12 minute read
Elissa WeimerTraining Your Dog to be PAW-SOME
Elissa Weimer
Training Your Dog to be PAW-SOME
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If you are a pet owner, you may understand that the bond between a dog and owner is impeccable. You might have come across several videos on social media where a dog is happy, carrying out his shenanigans, spreading smiles on millions of faces. However, many efforts go into training these dogs, considered as an essential part of canine companionship. ElissaWeimer takes dog training to her heart to deepen the bond between the owner and the dog to widen their smile.
Elissa is the Owner of Paw & Order Dog Training and is a ProfessionalTrainer, with numerous certifications to her name. Through Paw & Order, she offers professional, balanced, dog training and behavioral problem solving throughout the Pittsburgh area. Paw & Order recently expanded its reach to Southwest Florida, Houston, TX, and Central Ohio through franchising.
Insights Success caught up with Elissa in our endeavor to find “The 10 Most Successful Businesswomen to Watch 2022” and talked about how she is instilling pride in dog owners, as well as making dogs safer in the community as a whole!
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at Paw & Order Dog Training. What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today?
I joined the military right out of High School. Being a Military Policewoman led me to the path I am on now. During college, I acquired a paid internship with the Attorney General’s office and later with the Federal Bureau of Investigations on their Violent Drug and Gang squad in Philadelphia, PA. After two years of interning there, I applied for a Special Agent position, but quickly realized that just was not what I genuinely wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to help people and wanted people to be excited when they saw me arrive at their homes—a different feeling than seeing an agent or police officer at your door.
I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I did not know where to start. I spent a long time figuring out what I was good at and realized I am good at teaching people. I just had to decide what I would be excited to teach! I realized that I love animals and that they had the power of making people feel good in so many ways. I realized that so many people have dogs, so I decided to shadow many other dog trainers and attended a ton of schools to learn as many techniques as possible to help people ENJOY their dogs. To this day, I continue to learn and better myself and my team of trainers to help as many people as possible. We not only continue our education with behavioral problems, but also
with other areas of dog training such as trick training, Therapy Dog Training, Canine Good Citizen, agility training, large field socialization classes, and K9 Detection training (my Belgian Malinois and I won 1st Place Narcotics at last year’s Police K9 Competition in Kentucky). We realized how much we have to offer and how unique our company is that we decided it was time to franchise in 2019!
Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.
Paw & Order’s mission is to improve the lives of as many families as we can by providing quality and effective individualized dog training. Our vision is to continue spreading Paw & Order nationwide and have an amazing training program to ensure that the quality of our local Pittsburgh market is mirrored in every major city in the United States. We train our trainers to the highest standards and treat our employees like family. All our trainers are extremely valuable to us, and we make sure that they are well taken care of. It builds their loyalty to our brand, making them want to work even harder to ensure that our clients are happy and excited to refer us to their family and friends.
Enlighten us on how you have impacted the training niche through your expertise in the market.
Our training is unique to each dog and family. We have also made training simple and effective for families and dogs. So often, we hear that “my dog will only listen if I am holding treats or the leash/some other piece of training equipment.” Or a client will say that their dog knows all basic commands (sit, down, come, stay) but will not do it when there are other distractions around or the environment does not look the same every time for the dog.
Dogs do not generalize things well and need hundreds of repetitions in as many situations as possible to reliably understand what you are asking them to do. We have mastered our communication with dogs and their owners to train SIMPLE. We have found that overloading our clients with a bunch of training jargon that means nothing to them is not helpful. Dog owners want their dog to be a good family dog they can trust and be proud of! They are not competing in shows with their dog where they need to learn fancy tricks and unrealistic positions to their family situation (there is nothing wrong with competitions, but most pet owners do not care about that). Most people do not have perfect timing when it comes to communicating with their dog, so we use methods that allow a delay between rewards and consequences once their behavior, like/dislike, has been identified. This helps tremendously so that their dog will listen even if their owner does not have food or a leash in their hand.
We pride ourselves on solving behavior problems and teaching good behaviors for the long term, not just for the moment. Our clients have lifetime access to our trainers and they have access to a free private adventure group after their training is complete to make sure that they continue to be successful. It introduces them to an amazing community of other dogs and owners to experience fun things with. At least once a week, we meet up at trails, parks, stores, lakes, bars, etc., and go hiking, camping, kayaking, or just enjoy a nice day outside with our dogs and a drink! We want people to experience how life-changing our dog training programs are. Once your dog is well trained, your world becomes more fulfilling and exciting!
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future Paw & Order Dog Training goals?
We recently started opening new locations nationwide and want to continue doing so. We strive for the QUALITY of our trainers instead of quantity. Paw & Order is my “baby,” and we will only expand with individuals that match our integrity and motivation to work hard, be proud of what they are doing, and continue to improve the quality of the business.
Elissa Weimer
Owner & Professional Trainer
Paw & Order Dog Training
Gowri Tirumurti
An Exemplary Leader in Intellectual Property Prosecution and Litigation
Often life leads on various paths to find the one that an individual resonates with the most. One such life is that of GowriTirumurti, who has donned multiple hats in her life from being an international tennis player to being the spouse of a diplomat and a mother of two, while juggling all her roles to make some sense out of it all. Nearly two decades after completion of her bachelors in law,and an eventful life journey, Gowri is now the Partner and HeadofDepartment (TrademarksExports) at AnandandAnand.
Gowri's first valuable experience came in 1996 in the form of a glorious opportunity to intern for Prabha Sridevan, a leading woman lawyer, a force to reckon with, a truly emancipated woman, who went on to become Judge of Madras High Court and Chairman of Intellectual Property Appellate Board. However, Gowri could not sustain this for too long then due to her family commitments.
Unexpected Turns
A few years later, a retired Director General of Patents and Trademarks, India, who saw a glint of promise in Gowri took him under his wings. Without even realising what she was doing, Gowri assisted him with his futuristic attempts to sensitise Government Departments about the indispensable nature of Intellectual Property and its future role.
Almost a decade later, when Gowri realised that her role as a mother was nearing fruition, she felt a strong need to redefine herself.
On a chilly morning in February 2008, Gowri arrived at the Library of Anand and Anand for an interview with a Senior Partner of Anand and Anand. Lacking in prior experience in IP law; Gowri wondered what she was going to bring to the table. However much to her own surprise, Gowri was recruited into Anand and Anand and soon realised that it was her maturity that was required to be in the forefront of her work profile. Even while she tried to understand this, she slipped effortlessly into her role. Gowri notes, "My journey had commenced on a sound footing and before I realised eight eventful years had passed. I was exposed to Trademarks, Copyright, Patents, Litigation, Transactional work, Geographical Indications, and learnt how to interact with clients with professionalism."
A Profound Learning
In due course, Gowri had to move to Malaysia with her husband on his first Ambassadorial assignment. She was readily welcomed into a leading Malaysian firm, Shearn Delamore & Co, which had a distinguished 100-year-old history. However, she learned that India and Malaysia had no bilateral understanding to enable Diplomats' spouses to work for a profit. While Shearn Delamore offered her a role in their Trademark Department, a work permit could not be obtained.. Gowri's Diplomatic status stood as a bar against her getting a work permit. Undeterred by the situation, she worked as an intern for three years without remuneration while performing the role of a full-fledged lawyer. This was probably one of the best experiences that redefined her as a professional.
The Transformative Shifts
In 2018, after returning to India, Gowri was quickly made a Partner and Head of Trademarks Exports, of Anand and Anand, which was simply an extension of her role in Malaysia.
Gowri heads the Exports Department of the firm, responsible for Trademark prosecution and contentious matters relating to brands in International jurisdictions. This vastly pertains to two kinds of activities-taking care of the interest of Indian clients abroad and those of Foreign clients in neighboring countries, where the firm believes it has a linguistic and cultural affinity and functional understanding.
The Managing Partner of the firm, Mr.Pravin Anand has been a pioneer in the field, has set up robust associations with some of the best legal brains in the world. These associations provide a sound footing for expeditious, efficient, and high-quality services in practically over 150 countries.
Additionally, Gowri has been instrumental in securing Geographical Indications registrations for several leading products such as Tequila, Munich Beer and Bavarian Beer to name a few in India.
Today Gowri comfortably performs her role from distant New York, while appreciating the firm's broad perspective as well as the technology which makes her connectivity possible.
The SheerTestament of Excellence
Anand and Anand is a 98-year-old law firm that provides comprehensive IP solutions, its forte being developing new law and precision-navigation of grey areas. The firm offers complete IP services encompassing protection, enforcement, advisory, licensing, and litigation for patents, designs, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, domain names, geographical indications, and more. Credited with lawsuits that have transformed the IP landscape in India, the firm's litigation arm has decades of unmatched experience in dispute resolution. It has maintained a patent grant rate of over 93%. Its trademark team recorded 1800-plus successful trademark oppositions recently. The firm is committed to pushing the envelope to change in substantive and procedural law at the highest level.
Gowri asserts, "My journey thus far has epitomised the possibility of a late start provided one's abilities and experience can be optimised. There is, of course, the need to keep abreast with the times, whether intellectually or technologically. I am also fortunate to belong to a Firm that thinks and helps you think "out of the box."
"Many do not realise that different kinds of Intellectual Property rights spill over into each other even without one realising it" states Gowri. The artistic work in a logo is subject to copyright protection, while the logo itself as a whole is protectable as a trademark. Similarly, a Company name is registered under Company law under the Ministry of Company affairs, while the same is also a subject matter of trademark protection. It is crucial to integrate the different forms of Intellectual property law seamlessly so that the client enjoys holistic protection for the end beneficiary.
When Gowri advises her clients, she sensitise these concepts, particularly when they seek assistance from a brand development agency to choose a suitable brand for adoption, use, and registration. Adding to this basket is the need for Customs protection of trademarks and Copyrights.
Bequeathing Women Entrepreneurs
Gowri expresses that the importance of Intellectual Property has always been grossly underemphasised, undervalued, and underrated. Many do not realise that the practice of Intellectual property law requires and develops soft skills. The law itself is nascent and evolving every minute, with new judgments and precedents being created in some part of the world. While India has a vast body of IP precedents, there is still much reliance on International Jurisprudence, creating a need for effective expressions of ideas and concepts to produce results for clients.
Gowri says, "All Entrepreneurs need to bear in mind the importance of adopting and protecting their brand while launching their business. The interface of their business activity would be their brand. Therefore, the brand needs to communicate to the public what they plan to sell, in simple terms."
"While creating one's own identity, it is important to ensure that one is not seen taking mileage and unauthorised advantage of an existing brand power," Gowri concludes.
