Dog training is a fulfilling career and can provide a good level of income. There are so many ways to open a dog training business and each method has its strengths and weaknesses. Dog Training as a career, like many professional service businesses, requires not only effective technical skills but also requires that the business owner has competent business skills.
The Association of Pet Dog Trainers recommends that you look for a training school that offers a good training program. There website describes a good training program as covering the following topics. a) History of Dog Training, a complete history of dog training from late 19th century to the present and a comparison and contrast of dog training with other animal training endeavors. b) Animal Learning, classical and operant conditioning, positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment, conditioned reinforcers, discrimination, generalization, habituation, sensitization and desensitization, blocking and overshadowing, motivation, establishing operations, conditioned emotional responses. A comparison of dog learning to human learning. c) Dog Behavior, dog development and ethology, genetics of behavior, fixed action patterns, social signals, body language, social development, critical periods, hormonal influences, breed characteristics. d) Designing Classes, how to design your courses/instruction materials once you graduate. How to counsel individuals, motivate handlers/owners, how to screen and steer clients.
There are many schools and online courses that can be attended to learn and gather the required theoretical knowledge to learn about dog training. However as James Kesel in his article titled, A Career in Dog Training quotes “more dog training businesses fail as a result of poor business practices then because they are doing a poor job of dog training” Peggy Prudden in her article on the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors website says “to be a good dog trainer one must be physically fit, goal oriented, self-starting, and love dogs. It takes a lot of stamina, patience, understanding, insight, common sense, and fortitude to dedicate one’s life to training dogs”
Becoming a Dog Trainer like many professional services requires that you also have a broad knowledge of business skills if your goal is to make a career and earn a living out of the profession. Many service professionals are good technicians, are able to perform the actual skill of their trade, but are lacking in the knowledge and experience of opening and operating a business. Business finance and marketing are equally as important to the success of a business as being able to actually perform the dog training skill and these skills are acquired through business degrees and years of experience in a business environment.
Online courses offer an academic overview of dog training whereas on site dog training schools also compliment the academic studying with practical hands on dog training experience. Once you have completed your studies you then join the business sector as a small business owner. Unless you bring to your new career an academic background in business management or have previously worked in a business environment your endeavors’ are going to be difficult.
Dog Training franchises offer both the academic dog training curriculum and the hands on practical skills and provide a lifelong partnership and business relationship that has all the necessary support functions, skills and experience to assist you in your business success. Dog Training Franchises that are not selling systems with a huge capital outlay at the beginning are seriously invested in your business, if you succeed they succeed. A good dog training franchise will be on hand pre-launch, during your launch and continually to support your business growth. A good dog training franchise will have a leadership team with a proven track record of owning and operating pet care businesses. The leadership team will offer expertise in business finance, marketing, operational effectiveness and will have offer a dynamic and benevolent leadership style committed to your personal business needs.
Sources
Sourced http://www.apdt.com/trainers/career/default.aspx December 4th 2009
Sourced at http://www.nadoi.org/howdoi.htm December 4th 2009
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