For a very good guide to all sorts of dog training processes and dog behavior challenges, I use and recommend Clickertraining ...that link goes to the description of this terrific ebook you download immediately, wherever you are! -- Rosana

If you love dogs and have a flair for working with them, you may have wondered how to become a dog trainer. I’ve just read a very informative ebook that might interest you: The Dog Trainer Handbook, by Shelly Brouwer. (If you aren’t familiar with ebooks, they are books sold online that you can download and read immediately.)

Shelly Brouwer is herself a professional dog trainer, and she covers her own journey from volunteering at a dolphin training facility in Florida to taking part in the intensive six-week program at the Dog Trainer’s Academy at the San Francisco SPCA, and on.

She answered a lot of the questions I have had about how people learn to be dog trainers, specially with an emphasis on positive methods such as clicker training. Here are the chapter titles:

  • Why Do You Want to Be a Dog Trainer?
  • What Types of Training Will Help Prepare You For A Career In Dog Training?
  • Where You Can Get Your Dog Training Education
  • Types of Research and Studies You Will Need to Learn
  • Types of Training Services a Dog Trainer Can Provide
  • Where to Continue Your Education Once in the Field of Dog Training
  • How to Start Your Dog Training Business
  • Essential Equipment Needed to Start a Business
  • Potential Locations to Conduct Your Dog Training Business
  • How to Deal With Clients When Business Calls
  • Making the Appointment
  • Class Considerations Such as Types, Sizes and Fees
  • Recommended Resources
  • Recommended Reading

If I were considering studying to be a dog trainer, the third chapter of The Dog Trainer Handbook would be worth the price in itself, as it describes the three top places in the US where you can get a really good dog trainer training. They are all dog-friendly, using the kind of methods that are most effective at the same time that they are the most humane.

The only thing I didn’t like about this ebook was that it could have used better editing. Now and then a sentence was awkwardly written or a phrase had a word left out. I have ranted about this before with other books, coming as I do from a family of writers! (Hint to writers: you will easily catch this kind of thing by reading your work aloud.)

I was fascinated by Brouwer’s  comment that most people become dog trainers after doing other work, of many different kinds. No matter what you have already done, there are likely ways that what you have learned will apply to a dog training career. Anything that gives you “people skills,” for example, is to the good.

That reminds me: I have a friend who is a professional dog walker and is very good at training the dogs he walks. I asked him once if he had considered becoming a dog trainer. “No way!” he said. “Then I’d have to deal with the dogs’ owners too much!” So consider your personality too. You have to love people as well as dogs!

Shelly Brouwer explains that “there is not a single nationally recognized title that declares a person an official professional dog  trainer.” So how  do you prove to the world that you have the skills? Through word of mouth, through belonging to professional organizations such as the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), and through a respected certification program that is explained in detail.

If you are at all curious about how to become a dog trainer, do take a look at the website for The Dog Trainer Handbook! You have nothing to lose; the ebook comes with an 8-week money-back guarantee.

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