Education Used to Be Expensive; Now, it’s Affordable for All — Anytime, Anywhere

Back in the day, when we used to buy books and DVDs and travel to dog training seminars, workshops and conferences, furthering our education could be pricey. A three-day seminar or five-day conference could easily end up costing $300-$2000, or more. Once you factor in seminar registration, travel, accommodation, shopping and hotel-food costs and time away from family and work, education was expensive, time-consuming, often inconvenient and not that effective — How much information from a one-day seminar was actually retained?

Nowadays, online education is either open-source or very affordable and extremely convenient — anytime, anywhere! Early morning, early evening, or deep into the wee hours. In the comfort of your own home, in the garden, on a plane, or on the beach. Also, you may learn at your own speed — Pause a long video, or one-day seminar while preparing dinner, watching 60 Minutes, or walking the dog, or rewind and watch complicated or hilarious sections over and over. Plus, you may benefit from the best of the best instructors from around the world. Online learning is just altogether cheaper, easier, quicker, more convenient and more effective to learn at your own speed when relaxed in your own home.

Additionally, online teaching is much easier from the speaker’s perspective. When I was on the seminar trail, I used to spend nine months a year on the road. I absolutely loved it because most of my friends live all around the globe and giving seminars was a great excuse to visit and catch up. But non-stop travel and presenting sequential 3- and 4-day seminars was exhausting and I barely had much of a home life. For my few days back in town between seminar tours, I was always catching up on company business and relaxation got squeezed out.

I considered going cold-turkey on a number of occasions and gave any number of “final” seminars but eventually, in 2015, I promised myself that I would only give one seminar or workshop a year. The first year, a multi-day workshop in Guadalajara, Mexico, the next in England and then I skipped a year. This year just two-days in Austin, Texas. I enjoyed all three seminars enormously; it was so delightful to spend time with so many good friends, but travel and hotels were exhausting and so no more are planned.

To help me quit my seminar lifestyle (habit), my son, Jamie, embarked on a three-year project to “digitize Dad’s doggy-brain”. He followed me around the country and filmed over a hundred hours of seminars and workshops, which he uploaded to a new website — www.DunbarAcademy.com — along with most of my books, a score of full-length DVDs, loads of articles and hundreds of hours of additional video, which are updated monthly.

As I sit in the garden writing this post, newly relaxed and no longer peripatetic, I am happy that my books, DVDs, articles, seminars and video-posts are now reaching many more dog-interested people around the world than when I was on the seminar trail sending nine months a year in hotels. Thank you, Jamie!