animal lovers...

[pentupentropy]

for those of you who are good with animals and looking for ideas...

there are not many places that will sell you a trained dog in my area... are there many out there? because I can't find many online that provide a puppy that lives with them and offers you classes to train along with the dog for a few weeks then take it home

just an idea...

to be honest I think the world is overpopulated by strays, but even that could be a good service.. take shelter dogs and train them and then you don't have to pay $800-$2000 for the puppies =)

[Doofen]

I don't want to sound like a knitpicker but the best way to find the positive is to first acknowledge the negative.

Most people who will pay for trained dogs normally want the perks of having a pure-bred and papered dog. It comes down to the fact that people who are willing to spend a couple hundred on a dog want to know its lineage, capability to breed, and general "fitting" characteristics, which, if you are bored enough, can find at http://www.americankennelclub.com. So considering most people would be looking for that type of dog, the stray idea would be ruled out.

But the idea for a purebred puppy "family" training class does sound profitable. You'd have to headquarter somewhere wealthy but fairly light-heartedly liberal (my neck of the woods - Southern California ). You could have a training class for the whole family (excluding youngsters under 6, for the dogs sake) where you could teach not only the dog but the owner. Now, how much the owner actually uses is out of your control and doesn't make too much of a difference on your long-term business (which I will explain soon) but you would have to take care to screen owners so as to be humane to your animals.

Now onto the owner. You see, the desire to learn is one of those things that greatly defines us as human beings. Whether someone is commonly thought of as intelligent or not, they still possess the desire to learn about something. It could be about a rapper, architecture, history, sex, or dogs. To me, the second best way to gain referral business, other than by asking for it, would be to teach clients something that you inform them other people truly don't know. Let's use an example to illustrate.
John just purchased a dog from "Pentupentropy's Pug Preschool" and attended classes where Pen himself explained how to gradually teach a dog to sit by holding a treat by its nose and moving it back towards the forward (which makes the dog squat to get the treat). Later on that week, John is with his friend Jake and shows off his newly learned trick and explainins that most people are too aggressive in the training of dogs and he learned alot about more humane dog training from his Pug Preschool he attended. Now, If Jake's interested is piqued he most likely will talk about the school, which John explains willingly (the desire to learn is next followed by the desire to teach), and if Jake feels motivated enough by John's demonstration he may contact Pen's business or, at the very least, if he coincidentally falls under a Pug Preschool marketing campaign, will be much more emotionally pulled by the advertising. Now this is assuming that the business is being run successfully, which is the hard part of the whole thing, but does help to explain how such a business by secure a large, loyal clientele.

Although teaching your clients gains referrals in any business (you can subsititute nouns from other industries and make a million different examples) it fits this business better due to its lack of competition.

Anyway, to sum it all up, I think it's a pretty good idea but something I wouldn't put my money in...

[pentupentropy]

heh, I wouldn't put my money into it eaither =) I'm a horrible teacher. I once tried to teach my daughter to count using mathematical theory - I'm one of those peopel who don't understand why other people don't just get things sometimes =)

I just like to get people thinking. Always good to stir the green mush in the skull.