The opening keynote speakers , sponsored by Petco Positive Training and Petco Love , delivered on their promise to bring their authentic selves to the conference with their presentation entitled Professionalism Bites : Using Authenticism Online to Promote Your Business . Taylor Barconey and Jiovany “ Jio ” Alcaide entertained the crowd with stories of how they chose to embrace their diversity through social media . They met while working at Camp Bow Wow in New Orleans after each had graduated from college and decided to become dog trainers . The business partners stressed the importance of establishing brand , an easily recognizable logo and being authentic . “ No code switching ,” Taylor said , adding as a minority and a woman , she was told to act or talk a certain way to appeal to certain crowds . “ I don ’ t do that ( with my business ),” she said . “ I am myself and everyone else should be their selves as well ,” to the applause of the crowd . “ Because if you try to fit into a box , you ’ re going to find that what you ’ re putting out there ( to clients ) may not be authentic .”
Both Jio and Taylor said there is no hard and fast rule on how , when and what to post on social media , other than being true to oneself and your values . “ We post how we want , and we post what we want and we post when we want ,” Taylor said . “ But at the same time , the more often you post you will get a larger following . We aren ’ t here to tell you to get a large following . We are here to just make your presence noticeable . That ’ s our whole goal .”
As for content , Taylor said she is more of the content creator while Jio works at monetizing that content . “ Record everything . It does not have to be perfect , just point and shoot . The goal is to capture it , capture it , capture it . Don ’ t fret about mistakes – you can make content from those mistakes . Talk about those mistakes and how it makes your training better . The content we post makes us review how we are training dogs , so you aren ’ t just recording for your audience , but also for you .”
Taylor added you don ’ t even have to be in the videos , admitting she has often filmed training her dogs while she ’ s wearing her pajamas . “ If this is a good session , I ’ m going to record this ,” she said . “ I do train my dogs in my grandma pajamas and bonnet , or when I ’ m outside . If you like it , post it .”
She added not to worry about comparing your content with content from other trainers . “ Bring your own spin to it . People have told us they love how we don ’ t edit our videos , so you don ’ t see the mistakes . Our videos showed Jio tripping or falling , or a dog jumping on my face and knocking me down . The whole idea is your voice matters .”
The ZIWI-sponsored closing keynote was Michael Shikashio , a long-time APDT member , a former president of IAABC and the founder of AggressiveDog . com . His presentation touched on the “ pain point ” threshold for trainers , the areas where trainers , whether they are part-time or full-time , are struggling in their businesses , their line of work , or in their lives . Those areas included work / life balance , imposter syndrome , client participation , toxic colleagues , marketing , day-to-day operations , burnout , compassion fatigue , unrealistic expectations ( my dog just killed another dog , but I want him to be able to go back to the dog park and doggie daycare ) and professional relationships ( when trainers are giving out information that is different from the information you are giving ).
Michael explained when he started out , trainers did not tend to share training tips with novices , even as simple as teaching a dog to sit . His first mentor was a military trainer who had Michael practicing correction skills with a leash attached to a fence with a choke chain for the first week . “ That was my exposure at the time because there wasn ’ t a lot of sharing going on . It should be the complete opposite , especially if we want to share the message of positive reinforcementbased training and being kind to dogs . If we have to combat all of the negative stuff online , we have to be sharing .”
To learn more as a novice trainer , besides the traditional methods by his military mentor , Michael joined a Yahoo ! Groups that discussed aggressive dogs . And that ’ s where he met Barbara Brill , a positive reinforcement trainer who would become Michael ’ s next mentor . “ The only reason I listened to her is because she was kind to me ,” Michael said , admitting he wasn ’ t particularly kind himself in those early days of trying to have conversations online . “ She took me under her wing … it really taught me communication is everything .”
The APDT Chronicle of the Dog | Winter 2022 11