Meet Wesley Ryan | Performance Dogs of Ohio – Co-Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Wesley Ryan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Wesley, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Eight years ago my borther, Robert Ryan, had a dog that had a little too much energy. He was looking for a solution to allow this dog some energy release. In doing so, he discovered freestyle disc dog and was instantly hooked. He pursuaded my son to start plaing with borrowed dogs. Quickly, we could all see that he had an inate talent for working with dogs and throwing frisbees. We ended up a year later getting him his own dog, Paisley. Paisley and my son, Sidney, worked every day in the back yard to perfect their craft. He watched countless videos and even took private lessons. In 2017, the entire family went to the world championship in Chattanooga Tennessee and to our absolute surprise he ended up winning the world championship in the youth division. In 2018, we went again to the championship and he ended up repeating this amazing feat. Sidney ended up competeing and performing locally for several more years but eventually went off to college.

A few years later on several of us got the idea to turn our passicon of performing live with our canine best friends into a business. Through tons of research and meeting people along the way we formed an amazing team of performers. Our team members had done numerous demonstrations, mainly through a local non-profit, but wanted to see if we could expand into a business. Two years ago we took the leap and set out to form a business that was solely focused on promoting canine sports. We knew if we could showcase as many canine sports in our show it would be a hit to the crowd.
Countless hours of work and research went into creating this business. We started in performing in small events, festivals and a few private parties. We worked hard to build the brand name and to make sure our clients had an amazing experience. We are now in year 2 and feel like we are just starting our journey.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Performance Dogs of Ohio love to showcase the love of our canines by offering unique, fun-filled stunt dog shows. We will travel anywhere to promote our mission including halftime shows, festivals, fairs and even parties. Travel time is the largest part of our show and frankly the biggest cost factor.

We are constantly trying to push the envolope of what is next for our business. We are constantly looking to add aditional elements to our show. As you know, there are a ton of dog sports and each sport offers a unique experience to our audience. For example, in the past several months, we have added a new segment to our show called scent work. This is where we place an object with the handler scent in a box and the dog uses it’s nose to try to find it. This is a super cool element of the show and the crowd loves it.

Additionally, as you can imagine, we have around 30 active dogs that participate in our shows. We are constantly working to bring out the very best in each of our dogs. Most of the off hours are spent on training these dogs to not only be amazing performance dogs but also amazing pets. For example, our halftime performance dogs have to wear special boots to protect the floor and themselves from slipping. We have months of work with these dogs to get them use to the dog safe boots. This type of training is very common but takes months of work to accomplish.

What makes us stand out is that we bring a unique show that brings an enjoyable, humorous atmosphere with a variety of our stellar dogs. Our show features our own personal pets.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take them to one of our shows. We have several in the Ohio Valley area and even expand into Indiana, West Virginia, Illinois and pretty much all of Ohio.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Chris Collier and Alyssa Buller – Professional Dog Trainers and Professional Canine Entertainers Andrea Morrissette – Professional Frisbee Disc Dog Coach Columbus Ohio Disc Dog League – weekly disc dog league that promotes getting new people involved in the sport
Eleven Paws Dog Training – one of our go-to sources for dog training

Website: https://www.performancedogsofohio.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performance_dogs_of_ohio/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/perfdogohio

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/performancedogsofohio

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6OXxxJA1H6leaK92xA_WXg