Want to know how to become a dog trainer? Are you searching for the best advice for becoming a dog trainer? Can you make a lot of money in a dog trainer career path?
If these are some of your questions then you are at the right place to get all those answers.
Choosing Dog Trainer as the career is going to be working with dogs unless you work for somebody else.
1. The Reality of the Professional Dog Trainers Career Path
How to become a dog trainer? Let’s talk about the first thing which is the reality of the dog training career path and the dog training community.
It’s really important to understand that being a professional dog trainer 100% does not mean that you’re gonna play and work with dogs all day. A lot of it has to do with business a lot of it has to do with dealing with people and dealing with clients.
There is a significant difference between owning your own dog training company and being a dog trainer which is very important. It is suggested that if you want to train dogs and want to work with dogs every day and don’t wanna have the headache of running your own company and running your own business go work for somebody else.
1.1. Running Your Own Business
In general just because you start a company or a business doesn’t mean you’re successful.
Nothing can guarantee you that you will be successful in it. Many dog trainers who own small businesses fail within a few years of their starting. This is the reality of having your own dog training camp and owning a dog training business.
You have to deal with it daily and a lot of people don’t get to see it.
1.2. What does Sucess looks like in Dog Training Career?
A lot of younger dog trainers going to school or aspiring dog trainers enjoy their intern program from all different walks of life and all different ages. They just seem like a dog trainer, dog trainer, dog trainer, dog trainer, dog trainer but you have to look a little bit further than that.
Look a bit further, are they successful?
It doesn’t mean successful by how good they are on social media or how many followers they have, that doesn’t accumulate success.
Success means at the end of the day are you making money, so you can support yourself and support your family and pay your bills etc. You need to know that there’s a significant difference between the two.
Many many people who start their businesses aren’t successful and that doesn’t mean that they don’t love what they do. That certainly doesn’t mean that they’re not enjoying what they do.
It just means that they are not making sufficient money. That’s just a little information going forward and that is very hard to survive in this industry and make an actual profit.
2. How to Become a Dog Trainer?
Let’s see how to become a dog trainer. You can choose to become a dog trainer and there are plenty of ways to become a dog trainer. Becoming a dog trainer is like understanding animal behavior or especially the dog behavior, the science behind it.
Let’s check out some of the steps for how to become a dog trainer.
2.1. Do What You Are Good At!
Step one is that you need to start looking at what you are good at.
Dog training again from the outside perspective or somebody who goes If he/she wants to be a dog trainer.
For example, there are people who don’t do a lot of obedience training, it’s not their specialty. People come to dog trainers for information on how to build a better relationship with their dog, and how to fix these behavioral issues that a lot of other people can’t especially the dog owners.
You should be doing what you are good at and don’t try o do anything else that you are not great at. Don’t spend time thinking about these things. Your focus should be on the things at which you are good. That will make you the happiest which is behavior modification.
You should be thinking about who you are, what drives you, and what makes you want to work with dogs. Do you want to work with service dogs, is that fulfill your needs? Do you want to work with therapy dogs, do you want to work with obedience training to help people with competitive stuff? Do you want to work with pet owners just doing basics and little behavioral stuff? What do you want to do?
You should be focusing on exactly what you want to do. Do you want to deal with behavior modification cases, the dogs that are killing other dogs, trying to kill other dogs, trying to bite people, trying to go after people fearful? Prepare your answers to all these questions.
When you’re thinking about getting into the dog training world, be open to everything. But when you start getting serious about what you want to focus on, dial it in. When you devote your time to that one thing you’re gonna be the best at it in your game.
2.2. Learn From Others
The second tip would be to watch as much content as you can, and read as many books as you can.
Tip 2 would be finding a school that fits you best so there are many different schools out there. But again it’s all about your choice, what would you love to do, and which domain you will prefer.
There is the dog training school for obedience, there are schools for service dogs, therapy dogs, protection dogs, police dogs, and so many different variables. The one school that you can look forward to would be the Michael Ellis School in Santa Rosa California if you want to become a certified dog trainer.
It’s a school for people to learn about Michael’s account and what he does. But he’s got a bunch of different dog training classes so you can look it up. Another good one that is popular is Tom Rose’s school, that’s a good school. And then the ABC school the Animal Behavioral College it’s better than nothing if you want some literature.
If you want to earn a dog training certification then you should look forward to Certification Council for professional dog training experience. However many dog training certifications will ask you for a test to test your knowledge.
2.3. Work For Somebody!
Tip number three for how to become a dog trainer would be to go work for somebody before you open up your own business.
It is suggested work at least six months or a year would be better to just figure out how you’re doing the dog training for somebody else. It is also highly suggested that when you do these things, mention to the owner or mention to the person that you are working for that at some point you might open up your place because that matters.
The owner would have liked to know that it’s your intention of opening up your own business because it’s a different relationship between the owner and you. As it kind of goes sour after that, where you spend so much forming these people and they just go which isn’t good.
The dog training world is very small and if you burn bridges even just one that connects to a lot of different things that not going to be good. So, if you are going to go work for somebody and you intend to go do your own thing then mention it. It’s a respect thing.
It’s really important to tell that person that you want to give your all, you want to learn, and in the future, you will probably going to do something on your own in future.
If you’re going to start your own business, how to run a business is important because there are so many people who are the best dog handlers, maybe even the best trainers in the world but they fail.
They fail and they fall flat on their face when they open up a business because opening up your own business is so hard. Over 90% of businesses in America fail. It’s so hard to get by and make money and be successful in the United States with opening up.
The Conclusion!
This was the complete path of how to become a dog trainer and the reality of a dog trainer’s career. Follow up on your passion, what you are good at, and what you want to do specifically to become a successful dog trainer.
There are both types of people in this world who have failed and who have got successful wildly but it’s all about how you work, and what you choose to work in. It’s a little bit hard to pen up your own business but you should not lose faith and work hard towards your goal.
If you want to know more about Dogs then check this out.
Last Updated on by ritukhare