A dogbiz University Course
Our business is to help yours succeed
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Our business is to help yours succeed
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A dogbiz University Course
“Your curriculum design class was the missing piece in my education and helped me grow as a teacher. I can’t thank you enough.”
–John Buginas, former SF/SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers instructor, San Francisco, CA
No matter your class program size, whether a couple sessions a week or a full-blown schedule, we’ll show you how to work less for more success—yours and your students.
Two bonus modules about structuring online classes and coaching clients and students online, taken from our Survive & Thrive series
Module 1
Understanding Challenges & Defining Success
We start with a hard look at the challenges of building and maintaining a consistently successful class program—what actually causes these challenges, why commonly taught solutions don’t work, and what we need to do instead…
What’s behind the common struggles to fill classes, keep students coming every week, and get them to come back after puppy and basic? Why is it so hard to get students to use what they learn in class at home? Why don’t the common solutions for working with students and dogs at different levels actually make it easier to teach classes? Why do enrollment and income fluctuate constantly throughout the year?
We answer these questions, then look past common definitions of class success (students having fun and liking their instructor, dogs performing well) to a definition of success that provides a new way to frame real solutions. With this definition in mind, we introduce the four pillars of a thriving class program, and how each contributes to overcoming common class challenges and building the best classes in town—yours.
Module 2
Pillar #1: Choosing the Right Class Structure
If you’re struggling under the weight of endless admin tasks, find yourself running from student to student trying to provide mini-lessons to each during class, often face hard decisions about cancelling or postponing due to under-enrollment, or notice uneven attendance numbers from session to session during the week, chances are structural issues are at play…
Think of class structure as the foundation of your class program, the way your skeleton provides your body structure, or concrete forms a platform to build your home. Get your structure wrong and your entire program sits on shaky ground. This is one area where many programs fail and, like a home foundation, the cracks often go unnoticed for far too long.
We’ll explore the pros and cons of various structures, from regular sequential classes to elaborate levels and modular programs. We’ll look at the common mistakes made in each, how these foundational cracks manifest, and how to avoid or fix them. We’ll show you how to decide what kind of foundation to build your program on (or move it over to), and how to make it as solid as possible.
Module 3
Pillar #2: Offering the Right Classes
Course offerings are almost always a contributing factor in the struggle to fill classes, and in the frustration at not being able to convince students to come back after entry-level classes like puppy and basic manners…
The courses you offer—what you cover in them, what you call them, and how you describe and explain them—are a key element to your program’s success. So in week 3 we look at how to choose and position your courses, whether you’re teaching just a few classes each week or offering a full schedule.
We’ll explore more successful approaches to entry-level puppy and basic manners classes, innovative approaches to retention classes (i.e., anything after basic), best practices for ongoing sports and specialty classes (such as agility, nose work, Rally-o, etc.), and creating outside-the-box offerings tailored to your specific local audiences to differentiate your program, create new sources of revenue, and help even out seasonal peaks and valleys in your income.
Module 4
Pillar #3: Teaching the Right Curriculum
Curriculum (what you teach and how you teach it) is the number one factor determining whether your students stay in class with you, and whether they come back for more classes afterward, regardless of how well they like you or how much they enjoyed your class…
If structure is the skeleton of your program, curriculum is its heart. It’s the heating and electricity that make your house a comfortable home. You can make great structural choices and offer the right courses, but neither of those decisions will matter if your curriculum doesn’t do what it should.
Your curriculum has one central, must-achieve goal: Set students up for success in their lives outside your classroom. If your classes don’t actively change students’ lives with their dogs, your program will suffer.
To achieve this goal curriculum must be properly matched to class structure (forcing old sequential ways of teaching into more modern structures like open enrollment or levels is what creates that headless chicken feel as you run from student to student giving mini-privates in class).
Curriculum must also be designed to teach students the knowledge and skills they need, rather than to teach dogs specific behaviors. It’s commonly said how important it is to teach people rather than dogs, but the vast majority of class curriculum fails to do so. In this session, we show you what curriculum that does so really looks like.
Module 5
Pillar #4: Making the Right Business Decisions
Now that you’ve got your class program envisioned, let’s make sure people know about and sign up for your classes, and attend consistently once they do. Our last pillar is the business of having the best classes in town…
We’ll show you effective marketing approaches for increasing awareness of your classes, how to avoid common class marketing mistakes, how to let people know you’re there, and how to make sure your messaging makes them want to jump in once they do.
We’ll also discuss how to decide what to charge for your classes, including avoiding common misconceptions and mistakes about setting class rates. We want to get your policies just right, too. The right policies—and a simple, effective strategy for enforcing them—will put an end to the extra work and headache caused by missed classes and make-up sessions.
The Secret to Classroom Management
Tired of feeling on the edge of chaos? Stressed by challenging students or situations? In this bonus module you’ll learn the real secret to enjoying a calm classroom with focused students and dogs. (It will likely surprise you.)…
Plus we’ll share a full toolbox of tips for gracefully handling common classroom situations like reactive dogs, unmanaged children, chatty and distracted students, students who don’t engage during practice sessions, and students who challenge your R+ training approach or continue to share or use outdated training ideas during class.
This module aims to give you everything you need to feel fully and confidently in control of your classes, no matter their make-up or what unexpected situations arise.
Online Classes
If you’ve suddenly found yourself under pandemic restrictions that require you to take your class program online, this bonus module can help you sort through structuring challenges, course offerings and best business practices for online classes.
Coaching Clients & Students Online
Online learning is changing the way we coach clients. In this bonus module, we review instructional strategies for effective online teaching, and discuss how to assess our students’ progress along the way.
Five modules. Four pillars. Three bonus lessons. Training success for your students and their dogs.
Ready to make yours the best classes in town?
This course is available on demand. Take at your own pace, on your own schedule. Students have one year to complete this six hour course.
Class only
$245
Class + Curriculum
$745 ($100 savings)
Best Classes in Town class + one curriculum package of your choice (Puppy, Basic, or Topics)
Includes:
Faculty
Founder and THRIVE! Coach
Course runs approximately six hours.
Listen to pre-recorded lessons at your own speed.
Lessons run from 10-30 minutes.
“This course is seriously impactful. Every now and then I learn something that makes a huge change in what I do and I definitely think this is going to be another one for me. This is game changing.”
Nick Benger
Amazon TV’s “The Pack” & host of the Dog Talk Podcast
We serve and support all R+ or force-free trainers—trainers of all races, colors, national origins, sex, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. In short, if you’re 100% committed to force-free training, we’re 100% committed to you.
Business Coaching
1-on-1 consulting
THRIVE! group coaching
Biz & Training Toolkits
Business Toolkit for Trainers
Homework Toolkit
B-Mod Toolkit
Curriculum Packages
Open Enrollment Puppy
Puppy Passports
Open Enrollment Basic
Topics Classes
Marketing Tools
Newsletter marketing service
Marketing Toolkit
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We cannot make guarantees regarding specific earning or income results for your business. Any testimonials or case studies including specific numbers are accurate for the dog professionals referenced and should not be construed as a results guarantee for others.