Dog Training Business - Starting in Malaysia
Sunday, March 8, 2015 9:04 PM , 0 comments
Labels: animal lover , Canine , Inhome boarding , malaysia , Woof Gang dog training
After a long hard decision and thinking, I decided to quit my full time job in May 2014 and to run my business which I have long waited for it.
To train dogs, rehabilitate them (Just like in SPCA), boarding cats only (I miss having felines at home). Since I came from a graphic design background, I managed to create my own logo, after brainstorming like mad and having multiple migraines along the way. The final logo and name of my business is 'Woof Gang dog training". Now I didn't put 'Malaysia' because I want it to become an international business eventually.
So, I got my logo sorted out and then I realized, after 3 years of not working with animals, I needed to brush up my skills. My previous trainer was an Australian and taught me in handling dogs during the 1 month period (Weekends only). I searched online for trainers who train people to become trainers and to be certified (eventually). I found this guy who was in Sungai Buloh. Looking at his website and all, it looked convincing enough and it said he is certified (Not that it's important). So I met up with him and all and little did I know that I was about to be scammed and would have wasted my 3k (Saved it for business. You will know the reason why I gave 3k) by learning absolutely nothing and to find out he was a conman. See the details below:
1.
RVSP with Mr Dave Teoh at
Starbucks on the 24th September 2014 at
1.12pm
2.
Agreement made verbally: we
agreed on a one month course as a dog trainer for 10k instead of the normal
price of 20k –discount given to me because I was not working. I was supposed to
give him a deposit of 3k – which I did. After one month of training I was
guaranteed an official certificate, supposedly recognized internationally, even
if the training was unfinished at that time. He was also supposed to hire me
after one month. As far as the salary was concerned, I was supposed to be paid
according to the number of dogs to be trained -2k per dog. He said he charged
clients 2.700RM per dog that could even go as high as 10.000RM for dogs
which are aggressive or difficult to handle. I told him I had some experience
from Thailand as when I lived there I learned wt, the Australian dog trainer
who trained my German Shepherd. He knew I also had knowledge about choke
chains, prong collars & other dog training equipment. He was very pleased
and said he wanted people who had some knowledge and some experience like me.
3.
After reflection I tried again
to convince Dave to hire me first and train me at the same time. He refused and told me I needed to train
first before I got hired. He claimed it
was the company’s policy.
4.
I then decided to take his
course with 3k deposit. I corresponded with Dave by email as well as with the
sales department.
5.
We agreed for me to start on
the 1st of October 2014.
6.
26th September 2014 - Made the
3k Transfer (Refer to the email - salesperson)
7.
29th September 2014 - Payment
transferred - Only then the salesperson informed me that the money was not
refundable (This was not mentioned at all previously)
8.
Wednesday 1st October 2014 at
4.30pm - Started my first course. Dave
said there will be a test just to know how good is my knowledge about training
dogs. After the test, he said I had
scored very low. He asked me to
demonstrate everything I knew about training.
Everything I did was wrong, according to him. He wouldn't stop saying ‘And you were trained by an Australian?
People will laugh at you. People
will think you are stupid.’ Stamina
exercise was done and learning commands in German. He issued me wt. 2 receipts
to prove I had made a deposit of 3k and there was a remainder balance of
7k. There was a mistake on the first
receipt. The second one had more details. We talked about Franchising the business
but I wasn't prepared for that just yet. He still wrote it down on the receipt.
9.
Thursday 2nd October 2014 at
3.30pm - Went to a customer’s house at Maluri Cheras. My first hands-on with a dog. Dave informed me this dog was a Great
Dane. I told Dave that I had never
handled a Great Dane before. He said ‘I
want to see how you handle this big dog.
If he pulls you, you have to balance and make sure you don’t let go of
the leash because if he runs, then you have lost a client's dog.’ I have told Dave that I was not prepared to
handle such drastic measure but he insisted.
So I handled the dog first in the house then outside –the dog was
extremely difficult to handle. Dave just
only watched me struggle and no instruction was given. Instead he found it quite funny but thank
goodness I had strong arms. His girlfriend,
who was present, was fascinated that I was actually able to manage and hold on
to the leash. After the session, the
girlfriend told me she was surprised how well I handled the dog -much better
than other students. I told her I have
handled German shepherds, Saint Bernards and I can carry 20kg of dog food. I told her I pretty much have strong arms to
be able to handle anything.
10.
Friday Saturday Sunday - Dave
was off to Langkawi.
11. 16th October 2014 (17th &18th the follow up conversation)- This is when he started to lose his temper
and asked me questions based on what I had learned. I answered him too slowly, according to him
and he kept saying that I would not become a good dog trainer if I was not fast
enough to answer. He asked me all sorts of
questions about dog breeds and their characteristics. When I didn’t know an
answer he kept saying ‘You are
stupid. Some simple thing to learn and
you can’t remember? How you want to become a dog trainer if you cannot remember
things like this? How you expect me to hire you if you cannot remember? I expect by the end of the month you pay me
back that 7k. You are really wasting my
time. I can even kick you out. There is absolutely no improvement at
all. How you want me to move you to the
next step? And you said you trained a lot of SPCA dogs. From how I see, it doesn't show at all’
12.
This negative comments kept on
going on and on until the end of the course.
By then I knew Dave would not stick to his agreement and by the Watsapp
conversations, he kept adding rules and regulations which were never agreed upon
in the first place when he talked wt. me at the beginning. And I was 100% sure he
wasn't going to hire me and I felt I was being cheated because I didn't learn anything
much during the course whenever he asked me to handle dogs.
13.
28th October 2014 at 11:00am -
I have send a watsapp msg to Dave
informing him that my course is ending.
He still insist on his 7k to be given to him and along the way he kept
on changing his mind and rules. I have
stopped 2 days short.
28th
October 2014 at 3.38pm - Salesperson (Joe) watsapp me. I asked who he was. He said this
is Joe from Sales department. You must
make payments from your monthly payments within 2 weeks or else a letter from a
lawyer will be issued.
29th
October 2014 at 10.56am - I corresponded with Joe to clarify the problem and
wanting to meet him. He mentioned about
a ‘contract’ which NEVER was agreed upon or written or signed or anything of
the sort from day 1 until I finished my course.
30th
October 2014 at 10.58am - Joe kept asking me if I had banked in the 1k money
for November.
At
3.00pm - That’s when I spotted that it was actually Dave who was acting as ‘Joe’
because of his spelling mistake – ‘Seattle’ for the word ‘settle’. I spotted it from when Dave texted me and there
was the same spelling mistake.
14.
30th October 2014 at 11.12pm -
He started harassing me non-stop. As per
conversation, Dave kept messaging me.
15.
30th October 2014 3.07pm -
First threatening message from ‘Joe’ saying he was going to inform ‘the society’
about my ‘issue’ [?]. To reveal my name
and position to their company’s website [KNINE PROFESSIONNAL DOG SERVICES] so
that people would be aware of me & not be cheated by me. He also mentioned he would post something
about me owing them money. From ‘Joe’s’
conversation.
16.
31st October 2014 at 11.07am -
He threatened me again about my ‘action’.
17.
20th November 2014 at 5.42pm -
Received an email letter from his lawyer.
(I remember he told me he has spent 60k on his Rolex watch. I was shocked! 60k?! Do you know what you can do with 60K? you can feed a lot of stray animals or even open a boarding hotel. OMG this kid really... and also I remember he told me he doesn't pay income-tax. Nice huh! I would hear him also complaining about the clients how stupid they are and all. I'm like, this is not even professional to be saying these kind of things to your students! Migraines!)
In the letter he was accusing me for postings things online about him, saying bad stuff and actually blames me for making him lose his clients and business. (what?! False accusation) On top of it, he lied about his age. At Starbucks he told me 22yld. Only much later on, after finishing my course, I found out he was actually 19yld.
I got a Lawyer and wow did he kick the other lawyers butt. The response was to actually 'prove' the documents of accusation and only then we go forth, if not, so on and so on will be handed to the court.. and some other weird formal writing. We never received a response, which means he had nothing to prove therefore he was lying, again.
A lot of trainers I met, knows him and they all said the same thing. 'He is not here to train dogs, he is here to make business out of training dogs. Why do you thing the dogs are scared. Why do you think he only gives 15mins? Compare to an actually training is 30mins - 1hr of intensive training'
In his website it says that he is certified. Unfortunately, in Malaysia, no one is certified. The government doesn't support dog trainers and there are no laws for it (Which I didn't know). So yes, of all trainers I met, not one has a certification. What the 'little' boy has is actually an Achievements of completion. So his website is extremely misleading, and I'm surprised no one reported him as a scam for putting 'The youngest certified trainer in Malaysia'. Boy, if people knew everything behind the curtain, they would be so disgusted. I feel bad for the students and clients. He has no patient at all with the animals. When they don't listen, he hits them or kicks them and yells at them. All the dogs I saw did NOT enjoy the training. Instead, they had 'fear'. No fun at all in it.
After learning all this, I redid my logo and I wanted to give something 'fun' about it. Training is all about fun and enjoyment. That's why my logo is colorful. After losing 3k, and had to start from scratch, I had no funds at all to start advertising in Facebook, even printing flyers. I was discouraged. Then my neighbor had a dog and wanted me to train. I was really happy! My first client! I had so much passion and started to make my research. But the income was very low. I had no idea about the markets and how to do it. I had to learn everything from scratch. It was so difficult doing all this alone. Maintaining a website, newsletter, marketing advertisement, designs, information, income, payments. Then only I registered the company this year in February (Finally).
Its coming to March and things didn't go to well. I'm trying so hard to keep trying. I don't have plans to give up because my options aren't ruled out. I'm still waiting for my t-shirt (delayed due to the machine problem) I had nothing but bad luck along the way. A Chinese woman gave me a bad review just because I responded professionally and I had to apologize from my viewers about it. Then two clients gave me a good review (thanks god!) so at least that balances it. People told me to be out more, to be more social-able. I am not afraid to be out there, but what they don't know is, I don't have 'funds' to even travel at a standard distance. Even if I give a demo, the parks are limited for allowing dogs. The parks are 'far' and will spend petrol. I need money to refuel the petrol. Since I don't have any - much less then 20 RM (Have the feed the dog so leaves me 20RM to spend on). So my options is very limited.
Then eventually someone was willing to let me watch his training, and gave me tips on how to tackle the Malaysian market. I was stunned it was very different from the ones in USA, CANADA and FRANCE. But the reason why I'm slow is because its hard for me to understand the people here in Malaysia. I have no partner, no reliable friend to help me out and guide me. All my friends are unfortunately Malay's and aren't keen with dogs. I wanted to go hiking, go to the beach, even go to the park with my dog and give a demo. But none would come with me.
Ever since I left my full time job, I never though I would see something different. Everyone is so busy, no matter how many times you text them, they seem to have forgotten about you. Its sad really. I eventually learned to detach myself from those I was 'close' with and concentrated on my problem. My dad always used to tell me "Don't depend on people" and he was right.
So I'm here waiting eagerly for my tshirt to be finished. I have enough money to get flyers going, just need to design and to create business cards.
Once it has arrived, I'll post it up!
Happy Training!
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