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.
- History of Dog Training. A complete history of dog training from late 19th century to present. Comparison and contrast of dog training with other animal training endeavors.
- 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. Comparisons of dog learning to human learning.
- Dog Behavior. Dog development and ethology, genetics of behavior, fixed action patterns, social signals, body language, social development, critical periods, hormonal influences, breed characteristics.
- 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.
Sourced http://www.apdt.com/trainers/career/default.aspx December 2009
Peggy Prudden in her article on the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors website sourced at http://www.nadoi.org/howdoi.htm 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”
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”
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 your business as being able to actually perform the dog training skill and these skills are acquired through business degrees and/or years in a business environment.
Join a franchise, a business entity that has all the necessary support functions, skills and experience to assist you in your success. Dog Training Franchises that are not selling systems with a huge capital outlay at the beginning are 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. Join a dog training franchise that has a leadership team with a proven track record of owning and operating business successfully. The leadership team should include persons with finance skills, marketing skills and strong benevolent leadership skills.
Visit this website and review the following pages to get a clear understanding of how a dog training franchise can help you.
Click here to learn more about a professionally developed Dog Training School Curriculum