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

Alright, Maggie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

There is infighting within the dog industry that is damaging people, their businesses and taking up a whole lot of time and attention away from actually training dogs. There are two camps of thinking in the dog training industry; using only positive, reward-based methods, or using positive, reward-based methods and aversives. Unfortunately, the ideology has become more important than our work and experience and has resulted in attacks, poor leadership, and our educational resources becoming propaganda rather than something from which to learn.

The concern I have about this trend, is that we have stopped thinking critically and looking at effectiveness of techniques. If a technique does not fit the desired ideology, it is cancelled and the trainer is attacked. It has made trainers afraid to rock the boat, afraid to put out information which could be useful to clients or other trainers, because their methods may not please the leaders of the force free movement. We are being bullied into conforming or keeping quiet.

You can see this trend carried out very publicly on social media. There are videos going back and forth with each side getting uglier and uglier. It is embarrassing to me as a trainer, and I cannot find anyone to look up to anymore. I have left the two organizations that I used for yearly conferences and connection.

Ultimately, this kind of infighting will bring nothing but the suppression of ideas, and we always need new training ideas! Although this directly affects me as a dog trainer, it is reaching the dog owners too, but they are not aware. The words used in the industry have been changing and do not tell the owner who they are hiring and what will happen to their dogs. They are being slowly brainwashed too, through clever marketing techniques. The truth is, there is no such thing as positive methods only. All training uses some aversives, such as a crate, a leash, or anything that stops a behavior. We need these things to keep our dogs and our communities safe. Without being able to stop a behavior, more dogs will end up in shelters or euthanized due to being uncontrollable or dangerous. This is a problem for us all.

Maggie, 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?

Like most trainers, I had a dog with behavioral issues. I learned that I had a talent for communicating with dogs, as I solved her issues, she became my favorite companion. Once i discovered my talent, I enrolled in Animal Behavior College to become educated and certified and then found a mentor who helped me become a great dog trainer. After trying lots of things and working with people in homes, group classes, rescues, shelters, service and therapy dogs, public speaking and even owning a facility, I found that I have the most passion for the complexities of the family dog. The average family has a lot of challenges; they often have chosen a dog that doesn’t fit their life, they have a busy schedule, children and guests in the home, and time constraints. I change chaos to harmony by educating the owner and teaching them the skills they need to communicate clearly and effectively with their dog. I create techniques that are simple to use, yield great results and are safe and family friendly.

I don’t focus much on obedience, but on concepts like calmness and confidence. When a dog or owner are overly emotional, they can’t process information. When they are calm, they can focus and act thoughtfully. This makes all the difference. I meet the family and the dog and see what’s going on immediately. I then set realistic expectations with the time, ability, and finances available. I address the needs of the owner and the dog at the same time, teaching them both how to communicate with ease. It doesn’t take weeks and weeks of boring repetition to get your dog to listen to you; it takes a few really smart skills used consistently. I generally teach manners around people and things, to come when called, to walk nicely on leash, to stop doing what is unacceptable, and to be calm a lot!

One of the most common reasons people do not seek dog training is the cost. Training prices have gotten out of control. We are not rock stars! I pride myself on staying affordable by being the trainer I wished I had found when I got my first dog. I didn’t want a mindless robot or a dog that did a sport or competed in anything. I wanted a dog that was safe with my kids, that I could take out and about and that listened to me when it counted. I also wanted her to be happy! As a wife, mother and grandmother, I can relate to the troubles families face with their dogs and I want to relieve their stress and bring them the same joy that I felt with my dog, once her issues were resolved.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I built my business one choice at a time, always keeping integrity at the forefront. I don’t have gimmicks, I don’ t oversell, and I always respect my client and their dog. I have been a person of my word so completely, that I felt I couldn’t change my mind; there was no room in my life for pivoting or giving myself grace to think twice. If i said I would do it, for sure I did it! Recently, life challenged me in several ways, and I have learned that there was something missing from my business and my life. I have been a professional trainer since 2009 and since that time, have enjoyed better and better success, year after year, until an unexpected day in 2023. I was severely bitten by a client’s dog. I received poor medical care. My foot had more than one broken bone, a deep bite wound and ligament and nerve damage. I was sent home and told that nothing was broken. After 6 weeks of rest, my foot had still not healed, and I became concerned. I then received the incorrect diagnosis of having a bone infection. At this time, my husband changed jobs and we moved 4 hours south and had to find new doctors, a new home, and all the things of moving without a support system or my income. I found a doctor who said he could help me, so I agreed to surgery. The surgery did not solve any of my issues. I still live with daily pain, and a foot that does not all work. It took me far longer than I ever imagined to heal from that bite to my foot. Rebuilding my business in a new location has been much harder than I expected. There are a lot more dog trainers these days and with the advances of social media, they are easy to find! I am confident that I can live with my injury and my business will steadily return to what it once was, but there is something much more important that this past year has taught me.

I always focused on my clients with integrity and respect. I have worked while sick, injured, tired, and stressed. I have worked 16 hour days. I worked myself into burnout and injury because I ONLY focused on my client. I neglected to consider my value and importance and did not demand the same integrity and respect for myself. This past year has taught me that I need and deserve to be kind with myself. I need to give myself time to heal physically and emotionally. I need to forgive myself for driving to the hospital and not asking the client to take me. I need to forgive myself for believing my foot was not broken even though it was crooked! I need to forgive myself for trusting a surgeon when I knew it wasn’t the right time for me to have surgery. I need to forgive the dog’s owner for never checking up on me or treating me with the value and respect that I deserved. Throughout the ordeal, I protected her completely by never giving her name or address and by absorbing all the medical costs myself. I felt it was part of my job. An important lesson I learned was that I placed her value so much higher than myself and for what? What did it get me? How did that help anyone or anything? There was responsibility on the dog’s owner and myself, as the trainer, but took 100% of it. I also need to give myself time to build my business in my new location, the right way; one choice at a time and with integrity and respect for my client, the dog and myself equally.

After much pain and suffering, I can now see the gift that I have received. I am clearer, safer, more well rested and a more balanced person and business owner. It would be nice to be able to have discovered this in an easier way, but with my hard head, that never would have happened!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I began my business in 2009 when my kids were 8 and 10 and we had just moved to Florida from Massachusetts. I had asked my husband to relocate for my happiness and I felt responsible to help with finances until he found work. I never dreamed that it would be successful, just that I was contributing. I began working only Friday nights and Saturdays, so I didn’t neglect any of my wife and mother duties. I toiled away all week on handouts, my website, and finding clients. It was like a new and shiny hobby that was just mine! I found a mentor that encouraged me greatly. I bounced ideas off him and discussed cases to check my abilities. He always asked me what I learned and agreed that I had.

Slowly, I accepted more and more clients on the weekends and at night. I began working full-time when my kids were teenagers and although they still needed me, did not want me. Working a lot was a pleasant distraction from the kids growing up and filled my time nicely. Once working full-time, my business exploded. I had more clients than I could handle. I was creating different programs to see what worked the best, and even started teaching group classes at local parks. I hired my first employee and made some really big miscalculations! I hired him to shadow me 5 days a week and learn to be a dog trainer. I didn’t recognize that I was giving him something super valuable. I paid him a weekly salary for zero work! I paid him to learn from me! Back then, it wasn’t a popular as it is now to pay a trainer to show you their stuff. After 6 months, I put him to the test and he bombed. Hard. I let him go. It was a complete loss of time and money. I also had many apprentices and did not feel confident to charge for them learning from me. As a young and naive entrepreneur, I did not see myself as successful as I was and neglected to acknowledge my value. I could have made a lot more money back then. I have since learned!

Next, I rented a building so I could stop driving around so much to clients’ homes. I taught classes all weekend and they were always full. My Saturdays alone paid all my expenses. I hired an assistant, and she helped immensely with my schedule, calls, the building upkeep and even assisted with group classes and social media. After 3 years, I wasn’t using the building much on the weekdays. People preferred in home training. Rather than renewing the lease, I let the building go and refocused on in-home training.

At this time, I hired two people with little experience and turned them into junior trainers covering all puppy clients. My life had changed some, and I could no longer work much during the day. I had grandmother responsibilities! The two other trainers helped keep my income up without me working nearly as much. It was tough to handle employees, insurance and payroll, but nice to have other minds to help me work through cases and get feedback after working alone for so many years.

I moved 4 hours away with my husband and had to recover from a bad dog bite, so things changed considerably. I let one employee go and sold my business to the other one, who happens to be my son. He is doing great! His business is running smoothly and he is pleased with his income. I have begun again in a new location and am taking the time to consider what my business will look like now and into the future. A small business grows, changes, recedes and grows again. I am going with its flow the best I can and remembering that I am its core. My vision, my talent, skills and my years of experience are within me and all I need to do it go to work each day and see what life brings. Being a small business owner can be lonely and scary, but also invigorating and worthwhile. I am thankful that I have been able to make adjustments throughout the years and have learned so much along the way. Most importantly, I am resilient and so is my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://maggiedogtraining.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiemarshalldogtraining/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maggietraining
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-marshall-ba799827/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MaggieMarshallDogTraining
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/maggie-marshall-dog-training-west-palm-beach