How To Become A Service Dog Trainer: What You Need To Know

Tips and Resources Related To A Career as a Service Dog Trainer

If you have a passion for dogs, love to work with them and would be interested in training them, then a career as a service dog trainer could be in your future where you could be following your passion as well as making a difference in the lives of those people that can enhance their experience by having a service dog at their side.

Providing courses and training people has its challenges, but at least when teaching people, there are minimal language barriers. When training dogs, you can’t communicate with them by merely offering written materials. The process takes special techniques and a lot of patience to train animals. Some people are natural animal trainers and born with talent, while others need to learn the skills and techniques used to train.

On average, this is not a high-paying career, but your passion as a dog trainer may be more important than the salary. Also, note that the salary depends on the demand for the position and your location. Another point to keep in mind is that when there is a high demand for service dogs, you could open your own service dog training business once you have gained experience in the field.

My recommendation is to follow your passion, because when you do what you love, you will have a better chance of succeeding, and you’ll enjoy your life a lot more than being in a career you hate.

To make sure this is the right career choice for you, see if you can find a dog trainer that you can shadow or interview. By spending time with a professional dog trainer, you’ll be able to get insights into whether this career choice is right for you or if you should consider a different one.

If you find a dog trainer who is willing to help you out, make sure you prepare so that you get the most out of the time you have with the trainer. You also want to make sure you respect their time, by being prepared. For example, instead of asking the trainer what can you tell me about this career— a broad approach—you may want to ask questions such as:

How did you get into this line of work?
How long did it take you to gain the experience you have?
What education is required for this career?
What do you dislike the most about this job?
What are the most challenging parts of the job?
What do you find rewarding about being a service dog trainer?
Do you see an increase or decline in the demand for service dogs?

The above questions can provide valuable insights and lead to a fuller discussion compared to asking, “What can you tell me about being a dog trainer?”

Resources:

Next, you’ll find links to quality articles providing information related to service dogs and a career in this field. The benefit of including articles written by others is you’ll get a full overview of what’s involved in this career from different perspectives.

If you are in a hurry, you may want to bookmark this page so you can return and go through the resources because, with so many articles to look at, you’ll need some time to go through them.

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