We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryan Gwilliam a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I adopted a puppy on a whim and had no idea how to train him. That’s how I got started as a dog walker, which developed into an obsession with dogs. I kept growing and learning and now have a team of 14 employees training and socializing up to 70 dogs a day.

We offer training, boarding and daycare. Every dog owner knows they should be working their dog but they don’t always have the time. They can outsource a lot of that work but not all to us. We teach dogs basic social and obedience skills while they stay with us so their owners can pick up where we left off. It’s a win-win-win! The dogs get the mental and physical workouts they need while learning good habits, the owners helps maintain those habits at home and we get to have all the fun teaching them both!

We have multiple levels of care/training to meet the needs of different dogs. We have some dogs that come to us for daycare and socializing only. Others come for daycare plus a bit of training, we call this Deluxe Daycare. Others who come for training during the day and we teach their owners what their dog learned that afternoon. Others who live with us during the week and go home on the weekends for practice with their owners. It all depends on the owners needs and budget, combined with what their dog truly needs. We help develop a plan and schedule what will be the best fit. Our trainers communicate with the humans at least once daily so customers stay informed about what their dog is learning and it also prepares them for what they’ll be learning at the next training session with their trainer.

Many dog related businesses seem to be tailored to what the humans want/prefer/like to see/the way it feels. We do our best to tailor everything we do to what the dog would prefer to see/experience. For example:

The industry standard is to have open drop off/pick up hours for dogs. This causes lots of stress in the social rooms and kennels because dogs get excited thinking it might be their owner showing up. This can lead to fights, tons of barking which stresses dogs and staff out, and distracts dogs in training.

We limit drop off/pick up hours so when dogs are socializing/training there are no interruptions. The dogs learn faster, they enjoy their time with us more, the relax in between classes in their kennels more, it’s soooooo much quieter in our building than a typical dog daycare/kennel.

Another thing that sets us apart, we haven’t had a fight in over 3 years. This is unheard of in our industry! Most daycares will send a dog to the Vet at least once a week if not more often. In 14 years we’ve sent 3 dogs to the Vet, I can’t overstate how incredibly unique this is in our industry and it shouldn’t be! Every time we’ve had a scuffle or a fight me and my team review it multiple times to figure out what we missed, what went wrong and how we can prevent it in the future. We are taking care of dogs, and it’s our responsibility to ensure their safety while in our care, both physical and emotional.

I’ve met many business owners and employees in this space, and they are some of the best people on Earth. They are truly passionate about their work and dog lovers to their core. And I know they want what’s best for the dogs in their care, but either don’t know how to fix it so dogs aren’t getting hurt or are unable to make changes that will help due to rules set in place by the business or beliefs they have that prevent them from making changes.

Most of my employees have worked at other dog daycares/kennels before working with me and during their interview we show them how we do things differently and talk about our track record and they are blown away. They are in awe with how quiet it is, how calm/relaxed/at ease the dogs are. When we get them in training they sit down with their manager and watch many “fight videos” so they can see the mistakes we have made and why we have certain rules in place. These new employees are like, “those are your fights? That is nothing compared with what I dealt with. We had worse fights than that every month”.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

There were multiple points early on in the business that I almost gave up.

There have been times that I worked I don’t even know how many hours and needed to give up. I worked as many hours as the day would allow. I was trying to expand too fast with a 2nd location before we were ready. It was a huge mistake! We had more rent and payroll than we could afford, I managed to always pay the bills but it cost me and my family dearly a few times in terms of stress and taking on debts unnecessarily.

I also ran into some really difficult dogs and owners that had me doubting if I had the skills to inspire change in either. Luckily I got smart and found incredible mentors who helped me over the hump, but I’m embarrassed to say it took me several years longer than it should have to learn this lesson. I tried to do it all myself when there were dog trainers and business mentors all around just waiting for me to reach out! They shaved decades off the learning curve, gave me hope, helped me manage the money better and made things almost instantly better! I wish I would have invested in myself and sought out help much sooner.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

You absolutely must read all the books written by Mike Michalowicz if you’re a business owner. His work has changed my business and my life. I suggest you start with Profit First and go from there. He’s what every small business owner needs, he understands exactly what we need to hear and how we need to hear it.

The same goes for the dog trainer and author Marc Goldberg. If you want to understand what makes your dog tick and how to build the best relationship with your dog please read his books. The book, “Let Dogs Be Dogs” is a must read for all dog owners.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.trainwalkpoop.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/trainwalkpoop
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-gwilliam/