by VAN HANSEN
McCann Professional Dog Trainers have helped more than 100,000 families to train their dogs over the years.
The McCann Method® is always evolving, and today the business operates from a world-class facility on their 21-acre site in Flamborough, ON.
The main building has 3 air-conditioned training halls, adjacent to a new dock diving pool. And there is a 12,000 sq. ft. sports arena with artificial grass; many members of Team Canada use the arena when training for worldwide Agility Competitions.
Last month I had the opportunity to tour the McCann Dogs complex and interview Kayl McCann, Director/ Head Trainer and her husband Ken Steppe, Manager of Digital Strategy & Content Creation/ Trainer.
Away to the Races
Van Hansen: So Ken, my first question is can all dogs benefit from training?
Ken Steepe: Yes! And one of the ideas that we try to dispel is that old dogs can’t learn new tricks. And whatever your expectations are for your dog’s training, you can set the bar higher.
That's something that I learned very quickly. I mean, my expectations were I just didn't want my dog to chew my shoes or drag me down the street.
But understanding that with better information, I could get her to respond to name, and have her off leash in a busier environment. Then you can do more things and go more places with your dog.
So in training we would ask students on their first lesson, if we set up a scenario where their dog is in one corner of the room and they are in the other corner, they call come would their dog run by ten other dogs? And they always say there’s no way.
Kayl McCann: And if we flash forward to graduation we see dog after dog after dog succeeding.
This isn’t us though. They did the work, they put the stuff in and it's like the dog is completely transformed from the beginning to the end. So cool.
Ken Steepe: And even if you're not looking for any of those specific skills, I would recommend for anyone whether you're getting a rescue dog or you've got a brand new puppy in the household, I mean training is the fast track to relationship. It is such an important part of that. You learn a lot about your dog, they learn a lot about you. It's really valuable.
Kayl McCann: We are really focused on teaching the student to train their dog. Our goal is to empower the person to train the dog, to build that relationship; I don't need the dog to love me, I need the dog to love them.
I think once you get the person learning things, then it's away to the races from there.
Positive Reinforcement
Van Hansen: Kayl can you tell me how McCann Dogs was first established?
Kayl McCann: The family started the business 43 years ago now. And at that time my parents were a young couple who had separate careers—my Mom (Deb) ran a recreation center and my Dad (Marti) worked at a bank.
Dad bought Mom a dog and once they started taking dog training classes, they really enjoyed it. So they started dog training as a fun thing to do together and they ended up falling in love with it.
They started competing, and back then the dog training was more focused on negative reinforcement, which was something they wanted to change.
And they started paving a different route back then, because they really wanted the dog to behave, but also look like it was having fun at the same time instead of ears pinned and being worried about it.
So much so that they would have classes where people would be laughing and having fun, and they ended up getting kicked out of the school that they were in because they were doing such different methods, and that sort of forced them to do their own thing.
Then one class a week turned into two and on and on and they were working in church basements and things like that until they ended up renting a space over at the Rockton Fairgrounds.
The next step was to build this facility, I think it was 25 years ago. And yeah, it's just grown into something really big over the years.
So that's sort of where the family dog training program was developed. And then we've spun off in a bunch of different directions from there, just because once you sort of get foundation on the dog, there's like a whole world of cool things related to dog training comes up, which is awesome.
In Their Shoes
Van Hansen: I have a question for both of you. What do you love most about your work?
Kayl McCann: (to Ken) that's a big question. Do you want me to go first?
Ken Steepe: Sure. Gives me more time to think.
Kayl McCann: Okay, great. I love a lot of things about my work and I would say my job has really changed over the last 10 years since my parents have retired and I've sort of stepped into their shoes.
From an instructor perspective, if it has to do with helping students and that type of thing, that never gets old. There are always new challenges. And there’s so much satisfaction when I can literally lower their stress level.
Students are so proud of what they accomplish and there’s a lot of satisfaction seeing somebody have a lot of growth and I think that excitement is what led me into coaching.
And we have amazing staff here. We have staff that work inside the building full time, we have staff that are associates, they work part time including school teachers and engineers and nurses, staff that do all kinds of cool things in their normal life.
And then they come and teach for us a couple days a week. And we have instructors that are online, and it's such a cool group of people that we can push each other and continue to push the envelope in terms of training so that we don't get stagnant in our ideas and trying new things. And I really enjoy that aspect of it whether it's a mentorship role to them or learning things from them myself.
The dogs seem like an obvious part. Obviously I love dogs but you can't do this as a business if you don't like people as well because there's so many people things involved. And I'm a people person, so I really enjoy that part of it.
Ken Steepe: I have a unique perspective because I came in as a student, but without sounding overly dramatic, I've been a firefighter for 26 years, and I have also worked as a paramedic. So I've seen emotional extremes firsthand and also been in some very rewarding scenarios as well, but there's something uniquely gratifying about seeing someone's joy when their dog (for example) does a recall across this entire room.
When you see students in the parking lot and they're just so proud that their dog is walking at their side without pulling them on leash.
The feeling of being able to influence, to shape the next 10 to 15 years of someone's life. The opportunity we're given to allow someone to have the dream dog that they had envisioned, even if it didn't start out that way, which is my case.
That's really powerful. And now we do it on a global scale with the YouTube studio and YouTube team. But doing it for 500 dog owners a week in this building, boy oh boy, that's a really great feeling. And it's hard to compare that to anything else.
Gallery photos courtesy Kayl McCann
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McCann Dogs delivers in-person and online classes and workshops from Puppy Prep to Essentials, and Life Skills. From there they offer Advanced Obedience, and Sports programs including Rally, Agility, and Competition.
“In just a few weeks your dog becomes a well-behaved family member!” — McCann Professional Dog Trainers
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