We recently connected with Ashton Aubuchon and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ashton thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
In my profession, there are a few tried-and-true methods I use that don’t follow the current dog training trends. Currently, there is a push for purely-positive training. I break the norm by establishing myself as a balanced trainer and emphasizing the need to train the owner as well as the dog. My goal is to ensure that you will never need another trainer again by addressing the deeper needs within the context of the dog/owner relationship. This reduces anxiety and creates a black and white world to help your dog quickly grasp what we are trying to teach. Through a balance of rewards and boundary-setting, we get a well-rounded dog who obeys commands, respects boundaries, and trusts the relationship they have with their owner. All of this starts with understanding the psychology of our dogs, and giving them support they have always deserved.
That support does and should come from multiple sources. Next to approaching training with with a different mindset than most trainers, I am also currently working on trying to bridge the gaps that exist in the dog world. Currently vets do not work along side trainers, and neither do adoption facilities. And even if a facility does have a behavioral staff, that training is not extended to the owners who have recently adopted a dog. By these three communities working closely to one another we could significantly decrease the amount of dogs returned back to shelters. Dogs are complex animals, who need parents that understand them. They need trainers who can identify when medical help is needed, and vets who provide that care to make training more successful. I want to help create a push that makes these services more accessible. Owners are deserving of this, but even more so than that is their dogs. It’s time we start giving man’s best friend the treatment and care they have always deserved, but have never gotten.
Ashton, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Ever since I can remember, I have been dedicated to becoming the best version of myself I could be in whatever it was I was passionate about. As a child and young adult that passion had always been sports. It wasn’t till I joined the United States Army in 2015 as a Military Working Dog Handler did I realize that passion transferred over to training dogs.
While in the Army, I received extensive training and certifications in K9 care and first aid, basic and advanced obedience, agility course training, gun fire neutralization, detection work, directional and remote collar training, and patrol/protection work. In 2019 I worked as a dog behaviorist at one of the top behavior adjustment training facilities in Colorado. Although I learned some things while working there, I also quickly realized my training philosophies did not match up with the company I was working for. After doing some research I noticed that most companies were about quick results. As most quality trainers know sticking a band aid on an issue will only make it worse over time. There’s a disconnect when it comes to training dogs and addressing the underlying issue. One size does not fit all in the dog training world, and neither do short cuts. It is now my goal to offer more quality dog training services while working under my own unique name and brand.
These services include behavioral adjustment and rehabilitation training, intro to scent work, remote collar training, intro to patrol work, and advanced on and off leash obedience. Why do I offer all of these services? Because to stay relevant in this career field, you need to have a deep understanding of dogs. By experiencing all different types of breeds, in different forms of drive, working on different skills, I am more able to be the well rounded trainer that my clients deserve.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
This most likely is and always will be word of mouth. I don’t care what your business is, or who you are. If you have past clients name dropping you when someone brings up topics related to your career field then you’ve made it. This way you don’t have to earn the trust of this new client. That trust was established as soon as someone else told a personal story about how amazing your work is. This applies even in the case of a google search. If you have a paragraph attached to your five star review explaining just why you have earned those five stars people will be drawn to that. It shows you worth someone using one of the most sought out resources of our generation (time), and they were more than happy to spend it on you. That’s special and people know it.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My biggest pivot point came after my six year Army career. I learned most my dog training skills there. I knew how the military operated, but I wasn’t aware of how it operated on the civilian side. One of the first things I realized was if you don’t own the training company then you are barely making enough to survive. Most companies trainers are also cleaning the facility, managing clients, booking sessions, and conducting follow ups. Those same employees make less than $45,000 a year while the owner pockets hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. You have to realize this is just the same for franchises as it is for a smaller businesses. I wasn’t working for the company I had applied to for long when I knew it wasn’t going to work out. I made $1,000 every two weeks, worked 14 days on and 7 days off, and all my work days included dog checks/breaking dogs at least every eight hours, plus 8 hours of training, cleaning the facility, creating content, sending updates to clients, booking follow ups (that I wasn’t always paid for), all while working with some of the most aggressive dogs you have come in contact with. Not to mention the training philosophies and techniques used at this company were extremely outdated. It was on Easter Sunday in 2021, after working 14 days straight, that my coworker and I were fired via email because we asked for more money. Apparently two Army vets, certified in K9 first aid, detection training, patrol work, advanced obedience, agility and gun fire neutralization weren’t worth more than $40,000 a year a piece. Meanwhile we trained 12 dogs a week three weeks out of the month. Each of these training slots cost $2800 a dog. If you do the math our boss was making $100,000 plus a month. Rent was $2500 plus utilities. My coworker and I both just laughed as we realized our entire salary and 80% of the kennel costs were covered by us in one month of work. That left them with 11 months to just pocket everything else. To owner we didn’t work enough for the extra pay, and we couldn’t figure out why they didn’t understand our lack of motivation. It was while reading that email I realized the only thing left to do was start my own company from the ground up. I made a commitment to myself that if I could pull this off no employee of mine would ever be left wondering how they would put food on their table or pay rent. I wouldn’t be taking vacations while my employees were breaking their backs for me. I change my path on life from wanting to be a good trainer, to wanting to be a ground breaking leader in this industry. The employees deserve better, the owners deserve better, and most importantly so do the dogs.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cmdperformancek9.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/commandperformancek9?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078914285048&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cmdperformancek9?_t=8YwfL9Nam6A&_r=1