Show Transcript
Host:
All right, Tulsa. Welcome back to the Tulsa Dog Training podcast, the Make Your Dog Epic podcast here. And on today’s podcast where we’re joined here with the highest rated and most reviewed dog trainer, potentially on the planet, but at least in the area here. And he’s here to talk about what basic skills and moves should you start training your dog. I mean, if you’re out there and you have a dog that’s misbehaving, what are some of the moves and some of the skills that you should use to train your dog? What are some basic skills and moves that you should train your dog? JT Lawson, welcome on to the Make Your Dog Epic podcast. How are you, sir?
JT Lawson:
I’m doing great. Yeah, so there’s a couple commands that are vital when training dogs. So one of the big ones is come. For me, come is the most important, because if Fluffy gets off a play spot or Fluffy can’t roll over or Fluffy can’t play dead, it’s not a big deal. But if you open up that front door and Fluffy sprints after a car or a squirrel into the street and you say, “Come.” And Fluffy ignores you, that’s an issue. So for us, come is the most important command, because that’s the one that’s going to save the dog’s life later.
Another big one is place, and what that means is it’s basically like anything that’s up off the ground. So anywhere from one to four inches, and it’s a clear spot, and then your dog just has to stay there until you tap them on the head and say break. And then the dog’s free to do whatever. Break’s just a release word where the dog can go have fun or do whatever. So I once trained my friend’s dog, and he was untrained for three years, and we taught it place, and my friend called me almost in tears and he was like, “Dude, that’s the first time I’ve eaten in three years with a dog not staring at me.” Because while they’re eating now, they just tell the dog, “Place.” And the dog just has to stay there. And now the dog places instead of jumping up on people when they walk through the door or barking at people or staring through your soul asking for food.
And then the other big one is off. Off just is no jumping, licking, biting, basically anything you would say knock it off to, that’s what off is. And then also the leash pulling. So walking on a leash is important and heel and all that stuff’s important, and that’s the big command. So place, come, off, and heel would be the main ones we need to work on.
Host:
Now, one of the things that you talk about is you always tell people you can fix 98% of the problems guaranteed or their money back. What do you mean by that? When someone goes to make your dog epic and they fill out the form, they schedule that lesson and they see this text that says, “Okay, we fix 98% of the problems guaranteed, or you receive your money back.” What do you actually mean by that?
JT Lawson:
Yeah, so I mean exactly that. So if you have issues and we can’t fix it, and we tell you we can, we’ll give you your money back. If your dog’s jumping on people or pulling on the leash or just running away, or I’ve had dogs where they only poop on walls. Just whatever your issue is, we’ll fix it, or your money back. So that’s kind of us putting our money where our mouth is, because again, there’s no governing body over dog training, so literally anyone can be a dog trainer. So you listening, if you want to be a dog trainer, you can go online, make up certifications, give them to yourself and be a dog trainer tomorrow, and there’s no one to tell you you can’t. So it’s great for you if you want to be a trainer, but it’s worrisome if you are trying to get your dog trained, because a lot of people are certified but not qualified to be dog trainers.
Host:
Now you’ve got training you provide for aggressive dogs, for basic dog training, you train puppies, you’ve got potty training, you group classes. Maybe you could walk us through the maze, because there’s somebody listening right now that they just want to get their dog trained. They’ve got a dog, and they’re trying to figure out, should I do a potty training, should I do a puppy training? Should I do dog training, board and train? Walk us through all the different training services that you guys provide there at Make Your Dog Epic.
JT Lawson:
Sure, yeah. So we have private lessons. It’s one-on-one lessons. That’s where a trainer is coming out to your house or meeting you at a park and we’re training the dog and you at the same time. So we’re doing dog training and human training. I’ll let you guys guess which one’s harder.
And then we also have boarding school and dog immersion. So basically what that is is that’s when the dog is coming to us and we’re doing all of the homework for you, and then we’re giving you back a dog that’s trained. And then we have, at the lesson, when we bring the dog back, we’re going over what to do, when to do it, how to train, and we’re making sure that the dog understands, hey, rules at bootcamp still apply at home. So we’re going over everything. And then after that, no matter if you do one-on-one lessons or you do boarding school, you get group class forever, because we want to be there for the rest of the dog’s life, not just, “Hey, it’s been two weeks, here’s Fluffy. Made the odds be ever in your favor.” So we want to be there for life, not just a couple weeks.
Host:
Now, a lot of people when they look up dog trainers and I just do a basic search right now, I do a search for Tulsa dog training, and I’m just going to walk you through this here and you tell me what you… Walk me through as a consumer here. I see we got one company here that’s saying, “Voted five stars in Tulsa.” Okay, got another one here that’s saying that they are the highest rated, most reviewed. Another one here saying that they’re voted number one in dog training. Another one here is saying… And you got all these different claims, different claims that are being made, but yet you choose to do your first lesson for 50 cents. Walk us through the rationale of doing that first lesson for 50 cents.
JT Lawson:
Yeah, so basically we’re trying to help you guys, the clients, to where you don’t have to guess. So a lot of these online, they’ll just give you the quote online and they’ll say, “Yeah, we’ll take your dog in a week, bring it back in four, and you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” So that’s not how we train. I want you to be able to view how we train, make sure we’re a good fit for you, and then we want to come up with a package specifically tailored to your dog. So a lot of these, they can claim whatever they want. With us, I’m offering a money back guarantee and you get group class forever, so you get lifetime learning. So they can claim whatever, but we offer a money back guarantee, and that’s a big thing on why we do the 50 cent first lesson, is that we’re taking the guesswork out so you can actually meet us first before you have to sign up for something that you don’t even really know what you’re getting.
Host:
Now, you said you offer free training for life. What does that mean? Free training for life?
JT Lawson:
Yeah. So what that means is you’re going to get two free classes a week to where it’s a group class. So you get to train around other people, and we offer that after training. So once you’ve either done one-on-one training or the dog immersion boarding school, after that, then you get group class for life. So we don’t let people just do group class. Because it would be like if you’re a quarterback in the Super Bowl and the coach is teaching you to play mid game. Could you do it? Possibly, but it’s going to be fricking hard. So what we’d rather do is we’d rather have practice squad, training camp, preseason, season, and then Super Bowl. That way, we’re training dog first and we’re not setting the dog up for failure by putting them in the most distractable environment possible and trying to train them there. We want to train them first and then make it harder by going to group class.
And that’s where we’ll answer any question you could ever have about dog training, because a lot of dogs and people, they go to other trainers and then they come to us after. Anyone who trains with us never goes anywhere else, not necessarily because we’re better, but because we’re there literally for life. So you’ll go two free classes where we can answer any questions. So if you struggle with new stuff or if you see a trick online and you want to teach your dog how to hold stuff in its mouth or go grab you a beer out of the fridge, well, let’s fix your issues first, then come to group class and we’ll show you how to do all of that.
Host:
Now, this might sound crazy, but you mentioned teaching a dog how to get a beer. I’m not saying that that’s what you teach, but do you teach any pretty unique tricks? I mean, are there tricks that you teach people that they’re kind of blown away with or do you have some kind of unique dog training tricks that you can teach the average dog?
JT Lawson:
Yeah, there’s a bunch of tricks we can teach. Basically, what we want to do is we want to fix the issues first, and then in some of the packages it has customizable lessons where if you want to learn tricks, you can do that, or come to group class and we’ll show you how. But my dog plays dead, basically it does freeze, where it has its paws up on the wall and it looks like it’s being arrested, then it does rollover, it does backpack where it jumps on my back and it looks like a backpack, and it jumps on fire hydrants. My dog will jump in and out of my car window. There’s a bunch of different tricks. We can also teach hold, so my dog will hold my clipboard while I’m working or do whatever. So there’s a bunch of different tricks we can teach them.
Host:
So walk us through, if I’m on makeyourdogepictulsa.com. Again, that’s Tulsa makeyourdogepic.com, that website, makeyourdogepic.com. If I go there and I want to reach out to you guys, what does the process look like?
JT Lawson:
You’ll enter your information in there and then we’ll reach out to you or you can give us a call and we’ll reach out to you, and we’re going to go over a couple of questions with you just so we can have a baseline, and then we’re going to schedule that 50 cent first lesson so that you can meet us and make sure that we’re a good fit, and we’ll go over how we train, more information on us. That way we’re taking the guesswork out. You don’t just have to pick somebody at random online. You can actually meet us first and make sure we’re a good fit, and then that’s how that works.
Host:
You are a dog training legend. We really do appreciate your time, and we’ll call you back in five minutes.
JT Lawson:
Awesome.
Speaker 3:
Is your dog and furry friend holding you hostage?
Speaker 4:
Will your dog not stop pulling on its leash and eating your sausage? Who wrote that?
Speaker 3:
Well, I don’t mean to brag, but I actually wrote it and-
Speaker 4:
Wow.
Speaker 3:
It rhymes. People dig it. Like a dog. You get it?
Speaker 4:
Okay, so I’m just going to keep reading. Will your dog not stop jumping on you or pooping in your house like you’re on the set of Jumanji or living in a zoo?
Speaker 3:
It only took me two weeks to write that line while sitting at the base of a waterfall while gazing upon my epic dog. The dog that once held me hostage was now my best friend.
Speaker 4:
It’s so good.
Speaker 3:
The dog that would never listen was now all ears.
Speaker 4:
It’s so good. I just want to cry.
Speaker 3:
Pull yourself together, man. And if you too want to transform your dog from a furry terrorist into your best friend, what you need to do is schedule your first lesson at makeyourdogepic.com, where your first lesson is always just 50 cents. And with the savings, you can use that to pay the rent. Again, your first lesson is always just 50 cents at makeyourdogepic.com.
Speaker 4:
Wow.
Speaker 3:
Stop the endless barking. Reduce the aggressive behaviors, prevent dog jumping. Stop your dog from chasing the elderly UPS driver as he attempts to deliver a package. Stop your dog from biting Pam, your yoga pants wearing neighbor, as she just attempt to speed walk in peace. Stop your dog from eating your wife’s wedding dress and peeing in your closet on top of your Christmas gifts. Stop the madness at makeyourdogepic.com. Experience the revolutionary focused based positive reinforcement training and methodology. Our goal is dog obedience, but never at the expense of dog personality. It’s the same dog, but now it’s all ears.
Speaker 4:
Wow. Man, Carl. You are a talented vocal artist.
Speaker 3:
Well, I…
Speaker 4:
I can feel the passion. It’s contagious.
Speaker 3:
Well, my friend, I am passionate about the product. I once went 60 days without sleeping.
Speaker 4:
Really?
Speaker 3:
My wife’s wedding dress got eaten and my neighbor Pam was bitten by my dog.
Speaker 4:
Oh, man.
Speaker 3:
My quality of life was at all time low. I didn’t invite people over to my home for months because of the new dog, and I always smelled like urine.
Speaker 4:
You do still smell a little bit like dog urine.
Speaker 3:
Well, I made my dog epic. I was hostage, and that’s where the passion comes from. You’ve got to believe in your product and you’ve got to project from the diaphragm.
Speaker 4:
The diaphragm.
Speaker 3:
You’ve got to bend your knees.
Speaker 4:
Bend the knees, bend the knees.
Speaker 3:
Drink ginger.
Speaker 4:
Drink the ginger.
Speaker 3:
You’ve got to ingest apple cider vinegar.
Speaker 4:
Apple cider.
Speaker 3:
With a dog bone. You want to chew on the dog bone before the-
Speaker 4:
Hard pass. Not going to.
Speaker 3:
… Recording so that you can emulate the dog and you should listen to Atomic Dog.
Speaker 4:
I can do that.
Speaker 3:
But you’re not a dog. But you want to just chew on the bone. The oversized boat, not the regular sized bone.
Speaker 4:
Hard pass. Not going to. Not going to chew on the bone.