549: Building a Better Business One Step at a Time with Mo Thompson
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How do you turn everyday dog walks into safe, enriching adventures? Mo Thompson, owner of Mo Mountain Mutts, explores her unique approach to dog walking, training, and pack dynamics. Mo shares how she uses structured training, reliable recall, and intentional programs to create off-leash adventures that build confidence and control. She also dives into the importance of clear client communication, adaptability, and continual improvement in running a successful pet care business.
Main topics:
Reliable Recall and Structured Training
Flexibility in Business Operations
Creating Intentional Dog Programs
Client Communication and Expectations
Continuous Operational Improvements
Main takeaway: The process of continual improvement is at the core of being a successful business owner—always pick away at the little things that can make the experience better.
✨ Success is in the details! ✨ As a business owner, it's easy to focus on big, flashy upgrades, but the real magic happens when you consistently improve the small things. Whether it's tweaking your processes, enhancing client communication, or refining the experience for your customers (and their pets!), those incremental changes add up over time. Never underestimate the impact of continually "picking away" at the little details—they can turn a good service into an exceptional one. Keep learning, keep improving, and watch how those small efforts transform your business!
About our guest:
Mo Thompson is the founder and owner of Mo Mountain Mutts, a renowned dog walking, training, and pet sitting service based in Skagway, Alaska. With a background in psychology and a lifelong passion for working with dogs, Mo has created a unique program that focuses on building confidence, reliable recall, and socialization through structured off-leash adventures. Known for her creative solutions and dedication to safety, Mo has gained recognition for her iconic "dog bus" and her ability to turn everyday walks into enriching experiences for both dogs and their owners. Beyond her hands-on work, Mo shares her expertise through social media, teaching dog walkers and pet owners how to foster better communication and control. Whether she's navigating pack dynamics, creating custom trails, or simply spreading joy with her viral videos, Mo’s mission is simple: to let dogs be dogs while ensuring they thrive in their environment.
Links:
https://www.momountainmutts.com
https://www.facebook.com/SkagwayDogWalker/
https://www.tiktok.com/@mo_mountain_mutts?lang=en
https://www.instagram.com/mo_mountain_mutts/?hl=en
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitting, dog walking, puppy socialization, off-leash training, reliable recall, dog behavior, client communication, business growth, training program, dog safety, pack walks, dog training, business challenges, client expectations, dog socialization
SPEAKERS
Collin, Mo T.
Collin 00:00
Music. Welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. We're brought to you by time to pet and pet parnaal, how do you build a better business? What does it take to take your business from where it is right now and turn it into something absolutely spectacular. Today, we're really excited to have mo Thompson, owner of moe mountain mutts, on the show to talk about her unique approach to her business and how she has grown it slowly and little by little, as she has adjusted to the things that she has learned and in response to her client's needs, she also shares about the importance of communicating, adapting and always improving your business. Let's get started. Yeah, thanks
Mo T. 00:52
for having me. Um, so I'm Mo, and like you said, I run mo mountain mutts, which is a dog walking training and pet sitting service here in Skagway, Alaska. I specialize mostly in puppies, group, social, group, socialization and trail dogs. I do on leash walks and off leash I mostly focus on off leash. But on leash is part of my program, and nearly everybody kind of goes through a little system, learn to walk loose leash, sit, stay and reliably recall. Since we don't have a dog park or anything that's fenced in, I walk on a trail that I made, and so having recall and and that loose leash is all part of my program. They all have to learn that just so we're safe, so when we're out off leash, that we're not disturbing the peace, disturbing the wildlife or getting into any danger. There's a river that runs right by, so we got to make sure, you know, that they can stop not getting the water in the fast spots when it's winter and there's ice, making sure they're not going out in the weak spots. So all of my training is really for safety and just having that control that I need when there's a whole pack of dogs running around playing, that they can all just engage and take direction, just to say, so I have a bachelor's degree in the sciences of psychology, so I just grew up with tons of dogs. Since my my stepdad was into sled dogs, we had a lot of Siberian Huskies, and he bred them. So we had a lot of puppies. So that's kind of like my puppy socialization pack, you know, see, I have a degree in psychology, so that really helps with conditioning behaviors and training, because children, dogs, it all kind of goes into the same so, yeah, my parents were dog breeders, so I just grew up with lots of puppies, how to handle them, teaching them to be really confident, being really cool With being handled, being cool with going to the vet, just those little things that you don't think about, like nail trimming, checking their teeth, checking their teeth, their eyes, all of the little tiny things that kind of make up that big picture for dogs. So that's my my thing when I'm meeting with clients, I tell them I'm not just the average dog walker that slaps the leash on and just goes out the door. There's a lot that goes on in my program and they there's, I'm just very particular, and I like things to kind of run really smoothly. I don't want, I mean, it is organized chaos, but I try to reduce the level of chaos as much as possible and let them run around and have fun. And to have the most fun, you kind of need that background and training that to have walking two untrained dogs is a lot, and if you had like 12 untrained dogs, that could be completely chaotic. So I just have, you know, little things in place to make sure we have a good a good smooth time. Yeah, well,
Collin 03:39
and I love how you refer to it as a program, and it really puts into context I think about exactly what you're doing, because it's not just it's not just a walk, it's not just a hike, it's all of these things that go into that. And I think a lot of times, as business owners, we can lose focus of exactly the impact that we're having on that dog's life when we start taking into account all of these things, but you're intentionally in a very focused way going first I do this, then we work on this, and this is how we do together. And that really helps set up the expectations for that client, as far as what they're going to get out of this and what they can expect to see over time, too.
Mo T. 04:20
And I'm very thorough in my meet and greets with that. So when I go and I meet the owner and I meet the dog, sometimes I meet at their house and sometimes I meet at the park. And it just depends on how territorial the dog is at their house, because I don't want the dog to meet me at their house if they have resource guarding issues. So I do kind of have a checklist that I'm looking for, for dogs that get into my packs, but I do take dogs that have some quirks or some issues and kind of use my pack to rehabilitate them and learn how to coexist better with other dogs. And just, you know, we're taking dogs and we're putting them in society and we want them to behave like. You know, civilians, but they're dogs. They're animals, and they do dog stuff. And so they don't, you know, know property, and they don't know all these little things that us humans like need them to know. And so if we set them up for failure and just let them go and then try to rein them in, it's a lot harder than just taking it nice and slow and showing them exactly what you want them to do right from the beginning. And so when I go to their house and I meet them, or I meet them at the park, I see what the owner does. I see what the owner already is doing with the dog, and then I either do like a free training session, essentially, and show them a couple things that they need to do, and then I meet them, like, a week later, and kind of see how the owner does. And then I kind of know how much work is the owner gonna do, how much work do I need to do? And kind of get that program of like, okay, either you can do a lot of the training, or you can send them to me, and I'll do a lot of the training, but they can't just jump into pack walks. And I think a lot of people think that. They think, Oh, can you just throw my dog on Wednesdays or only when it's sunny? And I'm like, No, it doesn't really work like that. These packs are very well established. They're bonded, and throwing a random dog in there does change the vibe. And so to have these, like well oiled groups. They have to be bonded. They have to get along. There's all these bonding walks. I take it nice and slow and get them, you know, nice and confident that they know who I am. They know my husband, they know the bus. They get to know the routine. There's all sorts of stuff happening because they, you know, you can't just take a strange dog, throw it on the bus with 12 other dogs and expect it to be like, cool with that.
Collin 06:45
Some people have have a hard enough time getting one dog to go on a walk with just them right, and this dog being anxious and unsure of what's going on. So, yeah, I can definitely see how you're going again. I just love those words of program and system and everything that's put into place here to make sure that this gets pulled off. Well, because if you're worried about safety, if you're worried about control, these are the kind of things that we have to be thinking about and not just going out and free wheeling it when we're out there. Yeah, because otherwise, you know, and you're even doing this on on a trail that you yourself made, right when did you do that?
Mo T. 07:21
Oh my gosh, it doesn't backbreaking work to make your own trail. So when I first started out, I was not, like, trying to be a dog walker. I wasn't advertising. I wasn't there was not a job. I was grabbing my co worker's dog, and then they would grab my dog, and so whoever had the longer shift, would grab the other person's dog, and so we weren't even working like it wasn't a job. I was just grabbing their dog, and our dogs were best friends. And then we both adopted second dogs. And then so it was four just with us. And then we would meet up with our other girlfriends sometimes. So it would be like us, three girls and our six dogs. And so when I was working on the new rescues, we each adopted an older rescue, and they were a mess, and I was going through so many treats to try to, like, rehab this dog. They were both lacking in confidence. They were both very insecure and reactive. They would want to bark at strangers. They would lunge on the leash, maybe get into a scuff with another dog, if you weren't, you know, being careful. So I was going through a lot of food to teach them. Hey, this isn't so bad. Why don't you just jump on this rock and eat a snack, and these hikers are gonna pass and nothing bad happens. And so I'm like, just pumping these dogs full of like, these tiny little treats, and then one of their dogs would poop like, five times on the walk. And so I'd be like, Girl, I am going through so many poop bags walking your dog. Can you just, like, throw me some money every once in a while for all these treats? So they would just randomly leave a $20 bill for treat money. And it wasn't like, or they would buy me lunch. It was this very like, not. And then it was like, Hey, I'm going, I can grab your dog, and then I would grab this person's dog, and so I'm just grabbing my co workers dogs, and then I had so many of them I'm cleaning up accidents. You know, there's all these like things so that I started, like, asking them, like, can you guys just, like, help me out here? And so once, I scheduled time in between my two jobs. So I was working at a restaurant in a hair salon, and I would walk dogs before my first job, and then on my lunch break, once I scheduled that time in, I started charging money. And that's when I kind of started to be like, Okay, I'm gonna come up with a business name, and I'm gonna start, you know, offering my services, because I started training these reactive dogs in public, and people started being like, Wow, you're really good with dogs. I saw that dog not too long ago, and that dog has come so far. And so some teacher heard about me and asked this. I'm kind of asking her, how did I start startups? This is kind of how I started, at least in Skagway, here in this town, I was dog sitting back in college for family. Um. So this teacher heard about me, and she was like, I heard you're really good with dogs, and I have a puppy, and I could use some help. Then that teacher told another teacher, then that teacher needed some help. And so I started helping, just with these couple of dogs, and then my pack grew to about like six, and once I got up to nine, I created a second group. It was because one dog came in and this dog didn't get along with this dog. And so I just made a whole new group of two different there was kind of two different vibes. There was like, the puppy vibe, and then there was like, kind of the reactive dogs who need a lot more structure. I really need to monitor, like, how they meet other dogs. I didn't want these reactive dogs to create a bad experience for the puppies. And so it's kind of like the the older dogs that have issues where their own with a couple other just mellow dogs that are never going to trigger them, and then the puppies were with really solid, well behaved adult dogs. So they all kind of had their own they each have their own mentor. So I would just kind of create these two vibes. And as time went on, I created another vibe, and it was the old and the littles, because my older my clients started to get old and not be able to keep up. And so it's like, well, they still like it, they just can't go as fast, and I don't want this dog body slamming this dog. And so I created a third official group, and it was only once a week. It got so popular, I now run it Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They just don't need Monday through Friday. They're just not senior. Dogs are just not active like that. So my business keeps changing by who signs up if I get in at this point, my packs are so full I really have to you your dog has to fit into the pack. But back in the day, I created a pack around those new dogs, and I would just borrow my friends dogs, or I would bring my dogs to try to help train some of these dogs. So everything has just been evolving as whoever is in my program. It's never been like this is exactly what I do, and I only do this, and I go here. It's just kind of like, I go here, when I have these dogs, I'll modify the walk in the winter. We call it the In and the Out game. I leave the bus running, and the dogs go out, they go potty, the cold dogs run back in, they warm up, they come back out, and the malamutes are just running around the whole time. So it's just like, whoever's there gets modified, and it's going to be thorough. They're going to, there's going to there's going to be training, there's going to be some exercise, there's going to be sniffing, they're going to go potty, there's going to be a vehicle ride, there's like, these things are in place, but how we do it all just kind of changes. It can't be the same all the time, or it just gets boring for me and for the dogs, my trail gets washed away all the time by the river, and so I have to make a new one. Sometimes I go out there and there's flooding. That's when I do town walks. I'm like, my trail is not safe. I need to go scout it by myself. So I'll have to go on the weekend and, like, scout out if there's a lot of downed trees. If it's super windy, I won't go there either, because I've just, I've seen trees fall and I'm like, I don't want to just, I'm just safety. I've had a couple encounters where I'm like, I just don't want to play that. I just don't want that experience to happen again. Or I've seen it kind of close by, and I just try to avoid certain things. There's only so much you can avoid. I'm not out there like anxious and worrying, but I do try to be consciously safe
Collin 13:27
well, and having backup plans. I think that's what's really important here, too. Of not just going, here's one thing, and this is how I do it, right? It's also going, Okay, well, if I can't do that, what can I do? And if I can't do that, what can I do? And if I can't and that, like when my
Mo T. 13:40
vehicle breaks down. I've walked up and down on foot, and I'm like, Well, I guess if I grab these dogs, by the time I get those dogs, it'll be time to walk back, yeah, and then they'll go home as I walk through town. So just I call it dog juggling. I'm like, I give a really big range of what time I'll come by, because I don't have the same bus route every single day. Sometimes I start at one end of town and go this way, and sometimes I start at this end of town and go this way, depending on the location of where I'm going to walk, and depending if I have a new dog, I don't want the new dog riding on the bus for a long time at first. I want to pick them up last so that they're like, quick bus ride, go for a walk, and then they ride the bus longer on the way home. So I have this, like, acclimation period, so sometimes I'm going out of my way just to make sure the dog is comfortable, so it makes my route take longer. But the other dogs don't care. They're just hanging out with their friends. You know, as long as there's nobody anxious on there that, like, has to go potty quickly, you know, then we have to pull over and handle that, right? Well, and I also like
Collin 14:42
hearing too, as as your business grew, you actually had opportunities to offer different and varied services, because with, like, the old and littles, like, I saw that picture that you posted recently about on your old and littles walk, so I think a client or somebody had snapped the view, and it was like, that's fantastic, because, yeah, they can't go out on the big, grand adventures. They shouldn't. Be doing that. So how can we, how can you continue to serve them and still give them something
Mo T. 15:04
and like, puppies, can't go hiking, like, up a lot of steep stuff here. You can't take, you know, when dogs have, like, those loose joints and stuff. You can't be doing that hard impact downward hiking like that. So you have to stay on flatter ground for a bit. So I'm really conscious of who I have and what their physical limitations are, and modifying my group around those things. Have
Collin 15:28
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Susan 15:33
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Collin 15:49
If you're looking for new pet sitting software, give tithe pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting tithe pet.com/confessional now you've mentioned the bus a couple times. When did you introduce that into your business and kind of what was the thinking behind it?
Mo T. 16:08
Okay, so I started out on my bicycle, and so I was picking up dogs on my bike, and so I would only offer bike and hikes back in the day and then some training walks, but my goal was always to go for an off leash hike, and that still is today. My My goal is to get the dogs off leash. That's my usual route. So once I got a puppy, I couldn't do bike and hikes anymore, um, like once I had a really young puppy sign up. So then I started using my vehicle. And if you've ever put a bunch of dogs in your vehicle just gets trashed. My van just became a work van, and then I had a client who didn't want to get into the back, and what I realized is she didn't want to sit next to the puppy. So she's totally fine on the walk. Loves to play with everybody, but she doesn't want to sit in the car next to a certain dog, and so she would hesitate getting in until I let her sit, like, in the front seat shotgun. She was like, Okay, so I'm like, Okay, I'll kick my dogs into the back, because my dogs always sat in the front with me. So she got, like, the special seat. And so I bought a, you know, one of those little things that blocks the back of your car, like a cage. So I bought a couple separators, and so I had some separation. And the dogs really liked that. And so I upgraded to a larger van, and I had three different sections in this large van. The very back was like, you could just open up the big doors, there's a big rubber non slip mat, and you just kind of pile in four to six dogs. There'd be about three or four in the middle bench, and then uh, two or three small dogs in the very front with me. Usually my RA was sitting on my lap. And now everybody's like, wearing harnesses and they're buckled in the bus. The dogs love the bus setup. So back when I would drive my big van, I used to, like, put it in reverse and make myself I would go, beep, beep, beep, beep. I would just joke and pretend, and I would say, like, the magic school bus is here. Come on dogs. And so some of my clients would just call it the Magic School Bus. And a lot of my clients joke and call me like Auntie mo to their dog. And I say that they're all like my nieces and nephews. And so you get to know them really well. And you walk them like that, especially if you dog sit them and they're in your home for a few weeks, you know, you get to really know these dogs. And so you start to know their personalities, who likes to sit with who? And so my bus now everybody has, like these assigned seats. They all get to sit with who they like. And I know I feel like, if you're not a big dog person, you might not understand that dogs are completely fine off leash outside when they can do whatever they want, but once you strap them into their seats. And so if you're if you're a dog who likes your own space, and you're strapped to your seat, and a puppy runs up and gets in your face, you can't go anywhere, right? But in the van, when they can move around, there's only so much they can go. It's really not that much different. And so they really can't get away from a lucky puppy. So I used to have to pull over all the time, do a calming training session, make sure the puppy would calm down, try to organize. I used to tie a dog down with the harness the back of the headrest, you know, like make a makeshift tie down in the seat. And so now the bus has this, like perfect setup of nobody's going to get in anybody's space that doesn't want it. And all the licky puppies are in the licky puppy corner in the back quadrant. So I removed a row of seats in between them so they can't lean over the front bench. They are stuck in the quadrant in the back. And so they have their own like there's the personal space section. It's like the calm dog section, and then the licky puppy corner. So the bus has just kind of been like, I got this client, I wish I had that. I got this client, I wish I had this and I just keep doing these upgrades for the dogs that I get and their their personal preferences. And I have just always joked that I had a bus. Yes, and the reason why I got a bus was I was in the middle of my route, and I was turning left onto the street, and my right tire just fell off, and so now I'm in the middle of my dog route. This is when I worked by myself. I don't think my husband, no, my husband was working with me at this point, so, but we didn't have the little van anymore for a while, my husband drove my original minivan, and I drove the big dog van, and we would split the pickup and meet and start walking together. He started working with me when I was pregnant, when I when we were talking about having a kid. I was like, you could run the business for me while I take some time off. Um, COVID made his job not exist anymore. So there was this weird Limbo during COVID of he is not working. His job doesn't exist right now. You should get outside and get some fresh air with me and then. So at this point, I'm pretty sure I was working still by myself, and my tire just fell off in the middle of the street in small town community. I had some locals come help me get my van out of there. People were offering, like, do you need to borrow my car to get the dogs out? And I'm like, You have no idea what will happen to your vehicle. Like, you can't Well, somebody will poop in it, and I don't want to be responsible for like, damage in your vehicle. So I made a community post saying, I'm looking for a large van or a short bus and just small town community, small town connections. Somebody told somebody who told somebody who told somebody and hooked me up with this big bus for a really good deal. It was sitting because of COVID. COVID really worked out in my benefit. I got my husband on board with me. A bunch of people got puppies and needed puppy socialization. All these dogs were like crazy under socialized. And then I scored this bus because it was sitting, because nobody could use it for tours. They just had to get rid of it because it was sitting. So I just really lucked out. And then also playing on the whole COVID thing, people are at home. They're not working. They're on social media a lot. It's around Christmas time. Everybody's like, on holiday. And I really just took advantage of that time, and I started making tiktoks, wow. And so I used to make media, but it was mostly pictures. If the weather was too bad, I wasn't going to make them stay, especially in the winter. And so with the bus, in the middle of winter, I can still make content because I'm inside the bus, it's like a so that was one of your questions, too. Like, how did, how did the bus kind of help me grow it did not help my business with getting clients, necessarily, because my business was already booming and I was already getting my husband to work with me and I was, my packs were already full. The bus helped me do social media, because it's like everybody's strapped in. They're not going to go anywhere. I can pull my phone out and make a video really quick and not worry about, you know, the other little things when you're making a video and you've got 12 dogs off leash outside, right? Like, that's not what I'm thinking about when I'm when I'm outside. So before the bus, I used to hire my friend to follow me and make videos. I used to just pay her randomly, like how my friends used to pay me, like, throw her a 20 here and there, like, You're a dog, come on the walk with me. And so what I learned sometimes I would mount my phone and I would talk to the phone, but the videos came out really well. When my best friend was holding the phone or my camera, because I'm talking to a person, those videos always hit really well, and they hit really good. And it's like the way that I'm talking is it just came out better because I'm talking to a person, yeah, and so when my husband started working with me. He started just filming me on the dog walk, because he wasn't really working with me yet. He was just kind of there tagging along and making videos. And so it's COVID. He's not working. He's just being silly and goofy and coming along, and then we just could that's where the media just kind of took off. Was us just kind of tinkering with Tiktok at that point, that's really where, like, the turning point was having a place to make videos, because it's not in my house, yeah, not a bus. All my gear is there. You know, it's just like the perfect little setup. Well, yeah, it's kind of
Collin 24:13
this mobile operating station that moves around with you. You know, both for okay, this is, this is a better mobile office for me. It's more space, it's it's also more visually appealing and exciting and unique and different, immediately recognizable, versus kind of the same. Like, is that a car? What's going on here? It's a little less confusing. And then, like you mentioned, you can use this large thing as the you mentioned, the inside outside game of like, well, it's kind of like a mobile, heated house. Here we go inside out. So it provides, yeah, and I think in that mindset of, like, because you are going away from town and away and out away from things, so it is this mobile, like, little little shelter, a little unit that you're able to work out of, that you can then utilize in, in other things, yeah.
Mo T. 24:56
And a lot of people think we've like, modified it and stuff, and it. Not it's just, as is, I ripped out some seats just to make more room for my stuff, and also a certain amount of seats with your CDL, like with you need that for people, there's a lot of different rules if you don't have people on your bus. And so I don't have employees. I have my husband. And so we kind of fall in this like, funny little bubble, I guess, for what we need. So I took out some seats. My husband put a trailer on the back. We have a trash can so we have all the poop there. Because in the beginning I used to, like, crack the door and set it there and then have to drive somewhere with it to dispose of it. So it was, like, pretty stinky for a bit. So we have a whole, like, poop set up. It's like, every time there's something where we're like, I wish this could be better. We just keep picking away at it.
Collin 25:45
And that process of just continual improvement is really core to being a successful business owner, and that's seeing this like, Hmm, I'm not quite happy with just exactly how this is. Let me try this. Let me try this. Or ooh, this looks like a new opportunity. How do you stay active with that? Because that can sometimes, as a bit as just at the personal level, be kind of like exhausting at some aspect of like, oh, there's still more work to do.
Mo T. 26:11
I think some of it is like when I first started out, I never had what I have now. And so I think this is kind of the illusion that media gives you too. There's like, this weird thing of, like, how does a business really run? And then what you're seeing on media is completely different. And so on the media, you see me with this bus picking up all these dogs, and you're like, wow, I really want to do that. So you go get yourself a bus before you have the clients. That's not a good idea, right? It's starting out really small. I think I just get these kinds of things for my dad. My dad is just kind of like, own your car, you know, pay it off. Get this done, get this done. And just kind of like, keep picking away at things. So it's like, I had a bicycle, like, I didn't have to put gas, I didn't have to worry about insurance. I didn't have, right? Like, or not, like, vehicle insurance. You've got pet sitting in business insurance, whatever. But I just mean, like, for the vehicle, right? So everything, I'm, like, peddling with my own feet, right? More physical work. And then you're like, Wow, I'm getting really tired, so maybe I could use my vehicle. And you keep, like, putting away, you keep taking making money, and putting it back into the business. Make some more money, put it back into the business. So you're kind of leveling out for a while, you know? And you're just not like, it's not all gains. You just kind of like, it seems like you're getting more gains, but you're really just continuously upgrading. And there is that fine line of like, it's good enough, stop. You don't need that, right? You don't need the best of everything. You just need it to work. I make a lot of my own gear, like make shift by like, buying string and tying things together and making making my own things or modifying what I already have to work. Like, instead of buying a bunch of stuff, like, what do I already have that I can use, I think I just get that kind of crafty stuff from my dad, like, how can we take what we already have and make it useful. I think that's a big part of it, is just being really useful. I just, I hate being wasteful. I don't like all the plastic we have in the world. You know, I'm just big on, like, not being excessive, if you don't have to. But also, I like to be comfortable, so that that fine line of, like, how comfortable can I get? How comfortable can I make the dogs, and then just seeing things and just knowing, like, when an opportunity comes to just take it, you know, like that bus that I got, yeah, it made, you know, the gas is so much more expensive and the commercial insurance is so expensive, I should have had a price increase. But I had just recently had one right before my vehicle died, so I was kind of in this weird limbo of like I jumped up and how much expenses I have, and my prices really weren't matching that. But I just kind of like aimed it for a little bit, just I didn't want to bump my clients up on their prices too much. Small town I know, like, it's all my friends, you know, I know all my clients well. They're not a bunch of strangers. Some of them I don't know as well, but it's just kind of that finding that balance of increasing your business, but not increasing so fast and too much with fancy things that you don't need right when they can go or you
Collin 29:21
might not know what you need. I think that's often where I find ourselves. Of like, I have a problem. What's the solution to this? Well, I could go out and spend a bunch of money on this, or a bunch of money on this, or a bunch of money on this, but I don't know which one's gonna actually solve this. So maybe I can do a half step and kind of cobble some things together to see if I can get more direction as to what is actually going to be a better fit, because we've got a lot of dog gear. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Going well. What is a better solution for this? I don't want to go out and dump hundreds or 1000s of dollars in something to just throw on it, because it's new and shiny, like leashes.
Mo T. 29:55
So I'm walking like 12 to 14 dogs. I wouldn't go buy a whole set. Cost of 12 or 14, I would buy one or two. Try it out first, see if I like it. That's what I do. So I have a lot of, like, one or two items that I don't like a lot. So I used to always carry leashes on me. I went from, for example, using, like, just a regular old standard nylon or rope leash, right? It gets wet, it gets soggy, it gets stinky, it drags in the ground. I switched to Biothane. I don't like six foot leashes, so I started using four foot leashes. I used to use dog couplers. Well, confident dogs don't walk. Well, next to not confident dogs scratch the dog couplers. But I only own two couplers, right? So it's like, I use them for a while, and then I trade them out. Then it's like, well, I don't really think I like that, but I took the dog couplers and I made them into a bike attachment for my dog. So I still use it. Oh, thank you. I just take apart old gear and use it into other stuff a lot. So I just kind of like misfit match my stuff. And so I went from carrying all these heavy, wet leashes to like, medium, light leashes. Now all the dogs wear their own leashes. They have bottles. Dottle is a harness or a collar with a retractable collar in it, so you just pull the leash out. And so it's great for just like, clip the collar on, walk the dog to the bus, get them in their seat. If I'm out on the walk and I see somebody or another dog, or we run into a wild animal or something, I could grab everybody really fast, versus pulling out all my 12 leashes, which I used to, like, put them on carabiners and faster spots so I could rip them out. Like, if, because, if you need a leash, you need a leash now. Now, like, didn't get 12 dogs leashed up. Like, if they're all wearing it, you just zoop. Zoop, I got everybody grabbed. And so what really happens is, you're out in the world, something happens, and you're like, it would have went better if this would have been better if that. And so I just don't beat myself up about those experiences. I just tried to do it different next time I think that's really it is just like, I am totally cool with making mistakes. I'm totally cool with failing and just fixing it next time, and just not letting it like beat me down, just going, oops, yeah.
Collin 32:13
And when we're only buying one or two or trying this one thing, it's easy to say, oops. Well, that wasn't, you know, that didn't work out, versus if all of a sudden we've got $1,000 or more invested into it, it's a sunk cost policy, and then we start putting good money after bad, and we just start chasing it like, well, I'm already here, so I gotta make this work. And we're we're hesitant and less likely to be adaptable and change, the more we invest in something, versus doing it little by little. So we learn those lessons, and
Mo T. 32:41
it's hard because I'm, I am OCD, I really, truly am, and I really like things to match. And so I really want their E collar to match their harness. I want them color coded. I want to know who's orange. I want to know like, this dog to me, like in my head, dogs are colors, and so when I see them, and so I do want to, like, replace certain things, and I want that dog's harness to be red, or I want like, I do like, and it makes it my job easier when they're color coordinated, because it's like, they're all matching. But it's like, okay, but I don't need all my seat belts to match right in the beginning. I had a lot of mismatched seat belts in the beginning. Now they all match. I like, slowly get to that point, because I want them all to be wearing, like, the school uniform. But it's like, okay, but this owner, like, there's this one dog, he escapes out of a harness. So he their owner has, like, the the belly buckle that goes in the back, like, I'm not going to make a match just because my OCD like now he's going to wear his own harness at his house, like he's going to wear that one because it's safe. Just kind of letting esthetics go. For me, is part of it,
Collin 33:50
which? Which, again, is going well. I, as a business owner, I have personal preferences, but sometimes my personal preferences don't match with the practicalities of what I actually have to do to get done. Sometimes, as a business, I may prefer to have a certain kind of route or end at a certain place to make something work. But practically, that doesn't work out because of the dogs that I have that day or the clients that I have that day and their preferences. And so we do have to sacrifice some things at times to make sure that the business is working, as long as obviously, it's, you know, it's safe and it's controlled and healthy in all that aspect as well. But going, look practically, does my opinion really impact what's going to happen? And maybe it may, maybe it could be impeding what's going on. And OCD can
Mo T. 34:32
do that. Do you really have to be like, hmm,
Collin 34:38
yeah. And going, Okay, I gotta let this go for now. And I can just, I can just move forward just a little bit more.
Mo T. 34:45
I get a little funny with, like the route and so with, when I worked by myself for a long time, everything was my way, right? I do it all my way on my own time. And now I work with my husband, right? And so he doesn't do. Things in my head as efficient or effective, right? And so it's but I just like, he's a bus driver. Take your own route, whatever you you know. And so I make, I make his schedule for him, and I have listed in order who is the most efficient to pick up. And so I'll be in the back and be like past Murray, you know, but it's like, at some point I just, like, have to let those you know, he's the bus driver, does his own route or whatever. But I do get, like, I try to, I'm really good at maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. I have every year I modify my schedule and I change it like for one winter, I was like, I need to change where the old and littles go. They were, they're always the last group of the day. And so in the winter it was getting dark and cold during their time, they needed to be in the sunniest, warmest part of the day. Ideally, you know, and the the younger dogs that are really active can go earlier. So I bumped my schedule a half hour early to make sure that they were done with their walk before it was getting dark. They could be in the drop off during that but I didn't want to be out on the walk when the sun went behind the mountain, because it's all of a sudden, like and the old and the littles are the most susceptible to that, yeah, and so just kind of Yeah, knowing who you have, knowing their needs, and then kind of problem solving your way out of it, and just being really flexible and communicating to my clients, like, why am I changing it? And nobody has ever been funny about it. Everybody is like, that's That's great. Like, thank you for considering that, because your dog's going to get old someday too. And I'm sure you know it's like, want to be considerate of those things. Our
Collin 36:48
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Mo T. 38:14
what I tell them in my meet and agree to is, like, I'm like, you know, don't be concerned if I'm 20 or 30 minutes off of the time that you think I'm coming. And I'm like, there's always dog shenanigans that happen. And if I stop and text every client of the day, I'm gonna get even further behind. And so just allow that 20 to 30 minutes like go, and I'm like, you never know. It could be you that needs it. I've done things like pull out porcupine quills in the middle of my day, not even with my client, like somebody else's dog ran into a porcupine and I helped them pull out some quills. It's just like, you never know when you're going to be the one that needs the help. You never know when it's going to be your turn to have a question. And so back when I had my older clients, I used to dog walk around my gym schedule so that the yoga class would always change, and they always were cool with that, that in the summer it was a little earlier, and in the winter, it was a little later, just so I could go to that yoga class. And so during COVID, the gym shut down. That didn't exist anymore. And so I got more in, like a solid so it was like an alternating schedule, like, some days I came earlier and some days I came later, sure, and nobody really cared. I didn't really have that many clients. And these clients were with me for so long. They know, in the summer, I start earlier, and in the winter, I start later. We're just going around the daylight. Yeah, in the summer there's more seasonal dogs, so I have more packs. I create a whole extra pack or two in the summer, and then in the winter, I go down to two or three packs. There's just not as many dogs. And there's no reason to get up that early. I don't need to be waking my clients up by you know what I mean? Like, it's kind of like, I think this is good for everybody. I think everybody enjoys this. Like, schedule shift, and I just ask anybody if they have any time frames that they need. So I know. Oh, who needs later, right? I'm not going to put them in morning crew, so I know who I have, and I have the same clients for so long. There was a couple seasonals I got that stayed year round. And I don't think I communicated to every single new one one year that like my schedule shifts. And so when I was telling them, I'm like, Yes, schedule is shifting. And like, if you've been with me for a while, you know every winter it changes, um, but then, like, remembering, like, who's been, like, who actually just started this summer and is staying because they might not know they might not been with me for three years, and know that every winter I change my schedule, I have, like, October through April schedule, um, and then, like a May through October, it just kind of it shifts. And my clients also sometimes don't know when they're working. So we live in a tourist town, and that's kind of like how this whole thing started. All these seasonals come up, and then they work crazy, long hours in the winter. And so these people can usually get their dogs out most of the time of the year, but they have these like, few days a week that they just work really long, and so they like me to grab their dogs on those days, so those dogs leave in the winter, so they don't really know the shift. So sometimes it's like they came to me in the summer, but they actually stayed all year round. Those clients, I just have to make sure that I that they don't slip through the cracks. Yeah, tell them, you know, the whole reasoning for why we shift our schedule. And once you tell them that you modify it for the old littles, they're like, Oh, that's nice. Who's
Collin 41:33
going to be mad about that, right?
Mo T. 41:38
Mad at the seniors. Well,
Collin 41:40
OC, you mentioned your meet and greets there, and I did want you to talk about how you ultimately, you're going to have this dog out, and the goal is to have them off leash on a trail that you made, on a bus that you drive. And you, how do you start connecting some dots of, okay, I'm just meeting this dog for the first time. Now. How do I translate that into them doing off leash hikes with me?
Mo T. 42:03
Yeah, and this is like, where the the word program comes in again, because every dog is so different. You've got some dogs that the owner has already trained recall the dog, like, contact heals and that they have a perfect sit stay, and they already have a release word then, like, let's say the dog's release word is free. They just need to learn that my release word is break, or I yell break, and then I say free, right, right. And then I still see Nina sitting there, and I'm like, That's right, free. So one dog I have is a service dog, and she is, like, highly trained, the best trained dog I've ever had come through my service. I actually had to during the meet and greet, I asked if she had a release word, and she said yes, but I forgot to ask what it was. And so I'm in the middle of my walk, and I had already done three bonding walks with this dog. And so she was great, like she test drove so well, she only had to do three bonding walks, and she's in the group like that was one of the fastest dogs I ever got into a group. And so I tell all them to sit, and then I say break. And that dog is just sitting there, like she's clearly been tested with all these different words, and she won't get out until she hears the word that she knows. I had to get a hold of her owner and be like, What is your dog's release word? I've tried, break. I've tried, okay, I've tried, let's go. I've tried, come. Your dog is just like looking at me, like waiting for the word and it was free. So it's like, never make that mistake again. Always ask, yeah, I've never had a client that had a release word before she was my first one. Okay, usually people say sit and then they repeat it until they give a treat, and then the dog just gets up and walks away. That they don't actually have, like, a reliable stay, like you couldn't say stay, and they turn your back and walk away. They would just get up whenever they felt like it. Um, so teaching them that release word, you know, I kind of do that in the beginning, in the meet and greet, I tell them there's going to be a release word. So I'm like, if you structure feed, can you please tell your dog to sit stay and then break them to their food, and then every time you go potty for this week, tell them to sit stay and break them out the door so they start to learn. Okay? It happens with my food. It happens when I go potty. It's going to happen when I ride in the car. It starts to generalize. So when they're with me, then I can start adding it, and they're like, oh, because you don't want them to learn it for the first time with a stranger in a different place. They really it's better for a dog to learn something familiar. And so if the owner can just, like, say, break like, 20 times for a few days, the dog is like, got it when they're with me, the dog, if their owner doesn't put in the work, it does take them longer well,
Collin 44:39
and that comes back to what you're talking about earlier, of who is this owner? How much work are they going to put in? Are they going to be a good partner in this? Because this is no simple task that we are looking to do. And if you don't have them on board, if they're just like, yeah, Mo, you go take care of everything. Thanks.
Mo T. 44:55
Are fine? Sometimes you can do that with Yeah, yeah. But you. Not all of them. I have a small crew of dogs that I have never been that thorough in the meet and greet. The dog is just like, great. I have no idea if the dog listens to the owner at all. I have no idea, but the dog is a perfect fit for pack walk, and it's because they love dogs so much that they are willing to do anything to get with the other dogs. Yeah. So they're like, they don't even care about me. They don't really care much about like, the person who's do. They're just like, I want to play with the dogs. And so they'll do like, anything to play with the dog. So that's, like, their reward. So I do have a couple dogs that are like, they're people friendly, they're dog friendly, like, right? They don't have any temperament problems. The dogs who have behavioral issues, if the owner's not on board, it doesn't work, right? It won't work if the owner is not going to follow through with the extensive training that those kinds of dogs need to be able to come on these kinds of adventures, then they can't come and it's like, you just, it's like, if sorry, it's like, you don't really get to pick your temperament of your dog. Like, sure, there's all this training you can do, but some part of it's just personality and temperament. And
Collin 46:13
that's that's hard, because some clients, man, they put a lot of emotion into their kind of dog, and we've run into this too, where they want a super active dog, and because they grew up with an active dog, and what they have is a couch potato, and they kind of feel bad about that, right? Or maybe they have a couch potato, or, you know, they've got some they want
Mo T. 46:33
a couch potato, but they got a crackhead. They've got a vision for
Collin 46:37
their kind of dog. And it's so emotionally invested in that, and it is hard to have those conversations. How do you tell a client this isn't going to work out and this really isn't a good fit?
Mo T. 46:47
So the couple times I've had to do that, or at first, it was never for temperament or training. It was actually because of money the owner not wanting to pay, or getting so far behind on payments, that's actually where I've cut. Most of my clients are for chasing down money too many times or just having, like, bad communication with the owner. The dog was great, but it's like, this is not like working, and I don't. I didn't have contracts for people to sign. It didn't do like camp. You know what? I mean? I just don't have those hardcore rules, because nobody ever did that to me before. Yeah, so there's been a couple times since my bus is really full. Now, there's been a few dogs that they just didn't have the right skills, and I didn't have enough time in my schedule to train them, and so I gave them a free training session, and I told them, work on these things with your dog and meet with me in a couple months, and let's try it again. I don't have, you know, the two months that your dog needs. I just don't have that slot of time right now. And it's mostly because I have a toddler where it's like, I just, my schedule is just, you know, there's a baby here now, and so the there was one like that, and she got, a free training session out of it. I just felt bad. She cried. She just was really sad that her dog was too reactive and too mentally unstable to hang out off leash. And it's not that the dog couldn't get there. I don't know. I didn't really work with her, other than that one session and then another one, the owners were just so worried about the dog wearing a collar instead of a harness. And I was like, I don't think I'm going to be a good fit. Like, your dog could get rolled by another dog. Your dog could be running and run into a stick. You know, there's all sorts of things that happen, right? They get like, they get scratches, they get bruised up. There's been like little cups on their ears when they're playing with each other too hard. It's not that it happens that often, but if the owner is either not capable of doing trading, has a problem with the payment, or they're they're too worried or too anxious about some things. I'm like, just don't like, there's no reason your dog does not need this. This is a luxury service. Your dog does not need this. You know, you can find a friend to let your dog out to go potty if you really need that. This is not a potty break, yeah, something a lot more. And then what's the most common one that I have to let people go for is the owner thinks the dog needs friends, and the dog doesn't care about friends, but they think their dog needs it, and they think their dog wants it, and the dog is either too under socialized, or just like, didn't get that early dog social. Like, there's like, there's dog dogs, and there's like, people dogs, yeah, like dogs that like dogs, and there's dogs that like people and they don't care about other dogs. And so dogs who like people, that's fine. If they like me and they want to go and they don't mind the other dogs like they coexist. They don't, they don't need to play with everybody. But if they just want to walk around and sniff and they really like me, that's fine. But if there's. Asked out by the other dogs. Or they just, like, pin their ears back and just kind of look like these dogs are annoying, or that, you know, like those, those are the ones that the owners are just so crushed, and they're just so sad because they just want their dogs to have friends. And I'm like, your dog
50:15
doesn't care. Or sometimes,
Mo T. 50:19
like, mean, not the other dogs, or
Collin 50:21
sometimes it's not that they don't care. They actively dislike everybody. And look, that's fine, like that, your dog just needs to be alone and then have their kind of own alone time, and maybe we can work up this eventually. But I feel like
Mo T. 50:32
those people don't find me. I think those people know that their dogs don't like other dogs, but it's the dogs that are just kind of like neutral or indifferent when they meet other dogs, and the owner like, wishes they had more friends. Maybe if they had friends, they would play more. And it's like some dogs also there's there's another group of dogs that get too over stimulated by too many dogs, but they only need one or two friends. And that's it like that, like they only want a small group of dogs. And I just don't have that anymore. I used to have a group that I capped at six, but it's like I needed it to go up this summer, so I used to keep a special group of dogs that was a lot smaller. That's where I would usually train a new dog, because it's kind of like this mellow group. Yeah, it's the most crushing thing is when an owner wants their dog to have doggy friends and their dog is not it to it.
Collin 51:21
And like you said, then you have to go the business that I run right now is not a good fit, and that can be crushing to us, too, as the owners, to go, man, I just I can't serve you the way you need to be served right now. I'm not for you, and we need to be okay with that, because otherwise we start making sacrifices. We start over extending ourselves.
Mo T. 51:41
I tell people right off the bat, there was one lady. I haven't met her yet, but she knew about my business before she moved up here, and she was hoping to get her dogs on pack walks when she's up here, and then use me as a sitter. But one of her dogs had an injury or something, or a surgery. I don't know there's something, and she was hoping that being with me would provide X, Y and Z. And I was like, Look, your dog is I think going to be better at your house? I don't think, I don't think what you think that I have. I don't think that it lines up. They have three dogs, and they felt bad that their small dog was being created while the other two were out and loose, and so, and I'm like, well, your dog doesn't know me, doesn't know my dogs, doesn't know my cat. I'm gonna have to create, I would have to create it at my house, like, so I don't think it's gonna be any less. Um, people put people like, they're like, my they feel bad, and it's like, your dog doesn't carry dogs probably sleeping, you know, I just had a surgery. They're on drugs. They're napping. They don't have the same human jealousy, you know, yeah,
Collin 52:49
well, and that, we've got to work through a lot of that with them, right? So I can see also, here's where your psychology degree comes in to help a lot, to be like, how do I talk to this person about this issue and their preconceived notion, their biases, they may look to us as miracle workers too, of like, well, you can handle everything, and you don't need my help. And us, we have to go actually. Let's talk about that, because we need to get that out in the open
Mo T. 53:11
right as a trainer, aside from pet sitting and dog sitting, so I have my pack walks, right? And I do that. I also do training that has nothing to do with my pack walks, where I go to people's homes, train with their dog, right? There's two different kinds of training that I do. The one, a dog is going to get into pack walks. And then two, I'm training something completely different, just for whatever the owner wants or needs. And sometimes people think, you know, they can send their dog to a board and train, and they're going to come back trained right board. And trains work when you need to pull the dog out and put them somewhere else to learn something, but then you have to generalize it everywhere else. That's just like the starting point. And sometimes people think that the starting point is the finished product, and it's not. I don't think people realize that dogs learn differently in the sense that they learn Association by their environment. There's a really cool video online of this Guardian dog, and it walks up to the post every single day and it yells at this post, and it's because at one point in time, one of the sheep was there and there was a wild animal the electric fence went off or something, and something happened there. But the dog didn't associate it by the animals. It didn't associate it by the electric fence or anything. It associated it with that pole at this pole, this happened. Oh, wow. And that's why people, I think, misuse e collars, and the white e collars are so misunderstood, is because people aren't using them properly, and they're not doing the whole slow conditioning thing and training the dog. They're just putting it on the dog and pushing buttons. And so what happens is the dog is out there. A stimulus happens by this tree. Now I hate this tree. Now this area is a bad area. Now I'm afraid of this location, right? And so they don't learn by. Association in the same way that we do. They learn by their environmental Association a lot. So if you teach your dog to come sit in front of you in the kitchen, when I touch the cookie cookie jar, they learn when my owner walks into the kitchen and touches this jar, I sit in front of them and I get a treat, and the owner thinks they know sit. That does not mean the owner, the dog knows sit. If you're out on a walk and the dog is to sit next to you on your left side, that's not the same trick, and it's not the same command. And people don't realize that that they're like, No, my dog knows sit, and I'm like, No, your dog does not know sit, in a generalized sense, that's kind of why I say like reliable recall, loose leash with distractions, sit, stay until released, because people think my dog knows sit, and it's like, no, your dog sits and gets up, sits and gets up, sits and gets up. And I'm like, That's not sit. And so I have a different expectation than owners, and so I have to tell the owner what my expectation is for the dog and my expectation of them, and then kind of see if we're going to be a good fit,
Collin 56:08
right? Well, again, those caveats that we learn over time, right? It's like, how do we how do we grow in business? Will we grow by by learning and trying different things? And I'm sure you used to say, Oh, they just have to be good at recall. And then you start you learn, oh, no, no, no, really, no
Mo T. 56:21
reliable recall. Like, you drop what you're doing and you run to me, not like, kind of com, stop sniff. That one that happens all the time where I ask them when I'm teaching other dog walkers. So I do these classes where I teach other dog walkers, and one of my classes is meet and greets and temperament testing. And I love to let the dog if the owners thinks they have recall. I'm like, Okay, let them off leash then, and then I they're running around. And I'm like, call them back, and they don't come back. And I go, you have recall. And I go, get them back, and they don't, and they can't. And I'm like, so we don't have recall, and they're calling them, and the dogs just like, nor in them. And I'm like, so we need recall. And I'm like, Okay, now I make them do it in front of me outside, and they're like, Yeah, well, he comes except when. And I go, Well, that's not reliable. So getting that except when, because that's really what my training is. We're like, most dogs are pretty good loose leash and they're pretty good at Sid, or they're pretty good at recall, except when I'm going to prove and train through all of the except wins. Yeah, that's really what my program is, that that fine tuning, that like that really clear communication, and that really clear engagement, and so I don't think other dog walkers do this. And I I think I actually know a lot of dog walkers don't do this, because I talked to them, and they're like, frustrated because the dog walkers want the dog to get sent to a trainer. And I'm like, but if the dog goes to the trainer and you don't know what the training is, you can't apply any of it. So really, you need to go to the trainer. That's always what I'm saying is like, you know, no, you can't get the dog to walk loose leash. You need to go to the trainer, because it's going to work with a trainer is not for the dog. I think people are really confused by that. Training is not for the dog. Training is for the owner to know how to train their dog right a board. And train is to let a professional lay down a solid foundation so that the owner can then see how it's applied. And a board and train is perfect for the owner who thinks their dog can't. And some people need to see that their dog can before they believe it, and then they see their dog do it, and they're like, Wow. And I'm like, the first step is believing in your dog, and the second step is working with a trainer, because if you don't believe your dog can do it, then there's nowhere you can go and there's nothing you can do about it. A lot of people just think that their dog just can't I can't tell you how many times I've read the comment my dog could never, and it makes me so sad. It's probably not the saddest comment that I know. People probably don't think it's that sad, but to me, it's like it's a little heartbreaking that people don't believe in their dogs like that, right? Yeah, well, Mo, I
Collin 59:04
want to thank you so much for coming on the show today and encouraging us to do that hard work, to get that training, to work with trainers, to partner with the pet owners, to make sure that everything that we do is safe, secure, is fun, enriching, and that it's rewarding to us as well, and also that we need to be resourceful business owners, to take little steps to continue to learn and improve little by little. I know there's a whole lot more here. I know you do some more webinars and stuff as well on various topics
Mo T. 59:34
dog people. We could talk about dogs endlessly,
Collin 59:37
so that MO That just means that we've got to have you back on the show. So for for those, for those, for those who are listening and want to get connected and follow along with your work, how best can they do that? All of my
Mo T. 59:49
media is Mo mountain mud so just mo for my name Mo, and then we live in the mountains, and I walk all the muds. Mo mountain muds. We're on Tiktok. We're on Instagram. We're on Facebook and YouTube, and we are mostly active in the winter. We go live on Tiktok in the morning. So if you want to watch the dogs get on the bus, and you watch a live on Tiktok, and if you want to watch them out on their walk, then you can check my stories on Instagram. I like to take little stories so their owners can see what the dogs are up to and you know who they're with. I think if you're a dog walker, if you can share little things like that, then I think the owners really like that. I think that's a big thing for growing my business is the media, not necessarily for the internet, but for the owners. So the owners can see where I went, who they're with, and they can watch their dogs play, and they can go home later, and they can watch it. It's up for 24 hours, the stories so they like, wipe away. You don't have to edit anything. You just point, shoot, post, right? Like, that's a really good way to have engagement with your clients. Perfect. Well,
Collin 1:00:51
I will have those links. People can go check out all of your social media. See those really cool, fun photos and videos that you are always posting that make me insanely jealous of everything. Yeah, one last little thing, because we ended
Mo T. 1:01:03
on the training, training, I just want to say to the to all these dog owners out there, training doesn't have to be like, some 30 minute session. It can be like 10 seconds. It can be 30 seconds. Like, training shouldn't really be more than five minutes. And if you're not having fun, like, that's not it. You should be having fun training your dog. And sure, there's some frustrating behaviors and whatnot, but overall, you should be having fun playing with your dog and training with your dog. It should be like a relationship bonding thing, not like, oh, I have a bad dog. I need to work on this. You know, like, no bad dogs, they're good dogs, and believe in your dog.
Collin 1:01:41
I love that. Mo, thank you so much for your time today. I know you got a lot, a lot on your plate and everything, so it means a lot for you to come on. So thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for having me. How do you build a better business one step at a time, learn from each individual lesson and make sure you're not over investing, over indexing on one particular thing, spread the risk around, which allows you to learn faster and adapt quicker and move to where you need to take small steps in investing in your equipment and investing in your marketing and your website, in all of that stuff, so that you know exactly what you need when you need it. This allows you to be adaptable, flexible, and create a business that's out of this world. We want to thank today's sponsors, time to pet and pet perennials for making the show possible, and we really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon. You.
