In this episode, I sit down with Karin and David Wright, the passionate founders of Blackwood Canine Training. We explore their journey into the world of dog training, uncover the most popular services they offer, and discuss how they help dogs and their owners thrive together. From tips on selecting the right dog or puppy for your family to tackling common behavioral challenges in both puppies and adult dogs, Karin and David share their expert insights and personalized advice. Whether you're a dog owner seeking guidance or a pet professional looking for inspiration, this episode is filled with practical tips and valuable takeaways.

Connect with Karin and David: https://www.blackwoodcanine.com

Check out their YouTube channel for more great content: https://www.youtube.com/@BLACKWOODCANINE

Watch Now!

Transcript of Podcast:

Lianne Shinton (00:00)

Welcome everybody. So I'm Leanne Shinton, owner of Pet Biz Experts, a software company for pet professionals like dog trainers. And we are going to be speaking with Karen and David today from Blackwood Canine. Welcome guys. Hi. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about what inspired you guys to specialize in dog training and how did your journey in this field begin?

Blackwood Canine (00:13)

Hi.

Hi everyone, so I'm Karen. So I actually started all the way back.

to right after college, I basically I got involved in animal rescue deeper than I had before because I was a college, you know, was out of college now and you know, I could. And so, you know, I linked up with a couple of friends that started dog rescues and I was on, you know, the development committee for them and doing a lot of fundraising and just trying to do our best thinking that like, if we just could get a lot of funds into these rescues, we could save more dogs. But the more I got into it, the more I realized,

Yes, we need the funds to save more dogs, but realistically, preventing dogs from going into rescue is way more efficient at saving more dogs, right? Just to kind of loosely say. So.

I kind of just dove into dog behavior. You know, I wanted to know why were people sending dogs to rescue? Why were people returning adopted dogs? And a lot of times they were very manageable training situations. You know, the dog is knocking my kid over. Well, have you tried not, you know, not letting your dog jump on the kid? Or have you tried training? have you, you know, what have you tried, right? And so that really led me down a deep rabbit hole of dog behavior and training and how to get, you know, just dogs to be better behaved in home so that they stay.

in their homes. Nice.

Lianne Shinton (01:46)

Yeah, that's an awesome perspective and what a great journey it's taken you on so that you've evolved into this incredible dog trainer with multiple businesses. love it. And David, how, how did you get started? What inspired you? When did you start down this journey?

Blackwood Canine (02:05)

Well, I think I was like your typical late 20s testosterone driven like guy and I wanted this badass dog or so I thought. So I went out and got this Connachorso puppy off a pet finder and went looking for somebody who did protection training.

And I initially met Oscar Mora, who then introduced me to OJ. And I started going out to OJ's classes and doing like bite work and doing obedience stuff. And then I just kind of got sucked in. I would spend my entire weekends like up there at the park, just watching them train. And so that initially is kind of how I got into it. And then one day OJ was like, hey, you put on the suit.

And I was like, no, I'm okay. Like I'm just watching. And he was like, no, you're here all the time. Like you need to put on the suit. And I was like, okay. So I put on the suit and he's like, run. And then he sent the dog after me and then the rest is history. So yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how I got sucked in.

Lianne Shinton (03:09)

my God, that's amazing.

and you've been so fantastic helping me with Flirty's Mondio Ring, Superstar Decoy. Outstanding. how did, can you guys tell us a little bit about Blackwood Canine, your business, where you're located and any services you'd like to share about?

Blackwood Canine (03:20)

It's

Yeah, so Blackwood Canine actually stubbornly started because when we moved out of LA, so I started the Driven Dog in Chicago and then I met David in LA when I moved out there and David was iWork Dogs. And so we ran sort of parallel to each other as far as like dog training businesses.

And we were both operating out of my facility, which was Whiskers and Tails in Gardena, California, but then I rebranded it to Chewie's Dog Gym. And so we were both operating out of my facility there. And then...

started a family, we moved up here to the Portland area. So we're in Scapoose, Oregon, which is about 20 minutes northwest of like downtown Portland, right? And so when we moved out here, honestly, we started Blackwood Canine because we could not decide who would have to give up the name. Which dog training company would prevail? So we said, all right, forget it. We'll just start brand new. Blackwood Canine will be like a truly joint and unified co -founding.

And that's how we came to become Blackwood Canine in Oregon.

Lianne Shinton (04:40)

That's awesome. I love that story. Something that you guys have done and started together. That's awesome. Now, how do you guys typically get started with new clients? Like, do you offer a consultation or a discovery call? Is it free? And how do folks get signed up for something like that?

Blackwood Canine (04:59)

Well, we have a couple of options in terms of the way that we approach it. So we will...

have clients can do like a free phone consult, but then we also have in -person and in -home consults. We feel like the consults give us the opportunity to kind of get to know the person, get to know the dog, and especially if we're dealing with something that's more behavioral, we want to kind of see the dog before we have them come to the facility for training, you know, especially since we do a lot of the training out of our home or out of the property that we live on.

Lianne Shinton (05:32)

and folks could go to your website, blackwoodk9 .com and get signed up for that consult. Perfect. And what types of programs are popular within Blackwood K9?

Blackwood Canine (05:48)

So I think our most popular program is probably our board and train program, our immersion program. It just it's the most successful. We get the best results out of it. Most clients are very happy with the end results and we offer a lot of support on the back end of it. And so, you know, we we very rarely have clients, you know, now that we've both been doing this for so many years, we've got a pretty good system. So we very rarely have clients that sort of like have the typical complaints of like, you know, falling off after pickup or not following through.

or popping back out six to nine months later with a massive complaint that could have been prevented or anything like that. so we also offer private lessons though, of course. So very traditional, once a week sort of a thing, either at our place or in a client's home, depending on their needs. Sometimes it's a hybrid of the two. And then of course we still do a lot of sport dog things. So David being a Mondio guy.

you know, and me coming from, you know, mostly French ring background, but also having the PSA club and bringing that back to the West Coast, you know, a few years ago. I think all of the dog sports are very fascinating and interesting to us. And I think both of us agree that like we can learn a lot from all of the sports to hone into sort of like that perfect sport dog. And so we still do that. We still have a club, Mondial club. You know, we still train for that and we do private lessons for bite work and sport work and, know, and I, you know, we work.

with law enforcement a little bit still, you know, and so those are mostly our offerings.

Lianne Shinton (07:22)

Outstanding. Yeah, one thing that stood out to me was you mentioned that your clients, they're happy. You you're focused on their success and their long term success too. Not just I picked up my dog and I'm on my own. It sounds like you offer a lot of support there.

Blackwood Canine (07:41)

Yeah, yeah, we definitely do. mean though we we tend to offer Almost like a lesson per week that the dog is with us And so I think people walk away feeling really complete, you know, we start them off even though the dogs no more than

some of the lessons, we start people off with some of very basics so that they can just kind of roll into it. And we give them homework and stuff that they have to do every week and we just kind of build on that and add pieces and I think over time that's worked really well for people.

Lianne Shinton (08:19)

Yeah, that sounds perfect too, because I think with a board and train, sometimes people are thinking, I send my dog off, he comes back perfect. But you're doing a lot of coaching, a lot of coaching and homework that you're providing for the owners, which is so, important. I also wanted to just touch on your, both of your incredible sport backgrounds. mean, outstanding, like I said, David, you've helped me with flirty. saw a post on Facebook today, you know,

Blackwood Canine (08:27)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lianne Shinton (08:48)

dog trainers, learning from sport people like yourselves make us better dog trainers. And then your clients being able to go directly to you and being able to tap into such amazing dog trainers and sport dog trainers. It's just that highest level. I love it.

Blackwood Canine (09:06)

Thanks. Thank you.

Lianne Shinton (09:08)

And what are some of the common problems you guys, you know, you find clients are reaching out to you for help with like, you mentioned jumping and knocking down the kids. Like, what do you commonly see where folks are coming to you getting some help?

Blackwood Canine (09:21)

Bye.

I think honestly one of the most like underlying issues that we're still dealing with and I'd love to just continue to do education on is really choosing the wrong dog, right? And not being respectful to the breed and the genetics of that particular dog. And so, you know, when I was in Chicago and LA, I think we got a lot of like, you know, people adopting or getting like big strong bully breeds or molasser breeds and just truly not understanding

and respecting what that breed brings to the table and into your home. And know, sort of expecting and wanting a golden retriever out of a conic horse, so right? And now that we're in the Pacific Northwest, I think there's certainly some of that too, but what I am seeing a lot of is people with herding dogs, border collies, Australian shepherds, cattle dogs especially, that are, and the number one complaints are, well, they're loud and they bark.

and they have this high twitch and high nerve and you know all of those things and it's a lot of just what I sort of have started calling is just almost like a lifestyle coaching but with dogs as a dog owner you know and so you start to merge like the psychology of okay now you have this genetically predisposed dog to do these behaviors and yes we should do training but training is not going to change the dog you know and I think that's for me like a huge huge education

point that I think we need to you know collectively all those dog trainers continue to drive. Yeah I would say I would say like when we had our business businesses in California we tended to deal with a lot more like loosely walking dog reactivity sort of thing you know people who have have the experience of their dog being in a more like

Metropolitan area now that we're like on kind of like the outskirts of Portland We get more people who really just want like a like a good overall companion, right? So a lot of the dogs don't necessarily have like behavioral issues as much

But they, like Karen was saying, like they just don't connect with their humans and the people don't know how to really get the dog to be a good companion. And so like a few of the things that we always focus on is gonna be, you know, very clear system of communication, some really good management, right? And taking the time to show them how to be consistent without having to spend 20 minutes a day training your dog, you know? And so that's kind of where we focus.

Lianne Shinton (11:57)

That's very interesting. It sounds like if folks could reach out to you before they get the puppy or before they get the dog and have a good conversation with you guys about what is going to be the best fit maybe for their family and where to go to sort out that dog. Is that something they could reach out to you to help give them direction at that stage?

Blackwood Canine (12:19)

Absolutely. That's my favorite is when someone reaches out before they're adopting a dog, before they're picking the dog up from the breeder and they're already asking all the questions prior and I can sort of help guide them into, okay, well, these are the things you want to be looking for. It's totally fine if you change your mind last minute because you see a red flag. So yeah, those are my favorite calls.

Lianne Shinton (12:42)

Yeah, so better to get started even before you get the dog or at least right when you get the puppy or the dog would be more advantageous. I do find as a dog trainer myself that a lot of times folks will contact us at about, you know, the dog's a year, year and a half, two years, and they're like, you didn't grow out of it. So that's when they need help. But, you know, it's, best to start right away.

Blackwood Canine (13:01)

Thank

Lianne Shinton (13:07)

because it's communication. It's teaching the dog to communicate with you and you guys to communicate with the dogs. It can really, really help the family and help the dogs, like you mentioned, stay out rescue and stay out of the shelters.

Blackwood Canine (13:19)

you

Lianne Shinton (13:21)

And what about puppies? Do you have like a puppy format for young puppies that maybe aren't fully like street legal because they don't have all their vaccines?

Blackwood Canine (13:31)

Yeah, so we do offer a puppy jumpstart program. I will say that I generally try to get people not to do that because I think a lot of times people will think that they will get a complete dog from that, but...

One of them, again, the main things that we focus on in that very early program is not necessarily teaching the dog any skills, as much as we're teaching them how to follow a lure, kind of pay attention, engage with the person. And it's really more so about relationship building, house breaking, and doing proper socialization during that period. So we try to expose the puppies to as many things as we can safely.

We try to also start to build some of those markers and teach them, like give them a system of communication, but we don't have any like expectations for them to perform these things, like the tasks effortlessly because they're still babies, you know.

Lianne Shinton (14:32)

Yes, that's very good advice. Maybe could you expand a little bit on proper socialization just to give folks a little taste of what that means to you.

Blackwood Canine (14:41)

Sure, so for us socialization basically means you wanna expose the dog to as many things as they're probably gonna see in their natural life. You also want them to have very neutral experiences to these things. So we don't want it to be super exciting, but we also don't want it to be scary, right? So we're gonna spend a lot of time just kinda exposing the dogs to the things that we think that they may see, right? So on our property, we have some trails.

a of people out here like to take their dogs camping, hiking. So sometimes we'll take the dogs on the trails and just kind of, you know, maybe throw a couple of pieces of food, but also maybe we just walk through it and let them get used to just kind of being out there in nature. Right. And so also we can take the dog out to the sidewalk and there may be a garbage truck. And if the dog starts to have a meltdown, a lot of people would initially go and say, it's okay. It's okay. And start petting the puppy. Whereas us, we try to make it as neutral as an experience as possible. And she's like, Hey, come on, we're

still walking, it's just a garbage truck, don't worry about it and we don't give it a lot of attention. Right, so the more we can expose them to those things and again keep that that...

Experience as neutral as possible the better we can socialize the dogs. There's always gonna be a lot of dogs on our property So they'll always get to see dogs, but we don't necessarily always have them interact with dogs, right? So again, they get to see dogs. They're not necessarily interacting with the dogs. They're still interacting with humans They get to meet other humans And again those those experiences with the humans are very neutral as well. So the dogs are always kind of like everything is just kind of

very even, very copacetic.

Yeah, I think one of the big things I'm always urging clients to understand is socialization doesn't actually mean necessarily to interact heavily with whatever it is you think the dog has to be socialized to or with. And so, you know, I'm always like, rather than going in the dog park, maybe just walk on the sidewalk across the street from the dog park and show the dog that this is a part of your environment and that it is a possibility and that it's not a big deal, you know, above all else, that these things that I want to show you are just all not

a big deal ever. And so yes, kids are kicking and screaming a soccer game over there. Great. Let's keep moving. You know? And so that's one thing that I really drive with clients when I chat with them about like, okay, yes, I want you to do proper socialization, but please do not plop them into the middle of the playground.

Lianne Shinton (17:09)

Excellent. Excellent advice. Thank you for that. What do you guys feel or believe are some important qualities or skills for a successful dog trainer?

Blackwood Canine (17:20)

my gosh. So I actually do a little bit of business coaching and some social media management on the side, right? And so when I talk to other dog trainers, and some of these other dog trainers I've known for many years and I know them to be very talented trainers.

But I think we all have to remember that doing dog training as a business and just being a dog trainer means you have to be a good business person. so, you know, taking some business courses, talking to people that are just small business owners and not necessarily a dog trainer is really helpful. And just learning key terms, right? What does marketing really mean? What does, you know, like ROI, return on interest? What does that really mean? Are you checking your statistics? And we just, you know, if you're a dog trainer, you know, we wear so many hats.

And I want them all to know that outsourcing is okay. If you are not good at marketing, find someone who can help you that is so that you can spend your energy and your time efficiently on the things that you are good at. If you are terrible at talking to clients, find someone who is very good at talking to clients and let them drive that front for you.

So I think that's like a huge, huge part of, know, whether you can really be very successful. think David and I are very business minded. think we both come from entrepreneurial family backgrounds. And so we were just exposed to sort of like, yeah, this is not going to be easy. Yeah. For me, I think, I think there are two skills that are extremely overlooked as it pertains to dog training.

The first thing that I think people need to learn is sales. If you can't sell, then that's anything. You need to be able to sell. So you need to be studying selling, what it means to talk to people, what it means to build those relationships in that short period of time that can convince the person that you have something of value for them. So that's the first thing I think a lot of trainers should should focus on, essentially.

outside of training. The next thing I would say is kind of in the same breath, but you need to learn how to educate people.

because a lot of trainers know how to train dogs and they can be very clear with the dogs, but it is hard for them to communicate that information to people in a way that people can understand. And the thing is, the same way every dog is different and learns a little bit differently, people are the same way, right? And so we have to have different ways that we can approach people to show them the things that we've done with the dog and the things that the dog knows so that they can then go on and have success. Because, you know, I tell our clients all the time,

I don't live with you. So I have to do my best to make sure that you're doing things correctly so that when you walk down the street with your dog or when your friends come over to your house and they meet your dog, they go, my God, your dog is so well behaved. And then they go, well, you need to call Blackwood because they did this, right? So that's really, I would say one of the two things that I would focus on as a trainer.

if you're not already focusing on those things.

Lianne Shinton (20:42)

One of the things that stands out to me too about you guys, obviously I mentioned like your sport background, that stuff's like magic. The stuff that you know how to get a dog to that, you know, world championship level in the hardest sport like Mondial ring, ring. That's amazing. Huge value there for people to learn from you. But another thing that I would you guys make an amazing team and I would think, you know, there might be circumstances where a dog may be afraid of men or

maybe too strong for you, Karen. And I speak from experience, like that it's nice to have such a great team where you can work together, but separately for some of those dogs or people too, that might, you know, learn better from one than the other. Do you ever find that having that team really helps?

Blackwood Canine (21:25)

Yeah.

There's definitely some Karen clients and David clients, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. We have run into that. I think now that we've been working together for almost 10 years now, we're pretty good at predicting it earlier. Yeah, they pull into the driveway and go, that's you. But earlier on, it was just a learned thing, right? And so I might struggle with one of my clients and just talk

Lianne Shinton (21:28)

Hahaha!

Blackwood Canine (21:56)

to him about it and he would say, tap me in, let me see if I can make a breakthrough here. And again, same goes with the dog. Some dogs just need a little bit more of a softer, playful vibe, that would be me. Some dogs really would prefer a much more like, can you just please tell me exactly what to do every single time? And that's definitely him. And so I think that has been a massive benefit with us of having each other to sort of balance each other out.

and play to each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Lianne Shinton (22:26)

Yeah, that sounds absolutely like just the greatest team. Do

Could you guys share like a heartwarming success story or a particularly memorable transformation with one of your canine clients?

Blackwood Canine (22:38)

Yeah, yeah, I would say the first one that comes to mind is this dog Huck

So I did I did an eval with this family for their for a different dog like maybe a year prior to them coming back and saying hey we have this other dog now who also has issues. It's kind of aggressive right. And so Karen went out and did the eval the second time which is I will say which was kind of nice. We didn't plan it this way. But I think for the client it was good to hear you know the first eval a year ago with David about one

dog and then you know a year later I come out.

And do an eval for a second dog and they were able to kind of take both things and sort of look at it and be like, wow, like this is same, same, same. Right. You know, so I think that was, you know, accidentally helpful. And so, they came to drop the dog off and they're like, yeah, he's kind of aggressive, but he's never really like done anything or whatever. and so he's huge, right? he's like, he's probably about a hundred, 105 pounds since he's a Swiss Swissie. He's a Swiss mountain

I call him donkey just to give you an idea of the image. And so I'm telling the guy like hey this is how want you to manage the leash and like go over there to the potty area see if he has to go and I'm gonna have you walk him into the kennel and what does he do? Let's the go to the potty area the dog sees me he basically does a drag in and the dog comes up and jumps and bites onto my arm.

He's still kind of a puppy. He wasn't really sure. I was able to kind of get the dog off or whatever relatively quickly. And then it was like, okay, well now we have to approach this a little bit differently. so the huck came. He stayed with us for maybe about two months. About two months. And he's like my buddy. I love that dog.

and he loves me and now they have like complete confidence that they can control him and they can take him places and they can have people over their house. They still can't let the neighbor kids just kind of jump the fence and come over, but, but you know, but they can, they, they have a dog that they can enjoy now. And so seeing that transformation is, you know, it's just, it's super rewarding.

I think the most rewarding thing about that is, you know, we have the follow -up lessons after a board and train. And so every time they would come for a follow -up lesson, you could feel how much more relieved and confident and just grateful that they have a safe dog beyond all else, right? I think everybody's intentions are that they want their dog to be happy, healthy, safe.

but also for themselves, their family and the people around them. And so I think for them, they went from, you I have a dog that A is potentially dangerous to to my, my neighbors, my friends, my family that come over. And maybe to us, they were genuinely a little bit scared of the dog. They were unsure, right? To them, it was a very unpredictable, very large dog. And then ultimately they were worried about the dog. What would happen if the dog did hurt somebody? What would happen? You know, would they have to return the dog to a breeder?

they surrender and euthanize, you there are a lot of uncertainties in their mind. And so to go from that sort of a drastic change, you know, of like, I don't know what I'm going to do with this dog in my life to, love this dog. This dog is such a good compliment, right? To my family and my lifestyle now is just like, it's amazing to watch just the tension melt off of them.

Lianne Shinton (26:20)

That's an amazing transformation. Outstanding. What a great story. And finally, where can listeners find more information about Blackwood Canine and connect with you?

Blackwood Canine (26:32)

Yeah, so easiest is obviously our website pretty pretty easy blackwood canine all spelled out. So can I any? Blackwood canine calm we're also obviously an Instagram at blackwood canine. We're on Facebook at blackwood canine. We're on YouTube and like with canine Tick tock at blackwood canine That's probably the easiest Obviously, we text this really quick response if you call if you leave a voicemail, I don't know if anybody else has

issue but I don't always get my voicemails popping up in a timely fashion. Sometimes they'll pop up a day after they've been left and so literally my voicemail says like if you leave a voicemail we may not get back to you soon enough. So email and text is great options.

You know, so we're pretty approachable. I'm pretty glued to the phone, unfortunately. I would say the texts come through now because of the Pepis stuff, we actually don't miss texts now. we used to. And then I would say the other thing is like, I love educating. So for me, like...

give away all the secrets on our YouTube channel. So if you want to figure out how to train the dog, like go to the YouTube channel and you'll get all the secrets. Yeah, it is pretty pretty hilarious. You can see which content is a David content and which is a Karen content for sure. Our personalities definitely come through differently.

Lianne Shinton (27:51)

Yeah.

Yeah, I've seen your YouTube videos. That's excellent. A great resource for folks. it's just look for Blackwood Canine on YouTube. Yeah, that's excellent. I've seen some of your videos and they're, they're very helpful. Awesome. Did you guys have anything else you'd like to share or add?

Blackwood Canine (28:08)

Yeah, that would be nice.

No.

Lianne Shinton (28:21)

Okay, well thank you Karen and David for joining us today. Again, I'm Leanne the host and owner of Pet Biz Experts, a software company, and thanks for listening.

Blackwood Canine (28:32)

Thanks for