The APDT Community has a specific discussion thread about finding roommates for the APDT Conference. Having a roommate makes the trip and stay more affordable and fun! Roommates allow you to network efficiently by meeting friends of friends as you experience the conference together. Log on to the APDT Community to connect with several attendees that are currently searching for roomies!
Planning Your Conference Schedule
The APDT Conference is jam packed with a variety of speakers all four days. Unfortunately, you will have to pick and choose which speakers you’ll want to go see since many speak at the same time. Take a look at the Agenda for an idea of who is speaking when. This year, some of the speakers you’ll get to choose from are:
Patricia McConnell
Ray Coppinger
Christopher Pachel
Ian Dunbar
Sue Sternberg
Robin Bennett
Gail Fisher
Rise VanFleet
And so many more!
There is so much learning to be had and the possibilities are endless! You may want to plan ahead or you can meet some friends and tag along with their plans. After all, networking is one of the greatest benefits of attending any kind of professional conference.
Planning Your Meals
There are several quality restaurants located near the Conference. Here are the best rated restaurants within walking distance from the conference center:
Anytime you go to a new city, even if it is work related, it is important to check out some of the unique and entertaining features that you can discover. In Hartford, there are a few “must see” attractions you might want to slip away to while you’re in town.
Bushnell Park – 37 acre garden near the state’s capitol.
Have you created a plan for your trip to the APDT conference this year? Which seminars or workshops do you consider “must see” events? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Using email newsletters is currently the best way to reach existing and potential clients. Email newsletters let you continue to provide value to your existing clients. They also help you reach out to potential clients who want to know more about you are and what you do. Receiving client’s emails through an email newsletter service, like MailChimp, gives you legal permission to contact them in the future to raise awareness about services you could offer them.
This step-by-step guide to getting your free MailChimp email newsletter account set up will get you started.
Create an Account
Click their red “Sign Up Now” button in the top right corner of the window. Use your business’ email address and a creative password to create your account.
Don’t forget to verify your email before moving forward.
Confirm You Are Human
Once you click the blue “activate account”button in your email, you’ll need to confirm that you are indeed a human by completing the phrase from the reCAPTCHA.
Set Up Your Profile
Next it will take you to the “set up your profile” page. Complete this page as completely as possible. Make sure to put in your real name, website address, and a physical mailing address (legally required).
Set Up a Email List
Next you’ll want to create a sign up form so that people can submit their emails to sign up on your website. Select “Create a List” in the botton row.
Give your list a name (like “The Modern Dog Trainer Main List”), a default “from email,” and a default “from name” that people will recognize.
Once your list is created, select the “create a sign up form” option:
Select the “Embedded Forms” option to create a form you can put on any website.
Creating Your Sign Up Form
Set your sign up form title. Something like “Subscribe to Our Newsletter!” works just fine. Experienced email marketers usually offer a free PDF ebook with simple and fun information in exchange for an email address, but this isn’t always necessary.
Here we recommend only asking for the basic necessities like your reader’s first and last name and email address. The easier it is for them to sign up, the more likely they will be to register. Some sites only ask for email addresses, but it may be to your advantage to recognize clients as they sign up for services.
Set the form width to something between 200 and 300 pixels. Then copy and paste the form onto your website’s sidebar.
Content For Your Newsletter
Once people sign up through the form, people will be expecting contact from you pretty quickly. If you wait too long before sending the first email, they may forget they even signed up for your newsletter in the first place. Make sure that your first contact with your new follower includes information that they will find useful and valuable. For example, you can think about what the most behavior issues you encounter are and provide quick and easy tips to help with management and prevention.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial about how to set up an email newsletter using MailChimp! Don’t forget to share this valuable information with your friends.
One of the most difficult of starting your own dog training business is understanding what marketing efforts are worth your time. I say, email marketing is critical for long-term success. Unlike social media, once you collect a list of emails – they’re yours! If social media were to disappear tomorrow, you’d still have the ability to contact your future and current customers.
Think about this, if you’re not ready to purchase a service or product from someone’s website, but you like their blog or their mission, you’re likely to sign up for their email newsletter. Same goes for your future local dog training clients! Setting up an email marketing list is key! This way, by landing in their inbox once a month, you’ll stay top-of-mind for whenever they are ready to hire a dog trainer. You’ll also be able to demonstrate your expertise and share your success stories!
Here are the most important parts to an engaging email newsletter that will keep your clients coming back.
Intriguing Subject Line
It doesn’t matter if you have amazing information in your email if no one opens it. The subject line is probably the most critical part of successful email marketing. Think about all the emails you go through in one day. How many do you quickly delete without openning them?Your clients are in the same predicament. Make sure the subject line of your email is interesting and just vague enough to create curiosity about what they might find inside. Recommended reading: The 6 Step Secret Sauce for Awesome Email Subject Lines
Use Action Words
When you write an intriguing article, people are often left with a desire to do something about what they’ve learned. They either want to try out what they learned or learn more about it. Use action words such as “take,” “download,” “reserve,” “ask,” and “buy” to give your readers something to do once they’ve learned something new.
Get Personal
Studies by eMarketer show that being specific and providing information related to reader’s lives helps with engagement and customer acquisition. MailChimp allows you to create multiple lists in order to funnel readers into a list that suits their lifestyle. Take advantage of this feature! Actively ask your readers questions to learn more about their situation and let them volunteer for email lists that might be more beneficial to them.
Talk to the Reader
Don’t get stuck talking about yourself or your business. Email marketing is all about providing valuable and actionable content to your readers so that they begin to see you as an authority figure and call you when they’re ready to use your services. Talking in the second person helps them relate. Who likes reading an email that is only promoting products or services? No one, and that’s called spam.
Keep It Short and Sweet
People are extremly busy and have short attention spans. Give them information they need briefly and effectively. They will thank you for it! Make the benefit of reading the email one of the first things they see so they are encouraged to keep reading. Keep your newsletter short and sweet by staying under 400 words.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed these tips on creating a great email newsletter. Email marketing is the best way to connect with your clients. It allows you to communicate information to someone who has already shown they are looking for your services. You can’t beat that kind of targeted marketing!
“Place” is a behavior in which the dog goes to lie down on a mat and remains there until released. Here are the three best ways to teach your client’s dogs how to go to their place using modern dog training techniques. There are 6 different ways you can get a dog to do a behavior: luring, shaping, capturing, targeting, modeling, and prompting. Modern dog training should utilize only the most non-physical and non-forceful method possible. Here, we’ll discuss how to lure and shape the “place” behavior.
Luring Place
In this video by K9-1, they demonstrate how to use a food lure to teach a dog to go to their mat or “place.” This is probably the simplest way to train “place” since it requires no guessing from the dog. The dog simply follows the treat to the desired location and recieves the treat when they are correctly placed. Fading the lure can be difficult which is why it should be done after the first few repetitions. Using the lure treat too long can create a dog that only works for a visible treat.
Shaping Place
This method requires a basic knowledge of clicker training. The clicker is activated when the dog does the correct behavior and recieves a treat. Timing with the clicker can make or break this training method which can make it difficult for clients to pick up quickly. However, if you have a clicker-savvy client, this method can create a very solid and accurate behavior in the dog.
This video by Kikopup shows how to shape the “place” behavior and also provides great ways to utilize this skill for other obedience behaviors once it is aquired.
This video of the shaping method by the Pam’s Dog Academy demonstrates how quickly dogs can learn to repeat behaviors in order to make the clicker and treats happen. The clicker has been proven to work more accurately and effectively than a verbal marker, but it can be difficult to juggle for new clients.
There isn’t a “one size fits all” method for training dogs. Each dog and owner will have specific requirements and different paces of aquiring new behaviors. Both of these methods are quick, easy, and fun for all dogs. Using treats in training builds the bond between owner and dog because as the dog is learning new behaviors, they are making positive associations with their owner, enviornment, and the mat. The mat will soon be the most fun and exciting place to be for the dog.
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