Lauren Langman: 0:09

Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sexier than a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers, and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. Oh, my goodness, sexier than a squirrel brings Pro Dog Trainer Club to life today with you. Sam, sam, Pro Dog Trainer Club. Why are you involved? What is it about as a dog owner? So let's discuss. As a dog owner, what do you get out of being part of something like Pro Dog Trainer Club?

Sam Askew: 0:50

First of all, you get Games Club right. So I think the first thing, I think the first absolute first thing that you get is you get Games Club. So you get this huge like vat of content and games to play with your dog that are going to help whatever struggle it is that you've got. So for me, that is absolutely number one, because that's actually where I started you know was was games club. That's what I loved about it, and PDT club is really taking it up to that like next level, that next like notch of understanding of your dog's behavior. So I think the next level for me is that it's that push into not only kind of growing your dog and your dog knowledge, but your self as well. It's a bit of an investment in yourself. So that's what I really.

Sam Askew: 1:33

For me, that was the, the big kind of thumbs up to go in it for me. And again, more content, right. So I just can't. I just wanted more. I just wanted to know more stuff and learn more about my dog and how to help them. So, yeah, really massive, massive fan, very, very cool space to be in.

Lauren Langman: 1:51

I know that lots of people here are involved in games club, but I also know there's people that won't be involved in games club. When we think about games club and I think about just owning a dog and I would go along to my weekly dog training class and weekly I would get a new idea, or weekly I would get a new game, or weekly I'd get something to train, if I was lucky. Why is something online? Uh, possibly a good way forward, because I actually think for naughty but nice way dogs, it's almost better to do it online. However, I do feel that for some people, they feel the need to put their dog in the situation, but I really like online and looking at games club and looking at PDT club, particularly for naughty but nice dogs or our little terriers like your dogs, or people that work shift and difficult patterns like I think it can be a real advantage to being online. What do you think?

Sam Askew: 2:39

Yeah, it's, it's the accessibility, right.

Sam Askew: 2:41

So I think about um way back when, when I used to go to dog classes before I found Absolute Dogs, and it was once a week, it's for an hour. You're trying to cram as much training as you can into that moment, that one hour space, and then you kind of forget about it for the rest of the week. Right, and you're trying to keep up with it. You're trying to do it on your walks and you're trying to get your dog to of um, behave in the way that you would like them to behave and make better choices. But actually it's one hour a week, so you've got nobody else to talk to for that whole week. You've got no other um, no other ideas, no other games, nothing else to to play, no other training, except for whatever you got in that hour, whereas having it all online and having it as games club or pdt club, it means that you've got access to that whenever you know. You could be I don't know sitting on the toilet in the morning, you know, having a good look at Games Club rather than reading your magazine, right? Or you could be having your eat your bits and you could be looking at it. You could be eating your tea, you could be having a look at the next game to play and you're talking like a three-minute game. So know it's not taking up a load of your time you're not having. No, I don't know about you, but nowadays a time just disappears. So trying to find the time to to fit an hour slot which is not going to change either, it's got to be the same time each week is a pain, you know. So being able to actually just work this around my own schedule is is is beyond helpful, you know, and it means actually that I get more out of it because I can. You end up finding that you put more than an hour a week into it because you're one, you're enjoying it so much anyway, but also actually because it's so accessible and you can fit it into whatever part of the day that you need to fit it into. You know you may be watching three videos a day. Maybe you're watching one video a day. Maybe you're watching one video a day. Maybe you're watching six videos a day. You know it's gonna mount up throughout the week and you're getting a lot more out of it. You get so much more value out of it.

Sam Askew: 4:32

You know, that's kind of that's the big thing, I think as well like taking your dog to that class if you've got a naughty but nice dog and I've got, I've got two naughty but nice dogs um, one of them was the reason that I got into Games Club and got into Absolute Dogs and the second one definitely kind of took that up a notch and was probably the reason I got into PDT Club. But when I look at taking them to those classes, it's so incredibly overwhelming, you know, and not just for them but for me as well, you know, because it was so much content, so much in that one crammed hour. My dog's going nuts, you know, she's been really stressed out by. It's not an enjoyable experience for either of us. Um, and it's kind of like it's a bit like a sink or swim moment.

Sam Askew: 5:11

You know, you kind of just chuckle him in the deep end when actually probably what would have benefited us at the time would have been to take that step back and do things from a distance or, um, gradually, doing it like slowly, little by little. But you have, you don't have any control over that in a class, you know, you just you're lumped in into this class full of dogs and full of people and you've got a dog that's scared of people and you're scared of dogs. Then you've got this mayhem situation, whereas um having like games club and pdt means you can do it at your own pace. You can do it where you want, when you want, how you want. You've got complete control over it and I think anybody that's owned a naughty but nice dog knows exactly how that feels. This is absolutely the place for you, 100%.

Lauren Langman: 5:50

I couldn't stop you. You were like on a roll.

Sam Askew: 5:52

You were like me, I know I was like you loved it. I know the answers to these questions. I know the answers.

Lauren Langman: 5:58

I loved it and I really believe that, sam, that it's funny. I can't imagine putting a baby pup, who's new to the world of dogs, into that class situation straight away. Now I just think there's so much that you can do at home in a comfortable environment. I also think sometimes it's miserable. It's can do at home in a comfortable environment. I also think sometimes it's miserable. It's wet, it's disgusting. Do I even want to go out, like I do live in Devon, and do I even want to go out tonight? Or, oh, my goodness, there's so many things to fit in between Eliza and her ponies and all the other things. Like, can I even fit it in? And I think that's a really interesting consideration, isn't it? I haven't thought of it quite like all of the things that you described in one go there, they were great. There were so many. I really like that. There's a lot to think about.

Lauren Langman: 6:39

And then the other thing I would say and I think this is one that's worth considering is you don't put your dog in a situation where it's very volatile, in the sense that you actually don't know how the dogs are going to behave to your dog. So fair enough, you get everything right, or fair enough, you're struggling, but how about if someone else struggles and lets go of a very difficult dog and it comes in and nails your dog? And that does happen in training classes. It does happen that there's a dog dog attack. Or it does happen that a handler isn't so kind to a dog, or I remember in one of my first classes where I was taking my young dog, a trainer grabbed them from under the chair and dragged them out and my dog was really scared by that and that was my first experience of dog training classes. And you go into the situation where there is a so-called expert, but often in the community village halls and the local dog training clubs these are not experts. These are people who are fans of dogs or have learned a bit of dog training and actually how well qualified they are, I don't know and I would say that are they games-based learners? Are they positive reinforcement space? Are they the best trainer for your dog? I can't tell you. But what I can tell you is when you're in a games club situation or a pro dog trainer club situation, which I have to say, it's like really crazy prices. Go over and check out absolute-dogscom and like really really minimal prices like less than a cup of Costa a day, like it really is. I mean, in fact it's much less than that. It's like you're talking, like for some of these, like a pound a day. It's really minimal and for that you're getting like top end knowledge. But also you can dip in and out of it. You don't have to take it or you can go. That's not for me or that is for me Like it's mega, it's massive. And those people who want more community I know that one of the things that I always love having and love having around me is community. Like I love having that, that feeling of good community, and I hugely feel empowered and in love with the amazing community that supports Absolute Dogs and that's something.

Lauren Langman: 8:29

If you want to be part of it's there and if you don't, you don't even join.

Lauren Langman: 8:33

Like you just join the dog training part but you don't add the social part of it's there. And if you don't, you don't even join. Like you just join the dog training part but you don't add the um social part of it in, and I love that that you don't have to have it and no one would know either way. So if you just wanted to do the dog training, then you just log into the to the website. If you want to do some of the social, then you join the community space, but you don't have to do it. So I like that. It has the, the optional element, and no one's going to judge you either way, because it's a really non-judgy space. In fact it's the least judgy space I've ever seen in dog training, to the point I never feel judged. I can get on there in my pajamas, I can get on there um which happens, which happens often, which happens very often, never, ever any makeup, never, ever, sometimes not even brushing my hair.

Lauren Langman: 9:11

I mean, I just get on space. I love the people. The people love the dogs. People love the dog training. I'm thinking also power hours, sam, I don't know, if you want to talk through a power hour, how that might help someone who is wanting some input with a dog, because I love having you on power hours and I can't wait to see on the next power hour. The next power hour, um is, it's all scheduled, it's all out there for you. So do check it out and, sam, what do we do on power hours? Because I'd love more of the people that listen to sex in the squirrel.

Sam Askew: 9:37

Come and join us on a power out, because it's pretty magic experience this is probably, I'd say maybe, one of the questions that people would have about um. Having this online content, you know, is well, you know, we need that in person, we need to know um, we need to be able to have that, that input from the trainer, and we need to be able to see, maybe learning from other people train their dogs. Well, this is kind of what the Power Hour gives, I feel. So it's essentially live training. You know, live in-person training on Zoom with lots of other people that are in the same boat as you, and you have your Zoom on, or you don't have to have your Zoom on, you can just watch if you want and join in in that way. But essentially, um, you get to watch lauren or maybe one of the team give you games, give you input, and then you'll have and you're you're volunteering toward it you might have um input personally to you on zoom for your dog and your training.

Sam Askew: 10:39

So it's one of those. It's basically. It's basically a training class. You know, like, when we're talking about going to a training class, it's basically a training class. It's just online, you know so, and you're getting that live input and you're able to ask live questions, and then you can go away to practice that and you're practicing it in the, in the session, but then on the back of that you've also then got all of the online content to support that as well. So there's so much more than just the power hours, but that's your in-person training, essentially per week If you, if you feel that you need that fixed, but it's in more control.

Sam Askew: 11:11

You know, like we were talking about, you're not going into a session where you've got a dog that might run in on your session or you've got a trainer that you know maybe is a little bit rougher than you'd like, right? So, and you talk in situations like that that potentially cause a dog to become reactive, you know a dog that might actually have no issues with dogs whatsoever and then gets leapt on, you know, or hurt or anything like that. You know those single events sometimes can cause that, right. So having the power hours, it gives you it's more of that control again for me. You know of being able to control that situation how you need it to be. You could do it outside if you wanted to, by all means, um, you could do it in your house, you do it in your living room, you could do it in your pajamas.

Sam Askew: 11:50

You know, I think it's. It's that community all coming together. You know all of those like-minded people that are in the same space as you, are potentially even having the same headaches and stresses as you and the. You know the potential sometimes feeling embarrassed by your dog and having a really reactive dog and feeling, um, you know, isolated and alone. It's all of you coming together to have a training session, to call it's really cool, very, very cool.

Lauren Langman: 12:14

I love most of all we're doing those. How much I can learn just from coaching one person and then sharing that one person's learning. But we never, ever coach one person. We'll always coach three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine um you can coach, live in one of those, sam. How does it feel to be coached live?

Sam Askew: 12:31

um, I'm not gonna lie it. Sometimes it is like you know, your heart starts going like I'm not. I'm not gonna lie on the camera at all. It is sometimes really nerve-wracking because suddenly, even as a trainer, um, being in front of so many people on a zoom, it can be nerve-wracking. So those people that do put themselves out there are massively brave to put themselves in such a vulnerable place. But I think that's the thing about our community again is that I, although it's nerve-wracking, I feel safe. You know, I feel I feel safe in that space and that's because I know that, again, there is no judgment there.

Sam Askew: 13:01

You know, everybody, um is just rooting for you and so in terms of the community, it's incredible. And then just getting that live coaching is is incredible as well. You know, it's like those tiny little tidbits that sometimes you don't realize you're doing and having someone looking on you, it can be really, really like insightful. There's definitely been some like massive light bulb moments that I've gone, oh my God. And then I've tweaked my training just that tiny little bit and it's just like tenfold. You know, it's really cool to my training just that tiny little bit and it's uh, it's just like tenfold.

Lauren Langman: 13:31

You know, it's really cool, it's very special, I love it. I love it. And then if we think about something like just the sheer, like library, of what we can do, and I'm thinking playlists, so you can actually create your own playlist I know you're quite geeky at this like there is a library that you wouldn't even like, realize it's big, and then the playlist that you start to put together how does that work, sam?

Sam Askew: 13:53

oh, so there is. There is a huge amount of content, okay, um, I mean, you're talking in the thousands I think we're in now right thousands of games, and that's just games club. That's not even. We're not even talking about pdt club right now. That that's content on top of content.

Sam Askew: 14:06

Um, you can essentially hand pick. So, let's say, let's say you had a struggle, um, like my dog uh barks. Okay, you could maybe um choose any games that are relating to that struggle particularly and there's ways to search for that as well and you could compile those into basically a playlist, a bit like you would do on um, any of your sort of like music playlist player things. You could just gather all of that into one place so that you can dip into it whenever you want. So maybe you haven't got time to look at all those videos straight away, but you don't want to lose them. You want to have them all in one place. That's basically what you can do.

Sam Askew: 14:43

Now. I really like I do get geeky about it, I do get a little bit obsessed sometimes with it. I really like um doing like little uh, or like little trends, like all of the, say, toy switch games or all of the um, disengagement games, or I like to bring the concepts together. That's, that's my jam and I quite like messing around with them and mixing them together. Uh, but I mean, that's just me having a mess around. Sometimes that's not even just for the dog training, that's because I'm having fun. Dj.

Lauren Langman: 15:09

Sam mixing it up, messing around.

Sam Askew: 15:14

It's fun. It's with the headphones as well. Right, I look like a DJ, yeah.

Lauren Langman: 15:20

I love it, I love it and I love that that's what you enjoy doing and I love that you've really, like, added that next level of like spice to something really fun. So you've actually taken it up to like a mixing level, like beautiful, beautiful stuff. So, sam, if there was someone who currently has got games club and maybe isn't using it enough, or pro dog trainer club and isn't using enough because I know that we're all in that position, we all have busy, busy days and busy, busy lives what's the one thing that you would suggest they do if they did nothing else? Let's say they've got pdt club. What's the one thing you would suggest they do if they did nothing else? As if they did nothing?

Sam Askew: 15:53

else, as in like what would you choose to look at?

Lauren Langman: 15:55

yes, I'm gonna take. I'm gonna take the one that you'll probably want to say, but I'm gonna. If you have pro dog trainer club and you have no time at the moment, but the one thing you do is put the next power hour in your diary, because I know that you'll get so much from it, like it's worth your membership alone. It's worth your membership alone because the power out is so, so, so, out of this world for dog training and for dog trainers and for dog owners and for dogs. But if there was one thing that you were to suggest that these guys do if they've got their membership already, like what could they be using or doing, or what little thing they could do? Because you know what it's like. You've got everyone's busy, busy, busy and you sometimes find it hard to fit everything in. What could someone do? Um, if they were already a man, what should they do?

Sam Askew: 16:36

I would make a playlist. You know, we were just talking about it. I think, um, make a playlist, not for your struggle, but make a playlist for you, make a list that you want to do for fun with your dog. That's what I would do, because I think sometimes and definitely I've been, you know, uh, subject to this as well, um, not subject to this, like kind of like guilty of this, I guess uh is we get so bogged down with with the problem, right, um, and we're trying to find that solution and we want to be solution seeking and solution minded.

Sam Askew: 17:07

Sometimes we just forget to have fun though as well. You know, and, like I think about why, why I got dogs, and it was to have fun with them and to like love them and to have cuddles and go for walks. And you know, sometimes the picture of that looks a little bit different because of the journey that they've taken them down, maybe with their behavior struggles. But if we think about what we have got control over and one of the things we have got if we're already a member of games club we're already a member of pdt club is that we can have loads of fun with the games and loads of fun with the training. So get yourself on the playlist and just pick games that you want to do for fun for you and your dog easy mega, mega win.

Lauren Langman: 17:43

Now, guys, I want to take this moment to give you a personal invite into Pro Dog Trainer Club, if you are not already, because after the 1st of March, pdt Club goes up in price by a big amount, not a little amount, it's significant. And right now you can join Pro Dog Trainer Club for a yearly amount of £6.50 and you can actually save £150 if you put in the club code, which is PDT Club, all In, if you put in the club code, which is PDT club, all in, pdt club, all in. So you're going to join absolute-dogscom, go and find Pro Dog Trainer Club and with the code PDT club, all in, you can save yourself £150. It makes it just £500 for a whole year and that is mega. I mean, it's insane value and it's before the 1st of March. If it's after the 1st of March, it's going up significantly. And when I say significantly, it's over doubling its cost. Why? Because of the amount of content there, the amount of lessons there, the amount of learning there. It's big, it's mega, it's huge. And this is my personal invite for you If you want to join from Games Club, email the Ask team, that's, ask at absolute-dogscom.

Lauren Langman: 18:49

And if you are not already a member? Please, please, please, please, please. Now is the time. You're a listener of Sex in the Squirrel. You're one of our community. We want you involved. If you don't like it, we'll give you your money back. You know what the big thing is, so get a hold of us. There's a money back guarantee. We want you to join while it's at rock bottom price, before we skyrocket it, which is because of the insane value in there.

Lauren Langman: 19:11

So my personal invite absolute-dogscom PDT Club you're looking for. Join us, join us, join us. The value's insane and it's just 500 pounds for the whole year with that voucher code. It's a special voucher code and if you want to touch base with the Ask team, they will help you. Now, sam, it's been an incredible ride. I know we've got a PDT Club Power Hour coming up. I know we've got a Knowledge Network coming up. I would like to take this moment to personally invite you to be there, if you can, but also I absolutely want you to make sure that you take a moment to invite everyone that's listening personally as well.

Sam Askew: 19:48

Invite them, sam, make sure they know about it. Get on. The next power hour we've got mousetrap mechanics mystery mastery, wednesday, the 5th of february, from 11 15 to 12 15 gmt, and I've done the mousetrap kind of one that's been similar before and I tell you it's going to blow your mind. It is one of those. That was one of those light bulb moments I was talking about earlier. It absolutely blew my mind. So get yourself on it. I definitely will be there, 100%. Maybe sneakily at work, who knows? But I would definitely be there. Be there too, enjoy.

Lauren Langman: 20:20

And, most of all, guys, everybody that's listening. Please, please, please, please, please, do take these moments to do it for your dog. Do it for your dog. They love you, you love them, and if we didn't have them, we know the world would not be the brilliant place that it is. So that was this episode of the Sex and His Girl podcast. I'd like you to join us for the next episode and, in the meantime, get all in with PDT Club.