03/10/2023
A good read for those interested in vending dogs and the reality of it. Wiki is a close friend and has been a mentor of mine for some time now (whether he knows it or not). So this is not a decision made lightly.
Iâll admit here the business acumen of some agencies, Army in particular, is terrible. I approached them with Viper and got a bu****it response back. However, the Armyâs poor choice was a blessing because heâs gone to a better agency, doing real work with handlers who are so transparent with me about future dogs.
With vending behind him, I encourage anyone to jump on board one of his tracking courses in the future!
My time as a K9 vendor is over.
On paper it may appear as a blip on the radar, a handful of dogs over five years, but in reality for me it has been a passion that has consumed me the entire time.
The whole journey has its roots back on 2015; or in my childhood if you want to go back further with my relationship with dogs. But, I started selling dogs with Dirk in 2019, as my forever dog Charlie was carrying too many injuries and it wasn't good for his health to keep on training as hard as we had for the preceeding 3 years.
Dirk was a slam dunk; I made a lot of mistakes but with the help of a great community of dog trainers around me in Canberra, he went to the Australian Army at just 11 months of age - and has been crushing it ever since. He was sold for $17k but should have gone for $20k in hindsight.
Next came Errol. He showed promise in many areas, but lacked aggression and his grips were poor. At six months of age I moved him on to a wildlife conservation role where he has done a lot of good, and enjoys a lifestyle more adventurous than most of us reading would experience. I sold him for just $3k, recouping my expenses, but not my loss of time.
Frank. He came to me a bit over a year old and had a significant amount of issues to overcome. He was sold to the Army but failed the basic handler course. A contributing factor was the use of the choke chain which he hadn't been trained on. He was subsequently returned and with the help of Luca Campanella we sold him to the Western Australia Police where he has been in service ever since as an operational dual purpose dog. He was sold to the Army for $20k, which I had to refund. He finally sold to WAPOL for $8k, with an extra six months of training on top of what he had for the Army. An absolute steal for so much time invested.
Gaston and Hans. These two were meant to be a big pay day for my family; I invested heavily in their training and development (an understatement, as anyone who knows me would attest). I sacrificed so much time with my daughter to try snd bring in money to support my family. But selling them has not worked out.
I own that I made some errors; I went through with an assessment when one of the dogs was still sick, and should have invested less time in the dogs and sold them for a lower price. I was also naive and learnt many lessons the hardest way possible, losing tens of thousands of dollars in the process. I wasted time bending over backwards to be transparent with government agencies by sending videos of the dogs working; hours of footage (go look at my YouTube channel to see). I also provided comprehensive documents that no one else in the industry provides.
The business acumen of some agencies is worth mentioning; some respond with a short email or text that effectively says "we're full" and little else. Others are great to deal with and were a highlight on this otherwise stressful journey.
Frustratingly, assessments vary not just between agencies, but vendors sometimes get treated differently too. Some get a brief in location assessment with no subsequent refund available (at top dollar) versus others who go for a long assessment at the vendors risk (Frank is a great example).
So what of Hans and Gaston? Hans is going to South Africa soon to protect Rhinos; a job more important than anything he could get here in Australia. As for Gaston, he is still up for sale, but I am no longer actively investing my energy in reaching out to agencies. If a goverment agency wants him - great, otherwise my daughter has her first dog to grow up with.
The journey has landed me in a great place; My passion and hard work these last five years now means I manage the largest working dog capability in Australia. I also conduct GAK9 workshops (which I love) both domestically and internationally delivering tracking training to police and civilians.
