Contracting With Your K9: What You Should Know | SOURCE

Welcome everybody to The Source Podcast, everything working dogs. And we're taking a little bit of a different approach today with today's topic. It's a good topic because we get a lot of students that come through our courses that become handlers, come become handlers for the first time, and they're looking to start a new career. So we wanted to target something that would help them and help somebody that's listening today to begin to contract as a canine handler. And in today's world, there is a lot of work to be done. There's not a week that doesn't go by that we don't get contacted for handlers in various parts of the world. So it's a great opportunity, I think, to expand upon this industry, but also to give others that opportunity to break into this industry as being a K9 handler. And contracting seems to be the way of the world right now. Hiring employees and keeping them on payroll can get expensive, and there's a lot of legalities with that. But you as a sole proprietor or starting a company where it's just you and you're providing services as a contractor, you're able to have the flexibility you may need for your family, your flexibility to travel as you wish and take on the work that you want. And there's a lot of things to be said about that. Not everybody wants to work a 9 to 5. Not everybody wants to work for a company. And not everybody wants to have a very large company either. So contracting is the way to go. Now, again, there's pros and cons to that, and we'll talk a little bit about that as we dive into this, but I'm excited to bring you guys today this episode about contracting as a canine handler. So let's jump right in. I have the voice of reason with me today, and she's gonna be kind of helping us guide along this episode as we we move right along. Welcome, voice of reason.

Thank you. So one thing, if you want to know, you know, 5 things you should know before accepting a canine handler position, whether that be contracting or with the department, you can head over to the link that's going to be in the description below and just fill out the form and we'll send that over to you so you can get a little extra information about what it looks like to be a canine handler and contracting with your canine. Um, but the first thing that I think comes to mind when I think about K9 teams contracting outside of an agency is what does that look like from the beginning? You know, what, what do those steps look like before you even get started?

Yeah, you know, that's like the number one question. I had a guy, one of our former students, message me last week and he was like, well, how do I do this, this, and this? And it's really about getting started. Getting clients and doing all that, right? And I told them that's the number one question when running a business. We have literally spent millions of dollars figuring these things out. Uh, I hate to say it, but I don't come from a business background, nor do I come from a rich family. And so, you know, the grind is how we got to where we are today. And that's not to take anything away from those that have those resources, because I think that's a great thing. However, Maya, that is like the number one question. How do we get started? We also get a lot of people that contact us, well, how do I become this, you know, canine handler, you fill in the blank, canine trainer for police or whatever? And really the answer stands true to all of those questions, and that is start off with training. You know, people, want to become a doctor, they go to school. People want to get into law enforcement, they go to school. There's no professional industry that you just get into and happenstance into it. Now you can, um, but generally in, in my experience, that ends up failing miserably in several different ways, either in the lack of clients Uh, it's very short-lived because the standards are just not there that match up to somebody that is a professional. Um, something bad happens to, to you or to the dog or to one of your clients. So training really can prepare you for what's to come, both in the sense of standards, both in the sense of knowledge to approach various aspects of the profession. And lastly, to help reduce liability. And I'll talk a little bit about this later on because I'm going to get a little bit into insurance and, and also some trends that I'm seeing with the industry right now. So this all comes full circle, and it really starts with training. Training for you as a handler, training for the dog that you have. Those things are very important. In, in getting started. And that's really your first step. You don't really know what you're getting into until you actually go through training and understand what it really takes to be, to be a handler, both in the management side of a dog, the training aspect, and then also the deployment aspect. Um, so first step, number one, get you and the dog trained.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think that's the number one thing that I see here. You know, people come in— the handler students specifically come in super excited to handle a dog, and I don't think they realize at the beginning just how much work they're really going to have to put in, both hands-on with their dog but also like the classroom work and their exams. And, um, you know, from training all the way down to just health and nutrition and making sure their dog is in the best condition possible.

Yeah, you know, you can think of it on that side, you know, like how much knowledge should these guys and girls learn just from coming to school? And this is not even just for new handlers. These are for handlers that, you know, have been around for a while. I'll never forget, uh, training a particular student, and he had been to many— well, I say many— several different K-9 facilities over the years. And just hearing him give us feedback on how much he learned just in the first week. And these are his words, not mine. I learned more in 3 days here than I learned in the entire 4 weeks at this particular course, or the entire, you know, X amount of time at this particular course. And it's refreshing to hear that, but also I think it's a little bit sad. But in the same sense, my This is the reason why I really started in this industry is because I went through something very similar with my first dog. Just realizing that the lack of training that I received in preparation for the real world just wasn't there with the K9 provider that I used. And I, I always say this, I was blessed enough to not sit there and go, well, I guess this is just what it is. I built a network, I began to study, I began to become a student of this industry which helped me and propelled me to where I am today. But it didn't happen overnight. And I think a lot of people want that overnight success. They see the dollar signs behind contracting, they see the availability of the industry of being, you know, of having work and things of that nature. And, and it's cool to be a dog handler, right? But they don't see the work that a handler puts in. They don't see the stress that they go through for certification. They don't see the study time that they have to put in to be a true professional. And we talk about that a lot to our students. Like, you can be a student of this industry, you can pass a course, or you can become a professional. And we urge all of our students to become professionals because that's really what stands out in this industry.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, as far as you've got your training down, You've gone through a course, uh, with CCU. You've gone through a course, you've got your training down. So what do those next steps look like as you start to either prepare to enter the field of contracting or you're moving into contracts?

Yeah, you know, it's great to put a plug in for CCU, but in, in reality, there's a lot of great companies out there that provide great training. And I just encourage you, whoever you are, to find a great company with a great reputation. Yeah, that has a track record of preparing teams for the real world. And, um, seek that out, do your research, and find that, that company that fits you— both location, your budget, which we're pretty all— we're all pretty consistent on price, um, but then also maybe a company that you fit in well with, uh, that you can relate to, that's going to help you even after you leave. And after you graduate. But enough of that. Let's get into the next point, because I think it's important that because of that training, you're going to have clear capabilities. You're going to understand what your capabilities are. And I'm not trying to knock anybody by any means, right? That's not my point here. But I laugh when I hear people talk about their capabilities, and I know that they don't clearly understand their capabilities. And that could be because of a lack of training. A lack of knowledge, or the training they received just wasn't adequate. Uh, so, um, and I make this point because of some points that I'm going to make later on as we move through this, uh, as it comes to clients, because clients are getting savvy now to standards, whereas several years ago you could get away with not being clear on your capabilities or selling somebody on something that you really don't have the capability for. And but now clients are becoming savvy of that. They're calling around, they're doing their research, and especially when they're dropping the amount of money that they're dropping to have a K-9 team, they are looking for those true professionals. So ensuring that you know what your capabilities really are and not, um, and because of that, because having that knowledge is going to lead you into the rest of what you're going to be doing as you look at putting everything together, a clear packet or a clear service packet for your client. But also, as we're going to talk about establishing your policies and your insurance, which I won't get ahead of myself, but all of this is going to build upon itself for you to be able to provide a service to a client. And that's really what this is about, right? Start with training, you build on your capabilities, and you understand clearly what your capabilities are. And then the next thing you need to do is have, uh, your vet records together. A lot of travel, a lot of things can happen, um, with a dog, and the first thing they're going to ask for is your vaccination records. So that's the next thing that I would recommend after you build your capabilities which that really goes hand in hand with your dog and your handler training. You're going to have clear understanding of your capabilities, and if you have questions, you should be able to turn to your training company. And then next, your vaccination or your vet checks for your dog. It's an asset, your dog is, and you want to keep your dog as healthy as possible, but you also need your vaccination and and health records as well to make sure you always have those available. And so that's your next point on your checklist is your vaccination records and your vet checks.

Yeah, absolutely. And I know that our Kennel Master would appreciate that emphasis being put on that.

Yeah, well, not only that, Maya, but, you know, you also have to look at the the fact that you got to have disease control. I just read an article with a local facility here in Gainesville, Georgia, that it has been shut down for 2 weeks because of a virus. But there may come a point where you have to board your dog, or you may have to be around other dogs and such, and without proper vaccinations, especially if you're doing a lot of traveling and moving around the country, different parts of the country have different requirements on their vaccinations. And although really legally you're only really legally required to have rabies, there's other vaccinations that you need to have. And I would suggest to make sure whatever region you're traveling to, you pull up the recommended vaccinations, because usually those vaccinations coincide with common ailments or diseases that happen in that region. So if you're checking those regions that you're traveling to and making sure that your dog has those vaccinations, then at the end of the day, you'll be covered no matter where you're traveling in the country.

And I mean, at the end of the day, you are a canine team, so you can't do what the dog can do and the dog can't do what you can do. So keeping both of yourselves healthy and in check is going to be an important part of any contract you're going to take on.

That's right. Well, too, if your dog, you know, forbid it ever happens, but your dog bites somebody, the first part of that investigation is going to be pulling your vet records.

Yep.

So, you know, again, we'll talk more about this, but we're thinking liability and we're thinking— we're forward thinking in what we're doing. So we, we got to be kind of checking the boxes off, and that, that just happens to be point number 4 that I made in this list. But, you know, you kind of want to be checking the boxes with this dog, having an appropriate dog. You want to have training for you and the dog itself. Understand your clear capabilities. And then your next step is to make sure your dog's fully vetted by a licensed veterinarian.

You've kind of touched on the insurance side of contracting. Now, obviously, that's sort of a big topic. The last thing you want is to be put in a situation where there's a lot of liability on you as a handler. So what does that look like whenever you're sort of in those early steps of contracting?

Yeah, you know, that's the hard part because, uh, and I tell people this, especially in our Kennel Master course, uh, we teach this, and one of the points that I make is, you know, insurance companies are there to make money. If you don't think that, you've never heard of a charity insurance company. They're a for-profit company. So taking on risk for this particular company, of course, they have algorithms and experts that analyze risk for them. And unfortunately, our industry, even though it's very popular, is hard to get insured, and for several reasons. One, we have a lot of people that don't maintain the standards that they should, and there's no oversight per se nationwide for our industry. So that levies a lot of risk because anybody can do this with or without training. And so the insurance company needs to analyze that risk before issuing a policy. And because of that, they look at several different factors, which most of which I've already touched on in the first 4 points that I made to you, because they're going to ask for very specific documents, they're going to require very specific information from you, and then they're going to take all that information to include your experience and your background in this industry and what you hope to get insured for. And then from there, they're going to make a decision whether they're going to insure you or not and at what price that's going to be. Now, I'll tell you guys, we pay a lot of money in insurance, uh, every year, many of thousands of dollars. And we've been in this industry for many years with very minimal incidents, especially when it comes to workers' comp, especially when it comes to general liability claims. I think over the years, in 15 years, we've had one claim and a handful of workers' comp claims. So we, we're very diligent on trying to minimize our risk as much as possible, and we still pay several thousands of dollars per year to maintain good quality insurance that really protects us. Yeah, because the thing that we have to think about is there's always the chance of liability, whether on purpose or an accident. And most things happen on accident. That's why they call it an accident. Um, most things don't happen maliciously, so that insurance needs to be there to help offset that. And just talking to one of our attorneys and, uh, our insurance broker, you know, people have lost their businesses, have lost their livelihood because of the fact they were ill-covered in their insurance and something happened. And it was something that, again, was an accident, but it ends up destroying their entire business. So insurance is a vital part of it. Even if you're a sole proprietor, even if you're a contractor, you need to cover yourself. Because I'll tell you, if I hire you as a contractor, my insurance is not looking out for you. My insurance is looking out for me because I pay them. So as a contractor, I would not rely on someone else's insurance policy to cover me. I would ensure that I have my own And we have an insurance broker that does all this for us. And every year we sit down— a matter of fact, just, uh, about a week and a half ago, we sat down, had a meeting, and went over all of our insurance. We went over all the things that we do, and we made sure that we were covered for everything that we provide in the services and the products that we've bought. Provide, to include, you know, you got to think about vehicles, you got to think about, uh, assets and protecting those assets. What happens if your dog gets sick or gets hurt? What are you going to do? That's your livelihood. That's what keeps your contracts going.

Yep.

So all these things you got to think about. But at the same time, we sit down every year to make sure we're not paying for something that we don't need. So we review everything. He gives us our portfolio. We sit down and it takes us about an hour and a half or 2 hours to go through everything. I ask the questions, he gives me feedback, he guides me down, he asks questions, very targeted questions. I mean, they're, they're professionals, so they look at every aspect that we have to include protecting our clients. And I'll tell you an insurance that we have that protects our clients, um, because as a contractor you got to think about payment and how you're going to accept payment. Well, think about accepting credit card payments, and what if your clients' information gets stolen. Well, there's insurance to protect your clients and to protect you from losses that come from those types of things like being hacked and other things. So those are often things that we overlook in business, but they're very important. So carrying insurance policies and getting with a professional, uh, a broker that really understands the industry understands what you do and helps you to navigate that, and then they'll help you to obtain insurance. But, uh, I say all that to go back to my point that I was making earlier, which was, you know, you're setting yourself up to reduce your risk. Yeah, but it took us a long time to obtain a company that would protect us, that would insure us. Believe it or not. And remember, I'm coming from a law enforcement background. I had already had close to 9 years of experience at the time, and I still was denied by several companies. And in reality, and to be quite honest, they had to petition the state and require somebody to cover us. For our first 2 years of having a policy. And it wasn't anything against us, it was that we were new in the industry, we had no proven track record, and the risk was just too high for insurance companies to take us on. So what happens in those cases is they deny, deny, deny, and then we petition the state and the state makes somebody take us on. And that's just— that's something that's set up for that purpose. And then they cover us. They have to— my understanding is any insurance company, and I'm speaking about the state of Georgia, that wants to operate in the state of Georgia, the insurance commissioner makes them take on high-risk clients and insure them. And there's kind of like a round robin, so they assign the policy to somebody, um, that's high-risk, that's been denied, I think it's 3 times or whatever. But the insurance company or broker knows better than I do. But after they get denied so many times, then they have to petition with the state, and then the state will make somebody cover us for a period of time, and then that gets renewed every year until we're able to go to market and get a more reasonable insurance rate.

So I didn't know that.

Yeah, it's crazy. I laugh because a lot of people don't know that and they don't understand, like, the complexity to our industry, but also what we have to go through to get covered and, and to ensure we have coverage and adequate coverage. Now we don't have that problem because obviously we have a proven track record.

We—

it's easy for them to evaluate our risk now versus when you first start. So don't be discouraged and don't worry about that. Just understand, go to a professional broker and let that broker help you to get the coverage you need. And that broker should be well-versed in your industry and obviously in the insurance industry so they know how to get it done. I would not go out on my own trying to do this. So these are the, these are the things I'm telling you that if you, you know, you take calculated risk obviously in business, but you don't take stupid risk.

Right.

And risking everything just because you don't think it will happen to you— well, everybody before you thought the same thing until it happens to you. And I hear things, obviously, because I'm in the industry, I hear things and see things, and I'm just like, man, I'm, I'm not willing to take those risks, you know. I laugh because I'm like, I'm too scared to take those risks, you know. Some people have nerves of steel I don't when it comes to stuff like that. And, and most importantly, because I have people like you, Maya, that work for us. And I think you trust me enough and trust our business enough to take care of you.

Yeah.

And because of that trust, whether it's said or implied, I need to ensure that I try to protect us as much as possible because you're really why I do this. Uh, you and among the other people that work for CCU. It's not for me, uh, and, and, and I know I've made that very clear, um, because I can be a sole proprietor and do train 2 or 3 dogs a month and live very well doing that. But that's not what I believe the Lord is directing me to do. But I also think that really where my heart is, is really to, in, to really influence others that are around me and giving them opportunities that I've had. So I say that to say insurance is one of the things that we just don't take shortcuts on. I may not eat this month, but the insurance is going to be paid. Right. And that's kind of a funny way of saying it, but you don't shortcut on those types of things. And it hurts at first, especially— I can just remember thinking back when We just had nothing. And insurance, paying that insurance bill every month was, man, it was hard to write that check. And yeah, back then we wrote checks, but it was hard because it was so expensive. And when I seen the first, you know, the premium in the bill, which is, you know, what your yearly cost is going to be, I about had a heart attack. Like, I really was like, I have no idea I don't even know if we make that much money this month, this year. Like, yeah, I don't even know. But we had to do it. Like, I just couldn't take those risks. I couldn't sleep at night without making sure we were covered. So there's several calls I make, especially when we're starting a new service or selling a new product. And one of the calls that I make is to the insurance company to say, are we covered for this?

Yep.

And, uh, you know, that's something that's very often overlooked. But again, I don't want Maya, you know, out there doing something, working for CCU, something happens, and then we come to find out that we're not covered for that particular task or that job. And, uh, that would not be a good feeling to have. So I send it, I shoot an email to my insurance providers or my insurance broker, and they shoot me an answer back. Yes, under this point, under this, you are covered for that. All right, great. And if we're not, then I say, okay, what is it going to cost us to add this to our policy? They give me the price, but then I evaluate again the risk versus the reward. Can we pay for this? Does this service make us enough money to pay for this insurance? So is it worth acquiring this and moving forward on this? Because that's one of the cost of services that we have to add into the raw cost of what we provide.

Yeah, absolutely, man.

I think I'm giving— I'm giving too much on this podcast because I'm getting into a whole bunch of other stuff that really wasn't the plan, but I think it's important, right? Like, someone that's getting into this needs to have a full scope, a full understanding of what goes in because I am going to talk about in a little bit the client perspective and all that. So again, this all ties in, but that's my 5th point to what does it really take to start in the contracting world. Yeah. All right. So we talked about dog, acquiring a dog, getting trained for your dog. And for yourself as a handler, making sure you have clear capabilities, having your vet information in order. We jumped into insurance, and now there's 3 other things, or 3 other points that I want to make real quick without getting too much in the weeds, but this will complete the list to really get started. The next one is to be certified as a team. And, you know, I come from a law enforcement background, so I have kind of a better understanding of this, whereas somebody from the civilian world or somebody that's just getting into this industry may not really truly understand that. Uh, so remember I talked about insurance and liability and things of that nature. So I'm going to briefly touch on that liability, because when you operate outside of what industry standards are, and we look at case law and we look at courts that have been decided already and judgments that have been made based on these capabilities or the services we're providing. Because I come from the law enforcement background, I kind of see that a little bit more, and I have maybe a clearer understanding of that. So the importance of certification and getting certified by a reputable person, reputable entity, and I'll talk about that here in just a minute. A little bit more in depth. But the importance of certification— when or if you're ever sued, or if something ever happens, they're going to go through a standard list of things to try to find where liability lies. And when you start looking at a list of liability, one of the things that are going to be on that checklist is certification. Because the courts have already decided that certification is something that's industry standards. So it's one thing to not have a certification. I'm not saying that you're not a good handler, you're not a good team because you're not certified. What I am saying is this: how will you answer that question when you state that you are operating outside of industry standards? And that's really what it comes down to. So when I look at a comparison between two teams and one team says, I'm a great team, I train, my, my dog is good and reliable, but I've never really truly been tested in a certification and I don't go back for ongoing certifications each year.

Mm-hmm.

And then I look at the team that does automatically, that team that does do that every year and falls within the box of industry standards is already going to look better to a jury or to a judge than that that doesn't. To an insurance company that's evaluating your risk, they're automatically going to look better.

100%.

And that's more defendable, right? Because they have the checks and balances in place. So it's important that you go ahead and check the box and make sure you have that certification. And that should be done at minimum yearly. So there's no other reason a law enforcement agency does it than for the mere fact of liability. That is it. Because they don't want to end up in court and get sued and say that their teams, when the question is going to come up, where are they certified at, what are those certification standards, and how often they certify, and they say, well, we don't. We don't need to because we got great dogs, we got great handlers, that doesn't cut it. They are going to be looked at in a different light when you operate outside of industry standards. So get certified, find an entity to do it. All right, the next thing is you have to have ongoing training. And again, I go back to industry standards, and that's what I use as guidelines. When I start building, uh, looking at services, right? We have to build in ongoing training, and that has to be documented because continuous rigorous training is important. And it's important because there has been court cases that have not only referenced that statement but also placed that statement out there in records And therefore, that's what people are going to hang their hat on. So rigorous ongoing training for the capabilities that you're trained in and that you're certified in. So again, all that comes full circle to— for the insurance company, but also for your clients ultimately, to ensure that they have the best team providing services for them. And then lastly, The last thing I'll touch on is building out policies and procedures and standards of operation. I had a guy, had a guy last week, uh, jokingly say, well, you're the boss, you can do whatever you want. And this is what he was telling me. And I laughed. I said, man, you're crazy. I said, we have policies and procedures in place to keep me from thinking I'm the boss and doing whatever I want to, or anybody else in this company for that matter. It doesn't matter. We have policies and procedures in place. We have standards in place to ensure we all— we build standards, policies, and procedures to ensure that we operate at a certain standard. And you're saying, well, I'm just— it's just me. Exactly. What standard do you have if it's just you? That means you're going to make decisions on the whim. You're going to be influenced by what the client wants rather than what your clear-cut standards and procedures are. And on top of that, Remember, I talked about insurance and liability. I want to make sure that I have something to hang my hat on of what I provided to the insurance company to evaluate my risk. So if I'm operating outside of my policies and what I told the insurance company, then again, I open myself up to them dropping me and not covering me for an incident that was not covered under their policy. So that all comes full circle in the things I'm telling you, and they all work together ultimately to keep you in business, to reduce your liability, and most importantly, to protect your client.

Mhm.

So these points, the 8 that I made, are important to have established to provide this service.

Yeah, absolutely. So then when we start looking at being certified, we mentioned, you know, we have CCU certification. Is there any other, you know, pre-established certification that can be done as well?

Yeah, some of the industry, the well-established and reputable certifications out there that are national certifications are NNDVA is one, NAPWADA, USPCA, and of course, I got to give the plug for CCU certification. But I'm not saying that you got to come to us because we are just one standard within the, the sea of other standards, but going back to some well-established, um, test of time and court-recognized standards, again, are the top, uh, the big three. I won't say the top three, I'm saying the big three, uh, NNDDA, NAPWADA and USPCA. And, and I say that because I'm telling you to get certified. I'm not directing you on what makes best sense for you because, again, you as a sole proprietor, as a contractor, need to evaluate risk. What entity best fits you? Which one do you believe is going to best fit you for liability purposes? If you're ever subpoenaed to court, do their standards hold up? And maybe will they come to testify for you as an expert witness? So these are things you need to evaluate and take the lead on. But as we look at development, you know, we looked at even the reason why— and a lot of people say, well, why don't you certify with one of those entities? Well, Again, I evaluate risk, I evaluate capabilities, and the standards of which we want to have. And CCU standards of certification lend us down a road that we felt we were missing in other entities. And again, I won't get into the weeds with this, but it was just developed in a way that best fits what we were trying to establish as a whole and as an entity, even though certification is very separate from Custom K9 as a whole, as a company, and as a training company. The certification is a separate entity that was developed by itself, so it stands alone and on its own bylaws, um, so that there's no influence there. But it was specifically developed for working dogs in that realm where we don't have any— or we try to minimize the, the relationship between certification and real-world deployment. We didn't want to have two separate training philosophies. We wanted to merge those together somehow, and at the same time meeting case law standards and reducing liability for those entities that certify under us. So that's the long and short of it, but certification is a necessity in my eyes.

Yeah, absolutely.

Find you a reputable, well-established national certification that you can certify under. Very important. Do your research, but, uh, make sure it happens.

I think that's going to be the main theme throughout this too, though, is do your research. If you want to be a canine handler and take on contracts, I mean, research is going to be your best friend, whether that's from insurance perspectives, legal perspectives, um, handling the business side of things. Just really dive into that research and, uh, you know, gain as much knowledge as you can. So we've, we've hit all our main 8 points of the beginning steps. So at the point where you start looking at contracts, um, so you're— you and your canine are prepared, you've trained, you're certified, you're insured. What do those look like? Whenever I start looking at contracts, what am I looking for?

Well, first and foremost, you're going to go back to the 8 points I gave you, and I know I'm going to harp on that several times throughout this podcast. But I harp on that because those 8 points are the real foundation of what you're going to do for the rest of your time as a K9 handler, as a contractor, and as a, um, you know, a service provider. So look at that. But now as you start looking at contract, you're going to start seeing a bunch of contracts in the industry, or even get contacted by people, and You got to look at lodging and travel. You need to really examine, whether it be through conversation or contract, examine the duties that you're going to be tasked to do because those should be pointed towards your capabilities.

Mm-hmm.

And then you need to look at liability and payment because sometimes some contracts are too risky. And then because we've already established 8 points we have, we're clear on our duties and whether we can provide the services to cover those duties that are required by the client. But we also, because we're— we understand our capabilities and we've been vetted by our insurance company, we know whether our insurance company is going to allow us to take this contract because they're not going to cover us if something happens on it. And I've been in those situations where I went through and looked at the contract. I've examined it. We have the capabilities. And then I call the insurance company and say, okay, this is what we have— not the company, but our broker— and said, this is what the contract requires. We can do it based on capabilities. But my question is, there's a gray area here, and I want to make sure if something happens, we're going to be covered because we're doing this. And the insurance broker did his research and actually contacted the company itself, and they said no, we would not be covered. I went back to them and said, okay, what's the cost to get us covered for this contract? And it was ridiculous and really put us out of the realm of being able to provide service at a reasonable price for the client. And so we decided not to move forward with the contract, and we explained that to the client, and we told them that we probably want the best company because of the price that we would have to charge you for to provide this service. And we think that you can find this service at a cheaper price with a company that does it often and already has this well established, and they appreciated that. But yeah, because of that, once we evaluate lodging costs, travel costs— and some of them are not going to require travel or lodging, but we still got to make sure— and then we're going to look at our duties. How are we going to accept payment? And then liability, because some companies pay net 30, some companies pay immediately, How are our payments going to be taken? Check, wire transfer, credit card? We got to evaluate that, and then we got to look at the liability of this particular contract and whether it's worth the risk for us based on what we're being paid.

Yeah. So even when you're insured, if your broker feels like you're going outside of your realm of capabilities, they can deny coverage.

Well, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, you're not necessarily covered under each contract. Now, there are some contracts that require you to put a binder on the specific entity. And that's, that's an explanation for a whole nother time. But I'm saying that because we may have to list them on our policy. And that's easy to do. Again, my broker handles all that. I just shoot them an email and say, this is what we need listed on our insurance binder, and they list it for us, which means that they're going to be covered because we've already listed it. And of course they have a record of that, but, um, it doesn't necessarily— they don't tell us to take the contract or not. They give us the advice.

Okay.

And my job is to— or one of my jobs is to evaluate whether the risk is worth the reward. And whether we can stay competitive in the market by taking on that risk and whether we accept that or not. You know, some contracts, even though the money may be good, are not worth the risk for us because of what may happen if something were to happen.

Yeah.

And some were willing to take that risk and say, okay, well, that, that's a risk we're willing to take. So let's push forward on this, and we'll submit a proposal for this particular contract. So that's the other point that we need to just evaluate going back to liability and insurance. But if there's ever a question and if I'm not clear on whether we're going to be covered or not, if something were to happen while performing this type of work, I shoot it to the insurance company.

Mm-hmm.

And my broker will review it and either comb our policy and say, yeah, you're good, you'll be covered, or no, you're not, or let me get back to you, I need to run this by the, the provider. So then they run it by their legal team or whoever they have to on what our contract covers, and then they'll come back with an answer. Yeah, you're covered, you'll be fine, or nope, uh, we won't cover that. And then again, I either go, all right, we're not doing it, or what will it cost us to get this covered for this particular contract? And they'll say, well, it's, it's cheaper for you to just do it for the year versus just this contract, or it's cheaper to do, do it for this contract, but it's going to cost you $8,000 to do it.

Right.

And then I look at, okay, what are we charging the client, or how can we stay competitive? And still provide the client the service. And sometimes it just pushes it way out of being valuable to the client in our eyes. And we go back to the client and say, hey, it's just not gonna be cost-effective for us to do this for you. I would suggest you go with somebody else.

Yeah.

Or we will, we can do it, but hey, it's gonna cost you. And we've had some clients that go, you know what? You know, we really want you guys. So that's fine. We'll, we'll pay the additional amount to have you guys. So it can go either way, but, but again, we're just being transparent with the client.

Yeah. Now, one point you've made a couple of times is this idea of being able to clearly define your capabilities. So what does that look like as a new K-9 handler though? I know we're backtracking a little bit, but I'd like to dive into that a little bit more as far as, you know, what do those capabilities look like and how do you define that, whether that be for an insurance broker or for your client?

Yeah, so, you know, the first thing is, is— and I'm going to do it as simple as I can— because we are the experts in this industry. So I would not expect the principal of an elementary school to understand what we do, right? Per se. Now, she's going to understand surface information. She's going to understand we can find drugs, we can find bombs, we can find firearms. However, she may not know that each dog will provide the different capabilities needed. She may think one dog can provide all of those capabilities, which they can't or they shouldn't. Right. So as a provider, I need to educate her on that, but at the same time, I don't need to take on tasks that I don't necessarily have the capabilities for. As an example, I'll give you a big one that comes up. I need a patrol dog, dog team, to work this event or to work this piece of property. Okay. So the first question I ask is, what do you mean, client— client A, what do you mean by a patrol dog for this property? And so then they tell me and they outline specifically what their translation of a patrol dog is. And then I say, okay, so really you just want a handler that walks around with their dog? And they say, yes, just for the presence. And then I tell them, hey, I have a drug dog team that is not certified or trained in patrol, but they are a drug dog team that is a certified handler. So that means he's certified in obedience and having control over their dog. However, there is no capability for biting or the risk of being involved in a patrol-type situation. They are only there for the mere presence of walking around your, your property. Is that acceptable for you? Yes or no? And some will say yes and some will say no. But what I see sometimes happening is handlers will say, yeah, I can patrol that for you, but they don't clearly educate the client as to what they're actually getting as a service. And so the client thinks, or could think, they kind of leave that up in the air. Again, that's bad because my next call is going to be to my insurance company because I'm going to tell them that, hey, I don't have a patrol team, But this team is certified in this, da da da da, trained in obedience and control. If he gets into a fight or gets into this situation, is he covered? Because this is what his task is. And they'll tell me yes or no. And then again, that tells me whether we need to move forward or not.

Yeah.

With this, the other big one is, and I just had this happen, I have a firearms detector dog and explosives dog, and I'm providing services to a client, and I'm telling them that I have a firearms detector and bomb dog in one. And I won't get too much into the weeds with this again, but the client thinks that they're getting a firearms detector dog and a bomb dog in one dog. Not so. Now, some of that comes from a lack of training and understanding, yeah, from the handler standpoint and the way he was trained or she was trained. But my question is always to the client: client, so what happens when that dog alerts at your venue? Do you evacuate the venue or do you search for the bomb? Because if someone has a firearm, then it's safe to search them. If somebody has a bomb, it's not safe to search them. So how do you handle that? What is your policies and procedures? And they are dumbfounded because it sounds good.

It sounds like a nice package, but they don't really think about it.

Absolutely. And, uh, me and— I'll say his name— uh, one of our business partners, we put in a proposal because we had a company very similar to this contact us this last week, the end of last week. And the company was providing them firearms and explosives, dog, as one. And so we asked them that, you know, we just, you know, just posed the question, what What is the process of the procedure if that dog alerts? What do you expect us, or what do you expect to happen at that point? And then they, they just never thought about that. But what they realized was they really weren't getting what they thought they were getting.

Yeah.

They weren't getting a firearm detector dog and they weren't getting a bomb dog either.

Mm-hmm.

Or the full capabilities of that. So they were kind of stuck in between but didn't really understand that because they're not the experts. So we just cleared out the capability statements and we told them, do you want firearm detector dogs or do you want bomb dogs? Yeah, because they are not the same. We can give you both, but they will be two separate handlers, two separate teams. And so we just had to clear the capability statement there and make sure they understood that.

Yeah.

That's that.

I mean, yeah, I've never given it too much thought. That's a great point. I see 'em, you know, training all the time. I just never gave it too much thought about, you know, what do you do if they alert and how that can put everyone in your venue at risk?

Well, we just take it for granted a lot of times that we're not gonna run into a bomb. And that's kind of my point on making sure that you're clear on your capabilities. And really where our industry and what I see happening in our industry is it's making a change and it's making a change for the better, but it's also making a change where you're going to have to show what you can do. You're gonna have to, and not really demonstrate it, but you're gonna have to show documentation of your training. You're gonna have to show those 8 points that I gave you. Like, you're going to have to prove that. Yeah. To these clients, because what's gonna happen is the handlers and the companies that can do that and prove those capabilities to them, or they're gonna be the ones that stand out, float to the top, and take all the contracts because they're gonna understand that their capabilities are far superior than those that are not doing that. And the days of putting that risk on the company, because I'm sure there's going to be some CEOs and company owners that are going to listen to this podcast, especially those that are thinking about taking on these capabilities, and they're going to start scratching their head and go, I wonder what we are really paying for.

Yeah.

Are we paying for the capabilities that we think we're paying for, or are we paying for a smoke and mirror? And just dogs walking around our venues.

Mm-hmm.

And yes, that is a vital part of the deterrent. I get that. But I wanna make sure that the client understands what they're really paying for.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's the big thing. And if they are good with that, then make sure they understand that they're paying for that. Not, I'm paying for a bomb dog, or I'm, I'm paying for a drug dog, but the team is not certified, or there's other flaws in their training and, and other things that they're, they're not really getting what they think they're getting. Um, and I'm saying this because as we see this, the industry trend towards that direction, I saw the same thing happen with all of our overseas contracts with training. So early on in, in CCU's inception, we used to be able to call clients overseas. They call us for training or setting up training, and I'd basically just give them a rundown of what we did and like, I've been doing this X amount of time, da da da da da, and they took that as face value. A few years later, I started seeing the trend where they would require me to send vitae. They would required me to send all a whole list of stuff, um, in proof that we could provide what we said we could provide. And a lot of that came from people providing them services or products that really weren't products and services that they said they were, or they got on site and they realized this person doesn't know what they're talking about. You know, and, and, you know, I say that like, but it, it's the truth. A lot of people can talk nowadays, but now people are getting— clients are getting savvy to that, and they're like, okay, well, you're gonna have to prove to me. I just saw an article on some trainer in, I think it was Texas. Uh, someone forwarded me an article and Of course, he had it listed on his website that he was providing services to the DOD and doing all this training for law enforcement and all this. And come to find out, it was all stolen valor, I call it, but it was really all made up. And so, you know, we— clients have to make sure that they're getting the services. Um, so, you know, getting offended when they ask for XYZ. And so our packet that we send to clients is standard. Like, we're sending insurance, business license, uh, all the other industry licenses that we cut, that we carry, certifications, pictures, um, all this stuff to include the microchip of the dog that we're hiring out for this task. Like, we're checking all the boxes so there's never any hint of improprieties there. Yeah, and we go through our due diligence to make sure that we educate the client as to what they're getting, exactly what they're getting when our team show up. And it's just, it's very important. But I'm saying this now because I'm seeing the trend. Yeah, people hanging up and fed up with the services that they're providing or getting provided, and now they're asking for this, this, and this, and we're just hearing the horror stories of what they're getting. When somebody comes to us and we're like, oh, sorry about that. Well, let me just tell you what we can do, and then you can assess whether that works for you or doesn't work for you, and then we can go from there.

So then what would you say defines a good or a great contracting team? Like, what sets you apart from the others?

You know, that's like saying what, what sets you up, what makes you a great trainer or not, right? And that's, that's like one of those illusions. I ask handlers this all the time. What makes a great handler? And if I have 8 people in my class, if I have 20 people in my class, majority of the time I'm gonna get 75% of the answers are gonna be different because there's no hard set facts or rules or, you know, a list of what makes a handler great. Now there's some things that I have personally identified. Over the years that I say, well, you know, if I— if a handler can do this, this, and this, he's going to be a great handler, point blank. But when it comes to a contracting team, you know, I lean on those 8 points that I gave you, because if a handler is doing those things at a minimum, then you're well above where you should be.

Yeah.

Now, obviously, your standards of training, what the odors you train with, and also your certification is really going to lend into that and how progressive you are in, um, in providing the services that are needed by the client. But those 8 points really put you 4 ahead of the ball game. Yeah, but then there's some other things that that we really need to be doing as an industry. And as an expert, you know, looking to provide services for someone, remember you are the expert, so you should be educating the client. The client should not be telling you what to do in a sense of guiding your services. So once they engage with you and tell you, okay, I want a bomb dog, then we should be looking at putting together a comprehensive plan to provide those services because a bomb dog service goes well beyond just the dog and the handler doing sniffs around the venue or whatever.

Yeah.

We need to put together a comprehensive plan on how we're gonna deploy in that situation. So we want to have a specific approach to every single task. It's not, okay, I show up, I run this, I leave. That's it. In my opinion, you need to assess the event, the venue, the location. Put all these things together, and I won't get into a needs assessment or risk assessments or anything like that in this podcast, but essentially that's what you need to do with every single task. And I know some people are listening, they're just like, oh man, that's bullcrap. Well, okay, it is, uh, to some degree, but it is until you find out that you're losing contracts because somebody else is doing this, and the client sees the value in that. So I'm just giving you the heads up on which direction this is going. And whereas before in this industry we were able to get away with just showing up and putting a team there, well, those companies, I'm just telling you, are going to the wayside now. Those sole proprietors are being moved out by companies that are doing this, and it doesn't take a lot of resources to do this. This is something you can do with very minimal resources. Okay? The next thing is, is we want to make sure while we're there, we're remaining on task for the client's best interests at heart. And if we're not looking out for the best interest of the client, then why are we even there? So again, this is the add-on to just being a K9 team and showing up and putting blinders on. And just walking around like a bump on a log. That's what my coach used to say. So you want to be in the ballgame. You want to remain on task the entire time you're being paid, and you want to make sure you provide exceptional service. This is what keeps you working.

Yeah.

All right. This is what builds upon your reputation. So invest a little bit of time into that reputation every single contract. I'm telling you, it'll pay off for you. All right, so, you know, look at that. Um, for these new handlers, you got to make sure that you're getting training that prepares you for the real world.

Yes.

You know, you don't want to go and get training from somebody that has no industry experience, that's never done it or never, you know, has, uh, never been trained by anybody that, that has done it. You know, a lot of people have falsehoods, you know, or have, um, ways that they train, but it has no— it doesn't point back to the real world. And that's really what we should be preparing teams for. There's a lot of things I want to do in training, and I make this point quite often. It's cool stuff. I would love to have a dog that does this or train a dog to do this, but it doesn't lend towards the real world. And I talk about liability and I talk about being reliable in a real world situation. That's where we spend our time developing a curriculum, redeveloping a curriculum, keeping a curriculum in development at all times. So we're— and what that means is we're open to change when new trends come out, when new studies come out. We're always flexible in that nature. But having the consistency and foundation to a training program that's built on real-world deployments— like I said, there's a lot of cool stuff out there, but it doesn't apply to the real world, and it really increases risk versus reducing liability. And that's really what we need to be training our handlers to, to, to do. Not all-inclusive, but that's just one avenue that we really need to focus on as a training provider. So, again, those points pointing back to our 8 foundational points that we made earlier on, and then looking at these other, these other 4 points that I made you know, will really put you well ahead of the ballgame when it comes to providing services as a K9 handler. I mean, leaps and bounds it will.

Yeah. I mean, even just yesterday, you and Simon were going over just some new developments and how you could factor that into the courses that we teach here. So I think making sure that wherever you go, you've, you've always said you're always a student of training. You're never done learning. Um, and that, that proves true even whenever you're doing these contracts as a canine, uh, team. So moving forward from there though, what would you tell someone who's getting ready, you know, sort of to dive into this? Like, what advice would you give them when they start accepting contracts?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there's really 3, 3 big points that I will make real quick. And first Follow the 8 points I gave you to start this podcast. Yeah, you're going to include that in the show notes, guys. Take that to heart. That's your foundation. That's what lends you to, to, to getting a good foot in this industry.

Yeah, absolutely.

Then the next thing you got to look at, you, you really got to look at marketing. How do you market yourself? Some of it's word of mouth, some of it is targeted market, some of it is reaching out to people in our industry. And getting connected with others that are in this industry. And that's something— that's a decision you just need to make on what direction you need to go. I laugh because, uh, Fran and I, when we first started— and we joke about this now— but we were literally blacklisted on Google because I thought marketing was— and I actually paid for this, I paid for something to scrape the internet and to obtain all the emails that I could for law enforcement agencies. And I paid— I forgot how much per, per week or month, I forgot how much it was— but what it would do was scrape and pull all these email addresses and put them in a list for us. And we were spamming. We were so broke that I remember one Friday me and Crane got into it because he wanted to go home, and I told him he had personally send 100 emails before he could go home. I laugh about that, you know, 15 years later, but that's what I knew about marketing. That's all I knew was freaking spam everybody. But I, I say that to say, then we got notified by Google that we had been blacklisted and our email and everything had been blocked. And I was so— I mean, I had just a lump in my throat because now what do I do? And so I'm telling you that to stay away from spamming. Now, I can— don't do that. Hire a good marketer like Maya to really take the reins and really, you know, take over and, and really put you where you need to be. So I can't speak enough about having Maya on our team to really push us in the direction that we need to go. And so That's the first thing. And, you know, as a sole person, you know, you may use your wife, your girlfriend, your friend, or border some services. We talked about that on another podcast with another business owner. Um, so there's, there's other ways to, to accomplish that at a very, very reasonable price. Yeah, you know, back then there was just no such thing. I mean, that was back in the day of MySpace, like That, that tells you how long ago that was. So, you know, marketing was really like taboo for me at that point, especially social media marketing and all that other stuff. Like, I think I'm, I'm like freaking— I'm a doctorate in marketing now. Yeah, just from reading articles and research. There's probably not a day goes by that I don't research marketing in some form or fashion or read emails about marketing. Like, I'm signed up on probably 300 lists.

Yeah.

So, uh, so marketing is, is one thing, you know, get yourself out there. And then next thing, make sure you have contracts. And I would recommend having an attorney of some sort that can really delve into your contracts and make sure you're not signing your life away or putting yourself at risk. And usually there's some ways to get hooked up with some services that can help you at a very reasonable cost. For small businesses and, or find a local attorney, have a sit-down and a meeting with them and find out if you can set up some type of working relationship with them at a reasonable rate. Again, they're small business owners as well in most cases. So everything's a negotiation. So it could be boarding services. It could be, you know, I'll bring all my work to you if I can get some kind of fractional rate, or if I can make payments to you, or whatever. Like, there's, there's ways to negotiate that as well. But don't be— don't ever be scared to ask because you're small, you're getting started. Like, you may not have the finances or the resources, so I'm encouraging you not to stop that venture, to push on and continue to push forward. So It's very important as a canine handler that you are, and a small business owner, even if you're just a sole proprietor, be willing to, to continue to ask. And because you never know the answer until you ask, so don't forget that. Um, the last two things I'm going to give it as advice as we kind of start wrapping this up. Is the fact that, uh, those that are listening, you know, you may just be starting out, you know, be willing to do what it takes to push forward. And in my notes I put be willing, and that's be willing to ask questions, be willing to have meetings with those that are experts, the attorneys, the insurance brokers, CCU. I'm sorry, but I've probably been there and done that, and, and I learned better by mistakes, and I've made a lot of them. Uh, rest assured, I tell everybody I'm not an expert, but I spent millions being one, and that's by all the mistakes that I've made over the years. So be willing. Also be willing to do and go where it's necessary. I see a lot of people say, yeah, I want to do this, but I can only work work in Jasper, Georgia, or in the area of Jasper, Georgia. Okay, how many contracts do you know coming out of Jasper, Georgia? Like, okay, you're not really willing— you're looking for the ideal setup for everything. Well, okay, well, we'll see how well that makes you. And I say that because a lot of people don't know this, like when CCU like started really pushing. Like, I was traveling probably 10, 10 and a half months out of the year, and most of it was throughout the country and overseas. It wasn't at home. And okay, that, that's cool, right? Like, man, you got to travel, you got to see all these places. The flip side of that was I wasn't around my family, I wasn't around my kids. I remember 8 Christmases, Thanksgivings, and New Years in a row I was gone and overseas. Yeah, but you were making money. Okay, I was, but is that really worth it, right? So that's something you have to look at. I'm saying that because I put on here to be willing And that's my point, you know. I had to really pray about this and evaluate if that's really what I wanted to do. But ultimately, it came down to this: I was willing because I was blessed with the opportunity that the Lord gave me to have these contracts. And I always thought that at one point, if I didn't do what I needed to do, this is what we signed up for. Both me as a business owner and my family. I didn't just start this business by myself. I had the input from them. And so I always had to tell myself, this is what we signed up for. And I'm not in a position to turn stuff around— or I mean, to turn stuff down that I wasn't blessed with, because most of what we got was not through my skills of marketing. Most of what we got was not through, uh, you know, having a team that we have now. What we got was one person telling another person telling somebody else that I happened to meet in some restaurant in Florida, and then 2 weeks later they call me and be like, hey, I don't know if you remember me, but I met you here. Hey, I got a good friend of mine that owns this business, and, uh, you know, they're based out of Singapore. Can you— they're looking for a K-9 person. Can you do this? So it wasn't by chance that this stuff happened. It was by the grace of God, and, and I'll never ever forget that. And because of that, I was willing to do whatever it took to make it happen. And yes, I didn't want to be gone. I didn't want to be gone from my friends. I didn't want to be gone from my family. But at the end of the day, I was willing to do what it took. I would have nobody else to blame if I didn't do that but myself. So that's why I said be willing.

Yeah.

And then the last point that I'll make is don't quit. It's too easy to give up when things are not going right. It's too easy to stop when you're not getting contracts. It's too easy to quit when things don't go your way. I can tell story after story about I was on the verge of this, and because I pushed through, I had a huge breakthrough to where I was. But I also learned so many things. I learned more from the failures. I learned more from the turn— being turned turned down. I learned more from being beat out by this other company. I learned more by this employee leaving and doing this than I ever did when things were going good. Because when things are going good, we get complacent. But when things happen, I don't look at things as a bad— as something bad. I look at it as what can I learn from that. And we say it a lot in training, You had a bad session. Okay, great. What did you learn from that bad session?

Yep.

So what did I learn from not winning the contract? Never be scared to make those mistakes.

Yeah.

That will hold you back more than anything. You know, there's a lot of teams, Maya, that are, you know, now coming out. We've seen our industry really, really grow.

Yeah.

I think the statistics that I've seen, um, post that was, I think, from— they estimate 2018 to the next 10 years, and we're in the midst of it now, 2018 to 2028, that our industry will grow about 3%. That's amazing. You know how many jobs that is? Like, that's so crazy. And, and I can see just from, again, thinking back many years to now, how much the canine handler profession has grown in, in multiple industries. Think about the cargo industry, think about airports, think about people hiring teams to protect them now. I mean, it's remarkable. So I see the growth, but growing an industry growing at 3% is remarkable.

Yeah.

Um, but you know, that's for good cause, right? Uh, canines cover a larger distance, uh, than humans alone. Yeah. So, you know, they estimate at 2.4 times the distance can be covered with a dog versus a person. Well, that's money saving, that's saving people's lives, that's, um, cutting down on downtime. Um, think about it. You get a bomb threat in the stadium and you have to evacuate the stadium. Every minute counts because every minute that someone's not in there, they're losing money. So being able to cover distance and clear an area 2, 2.5 times faster ultimately saves the client money. So, you know, dogs are, as we know, are remarkable, but just the capabilities when we start putting it in statistics, it is just crazy to know the benefits of having K9 teams provide services for your business or your entity.

Yeah.

Crazy.

I mean, we had, we were doing some offsite training a couple of weeks ago and one of the handlers, one of the Greene County handlers lost his phone while he was on a track. So they sent in, another handler student and his K-9 who were also there doing some tracking, but this one was a little bit more advanced with their article searches. So this K-9 was able to find the phone in the woods. So it's just, it's insane. You know, you can hear about it, but then actually watching it, like you said, I do the marketing, so I don't do any of the training. So whenever I see the dogs like in action, so to speak, it's remarkable to see. I mean, it's just amazing.

Well, that's life-saving. Can you imagine that handler not having his phone? Not being able to be on TikTok or Facebook? Like, he'd go crazy.

There'd be no way.

He would stop training, go buy him another phone, or— yeah, there's no way. That was life-saving. We need to sign that handler up for the Life-Saving Award. We have to. Hey, uh, my— this is, you know, as we— I know we planned this out and, you know, went through all these points and really done the research and all this for this episode, but this has really been a great episode. It's come, come together quite well.

Yeah.

Um, and I know that there's listeners out there and maybe even viewership on YouTube that are going to see this and go, well, what can I really learn from about.

So if you guys head to the link in the show notes or in the description, there's going to be an entire document all about what you need to know before becoming a canine handler. So all you have to do is fill out the form, we'll send it over to you, and it's just an added piece of information for you to, you know, put in your tool, uh, tool bag, whatever it's called.

Yeah, your, uh, your go kit is what I call it. You go, you go bag. That's our industry verbiage, right? Uh, last plug I'm going to give is this, you know, I'm excited, Maya, because we have— we're on the cusp of some new things, right? And we're always in development, we're always looking for better training, uh, opportunities, but also how we can do things better. And I'm quite happy to say that we've got quite a few contracts, uh, K9 handler contracts, and, you know, We, we have the advantage looking thing, looking at things from various perspectives, but we've had some great things that have happened in the last couple weeks. For one, the canine contracts that we're obtaining now has been turned on.

Yeah.

And we're putting full resources into it. So we've already obtained several contracts as a result of that for some handlers that we're bringing on full time. I think you actually posted some messages to start looking at our recruiting. And the great thing about it is, and, and I'm proud to say this, we are only hiring CCU students or former students. And that's always a commitment that I've always had. Once you're in the family, like, my commitment is to you.

Yep.

And some people can't understand that. And I, I have to say this, some people have gotten mad at me about it. Some, even some friends of mine. But like I say this, when someone commits to us, we owe them something. In my opinion, we owe them full commitment as well. And part of that commitment is if I have something, I want to give you the opportunity. And there's no one better that I trust than our own students because I know how they've been trained. And, um, I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. The other thing, we partnered with another great company, and again, that's something that I'm proud of. We partnered with Dog Team Pro to offer the record-keeping portal and record-keeping apps and all that, that CCU is now offering, although we offer them in our course already. We've built over the last probably year a great relationship with this company, and they're on the cutting edge of developing probably one of the best canine apps out there as a whole. And, and you know why I think they, they lead, or they're going to be leading, is because they're very open. They're, they're, they're not stuck in their ways. They're stuck on the ways of what provides the best record keeping for their clients, which are law enforcement and K9 handlers. So that's coming out. And then lastly, obviously we have some courses coming up that are great, but the last thing I want to mention is we're going to be at the 2024 MWD Symposium running a training lane there and offering some great training. So those handlers that know us and that are going to be there, I can't wait to see you guys. Likewise, those that haven't signed up, those LE handlers that can make it to Michigan, and it's a great training environment for the week to just see the, the amount of knowledge, um, and everybody really got along very well, which is very odd in those types of environments, but I loved it because of that. So we're going back again this year. We're, we're turning up the heat a little bit there because we're going to be offering a lot more than what we did last year and put a lot more resources to it than we did last year. So I'm excited for those that are going because of what we can offer and bring to the table. So I can't wait to see you guys there. If you haven't signed up, sign up. There's also information coming out on that. We've already been posting information, but there'll be some more. So a lot recap real quick. I don't want to lose you before I tell you guys to have a great training week and appreciate the time that you give us to pour in a little bit of knowledge to you during our long sets, or, uh, for the Source Podcast, all things working dogs. Have a great week. I'll see you guys on Tuesdays on our short sets. Talk to you soon.