Can I Find Work As A Dog Trainer?

According to recent figures from the American Pet Products Association, Americans will spend an estimated $3.2 Billion on pet services this year, including money for dog training services. That figure has been growing exponentially for the last ten years. More and more people are interested in having well-trained, well-behaved pets.

If you turn on the TV you can see practitioners such as Cesar Millan and others who have achieved superstar status as dog trainers. There is a demand for dog trainers who can train pets, dogs for law enforcement, detection dogs for termites and bed bugs, service dogs for the handicapped, competition dogs, hunting dogs and others. This is a good time to become a dog trainer.

Pet ownership is at an all-time high in the United States. Not only are more people owning pets, including dogs, but they are interested in adopting these puppies and dogs from animal shelters. Unlike dogs which have been carefully raised and socialized by breeders, dogs adopted from shelters often come with baggage. They may have had a bad start in life, been abandoned or abused. Many young dogs may already have behavior problems and been dumped by owners who couldn't cope with them. Often the problems are ordinary adolescent dog behaviors but the owner doesn't know how to handle them.

When these dogs are adopted the owners frequently need the help of a professional dog trainer in order to deal with their behavior problems. At the very least these dogs need socialization and some basic obedience lessons and manners. There should continue to be a demand for dog trainers to help these adopted dogs.

There is also a growing demand for dogs in law enforcement and a need for qualified trainers to train them. Until recently most dogs with K9 units in the U.S. have been imported from Europe because of their excellent bloodlines and training but there has recently been an interest in this country in breeding German Shepherd Dogs, Belgian Malinois and other dogs here for law enforcement work. Knowledgeable trainers are needed to work with these dogs so they can be trained to the level of their European counterparts.

Detection dogs for termites and bed bugs are also becoming more popular. There are currently only a few such dogs in the U.S. but they have a remarkable accuracy rate. Humans find termite activity 30 percent of the time. Dogs find termites 90 percent of the time. The training isn't cheap but the dogs are invaluable at their work. They go through the same kind of training that drug and bomb-sniffing dogs go through to learn to detect the insects. Dog trainers for this kind of work may be in more demand in the near future.

There is also a steady demand for dog trainers for service dogs. Service dogs for the handicapped can be trained as hearing dogs, seeing-eye dogs, and assistance dogs. The training can be very intensive, with the dogs sometimes living with families as puppies and learning basic obedience from them before coming to live on a campus with a group of trainers. There they will learn specialized skills and face real world obstacles as they get to know the person they will be working with after graduation. The dogs need to be trained to alert to a variety of different cues, from alarms to recognizing traffic signals, and taking appropriate actions.

Training these dogs can be very demanding and very rewarding. Organizations and trainers sometimes have their own breeding programs to produce exactly the kind of dogs they need; or they have their pick from a variety of breeders who are honored to have dogs placed in their programs.

There are also dog trainers needed for competitions and film work. Many people earn a good living working with show dogs, agility dogs, and dogs in other recognized sports. Often professional handlers work for several wealthy clients and show a continual string of dogs exclusively for them. As one top dog is retired another young dog is brought out. At the top of the dog show game such handlers may fly from show to show or travel in top-of-the-line RVs. The work is hard but the bonuses are big for Best In Show wins.

Dogs with exceptional obedience skills or other outstanding qualities can find work in films or commercials. Dog training for show business can be very lucrative and has launched many canine stars and their trainers.

Hunting dog trainers are greatly in demand these days. There are not as many hunting dog trainers as there once were. Good trainers with a good reputation can do very well financially, owning their own kennel, boarding clients' dogs for a few weeks for training. Many of these trainers breed their own dogs. Puppies from established hunting lines or young started dogs can be sold for large sums. Broke hunting dogs (a dog ready to hunt) are very expensive. For someone who is knowledgeable about hunting and hunting dogs and enjoys the work, training hunting dogs can be good work.

There are many opportunities open for someone who is good with dogs and willing to look for a mentor or find the necessary education for a specialty. Living a life with dogs can lead to many good things.