Hi Folks,

How should I go about learning to be a professional dog trainer. I'm interested primarily in OB and would like to undertake a good training course, prefereably in the UK but I might be willing to travel.

I know there is NO substitute for experience!

I suppose my questions should be:

What should I be looking for from a course?

What are the main areas of study? i.e. behaviour etc.

Does anyone know anywhere in the UK I can study?

Is there a way I can realisticaly start this myself, besides what I'm already doing with my dog.

Do the courses offered by triplecrown offer a viable real life qualification that can be used to say start a business?

My Wife is also interested in doing this and I think we're looking to start learning around the end of this year start of next, so plenty of time to get homework done <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Any pointers appreciated.

John

Kind of general, but it'll help you determine good places to train from the wannabe's that would just waste your time...
http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4166606/page/0/fpart/1/vc/1

I believe in real life experience versus these trainers schools. If I were looking into trainers to hire for my dog, I would look at their qualifications. The person who can say, I've titled X, worked with this person, etc is the candidate I'd choose over someone who can only say they've taken a course. I've seen a lot of websites with trainers that their ONLY qualification is the school they went to, but they list nothing after that.

If you do choose to take a course, back it up with experience afterwards. Take what you learn and get out there and start competing. Travel as far as you have to to do seminars with some top level trainers. My pet peeve of some of these professional dog trainer businesses is when they list on their "about the trainer" page all the books they've read and videos they've watched. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> How many of our top dog trainers have actually gone to these schools?

A better approach, and the one I've taken to become a professional dog trainer, is apprenticing under a top level trainer. Find out who is in your area and become their best friend. Start out by getting into their training group and show your persistance and interest in being a dog trainer. What I've found is these old time dog trainers generally love to teach, they just don't like to waste their time on people who aren't serious.

Becoming a pet dog trainer is very simple but it should be backed by the ability to train any dog, any time. Dave Deleissegues told me at a seminar that it takes training 500+ dogs before you get a feel for it.

Thats just my 2 cents. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

That's a good post Will, Thanks!

Dana I'll keep what you said in mind, it makes sense.

I'm thinking of volunteering a couple of hours a week to the local shelter as a dog walker, gaining training experience as I go <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks

John

Hmmm, good question.

I've always placed a lot of “stock” in education throughout my life. In fact, I have nineteen years of formal education (primary, secondary, university, law school), but while I would never go to a doctor, lawyer, accountant, dentist, or vet that didn't have a nice diploma on their wall I would prefer a dog trainer with experience and titled dogs over a sheep skin saying they graduated from "Puppy University."

Dana gave good advice about trying to learn under someone else as you'll be able to see all the little mistakes that people do and know what to watch for. In addition, you should title two or three dogs of your own and assist in the training of other dogs that go on to earn titles. Just like building a house a business needs a strong foundation or it can fall apart quickly. Build up references and a reputation as being friendly, honest, structured, and knowledgeable. Word of mouth is huge in the dog training world.

Well, I have an interest in this too. I just got a folder with info and a application for the Tripp;e crown Academy in Austin, Texas. I'm still looking but I want something closer. I've also heard of this place called the Tome Rose School. I suggest looking into these places for info.

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I'm thinking of volunteering a couple of hours a week to the local shelter as a dog walker, gaining training experience as I go <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

John, doing volunteering a couple hours a week is a great way to start out with, especially since you start to develope the ability to read dogs and their personality pretty quickly. I would be a little cautious about stepping on some toes though. I volunteer a couple hours of my time down at the local shelters and depending on how much time I have, I either do some walking or I take dogs that have been in the shelter for a few weeks out to one of the trails for some better exercise. The problem with this is that I *gasp* use a prong collar. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> Wild idea that I don't want to get hauled down the street by an anxious 80-100+ lbs dog, right? So I had a little "talk" with the shelter coordinator the other day because apparently some of the other staff didn't like that I used them around the shelter because of their bad public perception, right? She said she used them on her dogs at home and she knew that I'm experienced and yadda yadda yadda, but could I please not use them? But basically, I'm the one that takes the big GSDs, Rotts, psycho hyper labs, etc that no one else wants to try to walk, which I pointed out, and so we came to a compromise that I just wouldn't use them in the building. So it's a great experience and I've learned a ton in the two years I've done volunteering and fostering with them, but just a warning you might run into that sort of thing.

John,
I volunteered at a local shelter as a trainer a while ago. What I would do is stop by three days a week and train a few of the "problem" dogs that had poor obedience ( which was pretty much preventing them from being adopted ) .

This became *very* popular, as most dogs showed a dramatic improvement with six weeks ( and the shelter let me use any training method that I wanted to use without question ) and were easily adoptable then.

It helps to realize that most shelters are run by well meaning but clueless staff that actually don't understand dog behavior in general or dog training at all - just be respectful of their hard work and seek to meet them at a common middle ground ( like....hey, let's get these dogs adopted and not gassed, ok? ).

I had a lot of fun doing this for two years and I helped get a lot of dogs adopted that otherwise would have been euth'd - ( the first time that I heard a client walk into the shelter and ask " Hey, are there any of those dogs that Will trains available?" ) was a really good feeing, let me tell you.

So once you've got your training method learned, why not offer your services as I've mentioned? It's a win-win situation!