What Building a £1m Dog Training Centre Taught Us About Business

We’ve had a ridiculous number of requests to show people round the new Yorkshire Canine Academy training centre. So we filmed it. But before the tour, I drove back to where it all started, King’s Lane in Leeds, with Kobe in the back of the car, because the new place makes a lot more sense when you’ve seen the old one.

This isn’t a “look how well we’re doing” post. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at what building a facility like this actually involved, and what it taught us about the business side of dog training. If you’re trying to work out how to grow a dog training business of your own, most of the useful lessons are in the old site, not the new one.

Where YCA actually started

The original YCA was a row of horse stables. When Kirk and I first moved in, one of them was full of oil drums of real horse manure that we had to clear out by hand. One of the drums was full of wasps. That was a perilous endeavour.

We painted the stables black and cladded the back of one so it didn’t look like a horse stable. That became our original YouTube studio. Standing in it again is almost nostalgic. The lights don’t work. There’s a commercial coffee machine in the corner that we bought for clients and the rats ate the wiring.

The whole of Yorkshire Canine Academy, in its entirety, was a space about 12.5 metres by 8 metres. That’s it. That’s the business that went on to do everything we’ve done since.

The field was mud. Not a single blade of grass. We had to churn it up and seed it ourselves. It was also completely destroyed by moles. Everyone told us to get rid of them because someone might trip on a molehill and break an ankle, but the only way to get rid of moles is to kill them, and I wasn’t nuking a whole mole family. So we put up with the hills. I think they had character.

The car park is hardcore that Kirk drilled the fence post holes for single-handedly. We put Astro over the top. A couple of storms absolutely hit us and took the gazebos with them. Behind the stables there was a portaloo. There is no longer a portaloo.

Growing with shipping containers

When we outgrew the stables, we didn’t build. We brought in a shipping container and used it as an office and shop. Suzanne and Chloe, who are OG staff members, worked out of it. Later we added heating and electrics. Then we brought in two more containers: one for storage and dog crates, and one that was a shop, consult room and very cold office all at the same time.

The storage container got an air conditioning unit and a heater because of the dogs. The dogs were in better conditions than the humans. Shout out to the staff.

Here’s the point. We didn’t wait for a perfect facility before we started charging properly, hiring people and building a reputation. A container with French doors was genuinely all Kirk and I wanted at one stage. The business got built in muddy, leaking, wasp-infested conditions, and that’s the bit most people skip when they picture “becoming a dog trainer” with a big shiny centre.

The bit nobody films

A lot of the old site was built by favours and graft. The gravel base was mostly laid by a very well-known dog trainer, the Mutnut himself, who took his shirt off and spent a couple of days shovelling one summer. Foxes got in. Someone may have tried to rob us at some point. And one of the worst things about the old YCA was that you basically risked your life every time you pulled out onto the road.

I’m going to have to send poor Pablo down at some point to give the place a clean-up. But I took one thing with us: a sign that says “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Ricky Bobby is coming to the new building.

The new centre: a former donkey sanctuary

The new facility is about two minutes down the road and used to be a donkey sanctuary. The donkeys are all fine, by the way. They genuinely were moved to pastures new.

The most important business decision in the whole move happened before we touched a paintbrush. The building was originally only available on a short lease. We went back to the owners and agreed to pay them significantly more rent than they were asking, on the condition that they gave us a five-year lease. So we’ve got this place for at least five years, hopefully longer.

That’s worth sitting with. We chose to pay more for security rather than less for flexibility, because you can’t invest in a site you might lose in twelve months. If you’re renting a field or a unit on a rolling basis, that’s a ceiling on your business whether you’ve noticed it or not.

What’s actually here

A tree-lined driveway I’m exceptionally proud of. A sign by Hive Signs with an outline of my dog Stark hidden in it. Forty car parking spaces, which currently hold the custom-wrapped vans we bought for every trainer a few months ago. The staff have already dented most of them. I bumped my own truck recently, so I’m in no position to complain.

Inside there’s a reception and shop with caps, cups, muzzles and some possibly out-of-date food. A YouTube studio, and a podcast room with blackout curtains because Kirky likes the lighting just right. A classroom with a wall of fame of trainers we’ve worked with: Jerry Bradshaw, Glenn Cook, Forrest Micke, Michael Ellis, Pat Stewart, Jazz Whiting and more. There are also a lot of pictures of me on it, which I accept looks a bit narcissistic.

Five toilets. One has a hand dryer. After years with a portaloo, that is genuinely nuts to me.

The main indoor hall, where the donkeys used to be lunged, is where group classes, boot camps and the PSA club run now. There’s an elevated seating area where clients can sit with a coffee and watch other people train. There’s a boardroom for team meetings and lunches, a downstairs office for the team, a smart board for theory, and a presentation screen for webinar slides.

Outside there are three fields. Field one is where group classes and recall work happen. Field three is the boggy one and I’d rather nobody used it. There’s a sports barn with a spring pole and bite equipment for the high-drive dogs, plus a human gym with no squat rack, because apparently we only do uppers round here. And seven sheds, at least two of which I’d never been inside before filming. They were empty.

What the move taught me about the business

Buy assets outright when you can

The big tent from the old site was bought on finance at £300 a month. We only finished paying it off recently. Today I’d buy it outright. Spreading a purchase feels easy at the time, but it just adds a monthly cost that hangs around long after the novelty has gone.

Not every bit of kit earns its keep

The sports barn has a dog treadmill that never gets used and a round bite table that gets used about as often. Both were a waste of money. The spring pole, on the other hand, is used constantly because it gives dogs with a genetic urge to hold something a proper outlet, rather than someone’s toddler. Spend on the things clients actually need, not the things that look impressive.

Say no to the clients you can’t help

Boot camps run weekly and there are criteria for the dog and the owner. If we can’t help you, we’re not going to try and help you. We specialise in high-energy, powerful, reactive breeds. Being clear about who you’re for is what lets you deliver results, and it’s a lot easier to market a business that knows what it’s good at.

Hire the person who’s already useful

Pablo came up from Devon on a referral to paint one room. I kept finding things that needed doing, so I offered him a full-time job. Six months later, Pablo still works here. Some of the best hires we’ve made weren’t planned. They were people who were already solving problems in front of us.

The team is the facility

Maggie is our operations manager and makes sure we make enough money to pay for all of this. Suzanne runs the YouTube channel, so if you like the videos, she’s the reason. Michael runs the paid ads, so if you get our ads every day, that’s him. A building this size doesn’t run on dog trainers alone, and the owner can’t be the one doing every job. That was true in the containers and it’s even more true now.

If you’re at the stage where you’re trying to work out how to go from a field and a van to something bigger, that’s exactly the kind of thing we look at inside the Vantage Pro Mentorship: what to invest in, what to leave alone, and when.

What’s next

The old donkey stables are still empty. We looked at turning them into kennels, but the noise ruled that out. The plan now is small Scandinavian-style lodges so clients can come and stay while their dog trains. The kitchen gets refitted at the end of the month, the outdoor seating area gets olive trees and big umbrellas for the three days of summer we get here, and I still intend to do a proper vlog introducing everyone on the team.

One more thing. Every penny YouTube pays us goes to dog charities. Last month’s went to a charity in California. So a like or a subscribe does genuinely help dogs out.

Key takeaways

• YCA started in a 12.5m by 8m space with a mud field and containers for offices. The business came before the building.
• We paid more rent than the landlord asked in exchange for a five-year lease. Security is worth paying for.
• Buying kit on finance (the £300 a month tent) and buying kit nobody uses (the treadmill, the bite table) were both mistakes worth learning from.
• Be clear about who you can help. We turn people away rather than take on dogs we can’t get results with.
• Growth is a team job: operations, content and ads each have someone owning them.

If you want to see how your dog training business could get from where it is now to the next stage, apply for a call. We’ll look at where you are honestly and tell you whether Vantage is the right move.