Now, humor me for a second.

Are you sitting? Good. :)

Get comfy, take a deep breath, wiggle in your spot to make sure you’re really, really comfortable. Then, picture the scariest thing you could ever do in your whole entire life. Like black clouds, snakes on the floor, you're naked on stage and everyone sees you kind of fear!

Well… that’s how I feel as you are reading this right now. Gulp!

But if it isn’t scary, it isn’t worth doing. That’s what my wife says, at least. And she’s my idol for doing scary stuff.

Let me expand. I’ve never been a person that felt like my ideas needed to be shared. I just like to listen and absorb, that’s more my style. I’m a sponger. Is that a word? Well, that’s me - I’m a sponger.

I have spent the last decade learning and absorbing every piece of content I could about dogs, humans, relationships, and lots of self exploration - staying quiet, patient, and hungry about learning the entire time.

In the last 2 years I have been honored to be inundated with interest (which still surprises me) about my educational journey, daily routine with clients and my own dogs, shadow programs, and opinions on common problems others are facing with dogs or their business. I’ve worked with many horse trainers, dog trainers and behaviorists, exotic animal trainers, positive reinforcement only trainers, those with a balanced training approach, e-collars, prongs, choke chains, slip leads, gentle leaders, haltis, clickers, and harnesses. Yeah, all that, along with being able to network with some of the brightest business minds around because of my amazing wife and the things she has accomplished! Getting to weed right through the bullshit has saved lots of time and money. Very helpful.

I have seen, experienced, learned, and thought about it all... I think (pun intended).

In all that time, after spending around $50,000 researching, practicing, 6 cross country trips, 20 to 30 seminars, taking online classes, sleeping in my car while shadowing a trainer, moving cross country for an opportunity of a lifetime in the dog world, and inviting myself to anything else I could find - I have finally found my voice. I am proud that I have stayed patient and didn’t share ideas I didn’t completely understand. I have been very keen on the idea that the Internet documents everything now. I didn’t want to look silly years from now when people watch a video or remember a seminar they attended. I respect people's education and would not want to feel responsible for duping them, even by accident. My goal has never been to be an online personality, it has always been to help dogs feel comfortable and better understood by humans. I want my information to stand the test of time and be seen as valuable to anyone who sees it for generations to come. Because they will see it. Remember everything is documented nowadays.

Staying with this message, there are 4 important phases everyone goes through when becoming competent in a new skill. From years of being a professional tennis coach I am very familiar with these stages and the ramifications from not respecting your current stage in the competence cycle. The first time I heard this, when I was in a high performance tennis seminar, it shocked me. I knew exactly where I was and was thankful for the awakening.

Check out more info on the competence cycle - https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_96.htm

So after much fighting with my wife, friends, colleagues who told me I should start this dialogue - and constantly saying “nah, not me” - here I am.

If you aren’t offended by an open mind, an unbiased approach to the dog-human relationship, actionable business advice, and someone with no agenda or bias to serve, then let me know how my experiences can help you.

I don't want to create an expectation and fall short, so I will be sending out a message once a month - most likely more frequently. Anyone who knows me knows I have a lot on my mind. If you have any questions or topic ideas just hit reply. I’d love to hear from you.

Finally, thank you very much for your attention. I don't take this responsibility lightly. I am happy to serve you.

Gary

P.S. Since I want to be in the running for friend of the year this year - how can I bring value to your journey?

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I am an open book. Don’t be shy, but be prepared for the answer.