We have been most fortunate to have been embraced by the working dog community, from neophytes in Schutzhund (when it was still called that in 1991) to where we are today.
Name dropping and seeking validation by association is classless. It’s all over the industry, “I studied under….” nah , dude, you paid your $450-650 like everyone else at that 2-1/2 day seminar. We’re are taking about mentoring. Cats you can text at 2200 and say,” I can’t figure this out, what do you think?”. Guys and ladies who will tell you that you’re dumb but walk you through a Socratic experience that will change the trajectory of your K9 career. The kind of people who really care about your development.
We fully recognize the limits of our knowledge and experiences. We’ve done some really cool stuff with some really cool people for some really cool ( and not so cool) people we can’t talk about. Most of that by chance. And association.
As our kids will ask us, “do you guys realize the extent and depth of your network, who you can call and get help from, like people who have had dinner at our house?” . For the sake of complete transparency, no, we didn’t. One is a handler for a large federal agency. The youngest and his wife in the PSS / private tactical response community. One we picked up along the way in the IT security space. All three of them crushing it, by the way.
That said, we have invited some freaking awesome people to drop articles in our blog space. Since the purpose of our blog is about sharing knowledge and being a resource to dog handlers, true dog people doing a job, where ever that knowledge comes from, is what we are all about. To present ourselves as know all , be all is pretentious and untruthful. To present ourselves to be some form of gatekeeper is also preposterous. To say or intimate that these are our ideas or methods would be deceitful. There’s enough of that in our industry and we won’t participate in it.
The purpose of this blog, like our product line, is to solve problems and be of service to the K9 community. Police, MIL Sport, SAR whatever. There may even be articles on fitness and health…..for the handler . If that service comes from us or through us, we don’t care. As long as the community is served , helped and improved, it’s Mission Accomplished as far as we are concerned . The proper source will always be duly recognized.
The articles will be from handlers and trainers from different countries, with different legal systems and different goals. All of them SME in the space. Some will be from the pens of people here in the US. What is assured is that every author is genuinely interested in sharing knowledge and experiences to fortify, encourage and expand the library from which we can all draw. Some might disagree with others. This will not be a forum for argument and vitriol. There is plenty of that in the industry. Take from it what works for you or your team. Or not.
Because, in the end, it’s all about being 1% better than we were yesterday. (H/T GBRS Group)
