Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Sphar.
Andrew, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I moved to Miami from Chicago in January of 2018 with 5 boxes and 1200 dollars to my name. It was really rough living on a couch and being unemployed for a month before starting the job I moved here for. I finally started that job where I worked for a well-known dog training facility in North Miami. After a few short months of employment, I was let go; this was not a good start. A month later I found myself as a live-in trainer and caretaker for a company in Little Haiti. Living on site and caring for as much as 20 dogs at a time really allowed me to home in on my training and experience. After about six months of this lifestyle, I was presented an opportunity to move to the Edgewater neighborhood watching two older dogs while the owner traveled for business. Ultimately this left for lots of free time, which I spent training the two dogs I was in care of along with walking a few dogs in the neighborhood. I then finally landed my first client in late December of 2018. While training this dog, I had seemed to have made an impact grabbing just two more clients by January of 2019.
While giving one of my students some park time after a training session, I met a charming young lady who was running her own daycare. Little did I know that Sabrina of So Doggin’ Cute would be the catalyst that helped me get off the ground as a reputable trainer. As she sent me several clients from her daycare to assure that their dog’s daycare experience was pleasurable and fun. Later, to find out that she is also friends with long-time friend Nicole of PawfectPals Miami creating a perfect little network of referrals between the three of us. With the sole purpose of creating well behaved and pampered pets.
In the last year, I have gone from 7 dogs on the books to over 60 dogs with a two-week waiting list. Working seven days a week to accommodate clients and taking phone calls at all hours to help my clients in any need. Since I am certified as a service dog trainer, I have a different approach that not only allows the dog to learn at an accelerated rate but also informs the owner to learn how their dog thinks and reasons to why they act as they do. Overall educating owners, to establish well-behaved pets and creating a symbiotic relationship between owner and canine.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The struggles went from trying to find clients to trying to find time for clients. Changing my business model to accommodate client’s health and safety during the COVID pandemic.
Please tell us about Control Your K9.
Control Your K9 is a science-based or balanced dog training business. We specialize in educating dog owners, creating well-behaved pets and building service animals. Basically, we are known for training dogs, accommodating to getting results. We as a company, are most proud of our success rate and our happy clients. The few things we’ve been told that separate us from others is our punctuality, our personability, our ability to answer the phone even after hours, listening and our ability to explain things to our clients in a way that they understand.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over the only thing I would have done differently is hire an assistant sooner. Its honestly nice to have no control over my schedule since I am not good at scheduling at all.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.controlyourk9.com
- Phone:305-925-7686
- Email:info@controlyourk9.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/controlyourk9miami
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Pet-Service/Control-your-k9-110831586917704/
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