Answering Your Questions About Our Courses | SOURCE

Welcome to The Source Podcast. I'm excited to have another week with you guys and to share a little bit of information with all of our listeners. Hopefully you take one thing out of this week's podcast our long-form Friday podcast, The Source, all things working dogs. I'm glad to have Maya on here with me again this week where we get to talk about our courses and answer your questions. So excited to spend some time, teach a little bit, and obviously give you guys some invaluable information Maya, how you doing this week?

I'm doing good. We've had a rainy day, so—

Well, the crazy thing is, is this week I've learned a lot, and that's crazy, right? Because we always want to be a student in this industry. But can I tell you a little bit about what I learned this week?

Oh Lord, go ahead.

I can do it?

Yeah, go for it.

Well, I learned that, uh, you were falling apart this week.

I knew it. I felt that one.

Well, I got to give everybody a little bit perspective because I can't be the only one laughing at that. Maya has been planning our trip to Michigan for their 2024 MWD Symposium And again, we're down to crunch time. We leave— she leaves in the morning. I leave Sunday, Simon and I do, and her and Hunter leave in the morning. But we had our final meeting, final prep, final standup for the symposium. And yesterday, Maya was, uh, her hair was everywhere, tossing people around.

I think— no, no, no, no, no.

She was yelling at people. She was— yeah, she crumbled. So, uh, glad to see that your hair's done today. Um, ready to roll for this podcast, ready to go. Being flexible, that's the name of the game, you know, dealing with adversity. As we learned, uh, in a previous podcast, we don't have problems, we have solutions. And a lot of solutions come around yesterday and everything. All the building blocks fell into place and we're at a good place right now. What you think?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited. We're about to kick off this week, the, well, weekend plus the week. So we'll be vending at the expo as well, but then you and Simon will be teaching advanced concealment methods.

Yeah, it's gonna be great because, uh, even looking at the lesson plan, like just gets exciting leading up to that and all the preparation that we've been doing over the last 6 weeks and just seeing that culminate into what we call game time, right? Like, yeah, let's, let's put it on the field and let's see what that preparation did for us. You know, most importantly, it gives us an opportunity to meet some great people, share some information, and hopefully, uh, be able to help them not just through our courses but maybe through some of our networking and other resources that we have. So I'm excited about that.

Well, that's one of the reasons we pushed the symposium so much is because of how great of a networking opportunity this is. And this is open to law enforcement handlers as well. So we're really going to have people there with various dogs, with various training experiences, etc., just kind of all getting together, networking, and becoming better trainers ultimately is the goal.

Yeah, you know, it's refreshing to see, and I always learn something from every single handler, every single opportunity. I try to take something out of it and learn from it, put it in my toolbox. And I've done that for the last, you know, 20-plus years that I've been doing this. I try to impart that on everybody else where, you know, you have some people that are, oh, this is the way to do it, you know, they— you can go down a whole list of this is it. You know, I'm the best and all these other things. But at the, at the end of the day, it's about making that team better in some form or fashion, taking what they already know and enhancing it. And I think there's some taglines out there for some companies that do that on a commercial side, so I steal that every now and then. But at the end of the day, I want to take what you know, take what you have and what you have to offer, both you and the dog, and make it make it better in some form or fashion. And it's not to say one way is better than the other. It's just taking that experience and, and pushing it towards something that can help the team. And, uh, that could be in many different areas, not just in what people perceive on the outside to be better. Sometimes it's just helping a handler deal with stress, uh, how to work with their dog in a stressful situation and working through it. And learning how to cope with that. So, you know, there's, there's many different avenues that we can target to, to enhance a team's capabilities, and that's really what it's about. And on top of that, exposing handlers to new, new ways of thinking, and, you know, them being able to build their network, because I can say that's one of the biggest things that I did in my career was build a network and it paid off dividends for me in doing what I do today. I can't count the number of people I call on to help or to send someone else to that I know that they can help them in some form or fashion. So that's really what this is all about, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you've mentioned before the school that you had attended while you were in law enforcement. Did not equip you the same way that we now equip our students. You know, so what really kind of, I've always wanted to know this actually, 'cause we've talked about how initially CCU was training dogs, but at what point did that kind of shift over to training the handler and training the trainers like we do now?

Yeah, well, you know, it's, again, you look at needs and you look at, where things are missing. You know, we were meeting earlier today about developing a new service, right? A new, a new program per se. And, you know, we want to look at what's missing and where we can really help the people that we serve, which is our customers, our client base. And when you begin to evaluate that, you begin to— and, and evaluate it from a perspective that's nonjudgmental. And because sometimes we get caught up in what we think is best, but that's not always what's best for our clients because they have different perspectives. And we take that into consideration. Well, even from an early stage, I just felt like I would be remiss to have the skills that I have and not trying to share those with others. Because I can think about a lot of people that helped me throughout my career. And one thing they always taught me was to be open-minded, learn from everybody, take the good and the bad and learn from it and see how it can help others, and then never be scared to share that information. And so from an early onset of that, I'm seeing dogs and I'm seeing handlers that are being trained and they're just missing a whole lot of information. And then I get a hold of them and we're training together, and I'm just like, hey man, like, you need to be looking at this, or you need to be looking at that, you need to consider this or consider that. And I was just amazed by the people that just didn't have that information. And again, I can always go back to my roots and how I operate today, and it's, you know, based on research, it's based on putting out and investing a lot of time in research and making sure that I take other perspectives into consideration. And especially from a law enforcement and military standpoint, like, there's a lot of perspectives I got to take into consideration before I tell a handler to do this or to do that, because what I may do may affect other areas of training that they have, or requirements that they have policy-wise or legal requirements. And I may think it's cool to do it, or I may think it's a good idea, but when it affects those core principles of which they operate under, um, both from a military and law enforcement standpoint, and I alter those in any form or fashion, I not only open them up to problems with their command or with their policies or procedures, but but I also open them up to liability and making them unreliable teams. So there's a lot of cool stuff out there that I see people do, but it's not an application for every genre of dog handler, and that has to be really considered. So when I looked at that, getting back to your question, I looked at an opportunity to help others, and I did a lot of training. Like, I spent years of training for free. Because I felt like I couldn't charge people for training until I even considered myself an expert. And I'm probably my hardest critic because it's easy to give smoke and mirrors, and I talk a lot about that, uh, mirrors in a lot of instances, or, you know, telling half-truths but full lies to people that don't know any better. And when that happens as an expert, and I'm telling people things that are not necessarily true, they sound right and do have some application at times, but is not really the whole truth, we're really doing a disservice in that nature. So I, I try to take that into consideration in everything we do and to make sure that we're crystal clear in how we deliver things. And no misunderstandings per se. Because I know from an intentional standpoint, there's never an intention to do that.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's what, you know, initially brought me to CCU just as a civilian client with a pet dog was there was never, from the beginning, there was never any promise of we're going to get you in here and within 2 sessions your dog's going to be perfect and ready to go, or, you you know, let's put you in this program and she's gonna be perfect in X amount of time. It was always bring her in, we'll evaluate her, we'll discuss a plan with you, but you have to keep in mind this plan is gonna change depending on you, what you do as the dog owner, which is a big part of it. In the same way, it depends on what you do as the student. And I really feel like all the students we've seen come through here, they're absolutely so dedicated, they're so intelligent, they're so passionate about no matter if they're doing the handler, trainer, Kennel Master, etc., courses, they're just so on top of it because they truly love it. And I love being able to see people chase their dreams at CCU, um, or, or just in the field in general, honestly. Yeah, just on a daily basis. Um, but with that said, I did reach out on our social media accounts and asked our followers if they had any specific questions about our courses. Yeah, just to kind of hear maybe what they'd like a little clarity about. And if you're listening and you if you have other questions we don't talk about in this, feel free to send us an email. All of our contact info is always linked in the show notes. But one of the main questions that I got, or that we got via social media, was, you know, what makes someone gravitate towards a handler course versus a trainer course, or vice versa?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I always go back, even when I'm talking to people, I'm, I'm in a great position right now where I get to speak to a lot of people before they even come to us, and I get that question a lot. You know, people want to get into this industry and for one form or fashion or another, right? Some of it's to make money, some of it's to, you know, get out of their 9 to 5. You know, I couldn't work— let's just take a factory or in an office. It kills me to be in the office as much as I am now. Like, that's not my ideal dream job. I love what I do, but I hate being in the office. I love to be out. I love to be— see the weather. I love to be working in the heat, training dogs and working with handlers. But with that question being asked, I get a lot of that. What should I do? And I always take, take into consideration what somebody's career path is. Truly, what is your dream? Because if your dream is to have a dog, own a dog, and work a dog, then the handler is the way to go. But if your dream is to be able to influence others, train others, train dogs, then I would say go the trainer route. Now, can't— are you remiss if you do both? No, because that experience is still necessary, especially if I'm training handlers. I would want that experience of being a handler to give those handlers a better insight to be a handler, if that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely.

So when, when somebody gravitates to one form or fashion or another, I always recommend following what your dreams are and then setting yourself up for success with that. With professional training. So again, you want to be a drug dog handler, work contracts, or go work for a company, or even in your agency, um, you know, be a dog handler, um, within your agency, then I would say take courses that give you the experience to be the best handler you can be. If your dreams and aspirations are to open up a facility, work for a facility, as a trainer. You know, a lot of people will— they want to train service dogs for veterans. It just seems like that sticks out in my mind because I've had 3 or 4 people call me about that this week. And, you know, I would say lean towards your trainer courses and become an expert as a trainer and soak in all the information you can in relationship to that. But ultimately, I still suggest in every form or fashion to obtain a professional training in those areas and don't try to, you know, do it on your own. There's a lot of mistakes you can make by, you know, trying to follow, you know, online training or YouTube and learning how to do this because there's a lot of things at stake both as a handler and a trainer. And when you're not professionally trained, you, you're going to make a lot of mistakes before you do any good. Now obviously everybody gets lucky here and there and hits the bullseye, but I've seen more problems created by people just not knowing. And you don't, you don't know until you begin to train. I was actually sitting with a trainer yesterday in a meeting talking about their career path and how we can help them both from a network standpoint and an educational standpoint. And that's one thing he said. He says, you know what this really has revealed to me being here for the 4 weeks that I've been here so far is that there's so much that I don't know and this is just scratching the surface. And he hit the nail on the head. I couldn't have said it better. Mm-hmm. Absolutely right. But I also need to know where we can help you reach your dreams. Education, networking, and resources. How can we help you? And, uh, so that's what the nature of that meeting was about. And, uh, you know, so I know that doesn't give someone a clear path, but I say the first thing is, is to identify where your dreams and passions are first, and then let us help guide you down the right courses, um, that you should start taking to, to begin to, uh, see that dream come true.

Yeah. And now we've had students come in for any of our courses that have trained dogs before, and they're just coming in for more knowledge. And we've had people who have never touched a dog before that that are just like, hey, this is what I wanna do. So we really have people come in from so many different walks of life. But like you've always said before, there's one thing that always brings us together and it's dogs. At the end of the day, that's what brings us all here. And that's why it's just, we have a course coming up at the end of May on the 28th after Memorial Day. And I just get so excited for the next like rush of students to come in and hearing about sort of you know, what interested them in dog training and why they ended up coming to CCU, what they hope to get out of it. And just that first week is always so fun to just observe the students, um, no matter what course they're in, because, you know, they're a little bit, oh, I don't really know what's going on, I'm trying to figure things out, maybe a little bit quiet. And then by the second week, it's just like they've been here forever. Now, one thing you mentioned was trainer students coming in with the goals of opening their own training facility. I actually had someone message us on, I believe it was Facebook a couple of weeks ago, who wanted to know if we would accept a handler student who wanted to then go on to become a contractor with his canine. And of course, you know, I responded, absolutely. You know, we encourage that. We actually have a whole platform set up to support our handlers, our CCU graduated handlers. And kind of discussed with him. But that's one thing that you've always been very clear on is that there's no true competition in this industry. We're all here to help each other. And I think that's what the students really benefit from here is because you don't mind connecting them with John Doe in X state just to kind of help propel them further in their industry. And I feel like that's a certain edge that CCU offers that even some universities don't offer. Is that something that you sort of intentionally built, or is it just part of your nature? And building CCU, you knew that was going to be a part of it?

Um, yes to your questions, and I say that because, you know, I go back to my, my humble beginnings, right? And I remember being told like, this is the only way, and it was very much discouraged to go and train with other people or to seek additional knowledge. And what I found from that was the fact that that was because that particular training company or trainer, um, felt like, uh, or knew maybe in the back of their mind or really in their heart that they weren't giving everything and the training was inept. And because of that, I learned so much, and it revealed to me so much when I began to really delve into more training and, you know, how inadequately I was actually trained. And, you know, this is not a bash session. I say it's something that I learned from, and I always said that I would never leave somebody at a point to where they felt like that. We would give them their all. We would open up the doors. I remember having a training, a head trainer one time that when we first started developing the trainer course, you know, told me, specifically asked me to give a list of things that we would not include in that trainer course. And I was dumbfounded. I said, what do you mean by that? They were like, well, we can't tell them everything that we do because if we do, then they're just going to take our business. I was like, whoa! For one, that never crossed my mind. Secondly, who would we be if we didn't give everybody everything we do? That would— what would be the purpose of doing a trainer course or trying to prepare a student for the real world if we weren't going to release all of our so-called secrets.

Yeah.

I said, no, absolutely not. You're going to share everything. You're going to teach them how we do things. You're going to teach them why we do things a certain way. Because if not, we leave them just like I was left, with not enough information, just enough to make me dangerous and really to put me in a position to do a lot of damage versus a lot of good. And You know, we have a certain amount of time in our courses. We pack it in as much as we can, but obviously they are still, you know, basic or beginner courses. The great thing about how all the courses are developed, because you mentioned it, we can take somebody that has a lot of experience and I can think of a lot of students that came through that have had multiple dogs as a handler. Or trainers that have come through that have gotten dogs from us, or trainers that have come through that we've been able to teach. Our curriculums are built for the lowest person with no knowledge all the way up to those that have a lot of knowledge. I can think of a veterinarian that came through our trainers course one time, and, you know, we were— how do I say this— we, we were confident enough in our information and our research and the things that we had developed to be able to deliver a course that was still even challenging for a veterinarian that has a wealth of information. Yeah. So I'm not saying that to be boastful. I'm saying that, that course, all of these courses are designed to be able to handle all levels of expertise for those students to get things from it. Because it really delves into the minute details of of how to accomplish the task. And I say it all the time, anybody can focus on the big picture. Like, I can get on YouTube and learn to be a handler, but it's the minute details that really make the difference, the attention to detail. And, and that's what's really important on how to be good handlers or good trainers, is pay attention to those minute details and everything you do. And that's how we teach.

Yeah. Oh, that's what I will say. One thing, I've never seen the students standing around bored. That doesn't happen around here.

Idle, idle minds, idle hands, all those things get people in trouble. Yeah, we want to keep people busy. They're— they should be consumed with something going on all the time, and that's what courses are designed for. Now, not every moment is directed by an instructor because there's record keeping, there's study time, there's, you know, self-reflection time built into that. So some of that is built into the course because it offers a learning advantage by doing that. So, but that means they are consumed with doing something all the time. And what we call it is in rotation. You're in one of three states. You're, you're either involved in a training session, observing a training session, or studying and/or documenting. So they're in one of those three states all the time. But if you really think about it, as a trainer or a handler in the real world, you're doing the same thing. So you're either on a deployment, training, or documenting. That's the life. So we build people accustomed to that because that's what they're going to do when they leave us. Simplest forms. So we built our courses around that as well.

Yeah. Now, when it comes to our curriculum, I feel like this is where we probably get the most questions, um, just in general, because there is a lot to cover. And we won't get into the nitty-gritty on each individual course, but just kind of overarching, we've talked about how your experience as a K-9 handler in your time in law enforcement has built up our curriculum. But have there been— obviously curriculum is always changing, research is always changing and evolving.

Yeah.

You know, I'm assuming it wasn't just you who built the curriculum. You know, were there other guiding hands? Is it experience from other people?

Yeah. You know, I, I learn from everybody, you know, and when we say built the curriculum, okay, yes, I wrote the curriculums, uh, had input from other trainers that work for us and all that to write all these curriculums. And that was one thing that I was always, um, an advocate of and, and really built the standards from day one. We don't do any shade tree training. And what I mean by that, you're not going to just show up, we hang out and train and have a good time, because that's what I saw when I first started. And I would literally show up to teach seminars to get experience, and I always offered to help this particular kennel, and I would beg and plead leading up to this event or these events saying, hey, you know, what, do you have a lesson plan? What are we teaching? And I would always be promised the same thing leading up to it. Hey, I'll get it to y'all. Hey, I'll get it to you. I'd show up Sunday night getting ready to train Monday for the week at a particular agency with this particular kennel And ultimately it came down to, we will figure it out in the morning. And I'm just like shaking my head like, oh, so— and it's just not a good place to be. So as you know, all the planning and prep work that goes into even just a small event for a week, how many hours goes into it, how many, you know, how much resources we put into it in order to make it as successful as we can. Ultimately for our students, because those are the ones that are either going to suffer or benefit from it. And, you know, there'll never be a lack of preparation and a lack of planning going into anything that we do. Um, and it kills me sometimes to get messages from people, hey, just send me what you're going to do. I mean, it just— it's not that easy. Like, we got to plan, we got to evaluate what's going to be beneficial, and then we got to map it out, and we got to write it out, and we got to put together our, um, our safety, uh, evaluations and all these things that go into delivering training for somebody that nobody ever sees. They just see the outward appearance of it. And for us, I just vowed to never be what I learned in the past. And like I said, it's not a bad experience because I learned from it, but you know, building these lesson plans and taking it. Yes, do I learn from everybody? Do I take in knowledge? Yes. But to change a curriculum takes a lot. It don't take just, oh, let's do this, or oh, let's do that. No, it's okay, how does this affect everything else? How does it affect the other areas of teaching that we're giving? How does it affect, affect our manuals, our knowledge base and what, what, um, what references can we, uh, reference to back up this. Because at the end of the day, if I ever end up in a court of law and have to raise my hand for a handler or a trainer, I got to have something to, to stand on when it comes to the reasons why we do certain things. So everything we do has a reason for it and a factual reason for it, whether it's science, whether it's experience, whether it's other research that we lean on, there's always something. There's never a, oh, this is my opinion, or this is the way that I want to do it. Absolutely not. It better be referenced through that experience, that research, you know, or, or things of that nature. So yeah, we just don't have that luxury to go out and go— and I say it's a luxury, but in reality, it's, it, it's far deeper. You know, the odd thing about this, my, is that I've never really talked about this and the amount of work that goes into this kind of stuff. I just, you know, just goes kind of unnoticed and just happens in the background.

Yeah, well, I mean, we've talked about before very briefly, usually at graduations, just the, the amount of, you know, background work, we'll call it, just the things that people don't see leading up to a course or leading up to graduation. Graduation is always a big one because everyone's got to get together and make sure that schedules line up so we can have food and organize families to be there. And, you know, pictures have to be taken and posted and sent, etc., etc. So it's just a lot of things going on in the background that I feel like even when you're here as a student, you may not realize. Like, you just see people kind of buzzing back and forth, back and forth, which I hear that one a lot with students. Students. They'll be like, you know, who are you? And I'm like, oh, I'm Maya. Uh, sorry, I just bounce in and out taking pictures. You'll see me with a camera. Don't be camera shy. Um, but that's one of those things, like, people just— I didn't understand, that's for sure, how much goes on. Because to me, I was like, oh, they're just gonna pull out a dog, they're gonna train a dog. But the reality of it is our head trainer and his trainers are here early, first thing in the morning, setting out exactly what needs to be done throughout the day. Reviewing previous sessions from the day before and seeing if there's an issue with a dog, if there's an issue with maybe their detection or bite work, what needs to be done to improve that, some ways to fix anything going on. And, you know, of course, just checking in on the students and seeing how they're doing as well.

Yeah, that's right. You know, that, you know, that doesn't take into account that, you know, we deal with students um, not to, you know, push the dogs off because we deal with some of the same issues with dogs sometimes, but when you have living organisms, there's always something going on as well. So even having to deal with personal issues and things of that nature to help students out, or, you know, medical stuff, all those things are not necessarily built into the curriculum. How to handle them are You know, from all policies, but in reality, that curriculum is built to move through, but it's inevitable you're going to have to deal with, you know, personal issues and help students out, direct them to medical. So there's a lot of other moving parts to include the necessity of support personnel to make it all mesh together. So It really is an organism that, that, that really operates and it culminates into, I say, front-facing, which is what our clients see. But the realization is, is there's a lot more that goes on in the background that most people don't even know about or would even think about.

Yeah, I would agree with that. Now you mentioned we are, we have students here that become, you know, a valuable part of we'll call it the team, you know, while they're here. So what have you found in your many years of training trainers and handlers and other courses, but what have you found they struggle with the most? Is it the curriculum? Is it being outside? Is it— because I know it gets hot in Georgia. Like, if you're listening, you don't know, we're based in Gainesville, Georgia. I mean, it gets, it gets nice and warm in those summer months, and then it gets pretty cold in the winter. So You know, what do you find they struggle with the most?

Well, certainly not the weather conditions and things of that nature. You know, we can all adjust. Most of the people that come to us come from either a law enforcement or military background or are still currently in the military. So that's pretty easy. You know, we have to train in the elements because that's where we deploy or that's where the real world takes us. So we have to train in that. I think the biggest thing that people struggle with overarching is the knowledge and the testing, because as adults— and I'm probably the biggest contributor to this— we didn't take school serious. And so learning how to study for someone that doesn't know how to do that can be shocking. And so, um, it, it— and we tell people this from day one, all students in every course— we're going to pack you down with information, but I'm not teaching for my health. So when you don't set out tests and standards, people take that information and they're trying to get to the end of the course. So every one of our courses are built through a knowledge base of application and through the knowledge, the theory that goes behind that. Because I'm also a believer in the more information you have, the more likely you are to stick to the training plan. So if I only tell you to feed your dog twice a day, okay, that leaves some room for you to go, well, maybe I don't really need to feed twice a day. But if I tell you why we tell you to feed twice a day and give you the research that supports that, the likelihood of a student sticking with that is much higher. I also want you to learn it too, because most of our students are professionals, which mean they're police or military, or they're going to be a professional handler, or they're going to be a professional trainer. So what's the importance of that? That The importance of that is don't rely on the amount of time you've been doing this. Rely on the amount of knowledge you have. So don't tell me that you've been doing this 10 years and that's the first thing you lead off with when I meet you, because the first thing I'm going to do is shut you down. I'm not going to listen to you because you're like every other trainer that has ever tried to tell me how great they were. Impress me by telling me how long they've been doing this. Impress me by your knowledge. Impress me by you being able to tell me why we're doing certain things or why you would have me to do certain things. So if I'm training with you and you tell me to do something, give me the why behind it. That tells me and teaches me volumes about you as a trainer or as a handler. Versus the person who just says, do this, and then I ask why and they can't tell me why, I'm going to turn you off. But yet you just sit there and told me you've been doing this 20 years, but you just told me to do something and you try to give me an answer that's not foundation— not foundationally through science or not foundationally through other means such as experience or other value adds to the reason why I need to do that. Okay, you tried it with one dog and it worked, so really you're just out here experimenting with me and with my dog. You're not giving me sound advice based on science and based on your experience. I'm going to cut you off. So I always tell our trainers this as well: teach off of knowledge and theory. Don't teach off years of experience or try to impress people by how many dogs you've trained. That's a factor, but the underlying factor is the knowledge that you can apply to that training. And the same thing with a hammer. So, um, hope I didn't, uh, digress a little bit, um, with that, but I just think it's important for us in this industry to rely on experience and knowledge versus just sitting out there in the field telling people what to do because we have some kind of title of trainer or handler.

Well, and from the time that I first started coming to CCU— well, when I started becoming more involved with CCU, you always were, you know, you told me, where's, where's the data? Where are the numbers? I don't need a feeling why you've decided to do this. I need to know statistically why this makes sense. And if it doesn't make sense, what data do you need to make it make sense? In our curriculum, we don't currently offer business courses. However, we do have our separate business services, which we've kind of touched on before, and how that was really built just to help our students who kind of maybe were in the same shoes you were in. They didn't have that, a college degree in business, or they didn't have experience in running a business, or maybe they have had experience in running a business, but they just can't something's just not clicking.

Yeah.

Um, of course, that, like I said, that's separate from our curriculum, but, you know, would you want to go into maybe why we decided to build that out a little bit?

Well, you know, with any products or services, as I mentioned earlier, it's not about me, it's not about you, it's about the people that we serve, which are our clients, whether that's from a civilian standpoint, a military standpoint, a veteran standpoint, or a law enforcement standpoint. At the end of the day, we need to be providing products and services that serve them to the best of our capability, utilizing our expertise, our resources, and our network. And so even from that standpoint, when I get, you know, when I, when I get that feeling of uneasiness, when I repeatedly hear, you know, trainers, you know, trying to get their foot you know, in, in something solid so they can move forward versus in quicksand because they're trying to start a business, they don't have curriculums, they don't have any of this built, um, and they're struggling. You know, it pains me to hear that because I really truly care about them. And, uh, so, you know, they got all the training in the world, they, you know, got a good solid foundation of training, they are great with dogs and they could really make a great impact in our industry, but they don't have all the other necessities that it takes, which is, you know, back office support, scheduling support, marketing help, or knowledge. And on top of that, they're trying to survive. You know, I was blessed to be able to work, you know, I guess full-time in a job, run a K-9 unit, and began to build lesson plans and write lesson plans and all this other stuff on my free time while still having a full-time job. And so I took advantage of that time to get me in a good place to where I could get started. But somebody that doesn't have that nor has the resources, I felt like there was ways that we could help them with what we had in order to support getting them off the ground and, you know, supporting their endeavors with the training that they receive. So we came up with, or I came up with the idea of business suites to be able to help that, because most of us don't want to be in the office and answer phones and schedule stuff and make decisions about marketing and such. I do it out of necessity. That's it. But at the end of the day, like I said in the beginning, I'd rather be in the doggone field training.

Yeah. Instead I'm sitting here on a podcast with Maya, which is just as fun, just as fun.

However, I'd rather be on leash. That's the reality of it. But I know that my role is to do this. However, there's a lot of people that now have training and don't have that support. So that's the whole reason why we came up with that. I'm, you know, I'm going to invest time, resources, and money towards building those up to to help our students. And so that was the reason why we decided to do that. And that's the decision— the, the, the class we talked about today that we had the meeting about, because I realized that we have a missing piece, that we need to develop a class for this. And so now we get the whole team together. Think about it, we were an hour in that meeting. How many people were in that meeting? Me, you, Simon, Keeley, and who else? Was that it? 4?

Yeah.

Yeah. Just the man hours spent or invested in that one meeting.

Yeah.

Just think about that. So we are— CCU's willing to do that when we see that need. That's where the research and development comes in in order to deliver that to our clientele. But it has to be done right. It has to be based on great foundation, planned out, a curriculum written out and all that stuff before we release it to, uh, to be sold.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's what kind of going back to what we had talked about, the background stuff, that's just one of those things. There's just so many things going on in the background always. But the biggest thing, and you've said this many times before, if we're not moving forward, we're, we're standing still. And if you're standing still, you're dying. And, you know, if you come to our trainer course today, and if you would come to our trainer course 3 years ago, there are gonna be different things that we teach in different ways that we teach because there have been new experiences, there's been new research put out, which is why we're so adamant about— it's one of the reasons we do the short set, as a matter of fact, just to kind of help our, our everyone who has access, but also our graduates you know, see kind of how is CCU looking at this issue this week, which is one of the reasons we started doing that, just to encourage you to train but also help you troubleshoot, essentially, if you're having any issues with, with training. But moving away from this, moving back towards our students that are coming in, one of the questions we've got almost as much as the trainer versus handler course is the funding options that we have available for our students that come through. And you've mentioned a little bit, we see a lot of students with military backgrounds. So do you— is there any specific thing that people are using for funding?

Yeah, so I'll run down a quick list of funding options that I've seen in the past, what we offer internally to give a little bit of guidance. with that. First and foremost, we, uh, of course a lot of people pay out of pocket on their own, which, you know, relates to their savings. I see people cash out of 401(k)s or take out a little bit of money on a 401(k) to fund it. Um, they also get business loans on their own in order to fund the endeavor, um, because, you know, obviously they can show the money they'll make back by investing in this equipment or training or whatnot. Um, then we also offer the VA program, which allows somebody to use the GI Bill to come to school. That includes VR&E, uh, most, most commonly known as voc rehab or vocational rehabilitation. Um, that's also available. We also have in-house financing through a third party. So there's two that are offered depending on the price points. We can offer two third party, um, that allow you to obtain a course that's based on your credit and such. Um, that's LendingUSA, and I think Klarna as well. And so that's just something you need to discuss with us. We can get you the information, send it over to you. We have those that use that. The other thing is, is we have the apprenticeship program where, you know, in, in the simplest forms, there's a reduction in salary to pay for the training over a 2-year period. That program's 2 years, and we teach you, and then you go— when you complete the program in 2 years, you will receive the certificates for the areas that you have been taught— trainer, panel master. So you'll receive those 3 certifications by the time you leave, leave us in 2 years. So that program is our newest program that, that's been offered. The other areas that I've seen financing is, um, there's been some state-funded programs. One, um, particularly here in the state of Georgia, was Department of Labor. There was a grant given to fund training for somebody that's trying to start a new career or get into a career. And recently one for the state of Texas that is on a job placement program that a student's using. They're going to fund the program for them to get training for job placement. So state agencies allow those types of grants as well. To help with some funding. You know, ultimately it's based on your decision, uh, your situation particularly, and then meeting the requirements of that specific program that's out there. But we really do have a lot of people that fund this through either a loan or whatnot. And I put it in perspective, you know, let's just say you spend $20,000. Most people buy $20,000 cars, you know, the payment on that is, you know, anywhere from $350,000 to $450,000 or maybe even $550,000 depending on your credit score. But I always look at it from an investment standpoint. There's a lot of opportunity out there in this industry. It's a multi-billion dollar industry. And so there's a lot of opportunity out there to use these skill sets. And with the— and I've seen over the last 10 years the growth of the amount of dogs that are being used and dog handlers being used in venues. I mean, we just had 4 canine handlers in Florida doing an event for 5 days, 60 hours, and they probably made as much money in those 5 days than most people make in a month. Um, so, you know, and I'm not trying to lure anybody with the money aspect of it because ultimately most people that are in this industry do it because they love it. They love dogs, they love handlers, they love to train them, they love to work with dogs, and they're not stuck in an office. So that's why they do it. But the financing options that are available, again, the 3 loan— or the 2 in-house loan options, and really those are 3 different programs even though there's 2 companies that offer them. There's 3, but the point behind this is, is those 2 companies are specific to our industry. And we have worked out their, their ability to finance this type of training and/or equipment. So it's specific to this industry. And that's the hard thing. We had to search high and low to find companies that are willing to finance at a reasonable rate these types. And I think both of those companies offer some same-as-cash options as well. But I, I have to stress it, it is individualized per everybody's situation. So, but it is available. The other one is out of pocket. Save up some money. We are looking at some other options. As you know, if I'm not settled on something in my heart, I don't do it. And sometimes it's just timing. It's just not the right time, or we don't have the right information right now. And as it sits right now, I don't have the right information or or it doesn't sit well with me financing in-house. So maybe one day, but just not right this second.

Yeah. Well, that just goes to show though, we— hold on. At the end of the day, our goal at CCU is to see you in a course and see you living your dream. And turning, you know, sort of the tagline that I'll use sometimes is turning your passion into a purpose. You have a passion for dogs, CCU can offer the tools and the knowledge that you need to turn that into your life's purpose and your career. Which at the end of the day, that's what we want. That's what we want to see. So this is a loaded question, but let's end it here. You know, why CCU?

Yeah, you know, I always say that, you know, you're asking me, right? 100%, I'm committed to CCU, um, because of where I know our heart is. And that's what a lot of people don't see with CCU. They only see what we advertise, or they only see this, but, you know, we're not perfect. By any means, but I know where everybody's heart is in this company. Every trainer, every kennel tech, every kennel master, every, uh, everybody from operations down to marketing. Like, I know where everybody's heart is, and it's really centered around helping those that trust us to take care of their dogs, to help them with training, to provide them services, to sell them products. And if you're— if somebody is looking for a company that, for one, wants to support them, really wants the best for them, and is going to tell them— truth is not the right word in this instance. It's really to be honest with them and just tell them like it is. Um, not in a bad way, but without any of those smoke and mirrors that they often get from other people, then CCU is right for you. We really commit to our people. And, and actually, um, I don't even know if I should bring this up right now, but I'm like, I have a good friend of mine that's mad at me right now because I told him like it is. And, you know, Uh, one of the things I told him is, is, you know, I have a— I have an obligation to, um, to help our clients. And what I mean by that is, if you buy into CCU, I owe you everything I can give you, and I should not give you the same attention that I give someone else that doesn't spend money with us. Or buy into CCU. And you guys can see a lot of our programs are centered into our current customers because I have this strange belief that if you're part of our family, then I should support you 100%. And if you're not part of this and invest in us, why should I be investing in you? I support you being trained by somebody else. I support you getting products and services from someone else. But I'm sorry, I cannot give you the same level of commitment that I would give to someone that has bought into our program, that has trusted us to take care of their dog. I'm going to bend over backwards. I'm going to answer their calls. I'm going to communicate with them. I'm going to Sometimes I don't get back to people because they're asking me for things that our paying customers ask for, and I'm going to spend my time helping those that has invested in us. And I hope that doesn't sound bad to people. I hope the perspective that I'm trying to say with words is what's really in my heart, but it really is about that, that family that I've always had that vision of having and investing in those that, uh, you know, have taken the place to invest in us. So, and I hope I came off the right way with this because by no means am I like, you know, trying to say, well, you got to be a paying customer. I will give you information and the resources that we have set out to give for free, but I can't give you the same level of things that I give to someone that has bought into our programs. Our warranties explicitly say and dictate what we can give to our paying customers, and those can't be one and the same.

But that's why you're part of the CCU family.

Well, I just, you know, trying to explain that in words sometimes You know, sounds a little bit bad, like, but it really— that is not the intention. The intention is, is, um, you know, just, um, making sure that we give all to those that are our customers and our clients. And I want to spend my time doing that and my resources in doing that rather than trying to get new clients, uh, in that case. I just hope it's all right.

Yeah.

As we bring this to a close, you know, I'm excited about next week. I'm excited to be able to share a little bit with you. I think one thing that I want you guys to take away from this is the fact that, you know, planning, planning, planning prevents poor performance. And I know that's a cliché, but that's really something that you can really take home with you and really take it to new heights. By doing proper planning. So I encourage you to do that. Get professional training if you're going to get into this industry, whether it's from us or someone else. Go with someone that you're comfortable with. I always say that some personalities and some feelings are not for everybody. So find the personalities, find the fit that really fits you best, and go with it. Jump, jump in with both feet, get some great education, and take it to new heights. You know, there's nothing greater than somebody getting into this industry and pushing those that have been in this industry. I want you right at my heels. I want you pushing CCU to new levels in order to keep up the pace that you're gonna set as somebody new in this industry or someone that's been in this industry and now is revamping what they do. I'm excited about that because it only benefits handlers, other handlers, and other trainers. And the last thing I'm going to leave you with is don't be scared to share information. Like, help those people out that you see need that help. Give them your all. Join us on our short sets. I'll see you guys in Michigan next week. I think we're going to bring you guys some things, uh, from Michigan next week, so I'm excited about that. So stay tuned. I'll see you Tuesday on our short set. Join us, give us 10 or 15 minutes of your time to inspire you for the week of training. And Maya, like always, thank you for your time and joining me on this.

Absolutely.

Have a great week.