If you have facility, board and train seems to be in hot demand and fairly lucrative for the trainer.
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and is sort of like enlisting in the army and being sent into combat as every weekend, every holiday is spent in the kennel… bark, bark, bark, bark, bark
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Oh I didn’t mean I was hanging a sign out front tomorrow. It was more, I want to continue my education with that possiblity in mind. 
I’ve had more than 2 dogs of course but that is all I’m capable of having at my current home. I was thinking after more courses of looking to apprentice.
Yup. Less expensive in feed and property requirements though lol
I have owned and trained dogs for 50 years now. I have a lot of friends that are professional trainers and they have experience with many different type dogs because they apprenticed to good trainers before striking off on their own. They have titled in their sport(s) of choice and can lead me on my journey.
Think of it this way: if you have an explosive horse that bucked and reared and strikes out at people, you wouldn’t pay the person whose only horse experience has been trail riding in a group a few times to train that horse. If your goal was to ride grand prix dressage, you wouldn’t pay a cutting horse trainer to give you dressage lessons.
Offer yourself up to the trainer who praised your skill as an unpaid assistant and start there. Pay your dues and then go out on your own. If you jump in before you’re ready, you’ll get a reputation and that will never go away. Even if you think you’re ready now? Or next month? Or even next year? You’re not.
Sheilah
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Definitely consider asking the instructor who praised you what he thinks your next steps should be.
One of the puppy owners from my dog’s last litter is a free lance obedience instructor. She is a young woman who has another FT job. She just dabbles in it at this point, but she is putting titles on her own dog, and also demonstrates her skills by showcasing certain exercises she is doing with her dog on Facebook. Things that owners can practice at home to achieve certain steps toward titles.
I would definitely also consider putting a title on your own dog and getting a sense of what competitive obedience means (which isn’t really “competitive” at the lower levels - but maybe “judged” obedience.) It’s little things that make a difference, and understanding what moves a dog from one level to the next is important. And you would make connections, which is always great.
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I have stated multiple times that I very much plan on doing much more with my own two dogs as far as different obedience / agility/nose work as well as seeking an apprenticeship. I have been by 4 different trainers (from two different schools of thought) that I’m on a good path. Part of what made me want to go down this path is because I own a reactive and slightly difficult dog and to see the change in him has been wonderful. I’m learning about the theory behind it all and I find it very fascinating. But he is also a very driven dog so we absolutely plan on competing in something. We will find what we think he will enjoy.
I’m not in any way shape or form talking about just jumping out and being a professional. This post was more about starting down that path the more education and everything you would do for any kind of job that you would look to get into. Train and prepare for the job that you want. I absolutely don’t think I can just start training random dogs for pay.
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Start by joining your local performance dog club, take lessons, go to their seminars, participate in helping with lessons and dog shows helping the club.
That would be a good start to decide if you want to be a dog trainer, as there may be some full dog trainers helping with the club you can then talk to about becoming a trainer.
Training dogs well, reading all the books, attending all kinds of training seminars by the best trainers, using going to shows to learn more, that is what those professional dog trainers have spent their life doing and it is never too late to start, if you want to see how that may fit in your life.
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One thing that strikes me about this comment is that this is true for dog training too. The drama part not so much for pet dog trainers but if you have a group of “competition dogs/handlers” you do have the same drama at a slightly reduced level and being a dog trainer you get the dog equivalent of “the kind of horses” you get as a trainer.
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I can see that! For me I meant more than instability when working out of someone else’s barn. I suppose it could be very similar with dog training but here barns are selling left and right and turning into housing developments. Sad and scary.
And one barn always gets lame lesson horses that aren’t really mentally suited to the job… And don’t get me started on the tack that’s in poor shape/doesn’t fit at all!
Drama, I’m good about staying out of that because I’m just very low key. But I have met a few people on the horse world that the crazy just oozed out on a different level! The stories I could tell! But thankfully that’s more of a rare occasion in the crazy people usually show themselves right away. True colors and all.
For decades, every dog trainer in our area, practically all have worked with our performance dog club, also run a kennel, dog daycare, grooming business.
The dog training is one of multiple serviced.
Dog kennels in the suburbs are big business, many people take vacations, have to travel for business or other personal situations and dog boarding places are full and have waiting times.
Have you considered something like that, would that work along with training dogs?
There is a shelter near me that tends to have a lot of dogs. They put basic training on the dogs that they adopt out. They have paid trainers and volunteers who work with the trainers and dogs. A shelter I worked at used volunteer dog walkers. It is a good way to work with a number of different dogs from different backgrounds.
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There was this group that taught shelter volunteers how to train dogs thru shelter programs, Walter Turken dog training:
http://www.adogsbestfriend.com/services/specialty-training/our-staff/
They were an excellent program, not sure it is active any more.
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Excellent idea. My daughter and I actually used to go walk dogs at our local humane society. Obviously only the kid friendly ones at that time but I could go back while she’s in school.
We also did a class at another Humane Society. They also do a “pup club.” Where they take a few puppies and let them play and socialize appropriately but they also work on exposing them to different things and teaching a few commands. I thought it was a brilliant idea! It’s the only program around here that’s like that.
I wonder if I can do something like that on a smaller scale.
I’m late in seeing this thread. I’ve been a professional dog trainer for almost 18 years now, switching from horses. And as much as I love my horses, I will say I wish I’d switched to dogs sooner. It is more lucrative, less dangerous, and less costly. While I do some obedience training, my area of specialty is gun dogs, and specifically problem dogs that other trainers have quit on. Feel free to ask any questions you like.
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LOL or that other trainers have ruined. I have one of those. Fixable, if I wanted, but I just don’t have the time/desire. But it’s not hard to ruin a softer breed with a one-size fits all training method.
My former trainer trained my dog to blink birds. That’s useful in competition. 
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Ohh thank you! I would love to hear how you got into that.
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I feel silly asking this, but what does this mean?
Blinking birds means the dog pretends to not see or smell them. Usually caused by using too much pressure in training and making the dog think birds are bad.
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