A dog obedience trainer trains dogs to perform a variety of tasks – from sitting, staying, to fetching and even some more serious things like helping with tasks for their masters who are disabled in some way. To become a trainer, you don’t need any type of formal training or licensing, although there are certifications that you can get if you choose to. All you really need is the ability and the desire, plus clients to train.
Work with Animal Shelters
Many no-kill animal shelters take in hard-to-place dogs that need serious obedience training before they become adoptable. You can change a dog’s life totally by helping them adjust to their new lives and become more well behaved and less dangerous. Many animals can be saved simply with this type of training.
Work with Entertainment, Television and Movie Companies
Once you have a good reputation for training dogs, you can market your services to entertainment companies who need their animals trained in a humane way. If you’re good at getting pets to do what you want them to do due to your knowledge of animal behavior, this is a fun route to go for your dog obedience training business.
Work with Personal Clients One-on-One
Many regular folks like to hire obedience trainers for their pups and dogs too. You can set up a home visit situation where you train the pet and the owner at the same time, or you can set up a residential training program that requires your owners to leave their dog with you for a couple of weeks first.
Work with Service Dogs
Training service dogs is a specialty that can be very lucrative, especially once you build your reputation in the community. Some trainers buy dogs before they even have a client. Train them, then sell the dog as a trained service dog. Purchasing a trained service dog can cost upwards of $30,000 for the right dog and the right situation with very specialized training.
Work with Troubled Animals in a Special Setting
If you really want to go all out, you can set up a boarding and training business at your home. You’ll need a yard, space, kennels, and all the right equipment to do this so that the dogs are safe and you have a way to control them and train them properly. Many board and train locations charge upward of $1000 a week to train troubled dogs for a six-week “doggie bootcamp”.
As you can see, there are a lot of opportunities for a dog obedience trainer. If you want to do this, you’ll need to set up a website and social media to establish your online presence, and then start demonstrating and marketing your skills to the public.
