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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
Prepping for The Fight: A Chat With Mike Jones of Primal Canine
In this week's episode, I'm joined by the one and only, Mike Jones, Owner of Primal Canine in Gilroy California. We sit down to chat about his upcoming event, The Fight, how he got his start in the dog training industry, and what's next for his company. From his charity events to setting new standards for the dog sports, Mike is leading the way for community and connection in what can sometimes be a cutthroat space.
This one is a special one, as Mike has been on my dream guest list for quite some time and getting the chance to chat with someone as experienced in this industry as him is pretty freaking sweet. You know the drill, grab yourself a tasty drink, chill out, and enjoy.
The Everyday Trainer
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Primal Canine
Website: http://www.primalcanine.com/
K9 Street League: https://www.k9streetleague.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primalcanine/
Hello and welcome back to the Everyday Trainer podcast. My name is Meg and I am a dog trainer. Today's episode is very special. I'm joined by the Mike Jones. He's sitting down and talking with me about a few events he's got going on and, of course, I'm going to pick his brain about all things dog training. So you know the drill grab yourself a tasty drink and meet us back here, Mike welcome.
Speaker 2:What's up? What's going on?
Speaker 1:So, first things first, thank you so much for joining me. You, I'll try to keep my cool, but you are one of the people that has been on my list of wanting to get you on my podcast for a while, so I've been playing the long game here, so I'm super happy that you're sitting down and talking with me today.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you having me on. You know definitely appreciate what you've done, like you put on Chris on and everything like that and watching your stuff. You know it's awesome to see. I even like saw you working with that little like a Doberman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the little Doberman puppy that I have, the little.
Speaker 2:Doberman puppy. I was like damn, she looks good doing her stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:That was great. No, I love it. I love seeing that stuff. I love seeing you know, people like yourself be successful and everything that you guys are doing, especially with you know the podcast and social media and everything like that too. And then you know and having the you know same thing in training too. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah for sure. So that's actually how we got in touch is I started working with Chris down here in Orlando? So Chris is actually one of your trainers, and how long has he been out here? Like, how long have you branched out into this area? East Coast.
Speaker 2:So with Chris, I met him three, three and a half years ago. I know it had to be three and a half years, probably three years ago when we first did our first cert and, like for me, I've been doing this for so long, I can kind of like read people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like right away, and see, like, okay, like I mean, because, like that's the same thing with dogs, right, you learn how to read a dog, yeah, and when you deal with clients, so much you learn how to read a client or like, can I feel where their vibes are, so right away. When I met Chris, I kind of had like my high apple for him a little bit and I just, you know, can you say, like you know, I played a kind of like the slow game with him, yeah, trying to see like where he was at, involve him a little more here and there, do things like that, you know. And then finally, I would say about six months ago, earlier this year, he mentioned that he might want to do something for him. I'm looking at it out there. So I had to make sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, we talked, we did a bunch of preliminary conversations. I purposely and Chris doesn't know this but like, since I don't sleep in the morning, I don't, I don't, I don't, I wake up like at 3.30, 3 o'clock every morning, like that's just like clockwise, and I call him every morning to see if you'll pick up. That's kind of fucked up, dude, like love me because, like you know, like the thing too is like if I put my name like on here, like you know I got to make sure that you're you're willing to do the same work, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know this will be the first one Chris hears this, it'll be like, oh damn, this is crazy. Sorry, I can't cut it on the same.
Speaker 1:But, like you know, it'll be like one of those things where like it'll be like I'll be like running or whatever like that.
Speaker 2:Or like when I wasn't injured, I'll be like running in the morning. I just call him like super early to see like what he's doing, cause I know like I'm up a little earlier, so like I do that to a lot of people that you know that I'm in business with, and just to see like where they're at. Cause you know, I got to make sure, like, if you're running with me, like you got to, you got to be running with me, you know the same speed, cause I'm going to invest in all the stuff that I've built and I would make sure you're on the same page.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, I have learned that lesson the hard way, my thing, is.
Speaker 1:I make people put together place cuts and or you know, just like random things like that and watch how frustrated they get and if they can like work through that frustration, that's literally like my interview process is like go put that place caught together and come back to me in 20 minutes, let me know how you're feeling. But yeah, chris is definitely one of those people. Like the first time I met him I was like wow, he's literally the best. Like he's just pure hearted, like awesome guy.
Speaker 1:I was very hesitant to work with anybody around here because I don't know, you know how like the dog sport world can be. It's like so clicky and everybody's like like I tried to join like an IGP club and they wanted us to go mow the lawns and I was like I'll pay somebody to mow the lawn but like I don't want to go mow the lawn. Yeah, but it was just kind of one of those things where they're like well, you have to like put in the time and the work if you want to be a part of this. So I was a little bit skeptical and one of my trainers, marcella, was actually like no, you got to meet him. He's so nice. Like he coached me through everything. He's like 30 minutes away, like it's perfect, like this was literally meant to be, and I was like okay, okay, and we ended up having him over and he's just like such a nice guy, like you definitely picked a good one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's my little baby face assassin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he does. He does have a baby face.
Speaker 2:Kind of like the angry baby when he gets big yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:He makes that face. So we actually have a graphic that she's working on that will be for Chris will put a little signs on him when he's out there on the street, leak filled, Just be, you know, with a little sign like it was all angry face when he gets bit by a dog because he's making a bunch of those faces. My dogs are buying them.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's great Good hazing. I kind of want to get into your story, like how long have you had your business? How long have you been doing this? How'd you get started? I know last time we talked you mentioned a little bit about how you got your start in rescues, because I was like, hey, you got to watch what you say. My dog mommies are going to come for you. And you're like no, I got this Like you're the big tough guy now, but you kind of got your start in rescues right.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I'm a softy man, I'm like I just I just looked tough. You know, I'm not even allowed to say I looked tough, I just speak like this and I have face tattoos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know I started. That's real you need, though.
Speaker 2:No, I just scares people away, especially out here in Cali. No, so I started. I got in trouble when I was. I was, I grew up in a troubled area. So I grew up in East Side San Jose. Me and my mom lived, you know, lived together in like a basically like a one bedroom place with like a bunch of trouble stuff going on, uh with her family, and then I got in a lot of trouble just with fighting and everything too.
Speaker 2:So one of a, I had to do community service and my community service was I got a, I got a chance or an option to go into the shelter. So I went to the shelter and I can't remember this lady's name, Uh, like for the life of me, and I've been trying to for like my whole entire life trying to remember who this person is, cause I really want to reconnect with her. Uh, but she basically taught me, like you know, positive reinforcement with uh, all the shelter dogs and this is like in San Jose. So in San Jose it's like Pipples and Chihuahuas, you know it's, it's pretty much what that was. So, like I was literally once I learned kind of like the marker system and, like you know, rewarding and like doing all that stuff.
Speaker 2:I kind of got stuck in that realm for a while, Like I was just kind of obsessed with it. So like being at my house, I never wanted to be inside of my house cause all inside of my house there was drama and everything. So I was literally just either on the streets with my friends trying to make friends with a dogs that wouldn't try to murder me, or run away from the ones that did want to murder me, Cause on the East side, like you, just had a bunch of like front yard dogs with no gates and everyone's going crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like you know, that's kind of like what I was doing for a while. Uh, I got into a professional boxing or boxing and it kind of my life kind of changed a little bit. And then when I got into a little more trouble, once I got out of that trouble I met up with a guy named Terry Macias. Terry Macias is. At the time the sport was called Schussend. Uh, now it's like IGP or IPO, I don't know like three, whatever they're calling it now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I call it IGP, but I get corrected all the time so I have no idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't even know American Schussend. There's like a whole bunch of crap that they're doing now. So I remember, like the first day I went to the San Jose German Shepherd Club, filled with training in completely positive enforcement only, and then going to, this is I'm 39. So 17, 18 years ago. You can imagine what the climate was when it comes to how they were training back then. Yeah, uh, the term yanking crank is a. It's vastly different. So going from like yes, clicker training markers to pop, pop, pop on a leash, dogs bite, even going crazy, and like I'm looking over, like I'm like well shit, like all right this is very different, yeah.
Speaker 2:This is, and I couldn't put my pits on the field because it was all German shepherds, so like I had people's at the time and then freaking, it was like a bunch of different things. So, like you know, it was like kind of a very different cultural difference. And then they used me for helper work because of my athleticism and fighting. So I would do that and like I was just watching a bunch of things and I remember leaving the first, like first time I was on that, that club filled. I told us to Terry and I was like all right, sat in my car and I was just like what, oh what? The what in the? What the fuck did I just watch right now, like is this, is this legal? Cause? I'd never seen anything like that.
Speaker 2:You know I didn't even read a. You know I was in a big you know reading books or watching everything like that. And then after that I started like diving deeper into what they were doing and understanding, like you know, different types of dogs have different genetics, you know if the work them differently, or anything like that. So I started really like I kind of beat out on it for a long time and that was the early twenties. And then I kind of, you know, life took its place.
Speaker 2:I kind of went into back into fighting and doing everything and then around, like you know, 28, I was like, do as I had, I don't want to do like the normal job anymore. Like I was like, you know, I kind of was just like done with it and I wanted to do dog training as like a national full thing. So I just dived into it and started permulcating. And you know, as we've grown, you know now we're here, you know I'm pretty transparent online. So kind of what you see online is essentially what you get in person. I just may have a little more. A little more of that dry humor in person, a little not so funny dad jokes in front of you and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:But I mean it's been, it's been a journey. I mean I've been doing this for you know quite some time and I've learned a lot. You know, from not even just the business side of dog training, but people side, the dog side, I've learned. I've learned quite a bit.
Speaker 1:So how long have you had primal K94?
Speaker 2:We're a little over 10 years. We just celebrated our first 10 year anniversary.
Speaker 1:Nice congrats. That's like very impressive, especially in this industry. Like it is, it's no joke.
Speaker 2:It's crazy. I mean I will say this. I mean, like, of all the things I've been involved with dog training and owning this business for this long and creating a brand and building from what we built with you know, like I mean, shoot, five years ago, you know, my wife and I we were sleeping in a one bedroom apartment. You know going, you know do it like basically trying to like make sure we're like be able to pay everybody else and not pay ourselves, and do those things as you go through those ebbs and flows and, like you know we talked about before, like sometimes you have to clear house with employees. You know to where we're at now.
Speaker 2:But I mean persistence and consistency. Persistence and inconsistency is what makes the difference in the dog training world. And I think, like I've talked to, I do a lot of like mentorship programs, like I talked to a lot of people and I always tell them all the time I'm like it's like the biggest thing you can have is not, don't fool yourself, dog training is 24, seven, it's always, and that's just what the dog that's, not even being a business owner.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because being a business owner is a whole different game.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's another full time job. That's that's personally. That's like my my favorite side of things. I really like the the business side of things. I like working with owners and I like I like having a team that I get to like coach and teach them how to be like functioning humans and functioning members of society. You know, like that's pretty sweet that you have like a team of people that look up to you, you know, and look to you for guidance, like that's. That's kind of a cool thing.
Speaker 2:It's, it's cool. I mean it's cool, and then it's it's also like a lot of weight to bear.
Speaker 1:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 2:You know it's, it's a lot of. It's something that I, we talked we have this other podcast with that I do called like the table, and then we like, we talk about a lot of that stuff, being an entrepreneur and everything like that. So it's different. Like you never know until you know. And then once you know, it's like all right, like damn. Like you know you're responsible for everybody else's stuff too. I mean, you can go ahead and be, you know, I don't want to say bad, but you can be a worker, being a worker, be stuff sometimes you know. But then when you're the one that's kind of pulling and leaving the way, that's a whole different category of stress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you have a whole team of people that you have to take care of. Like for me, I can live off of the bare minimum, you know. But I'm like I have all of these people who rely on me. Like it's a huge pressure all the time and it never lets up. Like if you're the business owner, like everything falls on you the responsibility of getting everybody paid, making sure everybody is happy, making sure dogs are getting taken care of, clients are getting taken care of. Like there's just so much that goes into it that I feel like a lot of people really have no idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean I talked to a KD Matthews. We do drinks and dogs together. We talk a bunch about it and like you know, it's always like you know it's a whole. Dog training is in. Dog training, you know it's a whole different thing. And when you're at the, when you're essentially the leader of the pack, you know then you've got a whole other gamut of responsibilities and you know a lot of weight to pull on that set and you know, in that sense, yeah, If you could go back and do anything differently, like since starting your business.
Speaker 1:what's like one thing that you would change?
Speaker 2:Nothing.
Speaker 1:Okay, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2:I mean, we've gone through quite a bit of craziness, like with our business and, like you know, we have lost multiple facilities due to county rules and even, like one time we got this spot in a space called Campbell, a city called Campbell, and it was a. It was going to be an amazing place. I had, like there's a front room of like three different training rooms. I had a house in there. So I can cause I was basically what I'm doing now with the trainer school, like people can live there. There's a kitchen, a living room, a whole giant yard general area and it's funny, we basically painted the building black, put our signs up, I pulled up. I mean I drive like. I drive like at that time I had like a black Mercedes Benz. So like I drove in, walked out with my pit bulls, went in, checked the facility, went back out, went back to you know, our place.
Speaker 2:We lived Willow Glen, and then I got a call from a Sergeant Jenkins, who's a long time friend of mine, from you know the animal shelter. That sounds like hey, you're already in complaints. He's saying there's dogs barking over there and, like you know, like you're cussing at dogs or whatever. I'm like I was at Jenkins, I was like there's no dogs there. I was like literally just painted the building black and I worked a couple of my dogs like what you know what one of my apprentices is and then we left and then from that point on we just got kind of like not necessarily hazed, but like we got, like you know, picked on a little bit over there in that in that area, cause they we went to actually we went to court for that and then they went to said and like oh yeah, we were diminishing the property value and all this other stuff.
Speaker 1:So they were just bullying you, trying to like get you out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, like you know, I can't really blame them. You know Campbell's, like you know a very like posh neighborhood, and then I don't mean I don't know who's going to see me on this one. But you know I'm a fairly heavily tattooed large guy that would like face tattoos and you know essentially what most people think I'm a drug dealer or something like that. Like silly thing I'm doing. Some dumb like dumb shit or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, but what I was doing at that point, the reason why I got that facilities, cause I used to have a foundation called the Free Dogs Foundation and what I was doing was I was pulling youth cases and then I was rehabilitating them and then adopting them out to proper homes, you know. So I was doing that going back to, like my you know shelter rescue side. You know we were actually. We were actually rescuing dogs from euthanization and I brought that up and you know we went to our litigation of the court and then talked about that but like they didn't really care, they just cared about how it looked and you know the presentation of what was going on. So we lost that facility and then we went to actual Morgan Hill, which is another city a little further north than we are in Gilroy right now, and we went there.
Speaker 2:People started acting funny and we they actually the city rezoned that whole area because of us and they kicked us, they kicked us out. So then we ended up in Gilroy and then Gilroy is a bit I mean, I mean I think after Gilroy they're, you know, they've been super supportive of us. You know they've been awesome, like the whole tire, like city's been really cool. So I mean, I guess the whole thing I wouldn't necessarily, I wouldn't change anything, just because the things that have happened in the past has made it to where we're at today.
Speaker 2:You know it's. You know I'm someone that kind of thrives off of, like you know, pressure, like you put the pressure on and like I'm gonna put the pressure back. You know paying this fuel to me. So I wouldn't necessarily like, I'd like for it not to be as rough as it was, but I mean I can't complain.
Speaker 1:It made you who you are today. It made your business what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we got a bunch of stuff going on Street League, K9 University, carpe Omnia, primal K9, primal K9 Florida. I mean all the stuff we're doing with the fight and everything we got going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got so much going on, so let's talk a little bit about that. You have an event coming up.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So September 9th and 10th we're doing what's called the fight, where we're teaching people how to defend themselves with their dogs. And for those who don't know, I've been training, I've been fighting since I was 16, in professional boxing Jiu Jitsu for the last 16 years mixed martial arts, around that same timeframe and I've been working with Leo Polto-Sarao, who's been a longtime friend and like mentor and coach to me, even though he's a bit of an asshole. I love you, leo, don't be mad at me, no, so you know, we have this longtime relationship and I've been kind of figuring out like how to incorporate, you know, the martial arts into into, like, the dog protection world.
Speaker 2:So a lot of times people think like, oh hey, we're just going to send the dog, but what happens to that dog? You know, like what are we? How are we going to save that dog? We can't just put all this time and, you know, energy and relationship into this dog and then send the dog and like what's the point? You know we're just sending them to its death, or you know, whatever it may be Right. So essentially what we're doing is, well, me and Aaron, like my wife, we've been doing this for like the longest time and you know we started in the pandemic where we were like basically working grappling skills and like I was teaching her the stuff that I knew and like working some striking skills, like with Ozzy who's her murder dog, who just destroyed me yesterday. So, like you know, like we're like working those things out. Now I brought Leo Poldo and he said he was down to do it, to teach it. So I have him, leo Poldo, carlos Lucas, jackie Vasquez, who was a longtime friend and a student of mine for years she's a black belt and Jiu Jitsu. And then for Ozzy Zab, who's a crowd McGon structure, a black belt and that stuff. They're all coming in and we're gonna teach everybody how to one, defend themselves, how to, and then two, how to defend themselves with a dog. And then I'm gonna teach decoys, my streetly decoys, how to work it properly and safely, because a lot of times we'll think like, oh, my dog's gonna defend me. Like if you're, for example, like if you're on the bottom of somebody and you send a dog in, the dog most more than likely is going to the bottom, even if you don't have the suit on. So you'd get bit by your own dog just because of how they how they react to that. You know the weakest link type of thing. So they do that.
Speaker 2:So we teach dogs the perfect picture, we show the perfect technique, we break it down, nice and slow, and it's a two day thing where the first day we're gonna go through different techniques, different self defense things, how to work the dog with me up, pretty much gonna give a kick.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna show you guys how to do everything. And then the second day half of it's gonna be the technique and the breakdown, and then we're gonna do, we're gonna head to a club called the Catalyst in Santa Cruz where we're gonna actually work the real life scenarios and, you know, based on the dog's skill level. So it's gonna, you know, we're gonna scale it based on, you know, the dog and the handler's skill set. We're not gonna like rush him through it Like I'm not a big fan of, like rushing people through process. So we have that and you know, the coolest thing about the fight is all the proceeds and, like all my instructors are essentially doing it for free, because we're donating all the money to Glory House, which is a safe house or, you know, foundation for survivors of human trafficking, and we're donating a dog as well. That you'll see. That'll help go and protect a survivor who actually be here during that workshop as well.
Speaker 1:That's so sick. And did you come up with all of this?
Speaker 2:So what happened was so. It's always like what happened was. So I did this whole thing with the regional trials where I was like I wanna donate all the regional funds to troubled youth. I was telling that to Billy from Miami, tute, the tattoo company, and then he told me he's like well, I really, because he does tattoos coverups for survivors of human trafficking, like the brands, so he does like the tattoo coverups and he's like I really wanna, like you know, do this. So then I was like well, for me, the way that things roll, and if you ever talk to Chris Corley about it, like how my brain works, it's kind of like once I get attached to something, it just goes brand Like, just yeah.
Speaker 1:I can relate. I feel like that's the mark of successful people, you know, is that like hyper fixation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, you know, obsession, obsession to insanity. You know it kind of goes into the same thing. So, but he told me about it and then originally I just came up with I was like, all right, cool, Like we're, this is where we're going. I talked to my buddy, Graham from Ireland, working canines. I'm like, hey, like you know, let's donate a dog every litter. You know I'll pay for shipping and then we'll, you know, train them. I'll have it sent to Corley, because Miami so it's like California, Texas and Miami are the biggest hubs for human trafficking.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I was like I have hubs in each one so I was like all right, well, let me go ahead and get dogs so I can donate to survivors that are qualified for it and all the safe houses that are like in danger from people coming in trying to. You know, I guess, repossess, you know the women in there? Yeah so, like you know to me, I take that very seriously, so I was like I will me, being obsessive as I am, like we're doing, we're doing something.
Speaker 1:No, that's amazing. So let's say somebody's listening to this and they want to get involved. They don't have a personal protection dog. Let's say they're not in California. How can somebody get involved and like help you out with this?
Speaker 2:So we actually have a pretty crazy raffle going on right now. You know it's on my Instagram and that promo cans Instagram. It's the fight raffle. What's cool about this raffle is that one you get training from my streetly decoys myself Jacques Bonnet, chris Corley, nils, damn I'm. He's gonna be irritated. Storage from I'm horrible. Last names I can't. No storage from. You know there's Chris, like a bunch of guys are like donating like their time, like $1,500 packages. Billy from Miami tattoo companies donating a $1,500 tattoo. If you go to my own two company, he will. He will tattoo you for seven hours that way. Cogworks by buddies, a Garrett and Billy.
Speaker 2:Cogworks is a firearms instructing company and they're donating a $1,500 course of how to learn how to shoot and then Graham, from Ireland, working, can end as donating it for the people that donate into it. He's in donating a dog to a safe house, so we're gonna be building that so you can go to our Instagram. We're basically telling people go to our Venmo, which is like promo canine, you know, put your name in there so we can pick it, and then, whoever, we're gonna try to pick a multiple winners so they can all get all this stuff and that way we can help people out and when are you announcing the raffle?
Speaker 2:It's right after the fight, which is September 9th and 10th, we're gonna do on the 11th.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect, so we got plenty of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got plenty of time. I just gotta pump it up and get it. Get it moving.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, that's so Sick. That's really awesome that you put all of that together like. I know how much work goes into things like that and it's for a good cause, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shout out to my one of my partners, g Baines, who has to deal with my ass calling them life in the middle of the night or early in the morning, because I get stuck on an idea and I gotta be like no, we gotta do this and Like this is what's gonna happen. I knew this graphic this way, like this, what's gonna be like. I'm essentially the, the director, dictator. I guess they would probably say hey, that's how it's gotta be.
Speaker 1:You gotta have those people on your team that you can call up and be like, hey, crazy idea, but let's make it happen, you know.
Speaker 2:I think, to our for guys, oh, my, to, which is, you know, this shuttle where we have a collaboration, sure, coming up and Ray Allen Manufacturing, they're gonna donate handler kids to, you know, some of the survivors, and then also to the person that wins the raffle.
Speaker 1:You got, you got connections with everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's kind of the benefit of not sleeping.
Speaker 1:I love it. Hey, you're productive. That's important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what else try to be what else we got going on.
Speaker 1:I know you've got Chris over here in Orlando. You said he's got some things going on in Miami too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Basically what I have is Chris is essentially gonna be one of my deco or he's gonna be one of the main decoy director on the East Coast. He's gonna help kind of coordinate the guys there. So we just did the last decoy certification over here and it's, and by only. But I made sure that I purposely picked decoys throughout the United States in the certain hubs and areas that I wanted to. So it's all very calculated in that sense. So I was like alright, like I'm a movie, I get these guys from Florida, put him in that center area Texas, memphis, san Jose, are you know the Bay Area, get these guys over here, and it's okay. So we did that and essentially what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have him kind of coordinate Over there with you know, kind of try to be the the me in the Florida.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Florida area. So don't have to fly everywhere. Because we have that, because we have these regional trials coming up and then, with these regional trials coming up, it's gonna be a little slower Because it just the amount of time it comes in to put into these like trials. Every trial that we're gonna do, we're gonna donate to the troubled youth in that area. This let, this year we're gonna do Florida and then we're gonna go to New York To meet up with my buddy, tom Davis, and then we're gonna get, we're gonna do Street week over there with him. It'll kind of be like that, the national thing for us, and then a street week bring all the decoys out there, have a good time. So we probably have Florida, texas and New York this year with street, with street league, which is for those who don't know, it's a professional sport. All our decoys get paid and taken care of. You can ask any one of them. You know we take care of the dinner. We hang out. You know they deal with me.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so talk with us a little bit about street league, how you got that started, what you're kind of like, the direction that you're taking. That.
Speaker 2:So street league came out during the pandemic, the December, like, right up you know, right after whatever year, that was the December of that year I was doing a drinks and dogs with Oscar Mora, who's our head judge, and he was like, bring it up, like we're just talking. He's just like, you know, let's do some, like you know, some real street sport type of stuff. And I was at that point I was really hesitant in going back into the sport world because I remember Schutzen and kind of like how toxic the community was.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know, very like the culture wasn't really what I liked it to be. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I know yeah.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things where I just didn't really like it, like I wanted to change it and I've noticed over the years just the different sports, like the culture has never changed, it's only gone worse. So when Oscar brought that up and Oscar being you know the guy that he is, I mean super cool I was like there's like shit. Well, I don't think he understood that the pace in which I run that. So in December he brought it up. Two weeks later I had a street league logo. Three weeks later I had a rule book out, one four weeks from that point like I'm January, I don't even remember. No, I show us February, february we had our first street league seminar in Carson and Decor certification, where I miss grip, or I met Chris Corley. We did it there and the idea behind it was to because people that do sport work, you know, no matter what sport they're doing, you know they put in a lot of time, they put a lot of effort in. You know there's a lot of money that goes into it, like they're paying trainers or doing whatever it may be. You know they're dealing with. You know the toxicity of the clubs and, like the, the communities that they're in Decoys. They're buying their own suits, they're buying their own sleeves, they're getting beat up like for me, like I, I come out for it from being as injured as I've been in the last two years, but that's probably getting old. You know doing those things. So you know they put their bodies on the line. So I wanted to create something to where you know, everyone can get appreciated for what they're doing and not just not just get some plastic fake trophy and some ribbons, you know, whatever may be, but you can get financially appreciated for what they're doing. So I wanted to create a professional sport to where decoys can get the Accolades and the compensation that they deserve and the exposure that they deserve, and not kind of held underneath someone's thumb and being like, oh, you know, it's the sport first type of thing. Like no, I want them to be, like you know, professional athletes, because that's what you know, that's what decoys are. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're, you're reading a dog.
Speaker 2:We are also physically going through things, you know, like there's a lot of different stuff that happens in that. And then you know handlers. You know you put tons of time into your dog, like hours into your dog. Why shouldn't you be financially compensated with it. You know these. You know clubs. You pay a lot of money to go to club right, like you pay to register at a trial, like you do all these other things.
Speaker 2:These other me, other sports are making money. But yet you have to pay to go and do those things and, like, you have to like, not get paid or reimbursed back or anything and no trophy, like some fake trophy. I buy trophies for a street league. I know how much those things cost. They ain't that much. So it's like you know it's a. You know, in my mind I'm like alright, it's kind of back. You know a little bit asked backwards. So you know the idea was to Bring a professional sport up, let everyone kind of and make the way we made the sport was. So you can train in every other sport you can still compete in you know, monty O, psa, french ring, any suit sport really, and still compete in the street league and what's the difference between Street League and these other sports?
Speaker 2:So right now we're trying to keep it a hybrid. You know we're trying to keep it like where you can compete in them. So we're making it adaptable, like we're doing. You know, the catch is very different, like the face attack, the drive you know, quote, unquote drive is very different. Like we don't run the dog, we kind of wait, we give them the opportunity. Because I wanted to be something to where, like, if you compete in a PPD a, you can be in PSA, you can create in Monty O, you can create, you know, compete in French ring, and it all be similar but not the same. So it's like it's a hybrid of those right now. But we're changing it at the level one, I know. So your entry level is going to be very similar to what you can normally compete in, because we wanted to introduce it in Just slow, like, slowly introduce people to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah level one. Half of it is very much you know it's, you know it's a muscle work in there, some passive stuff going on in there, and then when I have designed for level two, three, four and five is a lot of hidden, hidden equipment, a lot of muscle work, a lot of civil stuff. Because ideally, what I would look at street league is it's what I. The way I think about it is that what I would want from a personal protection dog that I would trust to protect my family, it's something that's stable, social, but can also, if I, if they need to, they need to be able to, you know, operate, you know and do things we're doing.
Speaker 2:So street league itself, it's, it's different, you know, it is very different. The culture is different. You know, as Katie Matthews would always say, is like, even like when you go to our events, he doesn't call him trials, he's like they're not trials or events because you know we get the last, the last, you know trial we have was like over, like a thousand people were there Holy shit like nuts, yeah, like we're announcing things like I lost my voice because I had to, like be on the microphone and, like you know, announce people.
Speaker 2:like we have a DJ. We do a bunch of different things like you like vendors, food trucks, you know all that stuff. So it's a we turned it into. We wanted to be like this, like like for me we're like you know the X games Like we wanted to turn it into something like that Cause we're also unveiling the detection side of it this next year or two.
Speaker 2:The detection side of it was created by Michael Nezbeth of Grassroots K and I, so he'll be doing that. Then we have like a whole freestyle OB section going on. So there's a. There's a whole thing happening with it. It's people only see the protection side right now, but it's going to be a whole thing. We're another thing too, with Australia League as well is that it's club based as well. So it's there's going to be an individual winner at the end of the year. But when we have these different disciplines, like the freestyle obedience, which is going to be kind of like a break dance battle between people with like a music, like DJ and everything like that and people like you know doing lowering and, like you know, having fun with their dog.
Speaker 1:And like going back and forth. I love that, that's awesome. I would kill that. I would do so good at that.
Speaker 2:Get on, get on Chris's club. That way you guys can make some money. So there's going to be a, there's going to be a individual winner and then there'll be a club championship as well. That's the whole goal. And it's the thing too is it's going to be a world sport. So it's not necessarily like a nationwide sports in your world sports or where the team collective, like you know, price like, basically the winners can go ahead and, like you know, win all this, like you know, biggest ton of money and stuff like that, for all the stuff they're doing. So protection, freestyle protection.
Speaker 1:Aren't you like going to Europe or something? Yeah, I got to go to Mexico.
Speaker 2:City in January and then we're going, I think, in April. Okay, next year.
Speaker 1:Is that forced Four Street League?
Speaker 2:Escalade. Yeah, okay, things have escalated quickly.
Speaker 1:In a good way or bad way.
Speaker 2:I mean I think it's, I mean I like it, I think it's fun, it's cool. I mean I didn't even think when we first started it, you know it's, I didn't think it was going to go to where it was this fast. Now you know, but it definitely went that fast. Now I mean, shoot, we have like a our own page on Ray Allen, you know. So I mean they're our main sponsor and like I still trip out about that. You know it's always like dang. You know, pretty much everything I do is always kind of looking in the river mirror like what did that just happen?
Speaker 1:How did this happen? Yeah yeah, no, it can't relate. Okay, so if somebody wants to get involved with Street League, how do they do that? It fell into my lap, I didn't go out searching for it. But let's say somebody wants to, you know, join a club, work with one of your decoys. How do they find them?
Speaker 2:So we have a map on the site.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:If you go to knessurelycom, you can go ahead and look at the map, see where all the clubs are at and then you can go and pick there All my decoys. You know, they all know the deal. You know if they run a club, they know there's a certain standard and ethics and moral values that they have to uphold. We keep everything that. I tell everybody already, like you know, it's all a friendly family, like family-friendly environment. You know, like I said before, you know it's not really a director, more of a dictator, what certain things. So I hold, I hold everybody accountable to, accountable to a specific standard and, as you can ask, chris and anybody else you talk to is from Street League. It's something I very much like. I make sure our morals and ethics are there, yeah, and that way people can come and feel comfortable and learn. And you know it's always a low, slow process and just a fun process to build everyone up, handler and dog alike.
Speaker 1:So if somebody wants to be a decoy, how do they go about that? Question also have you had any female decoys?
Speaker 2:I did Katie, she was with me. She actually she's in the first Street League workshop, I don't know certification and she's the beast. She handled it. She hurt her knee and then she got really into, like I think, french ring or something, but yeah, we haven't seen her in a while. I mean because one of the things too, like if you want to be selected for a you know, a trial, I have to see that like you know you come to pro camps and like you know you're attentive and you're on the thing like to go from there. So like I'm never opposed to anybody being on it, as long as you're willing to grind it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can hold a brand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you want to be a Street League decoy, I mean, like I said, I'm trying to create a professional sport. You know, for these guys I want to make sure that you know female, male, whatever it may be that you're out there grinding and you have the heart. For me it's not really necessarily the physical capability, it's the mental capability, the ability to take. You know the stress because, like, like you know, we've talked about before with, like, the trials, you know, there are events, there's a lot of big, there's a lot of energy that comes into it. So I can't have you crumple under the pressure when there's a thousand people watching you and there's a dog and sitting down the field and you got to be able to catch that dog, work that dog, and we do roughly 40 dogs every trial. So it's, you know, it's a lot of dogs, a lot of pressure.
Speaker 2:For some freaking reason we've been in the heat the whole entire damn time, like we've been doing this stuff, we've been doing this stuff. So it's like a I just want to make sure I bring in the best I can bet, you know, the best of the best of it. If someone wants to be a Street League decoy. They're invite only, but I would highly suggest this. If I can give you the, as you want to be a decoy run, I don't care Do you want your body to be beat up.
Speaker 1:Be beat up 24, seven.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just run, run and accept the pain, cause that's what I'm, that's what I'm bringing to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's all the stuff that like I do to myself every day. So I'm like all right, I was like I can do it, you guys can do it.
Speaker 1:You used to post your runs all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Very impressed. What happened?
Speaker 2:You're hurt, you injured yourself Not still doing you do. I stopped posting them you stopped posting them.
Speaker 1:You should post them.
Speaker 2:It was like inspiring.
Speaker 1:You know I'm not a runner, but I was like damn, am I about to run because Mike Jones is running?
Speaker 2:No, yeah, I go on like waves and social media, like I, like I got hurt and I was like all right, whatever, like I'm stopped doing it. Then I went to some stuff where, like people were saying, oh, it's like you know, like the Mike show type of a thing, and like to me, like I don't, I'm not like a, I'm not like a egotistical person, I just post those things mostly just to be like, oh, look, like you know you can do, I could do, a type of a thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I kind of I fall back off of social media from time to time. But yeah, no, the runs are fun, you know they're. I tell people all the time it's not necessarily the physical gains for the mental gain, you know, that's kind of like the main thing about it. It's like, if you can, you know, one point in time I was running like 14.4 miles a day Wednesdays. I would do like a full marathon and go from there, but then then I got old and body starts to hurt.
Speaker 1:You can't say that you can't. You gotta be careful with your word choice. You can't say that You're young. You're feeling vibrant. You're not old, you're not injured.
Speaker 2:No, no, I lie to myself all the time. I'm like, no, my knee and my hip and my shoulder don't hurt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, just pretend, just pretend. I also see your bow behind you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I got a few of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just got into this. This is my new personality now.
Speaker 2:Oh, get ready, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, I'm obsessed.
Speaker 2:So I have I think that's the, that's the recurve. I got a long bow. I got two compounds, my daughter's compound bow, and then I got a couple crossbows. But I like to, I like to think predators, archery and Gilroy for mind, the obsession that's cost me tons of money, I don't know, and not necessarily on the bows, but on arrows and the learning. So I teach my. It's funny, it's like I got into it just because it was super cool.
Speaker 2:My wife's family's like bow hunters. So one day we were, we were drinking, we were slightly on vacation and then I was like, all right, let's just go get a bow down the street. I thought I can go like a big five or something like that and pick something up. Turns out you can't. You actually have to go to an actual store if you want to do it right and get it fitted for your draw length and everything. And after that I started learning about it. I've been pretty much sure that I have a whole range in my whole, cause we have roughly five and a half acres over here.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, that's impressive for. California, that's a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we have like a 3D range that's like in our front yard, and then I have like a big front area where we can shoot up to 120 yards. So now, like you know, me and my daughter like shoot out there, drive the TV out, go do that stuff. So I taught her all that stuff. So it's archery is fun, like that's one of those things. Like my daughter is like she hates it. I'm like there's a reason why I'm teaching this. I was like cause you know, you get that like shot anxiety, like right where you're about to shoot.
Speaker 1:I smacked the fuck out of my forearm. The first time I did it my dad was teaching me, and the first time he's like hey, just be mindful of like gripping the bow too tight. And I was like okay. And then the first time I did good. Second time didn't remind me. Oh, my gosh, I still have like a gnarly well on my forearm from.
Speaker 2:Are you shooting a recurve? I don't know. Are you using like a mechanism on your wrist or your fingers to snap it yeah.
Speaker 2:By shooting a compound. So you're going to want to do something called a let down. You're going to want to look through the site, aim, don't, try to like fix it and then, right when you like, you feel like you want to shoot, take your finger off the trigger and let it down. Do that a bunch of times. It'll help put your shot, cause what happens is like if you, if you like you hold and you want to like just aim it, you just start to like anticipate the shot and then it messes up your draw, it messes up the way that you aim. Yeah, so we do like called let downs and stuff like that. It helps a lot.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm definitely going to do that. Yeah, I spent the weekend at my dad's and we like went to the bow shop and they like fit me for the bow and I was like, oh my God, I'm unstoppable now. Like I have weapons.
Speaker 2:No, it's super fun, it's awesome. I recommend that to like pretty much everybody. Like after I figured out, like the last couple of years only I was like since we moved up here I was like gotta get into archery.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like meditative, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Like you got to really like tune in and like breathe, and I like it.
Speaker 2:And not grip on the front hand, loosen that up. Yeah, that's what I said in the let down. I was like all that fun stuff.
Speaker 1:Learned that lesson the hard way. Yeah, for sure, yeah, just smack. No joke, it is no joke. I was like, oh my God, but yeah, you're turning your daughter into like such a little badass. Does she like it? Does she enjoy doing it, or is it one of those things where she's like dad, you're making this not fun?
Speaker 2:I think it's a mixture. I think she likes it, but she also likes to not agree with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like you know, it's one of those things where, like you know cause all of you guys probably see the videos I post on my page, you know it's like. You know she enjoys it when it's like going good, but like sometimes she gets a little lazy and like it's part of like the discipline aspect that like I kind of teach her, you know, like we got to get up and do it, even if we don't want to get up and do it. You know she goes horse riding. You know we throw the axe, we shoot her little BB gun that she was learning how to shoot, which people lost their mind on.
Speaker 2:Really, oh man, oh yeah, I got people like message commenting I had a block and none of that. Like oh, you're just teaching the next school shooter. I'm like, no, I'm not like just be quiet, like, but she's like random stuff. And then she shoots a recurve bow, she shoots a compound bow and she boxes. She's been boxing. She was a baby that's how I used to. Her mom had like really bad like postpartum, like when she was a baby, baby, so freaking. I had Ivy like all the time and I would work out like be on the speed bag and she'd be crying to the Ivy's coliki and then, as soon as they're going to speed bag, ivy would stop crying.
Speaker 1:Stop, that's so cute.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So then we would like just I would just sit up, we'd be there for like hours, I'd be on the speed bag and, like you know, hitting like this speed bag, and then she would just like just look at her, start smiling, like laughing, and then I'd have her hit it. Then we go back and forth. So she's been doing that since I mean two months yeah, she's two months old. She's been, you know, within boxing, so she's been. She used to watch up, to walk up to me and hit me. She was like punch it when her first word was daddy, and then her baba, which is Farsi for dad, and then her second word was punch it.
Speaker 1:I love that I used to talk like punch it back, nobody's going to mess with her. No, that's the plan, good, good.
Speaker 2:That's the plan. Gotta make her strong. Even though she doesn't want to do it sometimes, I make her do it. We fight sometimes here and there, but how old is she? Is what it is. She's nine.
Speaker 1:I just imagine you fighting, arguing with a nine year old. I am the byproduct of someone like you, raising a daughter, so my dad was very, very, very similar and I tell you, it never changes. I was at his house this weekend. I'm 29 years old and he's making me hit, shot after shot on the bow, and I was like all right, this is no longer fun. And he's like I don't care, keep doing it. And I'm like okay.
Speaker 2:Your dad and I would get along very well, cause that sounds exactly what I'd tell my daughter.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm like okay, this is no longer a fun bonding thing for us. I'm done. He's like no, no, no, no, no. You don't get to just end it when you're frustrated. Keep going, keep hit another one. I'm like fine, yeah.
Speaker 2:Is your dad a bow hook or is he just like do like target shooting?
Speaker 1:No, he just does target shooting. I think he wants to, but he like I don't know he didn't like grow up doing that. He just got into like bows recently. So I feel like I could probably talk him into going on like a hunting trip or something, I don't know, Once I get a little bit better. We'll see. We'll see what happens. I don't know if I could do that. I like I'm such a softy. I was a vegetarian from when I was like 12 until I was like 20 because I didn't want to eat animals. So I support hunting and I'm like, yes, that seems like so much better than the other option. Right, Like the animal is living freely and like living its best life before we use it. But I don't know, I think if it came down to it, I would be a little soft.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to. My goal is to, like, hunt a grizzly bear in Alaska.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that's so intense.
Speaker 2:I want to cause. I watched like I follow like a camera and Haynes like a bunch and like all that stuff, like hence, like the running and you know all the crazy things I do. So like the goal is to essentially eventually like as Aaron, a wife or family, like they both hunt. But I want to like take her dad out and like go to Alaska, get dropped off like in like the woods somewhere and like with some guy and like actually hunt like just bows, like no guns or nothing, and like try to get like a freaking bear over there.
Speaker 1:This is how I know you're in the right industry, because dog people are a little bit. You go a little crazy. I'm gonna go a little. A few screws loose. It's the adrenaline junkie in all of the dog trainers. I feel like we all got to. We got a little bit of that, you know.
Speaker 2:You gotta be a little funny to be doing what we do. You know, seven days a week. You know dogs don't rest. So you gotta be a little bit often, especially dogs that actually want to bite you, that aren't necessarily trained to bite you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You got to have a little bit of a.
Speaker 1:You gotta be a little crazy.
Speaker 2:You gotta be a little off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah for sure, and you can like see people when they have it or they don't. You know, I'm sure, like you've been in this industry for such a long time, like you meet somebody right away and you're like you don't got it. You know you don't have that little bit of crazy that comes with being a dog trainer.
Speaker 2:It's definitely a readable quality. It's like one of those things like once you do it for a while, you know like at this point in time, like my career, like in a stage I'm at, I can look at someone and be like, yeah, either I can turn you into a crazy person and see if you make it, or maybe just have it, or you just don't got it.
Speaker 1:Maybe this isn't the right industry for you. Yeah, yeah, I get a lot of I don't know if you're getting this, but I get a lot of people from, like dog trainer social media and they want to be dog trainers and then they come and shadow us for a week and they're like, oh hell, no, Like, not necessarily like that we're doing anything crazy, but just the workload. Like you don't know until you're in it. And like social media, is this very like glamorized version of it? You know, but like I mean, we're slow right now and I still have nine dogs in the dog room two rooms over you know. So as soon as we get off this podcast, I'm gonna go walk dogs and potty dogs. And like I haven't had a day off since March, you know, like not very many people can do that.
Speaker 2:And like Saturday you just broke your foot too right.
Speaker 1:I did just break my foot. Yeah, I was supposed to take off in June. I was gonna go to California and do a road trip in June and then I broke my foot and I was like I don't wanna waste my time off if I can't do anything and I was gonna take all of my dogs. So can you imagine trying to like travel across the country with four dogs, me by myself and my little van with a broken foot?
Speaker 2:No, no, that's a. I mean that's the thing too. Is that like, and this is why, like, I keep my social media pretty raw?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like it's very much in front with it, like I don't. I never I don't wanna say I try to glamorize it, but people see that right and think it's highlight real stuff. They're like oh, it's just like you know showing this and like that and like it's like now. I really do this every single day. So anytime a manual comes in, apprentices of me or shadows me like hop in the suit, like you're about to feel this pain and see, like what it is. And you know I've learned over the years that, like you said, like a lot of times people come in like they think it's this way, it's gonna be that way. Like, oh, get to play with puppies and train dogs and do something with that. Like I was like no man.
Speaker 2:It's like you got to put the work in every single day because you're taking care of these people's animals, which they consider their family. So you got to make sure that the care is up. You know, upfront, most important, it's a seven day a week job. Dogs don't take. Dogs don't know what weekends are. You got to do this. And then you see a lot of people just turn over. They're like I can't do it anymore, like I'm burning out. I'm like well, that's how it is.
Speaker 2:you know, if you can't do it, that's how it is.
Speaker 1:You can do it. It's not the job for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you control your own schedule. I mean, you can make it happen. But it is a tough industry and it is a tough job and it's something like you know, especially being the owner of the dog training company. Like you know, it's even tougher because you got to do multiple things. But I definitely think that social media has glamorized it.
Speaker 1:Are you on TikTok?
Speaker 2:39 years old. I ain't anything to get to beyond, though you got people.
Speaker 1:Though you got people that make content for you, they should put you on TikTok.
Speaker 2:I ain't going on. I can barely manage Instagram.
Speaker 1:I'll convince you to get on TikTok eventually. I'm getting blasted on TikTok for very simple things, like I was talking about, like you know, getting your dog working for their food, which that oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That one really got me in trouble.
Speaker 1:I was talking about separation anxiety and like creating your dogs. That one got me in trouble. I don't know how, but I ended up on the wrong side of TikTok and I'm like getting blasted there. But I think you would do really well on TikTok, so you're going to have to talk to your media people and have them put you on TikTok.
Speaker 2:Well, g, roman and Ed, when you're watching this, handle the TikTok, cause I ain't going to get on there. I'm freaking. I can barely handle Instagram and YouTube. I mean, I can't handle YouTube. I barely even do our YouTube stuff I can't handle like the comments and stuff. Like people that like talk stuff, but like to me I'm like you guys are just like dumb, like what are you doing?
Speaker 1:Like we're talking about like.
Speaker 2:I used to, but I think it's because the way I look and how I address certain situations that I don't get it anymore.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But like it used to be one of those things where, like it would have, like people would say, like you're abusing dogs and then, like I, get fairly short tempered, so then I would immediately message somebody and like here's my address, this is my time at work, this is where I'm going, Like I'd gladly meet you or I'd fly down to you. Like you know we can, we can talk about this a little more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like come tell me in person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I'm very much that type of person, Cause I mean, like I know, like I said before, like I came from, like the shelter work stuff, so like my heart is with the dogs, you know, like you know, it's always like we just do for the benefit of the dog. It's just a matter of educating people Cause, you know, the culture that we have now has changed quite a bit and we've been, we've been very, you know, we, we animorphize and we humanize a lot of relationships with the relationship with our animals, but what that's creating I'm sure you see this too it's creating a lot of issues in dogs.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and it makes me so sad too, because it's like these people think that they're loving their dogs but actually they're making them like little neurotic messes that literally can't function in society. And it's like guys why am I the bad guy for talking about like, maybe pet your dog less, you know?
Speaker 2:Well, let me think about it this way, and this is going to get you in trouble, so I apologize.
Speaker 1:It's a damn already in trouble Up front.
Speaker 2:There's no balanced trainer that euthanizes more dogs than a positive enforcement trainer. That is a actual fact. Most positive enforcement trainers and nothing against positive enforcement. If anyone trains with me and there sees any of the things I do in the Canada University or trains with me in general, you know I rely mostly on positive enforcement, besides the E-caller for motivators or some corrections, or maybe it might be, but I've never heard a balanced trainer recommend euthanization for a behavioral case than more than I've heard a positive enforcement trainer. Yeah, so suck it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also they don't have businesses like actual businesses, because they can't actually like help people with big behavioral issues, you know. Yeah Well, I don't know about in California, but I mean around Orlando, like I can look around and you know, ask for a purely positive business and it's cricket. It's like it's just. You know, the people reaching out to dog trainers need help with behavioral issues.
Speaker 2:I mean, in California we're a bunch of hippies, right, yeah, everyone's a bunch of hippies over here, so it's all what you would think it is. So it's like all that stuff, like all that's positive. So there's a bunch of positive enforcement companies and people who think they can resolve behavioral issues that they can't and then they end up using nice and dogs. I got to judge separate downs down here. I have like 14 dogs right now, including mine, so like I would touch up down there named Mark Kane, and she is like bat shit crazy, like absolutely bat shit crazy. Hates my guts, love my wife.
Speaker 2:So we're trying to get her through the process and we don't. We take our time with it, with rehabilitation and going through that stuff. So it's like you know, we get dogs who would otherwise be youth and I that dog was about to be youth and I was before we said like, hey, we'll take her on. It's been a longer process but we got her. So we have, like that dog, we have, you know, a few other dogs that we work with that are basically like on you know the list to be done and then we've taken man and we train them. And you know you can't do that with the cuddles and love and treats and food. Sometimes you have to have a balanced approach with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I get a lot of dogs that are like that, that you know I've had people drive to me from like Connecticut Because they're like we're gonna put the dog down, if you know, like this doesn't work. So sometimes, being that person like I, I get a lot of dogs that have never been corrected in any sense. You know, like with a leash, with Firm, no, like they've never been corrected at all and they've kind of learned that like they can use aggression to get what they want. And so I get, you know, owners that are like this dog is literally attacking us, like we can't, we can't live with this dog anymore. So I'm like, okay, we got this, like I will be that person to work through this dog. You know, when all of these other trainers have kind of like Failed, I'm willing to be that person to make sure that this dog can actually live a good life and like survive and not, you know, have to get put down because no one's willing to like do the training. Basically, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's you know. That's mostly the part of it. Is, you know it, what dog trainers think. Even the business mind said it's like you know it's it's time is money right. So it's like you put the time into it, like you got the money back, all those things, and you know the reality of it is like you know, sometimes it's time is not money like you got to have, like you got to take the time longer.
Speaker 2:You know you gotta price yourself out differently. You know like to make sure that you can adapt, like, if I need to keep a dog for six months, I know I can do it this way. You know like we have a 21 day minimum standboard and train.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know, like that's a minimum stakes. I don't, I don't rush the process. There's no two week, three week, bang bang done. You know, force straight out. It's like we go through it, so it's. It is a. It's a different game, especially when you get into like the deep waters and doing all this. You know Stuff like that when you work with like real behavioral cases.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it gets a little bit scary. I uh, I don't. I don't take those dogs too much anymore. As I've, uh, I guess, matured a little bit or my like frontal cortex has fully developed, I'm like, hmm, maybe me risking my life to save this dog is not the move. Uh, so I kind of hand those dogs out to other trainers that I recommend in the area. But yeah, I'm uh, the behavioral mod stuff is definitely no joke and it also takes a ton of like mental effort to be able to work with those sorts of dogs. You know like you really have to be mentally strong because you know dogs are gonna push you all day, every day.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean and that's the thing too, is it? It's not even you think about when you go through a heavy behavior mod case, like it's not even just like being able to deal with the behavior mod itself, right, like change the dog, you know, making sure that you're holding the regimen. It's when you hand that leash over how you have to teach the people too, right, because it's like a rehabilitation case. Now you have to teach them how to deal with the rehabilitated. You know, you know person I always I use like rehab, for example. You know what people that go to like rehab and something like that, like you have to maintain it. Then you have to teach people or the handle that how to maintain it as well and not go like, oh you know Fluffy's fix now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's go ahead and have fun, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like no. So you're gonna start from grams or a reestablished relationship and it is it. You know it is very exhausting, is mentally taxing, but I think, yeah, I tell my daughter all the time, like you know, when we come to like we talked about before, with bow hunting and everything like that, I'm like you know, scar tissue is the toughest tissue. So all you gotta do is you gotta keep, you know, building that scar tissue and, like you know, keep going through and getting stronger as you go every single time. So, like you know, that's the same thing. I teach my you know, teach my handlers. I'm like you know, like it's just you got to go through it, man. Like you know, you have five years of behavior that you've just let it go. It's not gonna stop in two weeks.
Speaker 2:Yep like you got to keep pushing through and make sure it happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we'll go ahead and wrap up. We've been talking for a while now, but where? Last last little question for you? Where do you see Private canine in the next you know year, five years? Where are you going with it?
Speaker 2:Uh, everywhere. I don't, um, I'm very, I'm very much a person that doesn't see a ceiling. You know I don't. You know there's no ceiling to what we're doing. And you know, being in dog training, the dog trainer world, and I tell this to all dog trainers Don't cap yourself on any form or fashion like, keep going because we don't have a top. You know there's we're, we're as capable as we want to be and we can get to where we want to go, no matter. Or you know, it's just all depending on our drive. Just how a dog has a drive, we have a drive. That's why, you know, we kind of keep doing the same thing Get better and get bigger. And you know, with primal canine itself, you know, I don't, I say this if you ever see like my tags that says has carpet omnia.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Which means take everything you know. It's essentially that's what we're. We're going forward. We're going forward, want to build a culture, build a positive culture, build a positive community, um, build everywhere we possibly can go and, you know, make the best of it what we can and, you know, spread as much positivity as we can.
Speaker 1:And I love it over the world. I guess I love it, you're killing it and I definitely see you going so far with this company. A thousand percent, like no doubts. Go ahead and tell the people where to find you primal caninecom.
Speaker 2:primal canine spelled out Uh at primal canine, at on instagram and then I think my mic jones ones is at prim, or at mic jones, underscore pc Uh, so you can find us on there. Youtube it's the ptv network, I believe. Her primal canine. Just look us up, just google us, once you find a bearded, tattooed guy with the face tattoos.
Speaker 2:You know you found the right spot and you know you can kind of follow the links from there, um, but yeah, no, I appreciate you for having me on and, uh, taking the time out of your. It's a friday, so friday night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a do all this stuff Very exciting, my very exciting life that I'm gonna, you know, go take care of more dogs, but that's okay. No, thank you so much for joining me today and Thank you, everybody else, for listening. We will definitely see you next week and I'll go ahead and plug all of your stuff in the show notes. So if people want to, you know, donate Um, get involved with the fight, find you online, it'll all be right there. So thank you again. So much, mike.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I appreciate you, Thank you.