We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Megan McDonald. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Megan below.

Megan, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I have loved dogs since I was a little kid, but training them didn’t become an interest of mine until adulthood. I grew up with Golden Retrievers that were very well-trained by my dad.

In college, my husband and I had two dogs named Denali and Finnley. He wanted to get them trained by a professional but I refused. They had the basics down just because of my dad,
but I told my husband that I didn’t want to take away their joy! I laugh about that now of course (because training gives dogs even more joy!) but I was not educated on any of those things at the time.

I really got into dog training when my husband and I fostered a dog with severe aggression issues years later. His name was Kailo. He was only 5 months old and was going to be euthanized at that age. I wanted to give him a chance, so I did everything in my power to build a good relationship with him. I studied, watched videos, read books, etc. I started applying anything and everything that I could to help him. We became best buds throughout the process! Kai and I had a deeper understanding of one another, but he only stayed with us for 3 months until he found his forever family.

BOLD Dog Training was born from my experiences with Kai and was then kept going because of my other pups Finn, Denali, and Ralph.

Our mission began as more of a simplistic one which is allowing dog owners to feel like they can handle their fur babies in any situation no matter what is happening. My husky Denali has really been the catalyst for that side of our mission. Denali was my soul pup. She passed away last January but taught me so much about life and training. She was a very confident and grounded dog. Denali was a clear born leader and her siblings would always listen to her. It was really interesting to watch their dynamics! I learned so much from watching her communicate with them, that I started implementing the things she would do into my training sessions. She was very playful and loving, but had very firm boundaries! She was a very bold soul and is who the business is named after.

Although the business started out with a focus on basic obedience, it has since changed a lot in the past year.

Kai was euthanized less than a year ago for still having aggression issues. Our mission has since evolved to include one less euthanasia and one less dog re-homed. We specialize in aggression and reactivity cases as well as basic obedience training. We want owners to feel empowered and we want fur babies to live long and healthy lives no matter what behavior issues they might experience.

Megan, 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?

My background is in mental health counseling, but I got very burnt out being a counselor. I was trying to determine what I wanted to do with my life when I met my buddy Kai and we began fostering him. Kai was a 5 month old siberian husky puppy with fairly severe aggression issues. He seemed to guide me into the training world and it was a perfect fit because of my love of studying behavior and my love of dogs.

I began my business as a part-time passion project. I started out by training dogs for donations while I worked full time at a veterinary office. Things kept growing as time went on and I knew that I wanted dog training to be my career.

As I have been able to focus more of my time and energy on my business, my services have expanded and changed. I do sessions with owners to teach them how to train their own dogs and also offer training and exercise programs for dogs when owners are away at work.

I think the biggest thing that sets me apart from other trainers is how much I focus on building relationships with dogs through engagement and exercise and also that I specialize in fear and reactivity cases.

The thing I am most proud of is how much I have grown as a person by being a business owner and a dog trainer. I grew up with a lot of anxiety and was very quiet and shy. That is also why I am typically drawn to the fearful and reactive dogs. I have gained a lot of confidence by training dogs and I am really proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone to grow something that I really believe in.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I greatly credit a few important individuals for helping me build my social media presence. The person who started it all for me is my client and friend Caroline. Caroline is such a sweet person and also one of my very first clients. I got to train her pup, Wilson, who is the biggest goofball and goodest boy. I adore him!

Well, Caroline tagged me in a post one day and there was a Kansas City blogger (@nomastayinkc) looking for a dog trainer. I reached out to her and got to go train her precious fur baby and she was kind enough to share my information. That really started to change things for my business (thank you so much Amanda!) I had just started training dogs full time after having a baby and I was really thankful for that opportunity because I felt like I started getting my name out there after that experience.

A few months after working with Amanda’s dog, I saw that another blogger (@kalekouture) had posted a hilarious video of her two frenchies. I reached out to her and have been training her dogs for a few months. Aubrey has literally changed my life from sharing about our training sessions. I often get teary-eyed thinking about it. I got to attend the most amazing week long training seminar this past summer (which was mainly about aggressive and reactive dogs) and I credit Aubrey with helping me bring in those funds. It can be really challenging to get your name out in the training business and she has truly helped me so much. Not only is she the kindest human, but she is incredibly talented and gifted at what she does. I am so inspired by her! I love following her on social media because she is so genuine yet also professional and I try to implement the same things in my own content too. I am beyond thankful for Aubrey’s friendship and kindness.

The last person who I have really looked up to on social media has a local KC dog walking business. Katie, from Katie’s Kennel has been crushing it with her business since she started it and has an awesome social media presence. I’ve admired Katie from day one and feel like I have gained so much just by watching her succeed and partnering with her on different things as well. I am constantly sharing her info with others and she shares mine too. I think she’s really helped me feel like I can do hard things because I’ve watched her journey from the very beginning, and I know there have been bumps along the road for her but you would never know it because she’s such a strong person and she’s so successful and creative.

All of these women have really helped me be successful just by sharing my information and being my supporters. I am really thankful for each one of them and my advice for someone who is starting to build a social media presence is be genuine! Share genuine content that you love and share who you are. Get out of your comfort zone and into your community where there are people waiting to meet you and build you up.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My entire journey is honestly a story about resilience! Building a business has been a very rewarding yet challenging experience. I worked full time in a few other fields while knowing I wanted to be a dog trainer, but I did not have a clear path to get here. As someone who had graduated with a degree that I was not using, I did not want to spend more money on education. I wanted hands on experience!

The first thing that really worked out in my favor was an internship that I did with Sharon Woodrum from Personable Pets LLC. I didn’t have much money at all at the time, but Sharon still let me participate in her dog training course for a few months! I got to watch her do some group training classes and a few private sessions. I was really lost on how to progress forward with anything until I found Sharon. Seeing a dog trainer in action was a big catalyst for me! I had tried working for or shadowing with other trainers before then and kept striking out for various reasons. I felt like I kept getting knocked down over and over again and Sharon was such a bright light for me.

Once I was done shadowing with Sharon, I had to make the really hard choice to go out on my own or work for her. Since I was a kid, I had always dreamed of having my own business. I did really well in school but I always hated it. I was very shy and a people pleaser but I always wanted to be able to do things my own way. I decided to take the leap by myself and I’m really glad I did.

Initially, I started offering to help people for donations. I didn’t feel like I knew exactly what I was doing but I wanted to keep getting more and more experience. At that time I had transitioned into the dog world and was working at a vet’s office full-time. I finally felt like I was on the right track but I also knew there was something more for me. I knew I didn’t want to work in an office, but I was thankful to be learning about dogs while I had to be in one. I wanted to train more and more but building something from nothing felt extremely daunting!

My progression in the training world was very slow and steady. I started charging people a very small amount as I felt more confident and learned more. I used my own dogs to apply everything first! I was constantly looking into different learning programs but nothing resonated with me because I either couldn’t afford things or it wasn’t hands on enough. I was basically just creating my own learning experiences by offering really cheap training.

The pandemic was a blessing in disguise for me. I found out I was pregnant right as the pandemic started and no one knew how covid impacted pregnant women. I also had horrible morning sickness. The combo of both things had me home from work and I was watching a bunch of training videos online. My husband and I decided I would not go back to work to keep our baby girl and I safe, so I kept up with studying while also preparing to be a mom. After she was born, and it was time for me to get back into working, I decided I really wanted to give training a go full-time. I wasn’t’ sure what that would look like but I jumped in with both feet and I’ve been feeling incredibly thankful as I near the end of year one being full-time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bolddogtraining.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bolddogtraining/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/BOLDdogtraining

Image Credits
Whitney Benson Photography