's what we
try to train humans to do, is read their dog's
body language better than we can, and that will get
them further than anything else they can do as far
as working, having a bond with the dog, and getting the.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Dog to do what they wanted to. Yeah, my son
had a dog. They live out west, but you could
open the back door and everybody could leave and the
dog would sit there until he got the command that
it was okay for him to exit the house. I
always thought that was pretty amazing. I've got two dogs
that'll do the same thing. All of my dogs. I
(15:50):
opened the door and they were just out that's one off.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
That's one thing we work on in classes and one
to ones in your home and our facility. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Okay, I'm going to change the topic here just for
a moment. Greg, tell me a little bit about your
tenure with SCORE.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, I'm in my sixteenth year with SCORE. I left
the corporate world early and opened my own small business consulting,
and I've found this to be an amazing adventure meeting
a lot of interesting and people like Jim and others,
and it's been very fulfilling in that regard. I just
(16:29):
finished four years as a chairman of the chapter and
I'm looking forward using that time to spend more time
with clients.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Jim, just why don't you tell us how we can
find your business? Sure?
Speaker 4 (16:44):
So we you know our business, it's called for Paul's
K nine Training. We also as a subtitle is Expert
The letter K the number nine training dot com is
our website.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You can do.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You can get it through four polls or expert Knine
Training dot com. The phone numbers eight five nine, eight
oh two, six oh seven six, and of course we're
on Facebook and Twitter and.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Any any age dog would be welcome for training. Unless,
as you mentioned earlier, the dog was very old, and
you know, it may not be necessary at that point.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
I will tell you we get a lot of rescues
and shelter dogs and those dogs are usually a little
bit older when they when people adopt them, So we
try to prepare people ahead of time. And there's we
call it giving the dog too much attention or you know,
(17:45):
And what happens is we as humans when and especially
this is especially true with rescues. You know, they haven't
had anything, and normally we don't know their history. But
what takes place is they come into a home and
the first thing the humans want to do is they
feel sorry for them. So everybody gives them all this attention,
and before you know it, they're you know, they're resource guarding,
(18:07):
their separation, anxiety. There's a lot of negative things that
come as a result of that. And we don't want them,
not to treat them.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Like their puppies.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
But dogs come to us sixty to seventy percent of
the time, and if we give them attention every time
they come to us, they're going to expect it. And
then we're reading the book, or we're trying to work,
or we're trying to watch TV, whatever it might be.
There's they're palling you, they're jumping on you, they're licking you,
and they want that attention, so that that creates more
issues than anything else, any one other thing.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Jim, how about giving us that web address again and
your phone number? Sure?
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Our phone number is eight five nine, eight oh two
six oh seven six and the web addresses expert expe
er T the letter K the number nine training, tr
AI n I n G dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Are you on social media as well?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We are?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You want to give us where we can find you there?
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yeah, so's it's just Facebook dot com at Expert Knine Training.
So it's e x P e r T the letter
K number nine training.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
We've been talking today with Jim Devinni, owner of four
Paul's Knine Training and Pet Sitting, along with Greg Beetle
from SCORE. Thank you both very much for being on
the program today. As always, if you would like to
sign up with a mentor or would like to become
a mentor, go to score dot org and click on
(19:45):
the appropriate link. Please subscribe to this podcast, share the link.
Thank you for listening
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