Max's Origin story

Hello, dog peeps. Jack here. Uh, just a quick one before we get into this episode. You may or may not be aware that when I'm not talking dog stuff with, uh, Max, I in fact interview people who are incarcerated in prisons across the United States on a show called One Minute Remaining: Stories from the Inmates. And that show has been nominated for an award in America. Uh, and I would love your support if you've got 60 seconds to click the link in the show notes of this episode and just vote for my show. That would be amazing if you could. Thank you very much indeed. Oh, and don't forget to verify your email address, otherwise the vote does not count. Thank you.

Therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough. It shows up in the smallest moments. You bite your tongue instead of escalating. You put your phone down instead of firing off that text. You say what you actually mean instead of what would hurt someone else the most. Nobody applauds those moments, but they quietly change your life. That's what growing feels like, and that's exactly what Grow Therapy is here for. Grow is therapy that works, covered by insurance. Sessions average $21 with insurance, and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow connects you with thousands of high-quality licensed therapists across the US, offering both virtual and in-person sessions nights and weekends. You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty, identity, or availability, and you can book a therapy session in minutes and begin in as little as 2 days, not the national 48-day average. See if you could pay as little as $0 for therapy in seconds at growtherapy.com/startnow. That's growtherapy.com/startnow. growtherapy.com/startnow. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

You're either all in on this model, or maybe you're building with another. It's either speed, or is it security? Or you're AWS AI. Don't pick a side, pick them all. AWS AI is how.

You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price and want to tell everyone about it? Yeah, so do we. Here at Designer Shoe Warehouse, we'll give you something to brag about, like the latest styles from brands you love, or the trends everyone's obsessing over, or shoes that make you feel like Well, you. So go ahead, show off a little. Find shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. Head to your DSW store or dsw.com today. DSW, let us surprise you.

It's the Dog People Podcast with your host Jack Lawrence. Secretly, I decided to start this podcast for some free dog training advice. You know, Malinois seem to be like the dog at the moment. Like, I think people see them on Instagram doing these incredible things. Yeah. Go, oh my God, that's fucking awesome. And then they get one like, oh my God, what the fuck have I done? And Max O'Neill.

You would not believe how many people I meet and I go, what made you want to get, say, an Aussie Shepherd? They go, I don't know. I go, had you met one before? They go, no. If you want to ask me how often I walk my own dog a week, it's only twice a week. Hey guys, it's Max here. From the Dog People Podcast. You've just got me today. Jack's on a well-deserved holiday with the family and getting some time out of the studio. So I thought, what can I do on my own? And, uh, on our list of episode ideas, we've had quite a few of you request an episode where I kind of talk you through a bit more about me and my dog origin story. So I guess we'll do that today. Since we're doing a podcast, we may as well do the long version. So settle in and I'll talk you through how I got into the industry, how I became a dog trainer, why I wanted to become a dog trainer, And hope there's some things in here that a few of you can resonate with. So if we rewind right back to the beginning, I probably got my our first family dog when I was maybe four or five. Her name was Miss. She was a tenderfield terrier, similar to like a foxy or a jack russell. Pretty similar. And she was a cool dog. But looking back, you know, I mean, I was four or five, but us as a family, we were pretty like crappy dog owners. I don't recall, you know, doing much training with her, walking her much, doing a whole heap with her. She we kind of just had her. And, uh, yeah, needless to say, you know, didn't go too well. And, um, I don't know what age she was when we rehomed her, but she was young. I reckon we probably only had her for a couple of years, and, uh, we ended up rehoming her. And I think she went to someone we knew, um, and that was kind of the last we've heard of her. And obviously it was pretty upsetting as a kid, and, and that was pretty shit. And then a few years later, when I was maybe 7 or 8. We got another dog. Um, this time we thought we're getting a chill, dopey little cocker spaniel, but we actually got something called a Brittany spaniel. If you don't know what those are, Google them. Um, they're super tall, long-legged dogs, uh, and they're really high drive, like hunting dogs, like they're proper working spaniels. And of course, needless to say, we, you know, not being a great dog owner family, we're probably out of our depth with a pet dog. Let alone a working breed and working line dog. So it didn't go super well either. Again, I can vaguely remember going to like one group obedience session at like the Coolangatta Football Club, uh, and really not much else. I don't really remember doing all that much with her, um, and yeah, she ended up getting like a little bit aggressive. She gave me a bite on the leg I don't really remember why, but, um, yeah, it started getting a bit funny when we had my little brother and whatnot as well. And then, yep, once again we rehomed her, and it sucked. Like, you know, you love your dogs growing up as a kid, and I felt lots of people look back and think back on their family dog, and they grew up with them and had this whole life cycle, and we didn't have that. We were 2 from 2, and we're pretty poor dog owners. Anyway, we went quite a while without having a dog, and years later Um, at this like car meetup my family went to, there was this Newfoundland breeder there. For anyone that doesn't know Newfoundlands, they're massive black, usually black, sometimes chocolate, or sometimes white dogs. Super fluffy. They're about Mastiff size. They're a giant breed. And they're bred for bringing in the fishing nets in Newfoundland, up in, I think, Canada or Alaska. And, uh, yeah, and they also use them for like water safety and rescue and towing boats. They're just these elite swimmers and really cool dogs, super smart, which isn't really typical for those giant breeds, uh, and super really like really nice natured. Um, anyway, we met this breeder and same thing, you know, they like any breeder had dogs they needed to retire and they had this one dog Chelsea who they're retiring from their breeding program. Chelsea had had a few litters, but she'd actually walked into a tree branch and lost an eye when she was younger, so she could never be used in the show ring. But she was really, really good stock and really well trained. And yeah, at some stage they said they needed to retire her, and we as a family thought it'd be a good decision to maybe get a dog who was already trained and been through the puppy stage rather than try and do that all again and not do the best job. Uh, so maybe there was some self-awareness there. And anyway, yeah, we got— we trialled Chelsea for a few weeks, um, before we went on holiday. We just wanted to do like a small commitment, see how it went, and it went great. Like, we all fell in love with her. She was super happy. I think she was ready to kind of retire from breeding and being around so many dogs. She seemed to really like her own space, and, uh, she was amazing. It was really cool. It was such a good fit. And I remember You know, right after the 3 weeks, we had to go on holiday for like a month, uh, and when we dropped her back off, she was like pulling to get back to us, and it was really sad. And we're like, okay, cool, like we've definitely found the right dog, and we missed her heaps when we were over there. And anyway, when we, when we got back, we went and picked her up, and she was super keen to see us again, and it all was great. But I remember sort of at that age, I reckon I was 12, Yeah, I would have been 12 at this point, uh, making a decision and being like, nah, we can't do this again. Like, we've got an actually really trained dog this time. Like, she's from like a show home. I thought that was like crazy important at the time. And, uh, yeah, I put in, you know, probably I kind of took the lead with Chelsea and put the most amount of effort in. I was the one who was doing all the feeding and walking and really making sure she had a good life. And, uh, I'd say her and I definitely had the closest bond from the family and That was where I really, really, really started to fall in love with dogs. She was just a really special dog. Like, I'd definitely get a Newfoundland at some point, um, but the cleaning was just hectic. And she was just great. Like, um, she used to tow us around in the swimming pool. We'd hold her tail and she thought it was the best game ever. She would just, being so big, just get mobbed by people. Everyone just wanted to come up to her and just pat her and see her and ask about her, and she just loved it. She took it all in her stride. She was a She was an incredible dog. But anyway, we did pretty well with her, so we decided at some point that she might like a friend. So, we got a chocolate lab called Gus, and as a puppy, and same thing, I remember going like, all right, like, we need to put in the effort. Like, you know, every time we've got a puppy, it's turned out poorly. So, yeah, I really took the lead on Gus, and so did Chelsea. She did a great job raising him, just teaching him so many good habits. But yeah, like— really focused heaps on his training. And not that I knew anything compared to what I knew now, but, you know, just trial and error and seeing what worked and just figuring out together. And it's such an underrated part of dog training, is having a solid relationship with your dog. It means you figure out so many things, um, and bypass and shortcut so many little shortcomings because you just have this extra little bit of communication that you only get when you have a tight bond. And I see that on a, I'm not gonna say daily basis, but I see it on a weekly basis. Like, people who have really, really just got things figured out with their dog, and they're not a technically good trainer, but I'm like, how did you teach that? And they're like, oh, I just did this and did that. I'm like, that makes no sense, but the fact your dog figured it out, like, is just the biggest testament to just how incredible they really are. But also just like relationship, it just, like I said, you can overcome so many things if you really are truly tight with your dog. That's why we just get you guys to, you know, like, with your dog, do stuff with your dog. Like, the more familiar you are with each other, the more in sync you are, the easier things get. And, uh, yeah, Gus became like really well trained. We, you know, went to the Million Paws Walk and won like an obedience comp and all sorts of stuff like that. And he was just a good dog, you know. You could walk around off lead, he'd stay in like a nice little heel kind of thing, you know. Leave him out the front of shops, he'd chill, he'd come back. He was fun. Like, he was just a cool dog. Like, taught him all sorts of cool stuff, just, you know, constantly without even knowing it. It was just doing, you know, the whole fuck around and find out thing, and just really, really, really got into dogs. Anyway, when Chelsea passed, uh, we got another dog, a Goldador, Stan. And, um, yeah, Gus was sort of mine and Stan was sort of my brother's, I suppose you could say. And, uh, yeah, it was cool. Like, I just— I guess at that stage Stan was a bit older and I was probably out of school here about maybe like, you know, 18. And yeah, like Gus was just my world. We just did everything together, took him all sorts of places, did all sorts of stuff. And me and, you know, a couple of my mates were really, really, really all into our dogs. We used to do heaps of cool dog stuff and I wouldn't say I became known, but like I used to get asked for advice, like, how do you do that with your dog? How do you get him doing that? And You know, was known as being, you know, pretty handy with dogs, I suppose. So it was always just a bit of a skill that I had. Anyway, I was going through uni and I was, you know, halfway through and needed a bit of a break. I was studying, uh, sport and exercise science at the time, and it's something I used to be really interested in. And I guess 2 years of studying it, I realized like I wasn't as interested as I thought to get to go any further with it. When we started breaking down like the anatomy of an eyeball and cutting up dead bodies at uni, I was like, oh, this is kind of not me anymore.

You're either all in on this model, or maybe you're building with another. You're either speed, or is it security? You're either custom, or are you ready to use? Or you're AWS AI. With hundreds of models, ready-to-use agents, speed and security built in, you don't have to pick a side. You can have them all. How will AI revolutionize your business? AWS AI is how.

Therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough. It shows up in the smallest moments. You bite your tongue instead of escalating. You put your phone down instead of firing off that text. You say what you actually mean instead of what would hurt someone else the most. Nobody applauds those moments, but they quietly change your life. That's what growing feels like, and that's exactly what Grow Therapy is here for. Grow is therapy that works, covered by insurance. Sessions average $21 with insurance, and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow connects you with thousands of high-quality licensed therapists across the US, offering both virtual and in-person sessions nights and weekends. You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty, identity, Availability, and you can book a therapy session in minutes and begin in as little as 2 days, not the national 48-day average. See if you could pay as little as $0 for therapy in seconds at growtherapy.com/startnow. That's growtherapy.com/startnow. growtherapy.com/startnow. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

Mmm. One iced coffee. 99 cents, please.

For real?

No way. Mmm. Ah. Mmm. One iced coffee.

99 cents, please.

For real? No way. Mmm. Ah. What a deal. Your new morning groove. Iced coffee from McDonald's, any size, for just 99 cents till 11 AM. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

So yeah, I needed a bit of a break to figure things out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. Um, I mean, if we rewind a few years, I actually wanted to be a dog trainer before I went to uni. I just didn't really see any career paths. On my— I still have it, my Year 10 career form. What do you want to do? Dog trainer and handler. Um, it was kind of cool to look back on when I was like 15, 16, and I knew that was what I wanted to do. And I used to tell, you know, Mum, like, I really want to go into the police or the army and be a handler and do this. And I thought it was that simple, but It was like, you know, 5 or 10 years of being a cop or, you know, doing infantry in the army, and I just wasn't passionate enough about either of those things to do it. And yeah, I just thought it wasn't an option for me, so I kind of just let it go and did other stuff. And anyway, yeah, so I was halfway through uni— um, sorry, back to the present. I was halfway through uni, bit over it, so I moved overseas to Europe, and I thought I was going to do like 6 months, just a bit of a gap year sort of thing, and just Just figure things out, see how it goes. But my partner at the time and I, we ended up sticking around for 3 years. We just absolutely loved it. And one of the kind of cool jobs we got, I was, well, one job I was a nanny or an au pair. So I lived in and had 4 kids that I cared for, which was just heaps of fun. But another one of the jobs we got was we applied to manage the estate of this ultra high net worth family. She used to work with like Bill Gates and shit. It was cool. I basically looked after the outside, she looked after the inside. Anyway, during like our Skype interview, they mentioned they had this dog, this Weimaraner, Paris, who's the dog in our logo, funnily enough, the Down Under Dog Trainer logo. And they're like, oh, we've got this Weimaraner, he's like super unruly, like I hope you don't mind living with him, he's a bit of a pain, but Max, you'd have to walk him and stuff. And I was like, oh, that's sweet, I'm actually pretty handy with dogs, I can probably, you know, help you out with a few things there. And that was actually the thing that got us over the line, funnily enough. We're like, oh, like sold, like that's sick. We, we really love our dog. We need, we need some help with him. So yeah, that was really cool. So got there and Paris is, you know, like this big Weimaraner who is, you know, escaping the house. He's jumping out of windows and running off into town, into the park, and, you know, harassing people and chasing cattle and pulling his owners over and all sorts of just just typical dog stuff, you know. He was just pretty understimulated and just was bored, so he was just getting up to mischief really. Like, that's all it was. He was a really good dog, just bored. And, uh, yeah, like, through what I knew, we got Paris improved. And then it really inspired me though, because there's lots of other stuff where I didn't know and I had to go searching to figure out. And yeah, like, I was so proud of how far Paris came in the end. Like, he was just an amazing dog. He We ended up taking him on so many cool adventures and doing stuff with him. Like, he was just, you know, and because, you know, they were quite a well-known family in this town we were in, and in Cirencester in England, in the Cotswolds, and because he was quite a well-known dog, therefore people sort of always knew, oh, there's that, you know, really bloody badly behaved Weimaraner. So once we sort of got Paris sorted, people started to take notice and, you know, ask me for tips and this and this, and I just used to do it as a hobby, like, yeah, I can help. Um, I got really into watching Cesar Millan at the time too, and I know he gets a bit of a knock and all that sort of stuff. And yeah, like, you know, throat punching a dog is pretty punchy. Like, I'm not gonna, you know, stand by that, but there's a lot of good stuff he does. You know, it might not work for the reason he thinks it's working. Um, you know, there's a lot more science to it than what he gives it credit for. But yeah, there's a lot of his stuff that's shit. Look, you know, A lot of his stuff, that's actually all right. But the thing I really fell in love with is the rehabilitation side. It was a whole other side to dog training I'd not really witnessed. I either thought it was police dogs, army dogs, or you just do it as a hobby. So seeing him, I was like, wow, like he's got a successful career. Like this is actually pretty cool. So I learned heaps from him, heaps from doing research. I ended up doing like a course over there because I was like, this is sick. I had heaps of time on my hands. So I was like, well, Why don't I start doing this as a bit of a side hustle? Like I'm sort of helping people on the side anyway. So yeah, just started off like nice and cheap and just going like, hey, I can't help with everything, but I can do XYZ. And yeah, and then sometimes I get inquiries as well and I wouldn't know how to do it, but like, hey, I don't fully know how to do this, but can we, you know, fuck around and find out and see what we can do? And yeah, it went well. It was in my final year in the UK there. So I was there for 3 years. In my final year, I did my business and I was just really committed and dedicated to building up Down Under Dog Trainer. I used to work 5 days a week, and I'd get up before work and go see clients early in the morning. Then on my lunch break, I'd go see a client and go do a walk, or a walk and train, or a session. And then after work, I'd go do— go see clients. Then on weekends, on my days off, I'd go and do clients and do full days of work. And it just started getting busier and busier, just word of mouth and Advertising and local pages and stuff, which was really cool. And then yeah, luckily my bosses Marilyn and Frank were really really cool people, and they let me you know start doing some like doggy daycare sort of thing because I was outside just mowing lawns and trimming trees and hedges and shit all day. I was like, "Hey, can I just? I've already got your dog with me. Can I have more dogs with me? Is that cool?" And they were fine with it, which is really cool. So I used to just mow lawns and I'd have you know Malinois and German Shepherds and Dachshunds and Pomeranians and Weimaraners around, just, you know, pop them in a down while I do some mowing and let them play. And just, it was sick. It was, it was really, really cool. Really, really cool part of my life. And yeah, it kind of showed me that, like, I was like, okay, this might actually have some potential. Like, this is pretty cool. Um, you know, it certainly gave me a really awesome lifestyle. So anyway, we moved back, um, to Australia and had to get back to uni because they emailed saying you need to get back or we're going to basically disqualify all your credit points, which for those that don't know would mean like all those 2 years would just go down the drain. I'd have to restart. So I got back and switched to business and marketing. Business is always something I was like really interested in. I started my first business when I was, I think, 15 or 16, like an e-com sort of thing when I was in high school. It was always something I was like really interested in and whatnot. So I was like, yeah, let's do that. That makes more sense. And Down Under Dog Trainer was cool. Like, it was just something I did on the side at uni, scheduled, you know, clients around classes and stuff like that. And yeah, it was sick. Used to do like house sitting and dog walking and all that sort of stuff. And yeah, still just thought it was like, how good is this? Like, I don't need to like, you know, work hospitality at uni or do any late nights. I can just like, you know, don't have to miss any classes either because I can decide my own schedule. And at that time it was really cool. And Yeah, like what I kind of found though during uni was, I don't know, I was like, I guess I've been one of those people where don't have to study too hard and can still do pretty well. Pretty lucky in that sense. And it meant I had heaps of time on my hands. So I'd work hard on the business. I'd be at courses every weekend. I reckon during that year, all I was, you know, I was staying away for weeks and weeks. I was going to Perth or Sunshine Coast or Brisbane or Sydney or Melbourne, just constantly flying and driving here and there and doing different courses and learning and trying to get better and better and better and being obsessed with study. I'd do this course after that course. I'd get, buy this scat dog behavior book from 1972 off Amazon and go through it and just really just like had this like desire to be the best. Fucking best, and yeah, really put that work in and tried my absolute best. And by the time I finished uni, it was um yeah business was going pretty well. Like I'd hired like an admin, had brought on some couple of people, and it was going good. And but most importantly, I was just loving it. We were getting great results, and I'm like a very ADHD when I say yeah, I've like literally got ADHD. And yeah, all that extra energy and and lack of focus, this really helped. It was an area I could just put all my focus into and really channel it into, you know, all that energy into it. If I, rather than stay up all night just fucking about, if I had a late night, I'd watch this or read that or work on the business or do things and just reply to clients. Like, it was just sick. It was somewhere where I could really channel myself. And to that point, I was like, hey, like, I actually think this is doing pretty well. Like, you know, I had a decent job sort of lined up And chose to go, nah, like I want to keep going with this dog training thing. And it's funny, like a lot of people at the time, you know, like, oh, like, you know, you play with dogs all day sort of thing. I don't think people get how serious dog training is and can be and how results-focused and the pressure. Um, you know, every single session you're not just rocking up going, oh, let's hang out today. It's like, you're coming here, my— you need to leave today with my dog in a better place than when you came. And it's, um, it's a lot, but I loved it, like thrived with it. And yeah, I'm glad it did. Like, it's been up and down. There was a time when I nearly closed the business and went on to do something else just because the world went a bit crazy during COVID It was about this point when you couldn't do face-to-face stuff and then, you know, trying to buy a house and all that sort of stuff. So nearly gave it away, but no, stuck at it. Just doubled down and tried even harder. And yeah, still to this day, I just, I still work just as hard. I still do regular staying up till 3 or 4 in the morning working on the business, or staying up to 3 and 4 in the morning because I'm watching some obscure dog training thing, um, in a language I can't even speak, just trying to figure it out or using Google Translate. I'm still in the car, I'm on the road all day, I'm just, you know, podcasts and courses and this and that, just, just obsessed with being the best I can be. And, uh, yeah, I really, really, really found just my calling, the thing I was meant to do because I and I'm glad I did because I'd have no fucking idea what I would do if I didn't train dogs. Like genuinely no idea. So I'm really glad I've found something that meets my passion of you know dogs meets my passion for business and meets my you know needs just to have constant constant constant intellectual stimulation and just an outlet for my energy and I love it. It's the reason why I do this podcast. It's the reason why I train dogs. It's just Just the best. And, uh, honestly, I'll, I'll do this to the day I drop. And I always say I could win the lottery tomorrow and never need to work again, and I would still train dogs every day because I just love it. I love helping people. I love just the results. I love turning things around when dogs are destined for death row or rehoming or whatever, or just where people think they can never leave the home with their dog again, and then they're doing these things. Like, that's what I'm in love with. That's just the best part of it. Uh, Yeah, it's just crazy the world works. If I hadn't— I don't know, we hadn't got this dog that originally inspired me to, you know, figure out dogs and take some ownership. If I hadn't been with this person and taken that gap year and happened to watch César Millán on every lunch break, or happened to have that dog who was problematic. Like, there's just lots of things where in an alternate universe not that far away from me, there's A whole different version of me that didn't end up in the dog world because, you know, there were so many little chance things I always think about that steered me here. But then at the same time, I always also think like, you know what, like in probably 99% of the parallel universes, I'm training dogs because I really just think that was what I was put here and meant to do. But, um, that's my story. That's how I got into it. That's my purpose. That's why I do things. And hope that helps you guys understand me. a little bit more. Um, like I said, I wasn't— this was pretty low down on my list to do this episode, but Jack suggested it because we just had quite a few of you message, um, really wanting that episode because it was something we hadn't really done. But that's me. Uh, I hope you guys enjoyed listening. Let me know what you think, and we'll chat soon in the next episode. Thanks, guys.

The Dog People Podcast is a mashed Pumpkin Production, hosted by Jack Lawrence and Max O'Neill. Edited, produced, and audio production by Jack Lawrence.

Why can't we get AI to production? Our competitors are already— How do we keep data secure? When do we actually see ROI? All this talk about AI, but talk doesn't transform businesses. AWS AI cuts through the noise, making AI easier to securely deploy and scale with ready-to-use agents and the broadest set of AI tools and services you can build, buy, or partner your way. Stop overthinking, start building. AWS AI is how.

There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. Stand still? Not a chance.

You're a lifelong learner who's come this far. Now we are here to help you Help you keep going further. Capella University. What can't you do? Visit capella.edu to learn more.

You're listening to a quick ad. You know what else is quick? Selling your car on Carvana. Just put in your vehicle information and we'll give you an offer. Done. No hassle, no negotiation, no guy from an online listing lowballing you. Which means by the time I'm done explaining this, you could have basically done it. Still haven't started? Hey, better late than never. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.