26 NovEpisode 181 | Making dog training affordable: SFTD’s Scholarship Fund, Black Friday Sale, on-demand offerings, and more. Plus: Jimmy Stewart’s poem about his dog
It costs a lot to run a small business in New York City, which can be a conundrum for a mission-driven business like School For The Dogs. Annie talks about some of the ways that she and Kate have worked to offer services and goods at prices that can make "Good Dog Training" accessible to everyone, and what it means to "shop small" in a world when the little guys are selling products that can so often be purchased at big-box stores or on Amazon. Listen up for information on SFTD's Black Friday sale -- including an exclusive discount for podcast listeners interested in on-demand courses. Annie also talks about the School For The Dogs Scholarship Fund, and mentions a special gift all donors to the fund will be offered between now and the end of the year. Lastly: She shares a poem written and read by the late Jimmy Stewart, about loving, and losing a cherished canine best friend.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Our online shop: Store for the Dogs
The Revol crate by Diggs! The price of this crate will be going up by A LOT next week, so this is the time to purchase one!
School for the Dogs' On demand courses
School For The Dogs Scholarship Fund
Photo of our mosaic by Jim Power
Learn More about Jim Power and our mosaic
School Yard at School for the Dogs
School Yard's NY Times mention: The New York Times: Does Your Dog Deserve a Private Park
Jimmy Stewart reading his poem to Johnny Carson in 1981
Follow School For The Dogs on Instagram
Related episodes:
Transcript:
[music]
Annie:
Hello, human listeners. Thank you for being here. Today is the day after Thanksgiving. And I wanted to share my heartfelt gratitude to those of you who are listening and to our fantastic staff at School for the Dogs, and our devoted clients, both dog and human.
You know, there's so much misinformation out there about training and, frankly, just a lot of judgment about how people treat their dogs and money people spend on their dogs. I touched on some of the money issues in the last episode. I'm gonna talk a little bit more actually about money today.
I'm with some family for the holidays. And the fact that the School for the Dogs, and our private dog run service was mentioned in The New York Times last week came up, and someone said “I can't believe the kind of money people spend on this kind of thing.” And someone else said, yeah, “It's really the mystery of the year why anybody would choose to spend their money that way.”
And my, my heart kind of sank, because I understand how they are seeing dogs as kind of like a lower creature that should be grateful for any scraps that they can get and not as one part of a relationship that can be extremely rewarding, that can help us learn about ourselves and the science of behavior, and that can be a hobby that people can choose to spend disposable income on in a way that can prove to be really rewarding.
These are people who see it more as us wasting money on animals who have kind of suckered us into spending on them. And we are treating them as children in a way that is, I don't know, silly. Anyway, obviously it's not how I see it. And I thought of a million things I could say, like, I don't know, think about the money people spend on playing golf, which is a hobby that's gonna benefit only you and no other living being.
But I just left the room, and I thought, I don't need convince these family members about how awesome the world of positive reinforcement based dog training is, how awesome School for the Dogs' services are. Because I already have a wonderful community, both people I know in the flesh and blood, and people who I've met through this podcast and our social media presence who are on the same page. And I think that's a community that will grow. And for that, I am grateful. So thank you for being part of that community. Thank you for loving dogs in the special way that you do.
And because it is Black Friday, the big day of sales, I should mention that we are currently offering 20% off, both in our physical shop in Manhattan’s East Village, and at Storforthedogs.com. You can use the code BFSALE20 through the end of the day on Sunday. And our store specializes in selling toys meant to engage dogs mentally. And we also sell all kinds of training tools and treats.
It's true that some of the things we sell could be purchased on Amazon or in big box stores, but when people choose to shop small, they are supporting real people who have the same values that they do when it comes to dogs and training in this case. And what we do is offer a curated selection of high quality products. Every single item has been tested by the dogs we work with. If it's something we sell, it's something our trainers use with their own dogs, either at home or at work or both. And it's something we will improve the life of you and your dog too. So do visit us at storeforthedogs.com or come to our East 7th Street shop in Manhattan this holiday season. Your dog will be glad you did.
I specifically wanted to call out one product we sell that I would suggest you think about buying ASAP. It's a product I have mentioned many times on this podcast because I love it so much. It is the Revol Crate by the company Diggs. I truly think it is the best dog crate on the market for so many reasons.
But the reason why I think you should buy it now is not only because of this sale, but also because Diggs, the company that makes it just announced that next week they are going to be raising the price of the crate, the small and medium version of the crate by $150 per crate, which is a pretty huge price raise. It means it's gonna cost almost 50% more than it currently costs.
So the next few days, it's the last time you'll be able to get it at its current price. Plus you can get at 20% off. Plus we are the only shop that ships these crates internationally. If you are in Canada, the shipping cost should populate as soon as you get to the checkout page at storeforthedogs.com. If you are in another country outside the USA, you might need to email us for shipping costs. You can reach us at shop@schoolforthedogs.com.
The last thing I wanted to mention about the online store is that through the end of the year, I would like to make a special offer just for podcast listeners, which is 50% off of all of our on demand courses. These can be found at schoolforthedogs.com/courses, that will bring you to the shop page.
The Good Dog Training Course is kind of our flagship course. It's about two and a half hours of mostly me talking sort of about dog training in a big picture sort of way. I made it based on made it kind of, it was my effort to try and distill what I've done in so many private lessons at School for the Dogs and in people's living rooms into something prerecorded that could be shared and easily understood. I think there's a lot of really good information there. Right now when you buy it, you will also get the textbook that comes with it, which is about 80 pages long, if you're more of a reader than a listener and watcher.
And we have other courses there too. We have our Core Behaviors Course, which walks people through some specific behaviors that we think are really important. We have a great course on body language. We have a course called New Puppy Fundamentals. Anyway, you can get them all for 50% off through the end of November using the code PODCASTGDT. GDT is for good dog training.
I talked about this a little bit last week, but one of the reasons that we created our on demand offerings is because, frankly, the training that we provide at our studio in New York City and even our virtual offerings, it's not inexpensive. And as a truly mission-based business that started in a proverbial garage, actually my Manhattan living room and a two-story walkup apartment, it's something that Kate and I have really, we struggled with over the years.
How can we charge enough to offer the kind of high quality services we offer in the way we want to offer them? How can we charge enough to pay our employees what we think is at least fair, if not appealing? It's expensive to live and work in New York City. And we want our trainers to you know, be able to live as comfortably as possible. So how can we meet our own expenses as a business and keep afloat so that we can keep offering the frankly wonderful services that we offer without excluding people who frankly can't afford our expensive offerings.
And so the on-demand courses, that is one way that we have tried to package things, offer what we do at a lower price point. This podcast is also a way that we kind of try and offer things up just completely for free to people who are interested in what we're doing, but maybe can't afford to come to us for private training or classes, et cetera.
But there's also one other thing we do to try and kind of reach people at different income levels that I think is pretty special, that I wanted to mention, which is the School for the Dogs Scholarship Fund. We started the School for the Dogs Scholarship Fund in 2018 because we had some clients who said, I have had such an amazing experience working with you with my dog, and I want to pay it forward. How can I help other people who maybe would not otherwise be able to forward to train with you?
We specifically wanted to figure out how we could help people with rescue dogs, since one of the big reasons people return rescue dogs to shelters is because of behavioral issues. And those are issues that very often can be solved or at least managed with the guidance of a certified trainer.
You can apply to the fund at schoolforthedogs.com/fund. And when someone's accepted, we generally try to offer them usually between five and eight hours of training, either broken up into private sessions or in group classes, if we feel that that would be the most appropriate thing. In some cases, we are also able to offer some of our virtual on demand offerings to fund recipients as well. We offer these services at cost and those costs are paid completely through the fund so that the fund recipient pays nothing out of pocket.
We recently received fiscal sponsorship through the organization Chappy and Friends. So donations are now fully tax deductible. You can donate at schoolforthedogs.com/fund. And if you go there, you will see a little video we made about one of our fund recipients. I am going to play you the audio of that video right now.
[music plays]
Woman:
We live in New York and every day we deal with a stressful environment, and dogs deal with that same exact environment totally differently. I don't think we thought about that before.
Man:
This is Ollie. When we got her, she was definitely a little crazy. Since then, it's been a slow but meticulous process of getting her adjusted to New York, to our apartment, to people and other dogs.
Woman:
She has a lot of fears. We were her foster parents first, and when we first started fostering her, I think she was still in her adjusting phase, where she basically never barked, just slept all all day. Then during week two, she kind of woke up from this and was aggressive. She would growl at people. She would try to bite us. She would even try to bite if you just tried to put the leash on her collar. She would bark at cars, people going on by bikes. She had intense separation anxiety and would bark for eight or nine hours if we were gone, and just be scratching at the door the whole time.
Man:
We were just confused. Why is this happening? We just didn't know the why behind all of these things. We just kind of felt a little lost, not really knowing what our next steps were.
Woman:
We got to being at our peak overwhelmed phase, and we started looking at different training schools in the city. And we were a little taken aback, just looking at all the prices of the schools. But then we found School for the Dogs and saw that they had a scholarship fund. We applied and started working with Anna.
Man:
Even just the first session was so educational. I was taking copious amounts of notes because I knew absolutely nothing about how dogs think. We had been treating her as though she was just like a human in a dog body. Anna laid out all of the basics for us. I think we hadn't even realized how fearful she was up until then, but we started paying attention to her body language when she was out on walks, something we never really thought about. It really changed the way we saw Ollie and interact with her.
Woman:
Anna gave us direct steps that we could take between classes. And sometimes we’d get overwhelmed again, but Anna would be there with more action plans of what we could do to help metabolize everything piece by piece.
Man:
Each time we went back for a class, Ollie was significantly better. Obviously she’s still not perfect. She still has slight issues that we're trying to work on and are still working on, but she's a very different dog.
Woman:
We just never thought we could have a dog that could sit on command, which she can now do. And even though that seems like a really small thing, it’s just the knowing that even though she's eight years old, we can still continue to train her and give her skills that will make both of our lives easier.
Man:
Our communication with her is very different. Cause we now actually have an understanding of what she's trying to tell us, as opposed to just guessing. Now we know when she's stressed and she needs a break, or is excited to be on a walk, or she wants to stay out longer. So we can actually help her get what she needs.
A lot of dog training schools are really focused on puppies, which is fantastic for people who need that. And puppies need a lot of training, but when you're fostering and thinking about adopting, most of the dogs that are most underserved are older dogs, and they need training too. For us, I think if people knew that it's possible to get afford old training in New York for these older senior dogs, the idea of adopting a senior, wouldn't be so overwhelming.
Annie:
Isn't that sweet? Anyway, you can see Ollie at schoolforthedogs.com/fund, the full video. I also just thought I would share this email I got from our most recent fund recipient who wrote me:
Thanks to the School for the Dogs Scholarship Fund and training sessions with Claire, my dog and I are still together today. I found myself in a dire situation when my rescue dog began to display severe behavioral issues. I lost my quality of life and didn't know how to handle such an aggressive and anxious dog. She was too erratic to participate in group training courses, and I could not afford private lessons. I was in over my head financially and emotionally.
When the scholarship fund awarded sessions with Claire, I felt hope for the first time. With Claire's expertise on behavioral issues, I knew I could survive and my dog had a chance. It breaks my heart to think my puppy and I may not be together today but for School for the Dogs and its scholarship fund. Thank you for giving us both a chance and for Claire's transformative sessions.
Claire, who she mentioned is Claire Cario, who is our head of private training at School for the Dogs, and is indeed pretty damn wonderful, and is definitely a person very grateful to have on staff.
A special thing that we are offering anyone who donates any amount to the School for the Dogs Scholarship Fund between now and the end of the year, while supplies last, is a tile of your dog or any dog you'd like, really, in this beautiful mosaic that was done last year at School for the Dogs made by Jim Power, AKA the East Village mosaic man.
If you have ever been to the East Village, you might know, or might have seen the lampposts all around that are full of mosaics. It's called the mosaic trail. All of these are by the inimitable Jim Power, a Vietnam vet and artist who we commissioned to put together this lovely mosaic featuring many of our students. It is located in a sort of recessed area above the stairs, in the back room in at School for the Dogs on E. 7th Street.
Anyway, the mosaic was put up last year, but there ended up being more spots for two inch by two inch tiles than we anticipated. Which is a good thing, because that is why we are gifting a spot in this mosaic to anyone who donates to the fund between now and the end of the year at any level. All you need to do is donate at schoolforthedogs.com/fund, and make sure to include your email with the donation. And I will email you to ask you for a photo to share that we can include in the mosaic. I am going to include a link to a photo of the current mosaic in the show notes.
I'm going to leave it there today. And thought I would sign off, though, with a poem written and read by the wonderful late actor, Jimmy Stewart, about his late dog Bo. He read this on the Johnny Carson show 40 years ago. And thought I would share this as this month marks one year since I lost my wonderful dog, Amos. I think about him every day. I feel gratitude for all the time we spent together and I miss him terribly and I always will. So if you have loved and lost a dog, this poem is for you. Happy Thanksgiving.
Jimmy Stewart:
The title of it is Beau, that's the name of the poem.
He never came to me when I would call
Unless I had a tennis ball.
Or he felt like it.
But mostly he didn't come at all.
When he was young
He never learned to heel
Or sit or stay
He did things his way.
Discipline was not his bag
But when you were with him things sure didn't drag.
He'd dig up a rosebush just to spite me,
And when I'd grab him, he'd turn and bite me.
He bit lots of folks from day to day,
The delivery boy was his favorite prey,
The gas man wouldn't read our meter,
He said we owned a real man-eater.
He set the house on fire
But the story's long to tell,
Suffice it to say that he survived
And the house survived as well.
On the evening walks, and Gloria took him,
He was always first out the door.
The Old One and I brought up the rear
Because our bones were sore.
He would charge up the street with Mom hanging on,
What a beautiful pair they were!
And if it was still light and the tourists were out,
They created a bit of a stir.
But every once in a while, he would stop in his tracks
And with a frown on his face look around
It was just to make sure that the Old One was there
And would follow him where he was bound.
We are early-to-bedders at our house —
I guess I'm the first to retire.
And as I'd leave the room he'd look at me
And get up from his place by the fire.
He knew where the tennis balls were upstairs,
And I'd give him one for a while,
He would push it under the bed with his nose
And I'd fish it out with a smile.
And before very long
He'd tire of the ball
And be asleep in his corner
In no time at all.
And there were nights when I'd feel him
Climb upon our bed
And lie between us,
And I'd pat his head.
And there were nights when I'd feel this stare
And I'd wake up and he'd be sitting there
And I'd reach out my hand and stroke his hair.
And sometimes I'd feel him sigh
And I think I know the reason why.
He would wake up at night
And he would have this fear
Of the dark, of life, of lots of things,
And he'd be glad to have me near.
And now he's dead,
And there are nights when I think I feel him
Climb upon our bed and lie between us,
And I pat his head.
And there are nights when I think
I feel that stare
And I reach out my hand to stroke his hair,
But he's not there.
Oh, how I wish that wasn't so,
I'll always love a dog named Beau.
[music and outro]
