Recently, author of "The Loved Dog", Tamar Geller was featured on Oprah. Tamar Geller advocates a positive, hands-off approach to dog training using rewards rather than punishment to show the dog what is expected.
Geller has an enormous reach into the homes of the American public through shows and publications such as Oprah, 20/20, USA Today and The New York Times Magazine. She prefers to describe herself a "life coach for dogs and their owners" - and these owners include Oprah Winfrey, Ben Affleck, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Nicolette Sheridan, Owen Wilson, Brad Paisley, Tori Spelling and the Osbourne family, among others.
Although not a clicker trainer, Geller is a positive, hands-off trainer and is excellent at communicating and justifying this philosophy to her audience. Pairing a glamorous "life coach for dogs and their [often celebrity] owners" with the queen of daytime television, Oprah Winfrey, herself an engaging presenter with an enormous following from a dedicated audience that measures into the tens of millions - is a match made in public-relations heaven for other positive, hands-off "life coaches for dogs and their owners".
Thousands of people will be discovering the joys and advantages of a positive, hands-off approach to dog training - and apart from reading "The Loved Dog", where will they find it in their town?
Now is the time to enter the conversation already going on inside your potential customer's mind, and share in the success of Tamar Geller. What is your ideal customer looking for? How can you position yourself as "that person" in your area?
You don't need to be a glamorous ex-military intelligence officer with an Israeli accent, but you do need to let your potential customers know that you also take a loving, positive, hands-off approach to dog training and behavior - which is what most of them will be looking for.
It's always been a great time to be a clicker trainer, but now the rest of America is just that little bit more interested in what you do and that little bit more aware that a dog can be trained without being punished or forced into 'submission'.
It's a small piece of the marketing puzzle, but an important piece and it has just fallen into place.
Momentum
Tamar Geller is the anti Dog-Whisperer.
She's female.
She's gentle.
She's patient and personable.
AND she's not into the dominance mindset.
Even though her book isn't "clicker," per se, I've been promoting her book (and her alliance with Oprah, as that seems to really give her credibility in the eyes of my clients), and encouraging people to buy her book.
The more people out there who believe that gentle dog training is not only possible, but *preferable*, the better it will be for the dog -- and for those of us who believe in gentle, hands-off training.
This is an excellent rung on which to hang some of our own marketing. And to help keep the momentim going on the positive training approach.
Laurie Luck, CPDT
Certified Pet Dog Trainer
Smart Dog University
http://smartdoguniversity.com
Where will they find it -- the library
One place they'll find the book is the public library. :-)
Also, I find it a little ironic that Oprah has promoted both Cesar Millan and this guy.