Trainer School Reflection & a CCU Catch-up | SOURCE

Good afternoon, welcome to the Source Podcast, all things working dogs. I am Brandon, your host for today, joined by the voice of reason, Mia, how are you doing today, Mia?

I'm doing good. How are you doing?

I can't complain.

We'll kind of jump in today. We're going to be doing a little bit of a catch-up episode just so you guys know where we're at here at CCU, things that are happening, events we have coming up, and keeping you up to date with everything. As always, if you want to stay up to date with the freshest information— is that what I want to say?

I like that word.

The— if you want to be the first to know about everything, let's go with that. If you want to be the first to know about everything, you can join our newsletter. The link is always in the description below or in the show notes. You can find that there and we'll keep you up to date with all things CCU. But one thing I want to start off with is, Brandon, you've been a trainer, you've been at our training school for about 6 months now.

Yeah.

You know, I'd love to hear about your experience. I know we're kind of throwing away from the topic a little bit. We actually, for those who don't know, we did a podcast episode the night before I think that you graduated, um, just talking about your experience in trainer school and while it was still fresh, and now you're 6 months out. So I'd love to hear about things that maybe are exactly what you expected, not exactly what you expected, and vice versa.

Well, one thing I will say, uh, credit to CCU, and this isn't a plug by any means, but credit to CCU, um, because, you know, when you come through the course, they kind of give you a lot of the tools that you're going to, you know, just because you're not getting hired here or something like that doesn't necessarily mean anything. But a lot of the tools that I went through in the trainer course I use every day, and I know that that's structured that way, and I know that sounds kind of silly to bring up, um, but you know, there's a lot of things that are taught through the trainer course that very much are realistic and are applied to a daily training regimen that I go through with all of the dogs that I'm training, whether it be pet dogs or, you know, for our law enforcement or military dogs, there is a— there's a huge carryover there. And so being able to kind of see, you know, a lot of that stuff that you taught and then you're taught and then applying it to actual training where I'm now responsible for training dogs You know, in the trainer course, it's kind of whoever your instructor is more or less responsible for what goes on. They're trying to instruct you and things like that, and there's a purpose. You're training dogs still. We have— still have to get dogs ready here at CCU even when we have trainer students. But being able to see, like, going from, okay, you know, as a trainer student, I don't necessarily not me specifically, but you don't necessarily see a lot of the backdoor stuff. Like, it's a learning moment. And so a lot of that stuff that you don't see behind the scenes, I now am able to kind of see, like, oh, okay, like, I can see now more of where this stuff applies now that I'm more hands-on. You know, you're hands-on a lot during the training course. It's, I would say, 80% hands-on and then 20% in the classroom or in a book kind of stuff. And so being able to see how that stuff really applies and using it now that I'm a little more on my own and there's not an instructor standing over my shoulder to correct it, where I have to— okay, well, if I mess this dog up now, I've got to fix it. So there's a kind of a— there's a cool transition there that I, I kind of have noticed. Um, and then there's, you know, there's always the expectation, and I'm speaking specifically on my own, um, experience, but you know, there's the expectation of, hey, look, you were a trainer student, that's awesome, we've given you a lot of these tools, I need you to get this dog ready in 8 weeks for a handler that's coming through. And so, you know, there's tools outside of my toolbox, you know. Fortunately, here at CCU, we've got a lot of great people that have been through the courses or have been handling that come and train, and then I'm able to observe, and sometimes I even ask questions. You know, it would be kind of silly of me not to ask somebody who's been handling a dog for 12 or 15 years, you know, hey, how did you kind of get to this end goal or where you're at now? And so here at CCU, we've got a really good relationship with all of our past students and the local departments that we've trained with. Being able to kind of see those guys come through, how they handle dogs, how they work dogs, and then just pick their brain wasn't something that I necessarily thought of when, you know, coming to the trainer course. It wasn't like a, oh, I gotta— it— at the end of the day, I'm here to pass a class. And I know that that sounds kind of— and learn a skill or a trade, but I still have tests to take and I still have classes to pass. I don't have a timeline as far as like, oh, I have to have this dog ready in 8 weeks. So like being a trainer now, building around how we can, you know, navigate between teaching, instructing, and then still getting an end goal with, with the dogs that we have. And, um, it was probably something that I didn't necessarily think about. I didn't like— I know that obviously that sounds silly, but I, I didn't think about it like that. So I, I've seen a lot of that now where it's like, okay, you've got to manage time a little bit differently than just going home and studying for a test. Because even when my students leave, there's a whole different side of things that you don't see, the back, back door kind of thing.

Yeah.

Where you're not necessarily seeing— you almost take for granted what Simon and AJ have done or are doing when we leave, because it's— the job's not done when the students leave.

AJ's kind of touched on that before, just everything like that goes on. He was talking more on the business side, but that's very true too. So would you say then that you kind of touched on some things you're having to basically learn on your feet, or you had to in the first couple of months after graduating? Would you say that the things you learned in class have helped you with that process to sort of help you better understand things so you can learn on your feet? Because I know each dog is different, each client is different.

Yeah, um, well, a lot of what we're taught and we're teaching in the trainer classes and taught to the trainer students, you know, it is applicable and it does apply and it is used every day. Um, but like you kind of mentioned, every dog is different. And so, you know, even though I had, we'll say, 6 dogs that I worked throughout the course of my trainer course each one of those dogs was different, and I was given at that time the best way to deal with that specific dog in that specific situation. But now that I've got 6 new dogs, for example, each dog is then again different. And so there's always a different way to motivate the dog. There's always a different way to get the dog to do what the end goal is. And I kind of mentioned it, and I think a short set the other day, uh, and I was honestly so kind of surprised you left it in there, but there's more than one way to skin a cat. And so, you know, and so a lot of what we're taught in or teaching in the trainer course is steering you in the right direction. But now that I am a trainer, it's a kind of like, hey, I have an avenue of approach. I know what my end goal is. There's not necessarily a right way to get to that. I mean, there's a right— there's a wrong way for sure, but there's not always a right way to get each dog through specific training. Uh, every dog is different, and so it's— it just really depends on the situation that you're doing.

Would you say then that the information given to you is more general, and then it just gives you a basis, like a foundation, to then apply to kind of figure out what works for which dog?

Yeah, I would definitely say that there is a foundation laid, right? Like, it kind of goes— I, we talk about it quite a bit here, like, you've got these tools in your toolbox, but sometimes you can use a flathead screwdriver as a crowbar just the same as you can use it as a flathead screwdriver. I know that that sounds ridiculous, but there's always you know, two, or there's always multiple ways to get to the end result. And so the foundation is laid. Here's how we do escape training. Here's how we can work through a short set on Tuesday, how we can work through on— work through our distractions. But sometimes that looks a little bit different for each dog. And, you know, and so getting a dog and figuring out their motivation and things like that, you know, Maybe this dog doesn't like a wiffle ball. Maybe this dog doesn't like a tennis ball but likes the Kong. Yeah, those kind of things, you know, it's, it's gonna be different. And so there's definitely a foundation laid through the trainer's course, but at this— on the trainer side of things, now I have the foundation, or I was given the foundation. Now how can you approach it from different angles to get the same results?

Okay, yeah. I like that.

One thing that I wasn't 100% prepared to do was deal with pet owners.

I feel like that is the most common.

Um, I'm a pet owner, and don't get me wrong, I love my dogs very much, but sometimes, as now that I'm a trainer, sometimes as a pet owner, we need to kind of remove a little bit of that emotions from things, you know, hey, my dog's misbehaving in X, Y, and Z ways. Okay, well, maybe your approach to that— you know, you can't knock our clients for not having the knowledge, they don't understand. But, you know, I have an aggressive dog who's resource guarding, you know, the owner, for example, and the owner in his unknowing, like he just didn't know any better, was actually kind of praising the dog for the bad behavior.

And I do feel like that's a common thing.

And so you'll have a dog that's losing its mind when somebody comes up to the handler or the owner, and he's, you know, owner's sitting over there, good boy, it's okay. And realistically, like, from a trainer side of things, all you're doing is marking the good behavior or the bad behavior as a good behavior, and now that dog's like, oh, I'm getting praised.

Yeah, because— but he's— the owner is thinking, let me calm him down, right, because he's stressed out.

Exactly.

But that's not what the dog is understanding it as.

Yeah. And so, you know, when it comes to, to pet owners, a lot of times removing some of that emotion from, okay, here, I'm here to train, I need to— there's an end goal that needs to happen, let me trust these trainers, uh, to get that end goal. Removing some of that emotion.

So for those who may have listened to my podcast episode that I did with AJ Vargas where we talked about what clients look for in a dog trainer. This is one thing that we had sort of discussed, which was it's hard as a dog owner, as a pet dog owner, to differentiate between that's my, my dog and that is a dog. So it is still an animal. And I think that's one of the things that people do struggle with. I know I did personally, sort of the first time that I brought my dog here. One of the trainers, the trainer who was taking care of us that day He said, okay, go break your dog. And I just stared at him with probably the most horrified look on my face because I was like, I don't know what that means. What is he telling me to do to my dog? And then he was like, just go let her use the bathroom. And I was like, oh, okay, okay. So it's just one of those things where I think people, especially in the, in the pet dog world, don't really have the knowledge. Like you mentioned, they just really don't have the knowledge about dog training and everything, um, which is actually one of the reasons that our apprentice Keely has developed our new puppy class, which is going to be a group class. It's going to be a group class that we've built, you know, just for new puppy owners or new dog owners under 6 months to kind of take them through those steps. And I know that that would have been such a good resource for me as someone who didn't know anything about training and was a first-time dog owner.

Yeah, so since you kind of bridged into the puppy training, the puppy courses, yeah, it's going to be a 5-week course Uh, not course, so to speak, but Saturdays we're gonna basically open up the facility. We're gonna have a trainer here or multiple trainers here to assist people in a lot of these puppy issues, these, for lack of better terms, prepubescent puppy issues that you have.

Yeah.

And so it's gonna be, like I said, it's gonna be 5 Saturdays, and, you know, in a row where we're going to kind of go into how to deal with a lot of the issues that you have as a pup with puppies, helping pet owners understand the developmental stages, um, helping puppy owners kind of get a better grasp on what training looks like, especially in those early stages, because it's not something that a lot of people think serious— take seriously, and they just kind of let their puppies be puppies. Yeah, and there's actually a lot of that stuff that can be channeled in a different direction, uh, so that your dogs doesn't start counter surfing and chewing your pillows and doing whatever puppies do. Um, and so it's going to be a good course to be able to kind of steer people in the right direction on what puppy training looks like and how we can kind of channel that as those puppies get older, uh, and to having a better obedient dogs, because once you lay those foundations as a puppy, like, that stuff starts to stick pretty quick. Dogs are way more intelligent than we give them credit for. So as they start learning the ways of, you know, the ways that you want them to act versus the ways that they are acting, it carries over into their adult life as a dog.

Yeah, that I will say, that's probably the one regret that I do have about um, my oldest dog, you know, she's only 2, but like I mentioned, she's the first dog that I had had, and she— I didn't do any training with her until she was out after— till after she was 1. And so I feel like if we had started earlier, it would have laid the ground for success and made it a lot smoother as we moved into other issues that presented as she got older.

Yeah, it just makes— it makes it easier. Um, it's kind of like that old saying, old habits die hard. Yeah, uh, once some of those habits are formed, it's harder to extinguish those habits as that dog gets older, you know. Yeah, the dog thinks that it's okay to chew on your pillow and it's never been given the proper crate training and, and, you know, all of the things that we're going to talk about in our puppy classes. Um, it's going to just make it harder as pet owners when your dog is 1, 2, 3, 4 years old and you've got still this— now you have a 100-pound German Shepherd that is chewing on whatever it wants to chew on.

I think that's the issue though, is they— for me as well, you know, it's allowed because they're just a cute puppy and they're really not hurting anything. But the problem is that behavior continues, and then all of a sudden they're a 100-pound adult dog doing the same thing and causing a lot more damage. Yep.

And so you'll kind of see, you know, how beneficial those puppy courses or that, you know, puppy training in general, whether it's with us or with somebody else, you know, being able to get those dogs steered in the right direction so that they're not chewing up stuff as adults. So they're— they are crate trained and they're not going to mess in the house. Um, you know, those are all different kind of things that we're going to get into as far as the puppy courses go. It's It's cool when your dog is being a puppy and pulling you around on a leash and you can control it, but the second he's 80, 100 pounds and he's pulling you around on a leash, I mean, now it's a problem. And so, you know, being able to give people those fundamentals of, you know, of training for their dogs, it kind of goes back to, you know, giving them the tools for their toolbox and then continuing to be a resource for those those people after they leave here. Well, one thing I will say is if you can get that foundation laid while they're— and this isn't necessarily a bad thing, uh, getting that foundation laid as a puppy will then kind of carry into your adult dog's life, and being in training becomes a whole lot easier. And you're not— maybe you've got the foundation laid, so maybe now we don't need to do 4, 6, 8 weeks of a board and train, we can just do some one-on-ones, uh, to help you kind of continue to progress in the areas that you're looking for, or the areas that are problem areas, and address some of those problems as they arise.

Well, I think a lot of people get into this industry because they really love dogs, you know, and they love seeing that transformation and You kind of mentioned with the 100-pound dog becoming a little out of control versus whenever it was a cute 10, 15, 20-pound puppy. Um, you know, especially now, I really notice we have a lot of rescues that are full, working dog rescues that are incredibly full, and they can't possibly take another dog. And it just makes you wonder if these people had taken training more seriously when that dog was a lot more manageable if that dog would still have a home. Because people get these breeds which, you know, this is something we talk about, but people get these breeds that are very intelligent, they have high drives, whether that's for working or if they're just high energy and they just can't handle it or they don't have time for it, which that's a whole other conversation. But, um, you know, like I said, it just makes you wonder if they had really prioritized training from the time that Bug was 12 weeks, 14 weeks, 16 weeks would it be different now?

Yeah. And so what happens is, is we'll get, you know, first of all, if you don't have time to work with your dog, don't get a dog. I don't know if you can put that in there, but I stand on that. If you don't have time to work with your dog, especially these working breeds, you know, a lot of people see Belgian Malinois on the Army website or the Army Instagram, or they blew up after that John Wick movie came out, right? And then all of a sudden everyone wanted a Mal. You know, they get kind of in for lack of better terms, they get these fad dogs. Yeah, that's a good one. And they will— oh, I'm gonna get this Belgian Malinois that is gonna do all these cool things, and then they kind of realize that they don't have time for it.

It does take a lot of time when you talk about working dogs specifically, not necessarily working breeds.

Yeah. And so, well, right, it does take a lot of time. And even just with a regular dog, right, even if you left I don't know, you get a French Bulldog and you leave him to his own devices, he's gonna tear stuff up. Yeah, he's gonna do puppy things. And so taking the time to train your French Bulldog is still important to help, one, keep them safe. You leave a dog, you know, I know nobody wants to create— a huge thing is crate training their dogs, and a lot of people are against it. But if you crate train your dog, it's not necessary people think about it as a bad thing. For one, when I'm training a dog to go in his crate, I'm making it a positive experience because all training should be positive. But I'm also— it's giving the dog a place to decompress. It's giving him his own space, him or her, his own space. And then also, it's, it's a safety thing, you know? Like, yeah, we've got people, you know, dogs will chew up wires, they'll chew up anything that they can get in their mouth, and they chew this stuff up. And they— now we're looking at, oh, I didn't want to crate train my dog because I think it's cruel. Well, now you've got an $8,000 surgery to remove whatever from their stomach. Or, you know, worse situations have arisen from— arose, arose from that, where they're chewing on something and, you know, unfortunately it can't be surgically removed. And that dog ends up having to be put down. So a lot of times what happens is they get these puppies, they don't have the time to do it, they just leave them roam around their house to their own devices. I will say, when people are getting these fad dogs, uh, Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds, you leave that dog for its own— to its own devices and let its own mind do whatever it wants in your home, it is like having a Tasmanian devil just loose in your house.

They'll find a job.

They're gonna find something.

It's not gonna be what you want them to Right, exactly.

And so a lot of training needs to be poured into those animals. Yeah, we recommend a fully trained dog still trains 4 hours a week. So, you know, whether that's a working dog or the most obedient pet that you can think of, you still need to be able to touch all of those training, whatever that training looks like for you, whether it's narcotics or explosives or obedience or just, you know, any kind of training that you can think of, it's good to maintain that because it is kind of a— one, it's giving the dog something to do, it's giving you something to do, and then it's also keeping that dog's mind in the right place. And so that you don't end up with an $8,000 surgery because your dog chewed up your pillow.

You know, I never really— I'm not a trainer, so I don't see the client side as much, so I haven't heard their perspectives. But I've never really understood why you would be against crate training. If you want to equate it to like a child, you wouldn't just let a baby crawl around free if there were hazardous things out. You put them in a playpen or some kind of restricted area, so to speak. And I just don't understand, you know, you have a curious puppy or grown dog with sharp teeth and claws, they're gonna find something.

Yeah, and it— people, and I don't just— in general, I, I read different Instagram posts and watch different YouTube videos and X, Y, and Z, and a lot of people just look at it like it's a bad thing, like, oh, you're just locking that puppy in a crate, or you're locking that dog in a crate. And it's like, you know, you could look at it from that side, sure, but look at it from the aspect of— my biggest thing is the safety of the dog. And, you know, obviously get a crate that is adequately sized for your dog.

Yeah, but I'm gonna put a German Shepherd in a small, right?

Exactly. And, and so when you start, you know, giving the dog the adequate room in that crate, it's not a bad thing. It needs— it needs somewhere to decompress, just like we do. Like, you know, I want to be left alone from time to time just to decompress. And so our, our canine companions need that as well.

And if I'm not mistaken, they're den animals. Or somewhere along the lines.

Yeah, there's a lot of, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? I don't want to say speculation, but there's a lot of, um, discourse, ideas that canines don't come from wolves.

Oh, interesting.

There's, there's some topics out there and there's some different people that believe that not all dogs come from wolves.

I mean, oh, we're treading into Simon's conspiracy theory.

Yeah. And, you know, that's not something I'm going to get into. I'm not, I'm not a scientist by any means. But at the same time, I just look at it as from, from us, like I said, a safety aspect. Why, like you said, why would I let my 2-year-old run around wild in my house uh, with all the electronics and everything that can hurt my child—

scissors and knives, right?

Exactly. I wouldn't do that with my dog because, you know, the, the outcome realistically can be the same.

Now, crate training a puppy is probably one of the worst things I've ever done in my life. The initial, like, the first couple of days when they haven't been crated before and they're just screaming. But if you can push through that, it's really it's very beneficial now because my dogs are to the point where if they just want to be left alone, they'll just go in their crate. So I leave the door open, and if, you know, they're tired of hanging out with another dog or whoever's over and they don't care, they'll just go in their crate and lay down. And so I think that's one of those big markers of success where you're like, it was worth it.

Yeah, and that goes back to making the crate a positive thing. Yeah, you know, a lot of times dogs will do something bad and they immediately go put them in their crate, right? And now you're marking the negative behavior with a negative outcome, and that crate is in there in that mix as the dog just— oh, I did something that they didn't like, I got yelled at, now I'm in my crate.

Yeah.

Um, and so a lot of— and I've actually had conversations with clients about this where the dog was doing something they didn't like, and instead of correcting the behavior, they just told them to go forced them into their crate. Now that dog is associating that crate with a bad thing.

Yeah, which is never— it's— I don't know when's the last time you crate trained a puppy, a little puppy, but it's, it's very frustrating time-wise because it takes a while. But once they make that correlation of it being like their space and it's a fun— I mean, there was even a time where it was just like, get in the crate and here are a bunch of treats because you're being quiet, just to like reinforce Yeah, but do a ton of treat training.

But we don't do a lot of treat training. But, you know, in the early stages of puppy training, like, that is a huge— that's— that can be very useful. And I know you kind of touched on it, like, I, you know, my, my shepherd, I'll— if I leave the room, if I leave her in the room, crate will be open. I don't tell her to go in the crate. She just goes in there because it's their space. Yeah, it's her space. It's like having, you know, teenager having their own room. Yeah, it's the same concept. Yeah, I want to go in my own room and hang out by myself. So she does that. She'll just go in her crate. I don't even close it half the time, and she just goes in there and hangs out. When I come down, she'll come back out and loves on me and hangs out with me. But yeah, um, she— because it was never a bad thing.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing. And like I said, it takes patience. I'm not a trainer, but I've been through the crate training the puppy and potty training the puppy, and I've seen people who do it in a way that will end up developing negative connotations, and the dog absolutely hates the crate. And I'm just really thankful that I had educated trainers who were able to steer me away from that happening.

One thing that you just kind of mentioned, kind of a lot of people have a misconception of, is potty training. And so since we're kind of talking about puppy training, when your dog goes to the bathroom in your house and you rub your dog's nose in it people think that that is—

and they're really doing something, right?

And all that dog is now associating is, why are you rubbing my face in pee? For one, they never— it never equates to a better trained house dog. What ends up happening is they start associating anytime you come up to them, uh, they'll start cowering or they'll start, you know, because they think that they're going to be punished. And so they start associating you walking up to them, grabbing their collar, rubbing their face in something that they don't necessarily like. And now it's like you're taking 5 steps backwards instead of the 2 steps forward that you could have done by just taking the dog out on a routine.

Which I'd almost ask if by human— if, if there's somewhere in human nature where they feel like they're adhering to like alpha theory, which I know that different trainers have different ideas about alpha theory and where it lies now in training. But I've never, I've never personally understood the logic in that. I mean, you know, I mentioned before my dog was in training here whenever I first got her, Medusa. She was like 3 months and they told me, you know, there's really no reason for her to have accidents in the house if you're taking her out enough. And that simple statement just like blew my mind and I was like, whoa.

Yeah, I mean, you can find a lot of information about the whole alpha thing and I won't get into it because quite frankly, it's not something that is used here. Um, you know, everything should be a positive experience. And quite frankly, some of these dogs, if you think that you're gonna impose your will on them because you're the alpha, they're gonna, they're gonna bite you.

The best thing I've ever heard, and I think it was AJ who said it, was you have to make the dog think it's their idea.

Yes.

If you can get the dog to think it's their idea to be obedient or to do detection or whatever the case may be, you're going to have way more success than if you try to make them do it.

Yeah. And actually, so it's funny you say that. I had a trainer say this when I was in the trainer course. Uh, Simon said the same thing to me. I'm trying to get a dog into odor and I'm kind of like forcing the dog into odor, and he's like, they're just gonna fight against it.

Yeah.

So let the dog think it's opposition reflex.

Yeah.

And so have a dog think that it was their idea to find the odor. Or sniff that area even to find it.

Yeah. Um, kind of moving away from that, so AJ and Simon, speaking about them still, they're still in Japan. They'll be there soon.

I know that they're going to listen to this podcast because they listen to it religiously.

Simon does for sure.

Uh, they are still in Japan and they are greatly missed, and we cannot wait for them to return home.

I'm not even gonna make a joke about my patch right now. See?

Yeah, Simon, if you are listening to this, you owe Maya a patch. She said if you could get her a challenge coin, that'd be cool too, but we'll just leave that there.

We have a new apprentice joining us. So Keeley has finished her first 6 months, uh, as our apprentice. Actually, I think she's a little bit over now, just barely. Yeah, so we're bringing on a new apprentice, which means that our applications are open for apprentices. So if you're looking at becoming a dog trainer, you may not necessarily have the time to go through our 8-week course. Be sure to check out our apprenticeship. It's a great opportunity to really start hands-on with the dogs. You're around several other trainers, experienced trainers, as well as handlers that are here, including students that you can learn from, because that's the biggest thing at the end of the day, is training is always just a learning opportunity.

Yeah, so the apprenticeship is a 2-year program that we are going to, over that 2-year period, you're going to get all of the instruction that you would get if you were to come through a trainer course and a Kennel Master course. It's hands-on experience that you're gonna, you're gonna start in the kennels. I know we have, I think we have a podcast on the apprenticeship.

Yeah, we do with Keely.

Yep, so we do have a podcast on that. If you want more information, that's definitely a great source to go listen to. Um, but just real quick, you start in the kennels You get your Kennel Master certification, and then you go from your Kennel Master into what's considered an extended training course. And so the remaining time of your 2 years, you'll be spent doing hands-on learning where you are basically, like Maya said, learning from all of our trainers, all of our handlers, and just getting hands-on experience as a trainer. And then once you're complete with that, you come out with the training certificate.

Brandon, also, since we're just running through a couple of things, he just finished a podcast with The Lost Art with AJ, I believe.

Uh, AJ Cox. Yeah, Andrew Cox.

So it's not our AJ, different AJ.

Yep. So The Lost Art with Andrew Cox, uh, is a veteran ran podcast, um, that they, uh, they have a couple different ways that they run their podcasts. Um, but basically I got on that podcast and really just kind of talked about dog training and they're, you know, big veteran supporters just like we are here.

They're all veterans themselves, right?

Yep, all of them are veterans themselves. No knock to them, they're Marines, but we'll forgive that. That's okay. No, but it was a good, good group that I got a chance to speak with. It's just a little bit of an opportunity to kind of listen to, you know, different— it's one thing to sit here and listen to us talk on our podcast, but that's another opportunity to hear us kind of talk to listen to some of those guys talk and ask questions about, you know, things from the outside that, you know, they had questions about and they didn't quite understand. Um, so it was just, it was a good podcast. I would, I want to say like an hour.

Yeah, gave me some new perspectives, right?

Just different perspectives.

People look at CCUs or just the industry in general.

Yeah, and it kind of goes into, uh, it's funny because there is kind of a a lot of unknowns when it comes to working dogs.

And I see— I didn't realize that either until I was watching it. I was like, huh, maybe that's something we should talk about.

Yeah. And so there is kind of a lot of unknowns that when it comes to working dogs, and they had a lot of questions, and it was a good podcast, uh, a lot of good information was put out on there.

But yeah, anyways, guys, that is gonna be it for today. Brandon has to go back to training. I can only keep them away from training for so long, but, um Thanks so much for tuning in, and we'll see y'all Tuesday for our short set and then again Friday for our long-form video.

Awesome. If you don't subscribe already, go ahead and hit that like and subscribe button, as well as follow us on our social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter to get up-to-date, real-time information. Thank you.

Aah!