Matt Whitson had come to his wits’ end after failing to train their family pet. Now he’s successfully trained hundreds of dogs and gave us some tips on how he approaches the training process. Matt also shared how he leverages technology to create a seamless customer experience.
I grew up training dogs as a kid and I thought our new family pet would be no different. I was sadly mistaken as none of my training methods seemed to work with this dog. The last straw came after my mother chipped her tooth trying to walk the energetic pup. I reached out to a professional dog trainer for help and ended up enjoying the experience so much I decided to go to work for them. A few years later my wife and I decided to start our own dog training business.
We’ve found in most cases any dog can be trained through a structured obedience process. The approach we take is to train each dog as an individual. After meeting the dog we determine the best strategy to take for that specific dog.
We found success using Facebook to market our services and combined with word of mouth from past clients we’ve been able to grow our business quickly. We also use Thryv to help us manage the business and stay in touch with prospects or clients. One of the main features we love and it has saved us a ton of time is appointment reminders.
Some of the grassroots efforts we use to grow our business are to host lunch and learns at local veterinarian offices. We also do street marketing with our dogs in big-box stores that allow pets.
The key to getting great reviews is to ensure our customers are beyond satisfied with our service. Then all you have to do is ask them to leave a review and most will. We’ve even had some clients leave us a review before we’ve completed the training because they were so impressed with the initial demonstration.
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