What it's REALLY like being a Dog Trainer

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Over the years, I’ve had more people than I can count ask if they can apprentice under me to learn to train dogs. I’ve generally always said yes as I love to share my passion and dream of working with dogs! And, lets be honest, I can’t train all the dogs in the world (Although I would give it a good try!)  But time and again, these initially enthusiastic, eager, would-be trainers just slowly disappear. They stop coming to classes or have “other plans” and will come “the next week”.
You see, no one really knows what it’s like to be a professional dog trainer. Training your neighbor’s dog for a couple extra bucks is not the same as being a professional dog trainer. Holding a couple of group classes once and a while isn’t being a professional dog trainer. Offering advice to anyone who asks on how to fix problem a, b, or c, isn’t being a professional dog trainer. Here, in my experience, is what being a professional dog trainer is all about:

• Sacrificing family and friend time every weekend and most evenings. This means missing out on things like birthday parties, family get togethers, girls’ night out, time at home with your family and spouse. Why? Because your students are working people, or in school and the only time they are available to take their dog to training classes is in the evening or on the weekends.
• Always being “on call” – dog people will call, email, and message you all hours of the day and night. Sometimes it’s as simple as a quick call asking when your next class is and other times it’s 2 hours on the phone with a crying, stressed out, end of their rope client who’s dog’s behavior has disrupted their entire lives and maybe even has bitten someone. Not only do your dog skills need to be top notch, so do your people skills. Your responsibility as a professional dog trainer does not end when the class is over.
• Putting yourself in harms way. Getting bit is just a part of the job and if you are working with many, many dogs it’s bound to happen regardless of how experienced you are or what precautions your take. Taking a bite sounds easy but there’s more to it; you have to learn to calm yourself in a way you never had to before. You have to not only deal with your injury, you also have to deal with the dog that bit you, and the owners who are most likely mortified and heartbroken. You always have to remain professional, regardless of how much blood you may be losing!
• Heartbreak is a major factor in all animal professions and dog training is no exception. Dog’s you’ve worked with for many months or years will pass away, or move, or simply stop coming for training as they’ve reached their goals. Then there is the other side of the scale where you have to have deep, meaningful, gut wrenching conversations about a dog with their owner. Maybe they aren’t suitable for the family, maybe their behavior is more than the family is equipped to handle. These are the most difficult conversations you will ever have. Being a professional dog trainer is emotionally exhausting. Getting attached to your students and their dogs is a very real pit fall for any professional trainer.  
• Always being covered in slobber, dog hair and dirt. Let’s be honest, most people just can’t deal with the grime that comes with being with dogs all the time.
• Constantly taking courses, reading, and growing in your skills as a professional dog trainer is exhausting and expensive. Being at the top of your profession means constantly learning and growing. What worked 10 years ago has been improved upon. Scientific studies are always coming out with new information on the cognitive abilities of dogs and as a professional dog trainer, it is a professional dog trainer’s duty and responsibility to always be current in your skills and your knowledge of dogs and their abilities to learn.
• Driving for an hour only to arrive at your client’s home to find out they’ve cancelled (Usually by just not answering the door). Yes, it happens and it’s not only frustrating, it’s costly both financially and time wise.

You are probably wondering after all of this, “Why on earth would someone want to be in this profession??” Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, it’s my passion, my purpose, my dream. Despite the missed family gatherings, the sleepless nights, the blood and gore, the heartbreak and impossible conversations, the joy of seeing a dog truly bond with their owner, and the owner truly understanding their dog for the first time, more than makes up for it all! Dogs are truly underestimated and misunderstood daily, and my job allows them to flourish, to be the best version of themselves that they can be, to be understood, loved, and a truly functioning part of the family.
Dogs don’t ask to be in our lives, so it’s our responsibility to not only ensure they have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, but also meet all of their other needs as well; their need for exercise, their need for enrichment, their need to be a dog. Dogs aren’t humans, and it’s no wonder there are so many issues that need to be sorted, but a dedicated, ethical, driven trainer will help build that bridge of understanding and in doing so, build an unbreakable bond between you and your dog. I am humbled daily by what dogs have to teach me and there isn’t anything, anywhere, or anyone, that could ever make me want to change professions. I have visions of myself, in my 90’s, possibly even in a wheel chair, working with clients and their dogs to enhance and build that elusive bond!
So if you think dog training is playing with fluffy puppies all the time, you are right, and you are wrong.

Paws & Love