career advice needed

[ninny]

I am thinking of opening a dog training center. It would not be for several years however. I am wanting to build my name up and train under more people before i go out on my own. What do you look for when you look for a trainer? I am thinking of going through the animal behavior college to get a degree in training from them. I work with a service dog group now. They said I could get a training certification through them. So i'm wondering which would mean more to future clients? I know people will want to know what i do with my dogs. So i've been working my tail off with them. Now that we are on the other side of my Dh's kidney transplant, i can really get going. Both of them will be getting CGC's and therapy dog certifications this summer. Kiowa will be working with people needing physical therapy. Juny is going to be doing reading assistance programs. Kiowa i have started on scent detection. He will be trained for search and rescue and drugs/bombs. He also does demos for the service dog group . Juny may or may not be trained for scent work. I got her from the pound so she needs lots of work still. I need to build her attention span some more. Shes very ditsy. I'm thinking of titling them both in AKC rally. Juny in agility. I'm wondering if just two dogs is enough to say that i've trained dogs? These are the first two i have done on my own. I've worked with my mom with the family dogs for years. I've worked with a few clients as well. I'm at the four dog limit that DH has so until my two old guys go no more dogs for me. Once i have a working car again i hopefully will get to teach the puppy class my group does. Then do the other classes and be a CGC tester. Im going to be taking a online course to be a vet assistant as well. What else should i do? I use mostly positive training methods. I do clicker training sometimes too. Thanks!


(I posted this on byc too. Sorry if you read it twice)

 

[savingdogs]

I've been volunteering in the field of dog rescue for 13 years now. I have met many, many dog trainers. It is not a very successful field, there are so many people trying.

I suggest you go for some official certification of any kind that you can,most people I know who are dog trainers have some sort of classes under their belt, or have gone to college to be certified animal behaviorists.

Just having trained two dogs is really not enough, my friend. I have trained more than 300 dogs but still would not have tried being a dog trainer.

For one, there are as many training ideas and theories as there are dog trainers, so the "method" thing gets to be an argument most of the time.

I would suggest you pursue this as a hobby for many years before trying to support yourself with this type of thing. Get a job at a doggy daycare, a vet clinic or a dog boarding/training facility and get some experience under your belt. Or do like I did and get some free experience by helping a dog rescue or humane society.

 

[keljonma]

I think SD is right. My friend T has been training service dogs for over a decade, and it is still just a small part of what she does on her farm to earn a living. I definitely agree with getting the education and the experience.

 

[patandchickens]

What they said.

It seems to me there are sort of two issues to overcome. One is that while I am new to the dog world I am pretty positive it is just like the horse world, and by horse standards you are not even remotely ready to deal with the wide diversity of (often somewhat problematic) animals that clients will bring you; and the other is that even if/when you DO have the diversified mileage under good mentorship to handle all sorts of situations, you gotta convince CLIENTS that you do.

From your experience (been around family dogs, had a few private clients, trained two dogs of your own) I'd say you're maybe ready for an assisting type position with an actual dog trainer or GOOD dog-training school (ideally), or if you can't swing that at the moment, at least working for a doggy day care or doing dogwalking or (if you can bear it) volunteering at a shelter, something to give you high-volume exposure to lots of dogs. Mileage mileage mileage. Preferably not random mileage but working under the supervision of someone who actually does understand dogs and actually does use good training methods.

Simultaneously, you can pursue specific paper credentials. Personally, from the viewpoint of an individual consumer, I would NOT be EVEN REMOTELY impressed by "an animal behavior college", sorry. But if you'd done several weeks of classes with a Bob Bailey student (I don't think he's teaching himself anymore?) that would mean something to me (not alone, but in combination with other resume items); titles in multiple disciplines on multiple dogs; maybe look into which dog-training accreditation bodies offer actual knowledge-based certification instead of just "pay fee and agree to uphold group's principles"; that sort of thing.

Note that of the people I've run into around here at least, over the past not-quite-a-year of owning Russell and looking hard for the right trainer(s), ALMOST NONE "run training centers". The great majority, including some pretty skilled people IMO, do it as a part-time thing on rented property.... a room in the town hall, church basement, snowmobile club's meeting 'shack', whatever's available on (for instance) Monday and Thursday evenings and maybe Saturday afternoons. The only people I've encountered here who are making even "mostly" a living at it are real "demon marketers". Which becomes a question not of how to become a dog trainer but whether you are well enough capitalized and have sufficiently excellent skills at entrepreneurship

I do think that doing "some" dog training is probably a realistic possibility, especially if you remember that you do not have to (and for a good while probably should NOT) take on as a client everyone who comes along with a difficult dog.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[savingdogs]

I know someone whose dog training skills are literally on par with Cesar Milan (who I have met). But she is running a veterinary clinic. She has been trying to build a dog training business for years.

There are a lot of books on this topic and I'd start reading them if I were you. I'd read a variety of training methods because there is such diversity in style, technique and approach. Find what feels right to you. I'd personally start by reading authors such as Suzanne Clothier, Patricia McConnel, Brian Kilcommen, and Cesar Milan. See where they differ and where they agree. In my experience, they are all a little right. But dogs are highly individual and different training methods work on different ones and you need to be able to adapt your approach after assessing the dog.

In this economy, the only dogs being brought to trainers are real behavior issue dogs or those belonging to the very rich. Neither of them make very good clientele for a new trainer, even if you could attract them.

I agree with Pat that experience under good trainers in a variety of conditions is more helpful than a college degree, but the animal behaviorist approach is valued by a certain segment of the population.

Dogs respond to a huge variety of training types so you see a lot of people who believe they have the one and only WAY. That is a sure sign to look elsewhere. You will notice that even people like Suzanne Clothier acknowledges that many types of training work.

I'd say that she is the person I most admire as a dog trainer and I'd steer you towards her book Bones Would Rain from the Sky if you are truly interested in making the lives of dogs better as a career.

I hope my suggestions do not sound overly harsh or critical, but the problem with a dog training center is that too many people would like that as a job. I myself worked at a "dog training center" and it was actually more of a breeding farm and vet clinic where they WANTED to do more dog training, but the market for that kind of thing is rather small so you need a huge reputation.

I have seen people make a weekend job success of running small dog obedience classes for people with mostly young dogs out of parks and recreation class arrangements. I don't think they made a ton of money but if I were going to try to start being a dog trainer, I would have tried holding a small obedience class somewhere where I did not have to pay rent. But in order for a parks and recreation department to feel you are qualified to handle a class you are going to have to show some sort of experience. However, if you had worked in a vet clinic, a boarding kennel, a doggy daycare, a dog groomer or any dog related field for a few years, or a couple of them, and then took some certification classes, that would probably be enough to get you started if you have tons of gumption.

I cannot recommend highly enough getting some practice in dog rescue. I have encountered all kinds of behavior problems and issues in dogs and became an expert in my own right by the dogs training me. Rescue dogs are discarded because of the same types of issues as dogs that would later be brought to you as clients. So learning how to deal with typical problems is a first step. Most of dog training is really problem solving. People don't often go to the trouble of doing a lot of training, they just want the dog to be perfect without a lot of hassle. So your job as trainer is really teaching PEOPLE the reality of what it takes to make a good dog, and so you had better hope to be good with PEOPLE if you choose this career.

Personally, I don't like convincing stupid people they are making dumb choices (meaning the dog owners). If what you really like is to work with dogs, not people, then you need to pick something else, because re-training the FOLKS is what dog training is pretty much all about.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Are you wanting to just do obedience training? or behaviour training, as in problem areas with dogs. Because, Imo, a puppy obedience class might be doable. But as far as behaviour problems, you do need extensive experience, --what the others have said.

Of course, even to do puppy obedience, you do need to have your foot in the right doors.

 

[FarmerChick]

my sister in law won 15th place in the internationl agility in Germany this year. with her shetland sheepdog. she is ranked 15th in the world.

she has 1st place ribbons up the ying yang.

she trains agility dogs at $50 per hr. up north and honestly she can't book them fast enough and has to turn away people all the time.

she makes a killing.



so be best at what you do and you have a solid income career for life.

 

[ninny]

I am more wanting to get into training working dogs. I am bringing the service dog group i work with to the town i just moved too. A guy I use to work for is getting into breeding GSD's for police work. Im going to be calling him see i can work with them. I'm going to be offering classes with my service dog group next year or two to my town. Im more wanting to on my own train and sell started and finished working dogs. I'll see what happens next couple years. If things take off then i'll have a multisided biz (grooming, boarding,retail,training). If not then i'll be offering a couple dogs a year for sell. I'm going to try and work with the rescues and get the dogs that way. If no then i have no problem buying and raising puppies to sell. May get a female to breed at some point. That's just a thought at the moment though. Everything depends on how many more human babies we have. I'm a stay at home mom first. I hope that makes sense. Im still wondering about the degree though.

(By working dogs i mean drugs/bombs,police,S&R etc...)

 

[~gd]

You DO know that you will have to have a clean background check documrnted to get near the training materials for Bomb or Drug Dogs?

 

[savingdogs]

If no then i have no problem buying and raising puppies to sell. May get a female to breed at some point.

I would not be supportive of dog breeding. This is where I bow out of this thread.