44.5 percent of all American households share life with a canine companion. Pet professionals like dog trainers, veterinarians, and veterinary behaviorists are more important than ever as our modern society becomes increasingly difficult for four-legged friends to navigate—dog reactivity, anxiety, and general stress from lack of proper enrichment are on the rise in domestic dogs.
If you’ve been thinking about pursuing a career as a dog trainer, this guide is for you. Maybe you fell in love with the idea while working your own pet dog through a training program for behavioral struggles. Maybe you've been watching one too many episodes of your favorite reality dog training TV show. Maybe you think it’s a great way to turn your lifelong love for animals into a rewarding career.
Here’s everything you need to know about becoming a professional dog trainer!
Read on for what the dog training profession entails, how you can get hands-on experience with training techniques, the importance of continuing education as the canine cognition field evolves, and more.
There is no one-size-fits-all process to becoming a dog trainer. Pet professionals get started down their career paths in different ways!
That said, here are some general guidelines to follow if you’re new to the idea of training dogs as your job.
It’s important you understand what you’re getting into before you commit to becoming a dog trainer. While every individual training business will have a different approach and serve their own unique clients, you should know a few core things.
This should come as no surprise. Dog trainers, of course, spend much of their time working with a variety of dogs!
Pet professionals who also offer boarding services on top of hosting classes or teaching individual private lessons invest even more of their waking hours into caring for their canine pupils. (Many dog trainers watch their clients’ dogs when their families go out of town. Some also offer board-and-train programs to kickstart the training process.)
This daily work directly with dogs can involve tasks like:
Something that’s less well understood about dog trainers: They don’t only work with dogs. Dog trainers are ultimately service workers! Many canine professionals get into the industry because they love animals… and are surprised to realize how much of their day is dedicated to communicating with the human end of the leash.
Depending on the types of services you decide to offer as a trainer, you might spend even more time interacting with pet parents than their actual dogs. This means it’s important you enjoy coaching people! (Deciding to become a dog trainer because you feel that “dogs are better than humans” probably isn’t a great idea. You need to be a people person too.)
Here are just a few of the ways dog trainers provide support to owners:
Aspiring dog trainers might choose to specialize in different things. While every professional dog trainer should understand basic learning theory (operant conditioning, classical conditioning, canine cognition) and have some general practical skills (more on education later), there are multiple directions you can take your knowledge!
If you start your own business, you’ll be able to choose firsthand which clients you want to take on. If you join an existing franchise, you’ll have less control (but more support from your superiors). The right fit is up to you.
Some professional dog training companies focus on:
Dog training is an incredibly rewarding career. Many pet professionals can’t imagine doing anything els. Knowing you helped a client accomplish their goals is an amazing feeling! As a trainer, you have the opportunity to change both canine and human lives for the better.
It’s important to know that dog training isn’t all rainbows and competition ribbons and behavior modification success stories, though. Depending on the type of dog training you decide to pursue, the profession can be grueling both emotionally and physically.
If dog training still sounds like an appealing career after understanding the commitment, it’s time to get your feet (or should we say paws) wet working with some four-legged students.
Training your own dog is a great first step for many aspiring dog trainers. You get to play the role of both trainer and owner, which helps you understand what it’s like to work with a pet you consider part of the family.
In fact, many professional dog trainers are in the industry because at some point they ended up with a challenging dog of their own—perhaps a fearful rescue who struggled with reactivity—and fell in love with the art and science of dog training as a result. These hours of experience training, troubleshooting, and adjusting in the moment can provide a solid foundation to embark on your new career.
Note that training your own dog does not mean it’s appropriate to go out and call yourself a dog trainer. It does mean you’re one step closer to working with other dogs and owners!
If you don’t have a dog of your own right now? Don’t fret. That doesn’t preclude you from becoming a dog trainer so long as you’re passionate about the career. There are many lifestyle variables that might mean it’s not the best choice to open your home to a long-term animal resident right now—but you could still be able to offer your services to other clients.
A logical next step after working with your own dog (or if you don’t have a dog of your own to practice with) is to reach out to family and friends to see if they need help with their own pets. This will expose you to a greater range of behavior and environments in a causal, low-stress way.
Make sure to be transparent with your connections that you’re not an established professional yet. Don’t hesitate to reach out to a more experienced trainer if you encounter any behavioral cases!
Some ways to get started interacting with more dogs include:
Volunteering at your local shelter can be a great way to encounter even more different dogs and make a difference to pets in need as you continue to grow your skills. Humane societies and animal shelters around the country have different requirements, so check with your nearby organizations for next steps.
Remember that shelters can be stressful environments for both dogs and humans. Make sure to attend any recommended courses. Follow directions closely and always defer to staff instructions. This is a great way to get valuable experience—as time goes on, you’ll be able to make more of an impact and provide experienced advice.
At the same time you’re getting hands-on experience with different dogs, you should be investing in your conceptual education, too. Theory and practice go hand in hand! Neither works without the other in a profession like dog training—it's a mixture of both art and science.
Some ways to grow your knowledge about dogs:
Dog training theory is complex. (We’ve summed up some initial concepts in this article.) Here are a few things to look for as you start consuming content and learning training techniques:
This list of resources can be a helpful place to start growing your dog training knowledge!
You technically don’t need any sort of formal education or certification to call yourself a dog trainer in the United States. There are no regulations on the field—and some national certification organizations pose accessibility issues that can gate keep the industry from otherwise talented, dedicated professionals.
That said: If you're able to, it's a good idea to pursue a well-regarded dog training program. The top successful dog trainers take their education seriously and want to help owners make sense of the confusing landscape. Completing a certification can be a great test of your skills. Passing a rigorous exam lets you know you’re ready to offer your services to other owners in good faith—and it can make your expertise clear to potential clients, too.
Here are a few options for training certification, professional membership, and continuing education courses for force free trainers:
One way to set yourself up for success as a dog trainer is to apprentice under someone who is an expert at the craft. An owner or employee of a dog training company will be able to guide you through all aspects of training dogs professionally—from actual nitty-gritty training concepts, to different types of services and pricing, to setting up your own business, and more.
Some dog trainers offer specific mentorship programs where they take on anywhere from one to several students at a time. Other relationships happen more organically, like when a long-time attendee of a trainer’s classes expresses an interest in joining the profession. You can also consider looking for part-time jobs to get your foot in the door with an initial career opportunity.
This is a great next step once you’ve obtained knowledge about learning theory, dog body language, and training mechanics. Here's to you and your future animal training endeavors!
There is so much misinformation out there, and we want to make sure we only provide the highest quality information to our community. The science of animal behavior is complex. The more seriously we take it—as pet professionals and everyday dog owners—the better! We have all of our articles reviewed by qualified, positive-only trainers.
This is the trainer that reviewed this article:
Emily Fitzpatrick
VSA-CDT
Owner and Head Trainer | Misunderstood Mutt
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