Dog Training Career: What is Involved?

A dog training career may be just right for you, if you love working with dogs.  Dogs of all ages, from puppies to older dogs, need training, and their owners often don’t know how to train them.  They look for a professional dog trainer to do the job.

If you are thinking of a dog training career, you might want to start by practicing on your own dog.  If you are good at training your dog, you might be good at training other people’s dogs.  But if training your dog leaves you frustrated and drained, then becoming a dog trainer might not be the best career for you.

When you are training dogs, you are actually training the owners more than the dogs, so you need to be good with people to consider a dog training career.  People are not at their best when they are frustrated or embarrassed by their dog’s behavior.  Will you be able to deal with these distraught owners calmly, while at the same time tending to their dogs?  Give this some thought.

Consider volunteering to help out at a dog training class at your local shelter.  You will get a feel for what is involved in a dog training career.  If you are good, the teacher may let you teach a segment of the class.  This will be your trial by fire. If you do a good job, then you can move forward with your training.

You can prepare for a dog training career in several ways.

1. Attend a school specifically for those interested in a dog training career.  There are many schools and seminars available. Be sure to get lots of hands on training.

2. Become an intern or apprentice to a dog trainer in your area.  This way, you can learn dog training on the job.

3. Become a certified dog trainer.  Do a search on the internet for dog training certification programs.

Once you have the proper education in dog training, starting your business should be easy.  Decide if you want to work with individual clients in their homes or offer dog training classes.  It is a good idea to offer a combination of both.  By advertising your dog training classes, people who want individual help training their dogs will hear about you too.  Soon your dog training career will be off to a great start.

Check around in your area for facilities where you can hold the dog training classes.  Often the local humane society will have space for classes, or you could check with dog day care facilities.  In warm weather, you may be able to hold your classes outdoors.

Advertise your services by leaving brochures about your training program with veterinarians, dog supply stores, and pet shelters.  This way, your advertising will not cost you much.

Congratulations!  You have followed the steps above and have a thriving dog training career.  You love dogs and are working with them every day.  For a dog lover and a natural teacher, you have found the ideal business to be in.

Dog Training – House Training Your New Puppy

House training is the first thing your new puppy must learn.  The toileting process a puppy learns in the first few months as a member of your household will last a lifetime so it’s important to do it right the first time.  House training issues are the number one reason why dogs are taken to animal shelters so let’s begin.

It’s important to understand that your puppy probably won’t be completely trained until he’s about 6 months old.  That’s because young puppies lack the bladder and bowel control that they need to be reliably left alone for long periods of time.

It is also important for you to be available to supervise your new puppy but we all know that life happens.  If you can’t be available for a period of time, confine your puppy to a small puppy-proof room.  The entire floor should be covered with newspaper or some absorbent, disposable material.  At first, your puppy will go everywhere in the room.  As he gets older he will favor one area.  Slowly reduce the area covered in papers until the puppy eventually goes only on the toilet papers.  The floor in the puppy-proof room should not resemble other floor areas in the house like carpet or hardwood.  Once your puppy is used to eliminating on a particular surface, he will want to eliminate on that type of surface.

If you want to train your puppy to use only papers, your task is complete.  Most owners prefer for their dogs to eliminate outside so the puppy-proof room should only be used when you aren’t home to supervise.  If your puppy spends time in a crate, which he should at first, you can place papers in one area in the crate for your puppy to use.  Dogs are naturally very clean animals and they will do their best no to soil their bed area.  This really helps your puppy develop self control.

For puppies who are to be outdoor trained, take the puppy to his designated toilet area every 45 minutes.  When your puppy does his business in his designated area, lavish praise on him.  Don’t be afraid to look like a fool when providing this praise.  He is learning the most important lesson in living in your household so go overboard with praise.

Put your puppy on a consistent feeding schedule so you can anticipate his needs.  While he does need free access to clean, fresh drinking water, don’t give him unrestricted access to food.  Likewise, until he is fully trained, do not give him the run of the house.  One thing that will greatly aid in this process is putting a collar and long lead on your puppy and tying the other end of the lead around your waist.  Your puppy will like being close to you and he won’t have the opportunity to make many mistakes.

That doesn’t mean that mistakes won’t happen.  When they do, don’t punish or reprimand him.  He won’t understand the reason for the punishment and he might become nervous or agitated.  He might even think he is being punished for eliminating at all. This could set your training back rather than moving it forward.

The main thing you need for house training your puppy is patience and a good sense of humor.  Be calm and relaxed while being consistent in your schedule and your puppy will be relaxed and calm while learning what he needs to learn to become a well adjusted member of the family.

While you and your puppy are bonding during this training time, you can start to introduce other commands like sit, come, stay, down.  See my other articles on these individual commands and be sure to join me on the web at: