Have you always had a hankering to become a dog trainer? You’re not alone! Plenty of people who love spending time with, and training, dogs dream of making a career out of it. 

Maybe you love the science-y, nerdy bit of dog training and are passionate about positive reinforcement and want to promote it. 

Or maybe you’re more about wanting to nurture the bond between people and their pets.

It could be that you’re looking to give back and do something about the number of dogs ending up in rescues.

All of these are solid, excellent reasons to become a dog trainer.

But…

What most people don’t realize is there are downsides to becoming a professional dog trainer, some of which you may not have considered. So, before you jump in feet first, give some thought to the following dog trainer realities.

The downsides of becoming a dog trainer

To become a successful dog trainer, you have to LOVE working with people. Why? Because you’ll spend far more time training the human end of the leash than you ever will with their dog. The only exception to that is if you do board-and-train. So, if dealing with (often stressed and emotional) people isn’t your thing, you might want to reconsider your career choice. There are plenty of other ways to work with dogs without having to interact extensively with their people too.

Working for someone else can be hard work with low pay. As a professional trainer working for someone else, you can expect low to moderate rates of pay. The average across the US is $19.40/hour.

Working for yourself involves wearing many hats. Being self-employed means you’ll be responsible for everything — at least until you’re routinely bringing in enough to pay someone else to do some tasks for you. You’ll need to do all your own marketing, sales, and admin work (including record keeping, correspondence, and day-to-day finances).

Running a business can be a steep learning curve with a big investment in both time and money. Are you sure you’re up for the challenge? There’s no shame in deciding self-employment isn’t for you. And it’s better to ask yourself the questions now rather than in two years when you’ve sunk time and money into the venture.

Still want to become a dog trainer?

Not put off yet? Excellent! Let’s look at the stages to becoming a professional dog trainer…

Certifications

Firstly, you need to make sure your foundations are in place. Assuming you don’t want to join the ranks of the questionable trainers out there who really shouldn’t be taking money for their training, you need to skill up and get a certification. 

There are a few good certification programs to choose from but like any unregulated industry, it’s buyer beware.

Hands-on experience

Along with getting good theoretical knowledge, it’s also vital you get hands-on experience. And plenty of it! Nothing will teach you about dog training like actually doing it. 

Practical experience can be paid or unpaid and some certification programs come with an apprenticeship built in. But if you’re not lucky enough to have that resource, volunteering at the local dog club or shelter will teach you more than you can imagine. 

Still struggling to get experience? How about approaching a trainer you respect and seeing if they’d allow you to do an internship or work experience with them?

No matter what you do, don’t think that book learning and training your own dog will be enough. Trust us on this, it won’t.

Once you’ve established your skillset, t’s time to decide whether you want to work for someone else or set up a business and go solo. 

We strongly recommend working for someone else to begin with. This way you can see how the business is run in addition to practicing your training and people skills.

How do you become a self-employed dog trainer?

So you’ve got your certification, done your practical hours, and have decided you want to go solo. Congratulations!  

Here are the steps to becoming a self-employed dog trainer

1: Decide on your business name

Before you go any further, you need to decide what your business will be called. Do you want a separate business name? Or trade under your own name? There are a number of pros and cons to either business naming option so don’t rush in too quickly. 

2: Get yourself business insurance 

Once you have your business name sorted, it’s time to get insured. In the US there are no legal requirements to be insured, but we do recommend getting at least a general liability insurance. You want to be covered in case something unexpected happens. Most city governments have departments or programs serving local businesses — consider reaching out to yours for more advice if you’re not sure where to get started with insurance.

3: Determine your service offering

This is where you need to put your thinking cap on and do some planning. Running a business is much simpler if you know what it is you’ll be offering. Dog training covers such a vast array of things, it pays to narrow your services down before you begin. It’ll make your marketing so much easier in the long run.

When thinking about your services, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you want to work with general manners clients or specialize in a specific area such as puppies, sports, or reactivity? 
• Will you offer group classes, one-to-ones, or a mix of both?
• Will you be doing the bulk of the training (board-and-train, or day training in the client’s home, without the client) or will the client be responsible for training the dog?
• Will you work out of facilities, from public parks (if that’s an option in your area), or will you visit the client in their home?
• Will you have structured packages or classes? Or pay-as you-go sessions (we don’t recommend the latter! Here’s why.)
• How much will you charge? (Find out about pricing strategies for dog trainers in this vlog post.)

4: Work out how your business will function

This might sound self-explanatory: you get people interested in what you do, they then pay you to help them with their dog problems. Simple. 

Unfortunately, the devil’s in the details — and if you haven’t worked out these nitty-gritty bits, you’re likely to flounder when it comes to running your business.

So here are the biggest processes you need to consider BEFORE you start taking clients!

How will you find clients?

A business without clients is either a hobby or a money pit. You need to have people paying you to stay afloat. Unfortunately, “build it and they will come” only works in the movies. 

Here are some questions for you to ponder:

• Are you planning to market entirely online… 
• …Or do marketing around your local area? 
• Are you going to invest in Google advertising or Facebook ads?
• Will you do email marketing?
• Are you going to focus on local SEO, so you show up in localized search results?
• Are you going to do social media marketing? 

Ideally, you’ll do a mix of all the above — but don’t just throw spaghetti at the wall. Have a plan.

What will your sales process look like?

You’ve now got a plan for attracting the attention of prospective clients, but how are you going to sell your services to them? Here are some more questions for you to mull over:

• How will prospective clients get in touch? Email a query from your website? Book a sales call direct from your website? Call you? Direct message? All of the ways?
• Once they’ve reached out, then what? Will you have an email back-and-forth? A phone conversation? A zoom meeting? An in-person meeting to meet the dog?
• When do you give your sales pitch? Is that by email? In a phone chat or similar? Or is the client’s first lesson actually the sales pitch?

A first lesson that’s the sales pitch might look something like this:

You meet with the person and their dog. You have a chat about the issues and give some simple management strategies to help them instantly. 

Then you might say something like “Okay, so here would be our plan, if we work together… This is how long it’s going to take. This is how much it will cost. Would you like to go ahead?”

Alternatively, you might have a chat/email discussion and make recommendations for how you can help them from there. If this is your sales plan, does the client then book the class or package direct with you or from your website?

Onboarding: what happens after you’ve made the sale?

Before you provide the service you’ve sold, you need some sort of onboarding process. Onboarding usually has three main processes but can have more. These are the main ones to consider:

How will you collect their payment?

• Can they pay via your website?
• Will they pay directly into your bank account?
• Will you take a check or cash when you meet up for the class or lesson?
• What about invoices and receipts? How are you going to do those?

What are your legal requirements?

• Are you going to have a contract? If so, what does that contract look like? 
• Does that contract look different depending on what services they’re purchasing from you?
• What about waivers? (Most insurance companies will require one.)
• Do you have a photo release waiver so you can use their image in social media if you want to?

(You can find out more about contracts and waivers for dog trainers here.)

How will you collect their client information?

• Where in your process are you going to collect their client information? At first contact on your website? By email after they’ve signed up? While you’re physically with them in the first meeting? 
• Along with their details, how much information do you need to collect about their dog? Do you just need name, age, sex, and breed? Or do you need other details such as the dog’s routine or what it’s fed?
• Do you have a section for them to ask questions? How do they do that?
• Do you need a copy of their rabies certificate? If so, how do they provide it?

How do they get your housekeeping information?

If you have a facility, at some point, you probably need to convey to the client where they can park and where their dog can and can’t potty. Where can they find that? Do you verbally tell them when they sign up? Or do you send out an introduction packet with all the relevant information in it? 

Offboarding: what happens when they’ve finished working with you?

Once you’ve delivered your service, it’s a good idea to have a structured offboarding process. Ideally when you’ve worked with a client for the last time, you’ll want to take the opportunity to ask them to leave a review (Google or Facebook etc.) or give you a testimonial for your website. How will you do that?

If you run classes, the last class is a great time to pitch your next class if it’s appropriate. How do you do that? Are you going to:

• Hand out some fliers with the class graduation certificates?
• Tell them what the next class is about and how they can sign up?
• Put them on an email list so you can email them information about upcoming classes?

Getting the finer details of your business sorted before you dive in will help you avoid any number of headaches and messy moments. Think of it as a time investment: a bit of effort up front can save you hours — even days — down the track.

5. Get your marketing on point

Once you’ve planned out the finer details of how your business will run, the last step is to get your marketing on point with a logo and website. And that’s where we’ve got your back. If you’re ready to become a dog trainer, feel free to reach out. We’re always happy to talk to you about your logo and website needs.