From Family Chaos to a 30-Year Dog Empire
6/24/202625 min
What does it take to build a business that survives economic crashes, family challenges, industry disruption, and nearly losing everything? In this episode of Living The Red Life, the leadership team behind A Canine Experience shares how a family-run dog training business grew into a respected operation celebrating 30 years in business. Trina Eddy, Andrea Kelley, Jessica Baer, and Autumn Baer reveal the mindset shifts, business strategies, service dog training innovations, and leadership lessons that helped them navigate adversity while continuing to grow. From scaling operations and implementing automation systems to training service dogs and mentoring future trainers, this conversation explores what it really takes to build a lasting business and create impact through purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
Key Takeaways
- Why leadership matters more than control when training dogs and leading teams.
- How adapting to market changes helped the business survive multiple economic downturns.
- The importance of building systems and automations to scale efficiently.
- Why successful dog training starts with educating owners, not just training dogs.
- How resilience and continuous learning create long-term business success.
Notable Quotes
- "Dogs simply do what works best to serve their purposes."
- "What we need to do is make what we want what they want."
- "If it's not working, make a change."
- "Excellent trainers do the basics really well."
- "We need to hire differently if we want to grow."
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTrina Eddy· Guest0:00
People think that their dogs know way more than they do. Like, they didn't spend the time training them and just expect them to know things. Their, their expectations are super unrealistic when they get a dog.
Ray Gutierrez· Host0:11
Yeah.
Trina Eddy· Guest0:11
Dogs simply do what works best to serve their purposes, and what we need to do is make what we want what they want, everything's golden.
Speaker 30:18
Trina and Andrea are co-founders of A K9 Experience, a family-run dog training organization focused on obedience, behavior, and competitive dog sports, alongside co-founders Jessica and Autumn.
Ray Gutierrez· Host0:30
When I watch The Dog Whisperer, is, is that, is that real?
Andrea Kelly· Guest0:33
[laughs] The thing about The Dog Whisperer, it, it did open people's eyes a little bit to understand a little bit more about leadership.
Ray Gutierrez· Host0:41
Mm.
Andrea Kelly· Guest0:41
We definitely have a little different technique. You know, you can do some stuff quick, make it look good for the cameras- Right ... but the longevity of it- Oh, yeah ... is a little bit different.
Ray Gutierrez· Host0:50
Yeah.
Andrea Kelly· Guest0:50
They don't show the follow-through that ha- has to happen.
Ray Gutierrez· Host0:53
Right.
Andrea Kelly· Guest0:53
Like, it's not gonna happen that quick, and I think some people became very unrealistic, thinking that- Yeah ... we can just take your dog and fix it like that. And it's like, no, that's just a start.
Rudy Mawer· Soundbite1:02
My name's Rudy Moor, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life, in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland, and change your life.
Ray Gutierrez· Host1:16
Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Red Life edition, uh, parentheses Mastermind edition. Uh, for Inside Success, I am Ray Gutierrez. Joining me today after quite a quad experience,