If you follow any of my social media, you will know that I am launching a new membership soon. I thought I’d write a blog detailing my decision to document our journey.
You may be wondering why I am doing this. Will anyone really be interested in what Quest and I are up to?
The answer to that is, who knows 😆….
When you get to a certain age, you start to look at life differently. All the things, thoughts, and reasons ‘why’ you do things start to have a deeper meaning.
For me, my new membership is a way for me to connect with those who share my passion for training agility from the dogs point of view. It is a way for me to connect with those who truly value what I have to say.
You see, the thing is, I’ve given a lot of free advice away over the years. Some of that advice has been appreciated, and some of it not!
There is nothing more demoralising than trying to help when the advice you give is just ignored.
I have no problem with giving a certain amount of advice out for free, I enjoy helping those who look at their dogs the way I look at mine. That is why I write blogs and record a podcast each week, but at the end of the day my business doesn’t run like a soup kitchen unfortunately, it has to be viable and sadly giving out advice for free doesn’t make it a viable business.
The thing is, with free advice, it mostly isn’t valued. Why would it be valued if it was free??!
I have ran countless Facebook groups, posted post after post where the engagement is shocking. The training posts take time to plan and write, but unfortunately, because of how Facebook works, the algorithm relies on people to interact with the posts to make small businesses seen. However, I am also well aware that a high percentage are just in the groups for the free advice or to lurk about to see what is going on.
I have had a long think about my business and how running it affects my life, and that is why I’ve decided to make a few changes.
When I’m working, it is time away from my dogs, and if you’ve read my book “Milo the dog that gave me it all” you will know why I got my dogs in the first place. By me committing loads of time to the business, they don’t get to spend that time with me.
Along with this, I want to help those who truly value what I have to say. I have studied countless courses, paid thousands and thousands for my education, I train with top agility trainers, and I make sure all my behaviour knowledge is current and up to date. I have spent years studying human psychology, and this, too, adds value to the advice I give out.
I am also aware of just how many agility trainers there are out there, and that is why I’ve made these changes.
My business isn’t about trying to be the next trainer to teach just skills. There are loads of those already! My business wants you to understand each piece of your dog when it comes to playing agility.
Not everyone wants that, that’s fine. For me, I’ve had to way up the values I hold personally and these values put their stamp all over what I do.
This is why my services have changed. I only train a handful of in person sessions now to allow me to spend more time with my dogs. More of my work is going online for this reason, but also so I can reach a wider circle of handlers who want to connect and understand their agility dogs completely.
It enables me to focus on the behaviour side a lot more.
So if you have got this far reading this, you will be wondering why a membership 🤔
The main reason is to share our journey, our experience, and my knowledge with those who want to come along with us. Social media is full of people’s best bits. It is all edited. With my membership, you will see it all! The good bits, the bad, and how I train the bad to make them good again!
We obviously won’t just be focused on Quest’s agility. We will look at all pieces that go into his training and competing. We will be looking at me, the handler, and looking at what I do and how the choices I make affect him. It is also highly likely that I will be mentioning Milo and Flash and looking at whatever other behaviour or training advice I can give members along the way.
A membership ensures I am connecting with those who value my advice rather than those who are there just for the freebies (it is a business, after all 😉)
If you’d like to come with us on our journey, you’d be most welcome. The waiting room is now open to those who want to put all their pieces in place for success!
Happy Training
Katrina and Quest 🐾
KB Agility 