The Extraordinary Bond with Jake Schneider
Jake: [00:00:00] people are looking for emotional connections without judgment, without and that’s what a dog does
Carling: Welcome to the, I did not Sign Up for this podcast, a weekly show dedicated to highlighting the incredible stories of everyday people. No topic is off limits. Join me as we explore the lives and experiences of guests through thought-provoking, unscripted conversations. I’m your host Carling, a Canadian queer identifying 30 something year old, providing a platform for the stories that need to be heard
Hey guys, happy Tuesday or whatever day you are listening to this. I wanted to hop in and just do a little intro, which I’m not doing every episode, but I just feel like spring is in the air. Things are going really well. I’m having a really great week. I guess I’m recording this on a Monday, but it seems like it’s shaping up to be a really great week.
Something about spring, . I find myself like cleaning more and opening windows and taking longer dog walks and yeah, there’s something about Spring. I thought it was just a [00:01:00] saying. I do think there’s something in the air.
In other news. Something crazy happened and I got a thousand followers on TikTok, which doesn’t really sound like a lot, but I mean if you think about it, there’s like a billion people on TikTok and who am I? Just this little Canadian podcast. Sharing people’s stories. So I think that’s really cool.
I was really excited about it. One of the perks of getting a thousand followers on TikTok is that you get the option to go live immediately. I, as soon as I saw the thousand, I was like, there’s no way I’m ever going live. Something about going live on TikTok sounds like a night.
So if you have TikTok and you don’t already, you should go give me a follow and I’ll follow you back. And the other thing is coming up at the end of this week, I am releasing another Patreon episode. Most people know what Patreon is, but if you don’t, Patreon is a monthly subscription [00:02:00] and one of the best ways that you can support that.
The work that I do, you pay a low monthly fee, and in exchange I give you, Tons of stuff. So depending on the tier that you join, you get two bonus episodes per month. And currently, like if you were to sign up today, you’d get access to over, over 70 episodes instantly. So really good for binging. And I tell my own story I tell a lot of my own stories and we have guests that just wanted to have a smaller audience.
I go off the beaten path and interview people about all sorts of things,
so there is a little. Something extra for everybody in the Patreon. And if you sign up for the third tier, the ultimate sty, you even get access to once a month video episodes that I do with special guests. So for the month of March, I had my friends Jen and Tisha from the now what pod, [00:03:00] and as always, my lovely partner who joins me for them, Lindsay This upcoming Friday, March 25th, I’m actually gonna release an episode with. Alison, who I interviewed on the main feed a few weeks back, her episode was about gambling addiction and I had her back for the Patreon and we talked about A D H D and parenting and social media and a little bit of everything She.
Is hilarious. If you have not seen her on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, you should go look her up. You can usually find her by looking up DOPA mom, D O P A M O M. So I’m excited for everybody to hear that episode. And if you’re interested, if you wanna check it out, just go to patreon.com/i did not sign up for this and sign up.
But anyway, I hope everyone’s having a great week. I hope this first week of spring is giving you as much energy and good vibes as it’s giving me. [00:04:00] I had a really great weekend and I’m feeling energized and refreshed so that’s about it. I don’t have too much else to say other than let’s get into today’s episode. All right, bye.
hello, Jake.
Jake: Hey, how are
Carling: Good. How are you?
Jake: doing? All right. We’re actually just getting ready for a big snowstorm. We’re supposed to get, like in the next, tomorrow a little bit of snow, but over the next three days, we’re supposed to get like 20 inches of snow or something.
Carling: My God. Where are you from again? I can’t remember.
Jake: Minnesota, so we’re like north of Minneapolis by about an hour.
So we’re, I dunno, I’d say we’re almost to Canada.
Carling: Yeah. We’re on the west coast of Canada Feel like maybe we’re the reason you’re getting a snowstorm. I read something that like Alberta is sending some very cold weather East side of the us
Jake: Thank you for
Carling: Sorry,
Jake: Appreciate it, . That’s okay. Like [00:05:00] last couple days ago, we had a half an inch of rain, so everything’s a skating rain. It’s just been a mess. I don’t know.
Carling: yeah. Keeps
things
Jake: anyways, aside from that, doing great. Yeah.
Carling: Yeah, . Good. I’ve been super excited to talk to you. I would love it if you could maybe introduce yourself, tell me who you are, where you’re from, what you do. And then we’ll get into what we’re talking about.
Jake: Yeah. My name is Jake, Schneider. Me and my wife own a dog training business called On Dog Training Academy. We actually have two, we have our online one, which is on dog, and our in-person one, which is called a Breed north. And um, we’ve been training for over 15 years I’ve been born into this, like my parents are dog trainers still, so I’m 38. So I’ve pretty much my entire life been around dogs and dealt with dogs and training and everything. And so it just was second nature, to just start up a dog training thing up here.
So that’s what we’ve done. During the pandemic we moved online just because that’s what. People had to do so we started doing that and it just morphed out of all of this. So we’ve done a lot of online stuff, a [00:06:00] lot of lessons and stuff.
People I think are now realizing you can get training and different things like that from online. And it’s actually very helpful,
With technology the way it is now. Like I can help people a lot just virtually and it’s been awesome.
Carling: Yeah, I get the sense that training dogs is more about training the people to like read the cues, learn the body language react appropriately.
Jake: Hundred percent. We used to do classes and that was something they always said, whoa. It’s you’re training us and not the dog. I’m like The dogs are just they’re doing what you’re allowing them to do it’s up to the people to really figure out how to interact with them appropriately so that they don’t do whatever it is that they’re having issues with.
Yeah. It’s a hundred percent people training, so my wife did a lot of behavior consult work and stuff, and she loved the behavior side of it. She likes psychology and stuff. I’m more like, I like to take the dumb dog who just is just jumping and being just a stupid puppy and train them.
I prefer that Jenny, my wife, just loves to dig into the psychology side of it. Like why is the dog doing these things and yeah, she always said to when she’d go to her lessons, it was almost like she was like a [00:07:00] therapist at times, because. , what you got relationship issues that are causing this dog to act out or it’s just, and people are so emotionally attached to their animals now that it’s just a whole nother level of training that, that these, that dog trainers have to get into when we’re working with these clients.
Carling: Totally. And so you spent a lot of time competing with a dog, is that right? And you traveled quite extensively. What did you compete in? Who was your dog?
Jake: Yeah. The first dog I ha I had was, his name was Cato, he was a Belgian Malinois. I shouldn’t say my first dog, my first competition dog. I always gotta shout out my first dog we got when we moved out, which was copper. He lived to be 12 years old. He was a bass home,
I went from owning a Bassett hound to going, Hey, I want to do like sport work with my dogs, and hooking up with this club working with them.
so I ended up getting a Belgian Malinois, which going from a bass hound to a Malinois, so much different. It’s, and if people are listening and they’re like, what’s a Malinois? Obviously you can look it up, but it’s basically like a German Shepherd that’s been given a Red Bull. I think they’re more athletic. They’re [00:08:00] faster. They just, they’re just crazy. Anyways so we got Cato and yeah, Cato kind of introduced me to a sport called Mano Ring, which is a sport I still do now. I did it with my dog, Luda current dog. He’s now retired from it. But I’m also a decoy and a judge, and I’ll explain what that is.
What mania ring is it has three different phases of competition you have, and it’s all done within the same time. You go out there and you run through all three, the first one’s obedience. So you’re retrieving pretty much whatever the judge decides you’re gonna retrieve. So it could be a water bottle, it could be some weird contraption they made.
It could be a stick, it could be I don’t know, whatever. You gotta. , a lot of different healing and retrieves and all these different obedience things. And then you have to do jumps. And one of the jumps they do is a palisade, which is a basically a seven foot wall that the dogs have to climb up, jump over, basically, and then a long jump that’s roughly 12 feet long.
Carling: Wow.
Jake: And the dog just learns. They have to clear that whole thing. And then a hurdle, which is basically like [00:09:00] jumping a four foot fence. And then in, and then the fun part, the part that really drew me into this sport is the protection, the bite work side.
So if you ever watch like police dogs, they’re running in bite suits, all that stuff. In this sport it’s similar where we. A bunch of different exercises we have to do and the dog has to bite or not bite at certain periods. to me that was awesome because I watch like my own dogs, they bite the person, not because they hate the person, but because they love the person.
Like when we train the people in the suits, we call ’em decoys. And the decoys are like giant fun toys. So like my own dog, like right now, Luda, when he sees his training de. He loses his mind. He’s so excited to see them. He wants to lick them and play. And then he is is like, put that thing on, let’s go.
Let’s do this fun game, I’ve done that since, I think I started in 2009. I’ve been doing that and I became a certified decoy in it as well as a handler with my own dog. And then once we lost Cato, I started dedicating myself to, and I’ll talk about Cato a little bit. I [00:10:00] started dedicating myself to becoming a judge.
So now I’m a judge. So like last weekend I was in California judging a trial out there and it was Super Bowl weekend, which I didn’t realize when I booked it. So that was, my team didn’t make it anyway. It doesn’t matter. So yeah, now I’ve been a judge for three, maybe going on four years now, and it’s an absolute blast.
But yeah, that sport allowed me to travel so, It within the United States. I’ve traveled from Minnesota to Colorado, California Missouri. But out of the United States we qualified to compete at the world event in that sport, and that was over in Italy in 2014. And so we loaded up our dog, packed all our stuff, and flew to Italy for about a week and a half took in everything Italy was.
It was Northern Italy, so it was a lot of mountains and stuff. it was just a shock. Like I’ve never been to Europe, and so that was my first Europe trip. And then trying to manage a dog at the same time was something else. And the competition was what it was. I think we finished middle of the pack.
That was fun. But at the same time, just the experience of [00:11:00] going from the US and flying basically 12, 13 hours with your dog. , and all the paperwork you had to get from regulations and vaccinations and all that. I It was an experience all into its own.
But yeah that sport has really just opened my mind up or my brain to like training, but also just. The traveling stuff with it, cuz we’re in a little Fiat 500, that was their big SUV when we rented the car that thing barely fit his crate. And our stuff, like our stuff was crammed in on the sides of it.
And it’s Europe and so it was a diesel and it was a stick shift. And I’ve driven stick shifts before, but this was a lot of hills. Like I said, it was in the mountains, like our hotel room was up a mountain. and it’s one la one lane roads with mirrors. So that mirrors on curves so you can see if traffic’s coming and if it’s coming, you pull over on the sidewalk where people are walking.
I guess. I didn’t know. That was bizarre. Yeah, so it just. I told you, like when we finally got to the ca back to the airport or the car rental place and we parked the car, I looked at my wife and I said, I didn’t wanna say it this whole time, but oh my God, I thought I was gonna crash this thing [00:12:00] at least a dozen times.
I’m like, I’m surprised we didn’t, something didn’t happen. Like it was, we got on the Autobon or whatever they call it in Italy and that was crazy. I don’t know. But I’m thankful for the training we do and I’m thankful for my dog, cuz. He gave us that opportunity and then we never called it a vacation.
We just called it an adventure, but now we wanna do it again. I don’t know maybe our next dog, not the dog we have now, next, maybe next time. It’s a lot of work.
Carling: it sounds like it. And so tell us about Cato.
Jake: So Cato was, He was the, my first working dog I ever got. I’ve only had two now, so I guess it’s not like I’ve had a bunch, he was the first working dog I ever got. He came from the lady I trained with, she bred her mail and said, Hey, I’m not taking a fee for this. I want to give you pick of the litter instead.
And I’m like, oh, awesome. So we picked out Cato. And Cato was awesome. Like for the sport especially, he was 75 pounds, which is a pretty good size Malinois. He just wanted to work. That was his life. I want this job and I do this. And he was very good [00:13:00] at it. And then so when we went up through the ranks, level one, level two, level three there’s three levels to mon ring when we got there and we qualified for nationals two years in a row.
We took second place two years in a row at nationals. And that was, we lost to the lady who gave me the puppy because I was her training decoy. So I lost to a, I lost to a friend, which was awesome, and to a dog that I had trained. So that was even, I was fine with that.
But, so when we qualified for Italy, we went there and competed and everything and when we got home from Italy, We started noticing that Cato had a limp, like it was weird. He had this little hitch and we’re like, okay, maybe it was from the long flight or competing is high. It’s high level.
Like these dogs could easily get injured, like this stuff happens. Then all of a sudden there was a mass that showed up on his shoulder and we’re like, oh man, what is, what’s going on? And keep in mind, he was only four years old when we discovered this. so we’re like, what is going on?
Maybe he injured something, broke, whatever, brought him to the vet. They did a bunch of tests. They scanned him, came back and said, this is [00:14:00] cancer, this is bone cancer. And that’s when it really changed for me. Like my mindset of dogs started to slowly morph through this and. we ended up, because of his age, we ended up doing an amputation with his leg.
And they were like, okay with this procedure, there’s a chance it’ll go fine, A good chance. But there’s also a possibility because it’s in his shoulder. Bone cancer, a lot of times in dogs is like on their like knee or like elbow area, so it’s a little bit lower. So when they amputate, it’s easier.
This was a lot more difficult. So they did the amputation. They thought the margins were good. We did the amputation in November. And he was recovering and everything was good until it wasn’t.
All of a sudden he started not being able to walk and was having issues, brought him back to the vet and they said cancer spread to his spine and his lungs, and at that point we just knew well. That’s it. There’s nothing we can do, we just started chemo and stuff like that with him and that was it.
It was like, okay, , that’s our fate. Like he just got the clear from the vet to go back to basically normal activity. Like he just recovered from his [00:15:00] amputation. He was limping around totally fine. Like dogs are amazingly adaptive. Like he’s just oh, my leg gone. I can still play ball and stuff, so I’m pretty happy.
And he just, Moved on. He, He took it a lot better than I did. But yeah, so right around, I think it was between Christmas and New Year’s is when we ended up having to put ’em down and that was the time, that was one of the hardest things that we ever did. Me and my wife, cause we don’t have kids, so like that’s our kid.
But what he showed us in his four, it then became four and a half years. What he showed us in his four and a half years was just, Amazing the amount of exposure and stuff that he just opened our eyes to dog training and everything and so he’s definitely, if people say like they’re heart dog, the problem is though is I don’t know, like my dog now, I feel more connected to than Cato, but I almost think it was because of Cato that I am as attached to Luda as I am now, if that makes sense.
Carling: Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about what [00:16:00] that, like what did you, what did that loss and that journey look like and how did it shape how you approach. Dogs and grief and all of that today.
Jake: Yeah. So when we had to put ’em down, thankfully because we’re dog trainers and stuff, we have a lot of communication with the vets just because we’re checking vaccinations, whatever, and we bring our own animals there and everything. And so the vets were super nice and they came to our house knew he really couldn’t walk very good.
So they came to our house and we did the euthanizing there. And it was brutal. Like I’ve. I’ve dealt with loss in the past, not of a close family member, but I’ve dealt with stuff before and this was a whole nother level. It, my wife, it broke my wife’s heart. It took it, we didn’t get another dog for, I wanna say two years, almost two years.
We went, we just had I mean we still, I keep forgetting like we had copper, our bass home, he was still there, but he’s copper, our bass home. I loved him, but like at that point he was just an older guy and he just was chill and hung around with us and [00:17:00] everything. So it’s not like we were pet list.
We still had him, we have our cats. But like the hole it left was amazing and it really got me to start to, to look into Losing an animal and started like researching it to a degree. Cuz I’m like, you hear people and obviously things have morphed since I started training or since my parents started training where, it went from this is a dog to, this is like a family member.
My parents had dogs and it was definitely, they were close with them but I think as we evolve, as people, our relationship with our pets have evolved as well. And so I was just Like, why is this hitting me so hard? For a while it was like it almost puts you into a funk, like a temporary depression or something like that, and so I started researching it and the more I did, the more I’m like, okay, this makes a ton of sense. And they started saying like the studies I read were saying when you lose like an. A lot of times it’s now emotionally compared to like losing a person, like losing a member of your family.
When I started reading more. I’m like, that makes total sense, right? How you basically emotionally feel about your dog. if you ever talk to people, [00:18:00] if you ever, so like people with kids, my parents used to do this all the time.
They call my brother my name. They’d call me my brother’s name. They’re like, yeah, I don’t, I’m like, I’m Jake and, and whatever. And the reason they do that, the reason that happens is because your cognitive pool that your tho that those names and stuff sit in is like this family bank, I guess the way your brain works, brains are weird.
basically, Now they’re saying people are mistakenly calling their kids and other people their dogs’ names, because they’re the names of their dogs fall in within that family bank because that’s how you emotionally view them as they’re, it’s a child, it’s a sibling whatever it is.
So it was really, Interesting to start to go, wow, that is, that’s really cool how you could be so attached to an animal that it affects you that much. the way it changed my mindset and training is like, when we first get into training, it was like, okay, I’m doing this for, a business, I’m trying to make money and all this stuff.
And I do enjoy training dogs. But now because of Cato [00:19:00] and the research I’ve done with loss and stuff, it’s gotten me to the point where I want to help people to get to a point in the relationship with their dog, where cognitively that dog’s name and memory and everything falls within family, and you’re attached in that way.
And we deal a lot with clients who are struggling to get there. And I want, people that when they lose their dogs, Are devastated because that means you had an emotional connection to that dog that was amazing. That means however long you had that dog was awesome because you were so attached to it.
And so I, that’s my goal is I want people to be attached to their dogs the same way.
I was attached to Cato, and now I’m even more attached to Luda. Like Luda is on a whole nother level when it comes to my bond that I have with him. Now, granted, he’s almost seven. Cato died at four and a half, so I’ve had more time with Luda but my goal is just I want to help train dogs, get dogs to be to a level where people are like, I love this freaking dog.
[00:20:00] They’re awesome. They don’t have to be perfect, they just gotta be. . just on a side note, I did find it funny cuz my wife is a cat person in the same study. They said that cats seldom came up in that cognitive pool. I don’t know why. I mean, I. My wife disagrees. We have a cat that we got when we first moved out together and he’s still alive.
He’s 18 and a half. And she loves that cat. His name is Dandy. She’s like, dandy is part of my cognitive pool. I’m like, okay, like that. Yeah, I get it. But like Cat still rarely came up in the study as like a member of the family. I feel like they’re just there visiting and
Carling: Yeah. They’re just like the occasional roommate.
Jake: We’re just, their serv, we’re their servants. They’re just like, yeah, you feed me and do stuff for me.
Carling: Yeah, I find it really interesting. I lost my first, like my dog just over a year ago, and his name was Tony and he was this little scraggly 20 pound terrier mix from Texas and like that dog. The world had it out for him because I think my ex and I calculated, [00:21:00] we had spent over 20,000 in vet bills.
Like he swallowed something and it a piece of rubber and it got stuck. He got attacked a couple times. He ripped a due clock, like if it was gonna happen, it was gonna happen to Tony. And at 12 he developed like a liquid around the heart or fluid around the heart.
Tony had fluid. I also had a dog named Jake. That’s why I said that. . I, so Tony had like fluid around his heart and it literally in, within a couple of days, like we had to put him down and.
I feel like that was the first time that I noticed the difference between grieving a family member and grieving a pet. Like from a society’s perspective, I felt like I had this permission to grieve longer for a human and with a pet. People didn’t know what to do with me like I was. Arguably more inconsolable and hit harder and my heart shattered.
And you know this little ragga muffin guy that was in my life [00:22:00] every day for 10 years.
And then was gone. He was like an integral part of my everyday routine, whereas, I, this sounds awful. I also lost my dad a year ago, and just by comparison, the grief hits different because I didn’t see him and talk to him every day.
And so the grief is still heavy and traumatic and awful, but
You don’t have an everyday every minute reminder. It hits in waves and I’m fascinated about the differences and how each one felt equally devastating, but so different at the same time.
Jake: it’s crazy. For us, like when we lost Cato, it was an energy, like it was like all of a sudden the energy of the house just went, you know, because. Cato was like a kid, like it was just a different. Relationship, and maybe it was a breed thing where like Cato’s more of a, I want to do stuff for you, but like the energy of the house just drained.
Like it was, there was just not much there. And like you said, we build these habits and these patterns. You get up in the morning, you let your. , and I remember getting up in the [00:23:00] morning and going to Cato’s Kennel for a week and going crap, like he’s not here. And it was hard to get out of that for a while.
But the other thing with dogs too, and I think part of what you’re saying when you said your dad died and stuff is, are constantly, you said they’re constantly there, but they’re also very unconditionally loving towards us. And to me and I’m not saying your dad wasnt, but like
Carling: Yeah, family’s
Jake: just there and they’re just like, Hey, I love you.
Yeah. And I did a podcast recently that kind of talked about. Things we could learn from dogs. And one of them is their ability to forgive you. you walk and you accidentally step on their foot and the dog screams out in agony and within 30 seconds the dog’s typically like, yeah, okay, I’ll, I accept your apology.
We’re cool. Let’s just go play ball. Or something people, you hurt them and they’re just like, whoa. Like it’s gonna take longer. Or they remind you like, A week later, Hey, you
remember when you stepped on me and hurt me or whatever. And dogs just don’t care. Dogs are like, okay, we’re fixed.
We’re fine. Let’s go. And it’s like that unconditional love, the forgiveness I think that’s too why people, especially now, people are looking [00:24:00] for emotional connections without judgment, without different things like that. And that’s what a dog does. Cats, I don’t know, I think cats judge us
Carling: I was gonna say, if you wanna feel judged constantly by everything you do, get a cat.
Jake: Oh yeah. My cat wakes me up six o’clock every single morning because I’m late to feeding him. He thinks he should eat earlier than that, but he just screams at my door, at our door and wakes me up. My wife sleeps through it. I get up whatever. But but yeah, that emotional connection people have cuz, cuz like with kids can talk to an animal and better than they can people.
That’s why there’s programs out there, kids read to dogs because they’re just more comfortable around dogs and dogs aren’t judging them and doing things like that. So it makes sense that we grieve them similar. But you’re right, there’s no protocol. I think it’s getting slowly getting better, but yeah, it’s like there’s no like, there’s no thing in the paper saying dog died.
It’s obituary. There we go. There’s no obituary. There’s. service, anything like that? It’s just basically like for me, I put a post on [00:25:00] Facebook saying, lost my dogs. Just did a big thing about Cato. And then the people that were close to me knew about it too. I was fortunate where I was actually surrounded by dog people who totally understood what I was going through, but I could be, I could see someone who just has a dog as a pet and lose that dog, and people around him maybe not being able to quite understand.
So I just really hope. as things go on, people do start to understand don’t think it’s weird if you have to take some time off of work because you lost your animal. Like it is devastating, especially when they’re young. You know? I didn’t even have time to like mentally cope, prepare anything like that. It was just boom.
Carling: Yeah.
Jake: And, but yeah I think people should just not feel bad about being sad about losing a dog and like devastatingly sad. Like totally get it and. I don’t know, take some time off of work if your boss gets mad.
I don’t know.
Carling: Yeah. . Yeah. I love how you said about when Cato got the amputation he was just like, yeah, okay. Moving on. One of the dogs I [00:26:00] have is his name’s Johnny and he’s missing a front leg and he was just found. Out in the middle of nowhere really injured. He probably chased cars cuz he tries to chase cars even with three legs.
And he, I don’t know what to expect in terms of life expectancy, quality of life. I just knew that nobody else was giving him a chance and he was pretty shut down. So I was like, I’ll just take him and he. Not only is my healthiest dog in terms of like weight, teeth, eyes, ears, he’s so healthy, he’s just missing a leg and now he’s got arthritis, but he’s, maybe 12 ish. And he’s doing . Great. I don’t even know if he cares that he’s missing a leg. He’s just living his best life.
Jake: Yeah. Dogs are more, and I think they have to be, they’re just more in the moment. I don’t think dogs quite understand like we have the ability to think ahead. Oh, we have a vacation coming up in a month. We’re excited for. Dogs don’t really have that. It’s day by day for them. It’s moment by moment, and so yeah, they’re like my leg gone well.
Okay. I gotta move on and they just move forward and they keep going [00:27:00] Our dog once, once he got out, like the meds funked him a little bit. Like the meds put him into this weird, like funky. He was on a lot of meds. It was probably painful procedure. Once he came out of that, he was like, Hey, can we play with this toy stuff?
And he would just, yeah, he was missing his front leg. He’d just hop around like it was nothing. And I was just like, I’m like, dude, I feel more bad for you than you feel for yourself like this. , this is crazy. And so I actually started to just not feel bad for him. I’m like, Hey, bud, let’s just go work and do stuff.
And so we continued doing things he really liked until he couldn’t. And, that to me was good knowing that basically up until the end, he was still able to enjoy his life to, to, the things that he really, truly enjoyed doing.
Carling: And so you and your wife are both dog trainers and you said your wife prefers more of that like psychology aspect of it. And what is it about dog training that you love the most?
Jake: For me, it’s more everyday people. I love, I’m competitive by nature, so like I love doing the sport stuff with my own dog. And I love, I work with a club. That we train for the sport stuff. [00:28:00] We meet once a week and stuff, and that’s ba hobby, that’s like a pastime for me. I love doing that.
But the real passion of mine, yeah. Is helping people who are, I think, really struggling with their dogs. Where they’re just the dog’s running away, the dog’s jumping on ’em, the dog’s biting on ’em, and just being able to help bring that dog to an understanding this is how this relationship has to work.
There has to be some sort of middle ground where you’re gonna be happy. And they’re gonna be happy. And getting to that point to me is why I do this stuff now.
Carling: What’s the one thing you it doesn’t have to just be one thing, but if you hear somebody’s like, I’m gonna get a dog. Do you have advice for people, like if they’ve never had a dog before or, this’ll be their they’re not adding to their pack, but they’re just starting fresh.
Jake: Yeah. The biggest thing, and this to me leads into what I was just saying with having that relationship with your dog, is make sure it’s a good fit. It has to be a good fit,
Carling: And what is that? What’s a good fit? Like when you say that
Jake: the energy’s gonna mesh well with you . If I was just someone, let’s just say I was [00:29:00] retired and 80 a Belgian Malinois is not the breed that I should be getting, but I know people who have, I know people who have gotten high energy dogs when they have a very low energy lifestyle and it creates dogs who get bored, who get destructive, who their attention seeking behaviors are, keep away jumping, biting, that can morph into more severe behavior issues.
Even. And this sounds crazy, but like I tell a lot of people when I talk about their lifestyles and stuff, I’m. Doodle is not for you. Like people think, oh, I’m gonna get a doodle. It’s gonna be an awesome family dog. Remember what it is? It’s a golden retriever or a lab or whatever.
They’re mixing doodles with everything, and then it’s a poodle. Poodles are high energy working style dog, so it’s not like you’re gonna get this completely chilled dog who’s gonna just be the best dog ever. I’m not saying you can’t dog I have right now. He’s awesome. I think he is going to be a really cool, chilled dog, but,
A lot of the ones we deal with have so many energy things. So just research the breed you’re gonna [00:30:00] get. Don’t get a breed of dog because you grew up with it because your friends had it because it looks cool. Really go, is this going to be a good fit for me? Cuz a lot of times you’ll see it’s not, should you get a German Shepherd?
Should you get this lab? I don’t, maybe not. Maybe you need to get. More calmer dog, like maybe get a cavalier I don’t know. But to me that early on research is so important. And then don’t get a dog when you have life events that are going to be large, in my opinion.
And we deal with this a lot, having a child, people have this fantasy of having their kids. Having people who, have kids, they’re like, okay, I’m pregnant. I wanna get a puppy so that my dog and my, child can grow up together.
And that’s the fantasy. The problem is puppies are a lot of work. They take a lot of work to socialize, train, do everything like that, and so do so do kids and kids should be the priority. So to me, If you have big life events coming up hold on. I don’t care [00:31:00] if you’re like, oh, it’s the breed I’ve wanted and there’s a puppy available, there’ll be more. The good thing about puppies, they come again, and just be really aware of the timing you’re getting. Your dog. Do you have the time necessary to put into the dog? Do you have the money necessary? Like you were just saying, your dog is expensive. Yeah, copper, our Bassett hound, he was that same way.
Me. The most bizarre medical issues. Would come up with him and they were always expensive.
he was out running around in the backyard playing, got knocked over by a lab. The lab, he was an intact male. The lab stepped on his, I don’t, I dunno what your pocket, he stepped on his balls
And they swelled up to the sides of a softball and he had to have like antibiotics and it, it was just a whole thing.
It was,
Oh.
my god. And so fluky. Then he gets bit by a wood tick and he’s got preventatives. But he ends up getting her isis, which is rare in our area, . So the poor dude was on like prednisone for from seven on to the rest of his life.
And because he just, oh my god, autoimmune issues popped up from that yeah, it was expensive, it was really, so making [00:32:00] sure financially you can do it and emotionally you can do it and everything. But that to me is huge. When people are thinking about getting a dog, look at your finances, look at your time, look at the breed.
Don’t just impulse. People are really good at impulse buying and we deal with this a lot. Like, why’d you get the dog? We were on vacation and we just drove by and someone was, had ’em at the superstore or something that we went to, or whatever, and. So we picked one up cuz they were cute or I felt bad for it, so I rescued it.
You’re like emotionally purchasing something like that, that’s a 12 plus year commitment a lot of times. And you need to make sure it’s gonna fit cuz you don’t wanna live that whole life and just regret getting this dog, making the wrong choices and all this stuff, it just sets you up for heartbreak. You either have to rehome the dog, which is sad, or you, because behaviors were created. You have to euthanize the dog, you have to do whatever. It just, it’s sad. So we try to minimize. The only heartbreak you should have is when you lose your dog.
Carling: Yeah.
Jake: of old age or whatever, that should be the only time really you do with heartbreak with your animal. Otherwise, you should [00:33:00] just be able to enjoy the life. Yeah, I know it was a lot, but yeah, that, that’s probably the a, a big thing with selecting dogs.
Carling: And do you find so one of my friends owns a dog care facility, she noticed a huge uptick in people needing solutions because they got a puppy during COVID and they never left their house. And now you have this undersocialized separation anxiety dog. . And so now these dogs are, two and three years old and don’t know how to cope with back to life.
Do you have a lot of that?
Jake: Yeah. Oh yeah. now that we’re, Going on 2022, so we’re going on about three years or whatever from Covid. People don’t really say Covid dog a whole lot anymore, but you can trace back, okay, how old’s the dog, dog’s three, whatever you know and we see these dogs that are two, three years old that seem to be lacking sometimes in developmental stuff.
And yeah, it’s because they weren’t able to go to classes, they weren’t able to socialize their dog, although I think not being able to socialize their dog.[00:34:00] is not a good excuse because they still said go to parks, walk around outside, so you, your dog could still go places, see things. It was that obviously people were nervous to, to go places and so unfortunately we had to deal with that a lot.
And, but Covid, yeah, COVID in general I think just had a really bad Impact on dogs in general. Shelters during covid animal shelters were like, this is, they probably didn’t say this out loud, but they’re like, this is great. People are wanting to get dogs. People are getting dogs. We’re running out of dogs in the shelter.
And it seemed like at the time, for them, they were like, this is awesome. And I put a podcast out and I think I did a webinar at the time. I don’t remember. I wasn’t doing, actually, I wasn’t doing podcasts quite at that time. So I did a webinar for some of my clients and I. this isn’t a good thing.
Like shelters are running outta dogs, which means there are dogs going to homes that probably shouldn’t be placed in certain homes. And lo and behold, this, the re surrender rate went sky high, after Covid started to go a little bit longer and everything, people started going, yeah, this dog’s [00:35:00] not for me.
We just wanted a dog during Covid. And then they realized they just settled for
so yeah, that happened. And then, yeah, the Covid people, I know I have friends that are breeders and they couldn’t keep They couldn’t keep up. They’re like, we have a wait list that’s, 20 people deep and we only have a litter of 12 dogs and.
It’s crazy. Yeah, and just the under socializing and everything, it was definitely a problem, which is why we started doing the online stuff. It’s like we need to have something out there for people. We have to be able to get information out.
Tell people, we posted in our socials and stuff as often as we could Hey, go to the park or go into a Walmart parking lot, go to a somewhere’s parking lot where you know there’s gonna be vehicles, there’s gonna be people and whatever. And just keep yourself at a distance and just people watch.
If your dog could just do that, that is going to help you immensely through a lot. What Covid was creating with these dogs,
Carling: And how would you describe your, what’s your training method? Do you fall into one category?
Jake: No. No, not really. So I have kind of friends on both sides of the spectrum. I have friends who [00:36:00] use ecollars and different things like that, but I have friends who are really big into force free, positive only training. I sit in the middle where I consider myself, even though it, some people think it’s a terrible word.
I consider myself balanced. , my training style is I want to use what’s going to get the best result with the dog, but is the least corrective, I’m not gonna take this six month old puppy who’s jumping all over and put, I rarely use e collars if I don’t even remember the last time I used one.
I’m not gonna put like a six month old puppy with an e collar on and say, I’m gonna correct you now for being. I wouldn’t do that at all, but so I just try to go, okay, this is the dog I have that I’m training, here’s how I need to go about it. Like all three dogs that I have right now, all of ’em take different levels of corrections.
They’re treat loads like how I reward them and stuff is different. Like the doodle is super sensitive, so I have to be careful, like I can’t correct him too hard. I, , if he thinks he did something wrong or if he thinks he made a mistake, he’s like, oh no, he’s eight months old and he’s huge.
So he just goes, oh no, I’m gonna go just walk away. I’m in trouble. So I gotta be careful with him. The [00:37:00] Mallinois and the Belgian Shepherd that we have, can take a little bit more of Nope, you’re making a mistake. We need to do this. And they’re a little bit older, but like my training style just flexes with whatever these dogs need, cuz that’s in the end, I need to be able to.
Transfer my training to the client. So they have to be able to do it. whatever the dog can do, whatever the handler can do, I try to mesh, create some sort of program that’s gonna fit them and then go from there as much as absolute possible.
Carling: Yeah, that’s so true. I love it. So maybe can you tell people where they can find you? Where are you online? Tell about your podcast.
Jake: The podcast I do is called Learn Laugh Bark. That can be found Anywhere you get your podcast from. We’re on Facebook with that. The business we have is called On Dog Training Academy. That’s on Instagram and on Facebook. Follow us on YouTube. YouTube is like where I just have fun and put goofy videos up, like shorts and stuff of just our dogs doing weird stuff like. People get really surprised when they see our dog Luta who just loves our cat 18 year old cat.
And so our 18 year old cat and [00:38:00] our dog. They’re just laying next to each other and paw each other and play, and I don’t know, people like that stuff. So YouTube’s like our fun channel where we just put a lot of cool videos, Instagram, and then our Facebook page on dog training academies, Facebook page.
That is where we do put a lot of posts. We try to do educational stuff if we can and try to help people out. That’s our main thing. And then we’re, we have a website as well on dog training Academy dot. . On there you can see our courses. We do one-on-ones. There’s a link to our podcast as well on there, so people could just go there and find it if they needed to.
And then right now, we put out a, just a free webinar for people if they want to check out, a lot of people lately who have been talking about issues they’re having with their dogs. And what we’ve found is there’s a correlation between their issues and the household like a whole, the whole family.
And so in, we just did a quick little webinar that talked about creating consistency in your household and how to do certain things so that the whole family is doing the same because. consistency is the key to all training, and like I said, our goal’s always to create awesome relationships between [00:39:00] the humans and their dogs. So it’s on dog training academy.com and people can check it out and hopefully it helps them and gets them on path if they’re finding themselves having issues.
Carling: Awesome. Right, I will let you get on with your day. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And yeah, we’ll have to talk again soon.
Jake: Yeah, anytime. This is fun. I love talking about anything, dogs. It’s always a good time,
Carling: All right. Have a good day. We’ll talk later.
Jake: Thank you.
Carling: Okay. Bye.
Jake: Bye.
Carling: Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I hope you found our conversation informative and entertaining. If you enjoyed this episode, please don’t forget to follow me on social media. Share this podcast with your friends and leave a review@ratethispodcast.com slash I did not sign up for this.
Your support means the world to me. If you want more interviews, exclusive content and add free episodes, join the patreon@patreon.com slash I did not sign up. Join me next week when I talk with Linda Steele, an international bestselling author, model, and [00:40:00] fitness and nutrition expert. We talk about the childhood trauma and dysfunctional marriage that led her to discovering her passion for fitness.
I hope you all have a fantastic week ahead and we’ll talk soon.
[00:41:00]
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