You love animals and you’ve always dreamed of working with them. But you’ve also realized that becoming a veterinarian or veterinary technician isn’t for you. Helping animals, especially dogs, in a medical situation can be messy and heartbreaking. It also takes extensive training and schooling that can take years. So, if you want to work with dogs but don’t want to spend years in school (and maybe have an aversion to blood), have you considered becoming a dog obedience trainer? Check out some information about what dog trainers do and how you can take the first steps toward becoming one!

What, exactly, does a dog obedience trainer do?
A dog obedience trainer does more than teach your new pup how to sit and respond to commands. A good trainer will work with your dog to teach proper behavior skills by using voice commands and different body cues. The skills they teach could be anything from potty training puppies to teaching older dogs new tricks. Using learning techniques such as desensitization, operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, hand signals, and reward systems, your goal is have your client’s dog be more well-behaved and responsive to commands, making for a happier home life!

What qualities do you need to possess to be a dog obedience trainer?
Like becoming a veterinarian or a vet technician isn’t for everyone, the same could be said for being a dog obedience trainer. You may love animals generally and dogs specifically, but that isn’t enough to make you a successful trainer. Successful dog obedience trainers are:

• Compassionate. They need to be able to treat owners and dogs, even troublesome dogs, with care and kindness.
• Patient. It can take a while for a dog to catch on to what you’re trying to teach it. Patience is critical as a dog trainer.
• Trustworthy. Even if a puppy is misbehaving, it’s owner still loves it. When you’re in charge of changing the dog’s behavior, the owners are putting a lot of trust in your skills and counting on your kindness.
• Reliable. As a dog trainer, keeping on schedule with training exercises is important. You need to be able to keep appointments or show up to work on time and ready to go.

What’s the first step toward becoming a dog trainer?
Well, the first step for any career is first realizing that it’s what you want to do! After that, you should research where you want to eventually work and what kind of training you need to do. The next thing to do is get the training you need! Though most workplaces that hire dog trainers don’t require a formal university education, having training and studying things like animal communication, behavior, and conditioning methods will prepare you to excel in your dream job!

So you definitely know you want to be a dog obedience trainer. You’ve done your research, you know it’s a great fit for your personality. Get started on the first steps toward your dream and learn dog training skills with a comprehensive course that will help you gain the knowledge you need to train rambunctious puppies to be calm, happy dogs!