We recently connected with Jerri Scherff and have shared our conversation below.
Jerri, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from my recovery. After over a decade in addiction and alcoholism, I’ve been able to recover, having achieved over 11 years in long term recovery. During my time in addiction, I was a sex worker, a drug dealer, and a failed parent. Overcoming my addiction and healing my family has created resiliency in me that I never imagined I would have. Life still happens. I still have incredibly hard times. But I TRUST MYSELF. I know that I will pull through, because I always do and I haven’t failed myself yet, as long as I show up and tell the truth and try my best.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
After an 18-yr career as a veterinary technician and small/exotic animal practice manager, I retired from VetMed and opened the world’s largest dog training cooperative, Tulsa Pack Athletics, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma! Trainers come to work for me in the cooperative to provide low cost and accessible training to dog owners. I spend most of my time working with my personal clients virtually, using the Open-Minded Approach and Daily Method that I created in 2021. Tulsa Pack is also home to the Open-Minded Approach School which teaches dog trainers at all levels how to be more effective, empathetic communicators, I love helping other trainers become more effective at reaching their audience.
Tulsa Pack is the leader in low cost behavioral modification and acts as a point of crisis intervention for dog owners in need, or just people with dogs hoping to prevent behavioral issues. We have served thousands of dogs since Tulsa Pack opened in 2020, and have a large community of active members in the Open-Minded Approach. Our mission is to make sure that every person with a dog has access to help. We have free and low cost courses, 1:1 intensive training, apprenticeships, seminars, merchandise and more!
A major focus of mine is also using social media to provide educational and thought-provoking content for free to anyone watching my platforms. With the largest following in history of any female dog trainer, my platforms allow me to share the joy of dog training and my other endeavors, which include work in recovery, and my favorite pastime of all – cowgirlin’. Another huge aspect of my life is horses. I come from a very long line of dog and horse trainers! In fact, my Grandfather was one of the best gun dog runners in the country in the 1940s through the 1960s and worked for President Eisenhower. Working with animals has been in my family generations, back into the time of slavery in the US.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1). Empathy – I couldn’t do my job without TRUE empathy. Not sympathy. That’s different. Empathy requires that we go thru something and learn the lesson inside it, thereby recognizing it in someone else when it happens to them. Empathy has helped me navigate recovery for myself, making me a far better mentor because of some of my experiences that I choose to openly share.
2). Loyalty – I pick my pony and I stick with her. I have found that being loyal to people I believe in has shown me that everyone makes mistakes and has hard times. How we recover from that speaks so much to our character and watching my close friends and mentors walk thru difficult things, even huge mistakes, and continuing to support them edifies me. It also shows both of us that we always have support, and that support is not conditional. We’re allowed to make mistakes and we clean them up TOGETHER.
3) Patience – with myself and others. Just letting something breathe. Letting it sit. Thinking deeply and not reacting from my initial emotions has helped me develop into a strong leader who thinks before she speaks. (Most of the time lol)
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
Showed up. Every day. Every time. I was a seriously over-achieving child. If I had an interest, I went in full force. I am a trained classical pianist, a classically trained singer and dancer. I was a National Champion in jazz dancing at 15. I rode horses. I traveled the country teaching dance. I am a 4-time All-American Cheerleader – all by the time I was 17 years old.
My parents funded and supported that but more importantly they NEVER MISSED ONE THING. Not once. They didn’t need to support me exactly the way I wanted because they were simply present. And proud.
When I messed up, they didn’t lie to me and say “that was good”. They said “we are proud of you – now let’s work on that part that didn’t go well”. They told me the truth about life.
My parents most famous quote to me:
“Life will be extra hard for you. You’re a woman. And you’re Black. You will have to prove yourself in every arena you step into. And you will. You will have outworked everyone to know that you belong there.”
They could see in me what I could not, at times, see in myself. I love them dearly and am very close with them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www,tulsapackathletics.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sailorjerrithedogtrainer/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SailorJerritheDogTrainer/featured
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