What is a good career path for a wannabe dog trainer?
This is directed specifically to people that train dogs for a living, whether it’s basic puppy obedience or competition agility or sheep herding or showing or whatever – the important thing is that a major source of your income actually involves working with dogs, because I can Google (or am I supposed to say "yahoo" here?) generic information myself. Starting from training my own dogs as a hobby, reading a ton of books (I’m a big Patricia McConnell and Monks of New Skete fan) and magazines, watching videos and seminars, and participating in lists on the internet, where do I go next for actual work? Answer with your story and real life experience. What did you do, how did you get to where you are? What worked and didn’t work? What would you do differently if you started over again? Are there particular sources of information you prefer? Do you make enough money training, or do you do other things to supplement? Thanks in advance for your insightful, real world responses. Thanks for the response lizzy. I’ve seen other dog trainer questions around these parts and there is much bashing of "trainers" that work at Petco and Petsmart. To the trainer community in general, would it be fair to say that maybe it’s not the best place to get your own dog trained, but it’s a good place to gain some experience yourself? Or is working there also somehow subpar? In terms of companies that are actually hiring, those two are always up there.
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This is something that a lot of dog enthusiasts forget about.
LEARN THE BASICS OF MEDICALS.
That also answers some of the behaviorals.
Search the internet for Spay / Neuter clinics in your state. If you are in VA, they also have monthly shot clinics at all PETCO’s in our state. I think PETCO’s in Texas also have monthly shot clinics.
But volunteer to sweep floors and hang out for a few months in a spay/ neuter clinic. You gain much knowledge of animals under stress, you hear many owner stories, and you gain much insight.
Learning how the body works can answer many questions about why we or our pets respond the way that they do.
Keep in mind that you can’t train all dog breeds exactly the same way. That is a common way of dog trainers attempting to "cookie cutter train" and then they can’t help the owners fix the situation.
Sometimes you just have to adjust what you are doing and why you are doing it.
POINT: Retrievers are "Gun Dogs" and typically do not respond to noise. Collie types are more sensitive to noise and verbal reprimand or commands.
Many enthusiasts think that they like animals and honestly want to help. But you really want to get knowledge on animals on the most basic levels if you want to be effective.
I am posting some weblinks to resources that will truly help you gain this sort of knowledge.
Don’t forget to search the internet for more specific "spay neuter clinic statenamehere" and check with local rescues/ breed rescues to volunteer some time at events.