How to Become a Dog Trainer

all right welcome back everybody to balanced dog training with Suburban K9

how's it going everybody all right well today we're going to open with um you know as I've told you in previous

episodes we can't reply to Spotify comments don't know why there's no option but there's not it's pretty weird

but that's the way it is um we got a comment the other day from Joey Kirkland

and he said it was on our episode on AI and his question was how do I become a

dog trainer and we loved the question so Joey this episode's for you it's titled

how to become a dog trainer we should title it like Joey's response or something

crazy hey Joey exactly that's the episode name I'm sure that would kill it

in the search people be like that's that's the episode for me hey that's what I wanted to watch that sounds good

yeah um I like this question a lot and absolutely you know for all of you that have questions ask them because honestly

we hadn't thought about doing this episode and we should have because we get asked this all the time we've we've hired a lot of clients over the years

that ask us this and we talk about what the job is like and they some of them end up becoming uh members of the team

so um great question so I I love I love it and let's just Dive Right In let's do

it I think the start would be you know we don't need to talk too long on this but dog training's an awesome job we'll

talk uh cons later but you know Pros I love seeing people come into the field

and you know I know I don't worry about competition like what if there's more dog trainers out there I think it's a great thing for the industry to have

more trainers I think it's a great live like way to make a living it's able to be healthy be active move around inside

outside traveling around helping people there's just so many so many pluses to this job that it's pretty awesome uh we

want people to understand it which we're going to talk about cuz it's not all roses and lollipops and kisses but and I

you know like to to boil it down even a little bit further you know our experience comes from uh behavioral you

know changes and and really working with behavioral modification and pet dogs but

just think of all the different kind of trainers there there are right you know different styles different different

approaches and and also different goals you know they there's there's so much work for anybody you know really to jump

in so yeah I'm with you and the fact that competition just just really isn't a thing I mean there's there's so many

shelter dogs that need to be trained and found homes and everything like that that will never have a shortage of work

it's not going to happen so we'll talk later when we get to cons I think and you know just some things to think about

you know dog training is traditionally not well paying at all I think the stats still show the average dog trainer makes

like 14 or 15 an hour um so you know our company pays much better than that but

that's the average so you need to really think about how you'd make a living doing this and which we'll get into you

know later but overall I mean it's a it's a great way to make a living if you can find a job you know what like that

pays well enough to pay your bills and be happy so but you need to really think about like you don't get paid like a

doctor or or whatever for sure so if we get

into you know ways to become a dog trainer I mean there's a lot of ways um

you know I I could open and then Nelson if you want to kind of run with this for a I recommend to everybody learn what the

industry is like before jumping in so if we're you know tailoring this to Joey I

don't know what you do for for a job presumably something I wouldn't quit that and jump right into dog training

even if someone said hey here's here's an opportunity for you unless you have a lot of dog experience and know what it's

like so I always recommend to people volunteer at a shelter or do a lot of

dog training go to a bunch of classes with your own dog tons of them and see what it's like or get a job if you're

you know want to at a dog daycare do something to to figure out what the industry is like even if you make zero

or next to nothing just to learn you know what actually happens on a daily basis yeah absolutely and I think a lot

of that is also how old are you you know obviously we don't know how old Joey is

right but if he's 18 fresh out of high school you know like maybe yeah getting

a job at PetSmart or getting a job at uh at Doggy Daycare or something like that

makes a ton of sense and not only because you're going to get a lot of experience just with dogs you know I

would say pay attention to body language you know if you could read body language you can help a lot of people just just

flat out even you know with no other training other than that um but a lot of

what you're doing is you're making connections you're making uh really a lot of future clients potentially that

kind of stuff you know uh I I do think that getting a job somewhere involved with dogs where

you're going to be actually Hands-On with them is going to make a a huge you know a huge uh Advantage for you moving

forward yeah definitely a huge Advantage you know when you're looking for a job but it also helps you know what kind of

job you want so you hit on this a minute ago Nelson that there's a lot of different types of dog training and you

might not know what you want until you get into it so I've had people say hey really want to work with aggressive dogs

and then they see a few aggressive dogs and they're like yeah I don't I don't want to do this right and there's no shame in that and they say I'd rather do

something else you know you might find that you you know think you want to do

work with aggressive dogs you go to the shelter and you find out it's not for you or maybe the opposite maybe you're like I really want to do agility and I

want to do scent work and all these different things and then you get to a shelter and you get a fearful reactive

dog and you make some progress with it and you're like wow that's life-changing for them and for me I want to do that so

it allows you to learn because when we get into me uh not methods um like just routes to go like when you're looking

for a job methods are going to matter and you know there's different methods for different uh different types of

training so you need to get a different education if you want to be an agility trainer versus a solve complex

behavioral issues trainer yeah absolutely and not to mention too uh because that's a really good point about

finding out maybe what kind of training you actually want to work towards because that'll that'll also change uh

what your lifestyle is going to look like you know me being a just pet dog

trainer you know we work with a lot of families and behavior modification that also means that I get to spend a lot of

time at home you know with my kids and with my wife and I get to do a lot of training around my kids that's a huge

you know benefit to me I I really really enjoyed that but that would be different if you were a sport dog trainer because

there's a there's a decent chance that you're going to be traveling at least regionally you know doing competitions

or hosting seminars that kind of stuff uh and that's that's time away from home

so you know again that's just merely to throw out the fact that once you do have somewhat of an idea of what kind of

training you actually want to do you it'll it'll kind of paint the picture of hey what's life going to look like and

how that's a huge Factor at least for me as to is that what I want to pursue or

not yeah so there you're focusing on the lifestyle right which I think is is is

great and just so everyone understands you know the the phrase pet dog trainer can sound weird right like but aren't

dogs pets and if you train them aren't you a pet dog trainer but that's a lot different than a sport dog trainer so

there's people that focus on Dog Sports right and they're you know doing some

protection some this some that right you know some French ring sport who knows what right and they're getting their dogs out there and they're they're

working working working some of those people see their dogs as a pet second and kind of like a tool or like a

working animal first some of them might say they're it's still their pet first and everything else comes second but

their focus those trainers is on excelling at those sports right and that's a lot different than what we do

which is trying to help people live their best life with their dog M and if someone comes to me and they're like I

want to kill it at that sport I want to be awesome I tell them to go somewhere else right you know find someone who

that's their focus our goal is to help you raise the right dog to be your pet to be great in the household not bite

people not run away listen to you and just just you know be a good member of your family so when you hear that phrase

it's a big distinction and to Nelson's Point there's a lifestyle distinction probably traveling a lot more as a sport

dog trainer uh and then I also just think there's a I I don't know how to say like I I

don't want to say this in a negative way cuz I'm not anti- sport dog training but there's just a big big difference in

what you're like what you're bringing into the world right in like sport dog training you're doing that because you

enjoy it and if that's what you enjoy that's cool right to me it's like it's a it's a hobby and when you see people

that are really good at it that's amazing like they're really good at at their hobby you know our goal is to give

dogs a better life and give owners a better life I don't think sport work does that unless you say hey now I've

got a hobby so I'm fulfilled right so you could make that argument right right but we're really focused on dog at home

with the kids in the neighborhood just being a good allaround dog so to me that's much more fulfilling yeah

absolutely and and I agree 100% And just to like really round that out U our job

kind of flies right in the face of their job you know of those sport dog trainers a lot of the times they're trying to

increase drive and increase that that hyperfocus and that kind of stuff where we're we're actually trying to work

again against it and we're really trying to get those dogs fulfilled in in other ways and so that's why that distinction

actually exists because we have different goals and that's the whole point that Matt was making which is you

got to figure out I just hit myself with my own wire you got to figure out what kind of uh training that it is that

you're actually looking for and yeah I mean I think those sports are pretty cool I I I enjoy seeing what they can do

I enjoy seeing all the agility Feats that uh a lot of these dogs can do so I

mean it's not to look down on them I think it's awesome it's just not what we

do agreed so at some point in time during this episode I want to just like pick a

fight with you and tell you how much better I am at golf than you are oh

listen I'm a a six what was it a six handicap okay I

don't know I'm amazing hearing are two presidential

candidates argue about who's a better golfer like my kids were like what's

happening I don't I don't know I'm not sure why they're arguing about Golf and Roman you know who's eight is like he he

likes the word relevant now he's like is this relevant this is not you hit the nail on

the head buddy this is not relevant fantastic but it was crazy and you know

I don't know if you're watching this EP or listening to this episode way in the future uh the the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden was last

night and hearing them bicker about golf was just like who's a better golfer was so so crazy to me I just that was

hilarious and I don't even know what the insult was cuz I'm not into golf that way yet but like yet I like how you say

yet uh you know I'm growing right like who knows what I'll be into but uh you

know for me if they were to to do the same thing it'd be like yeah well I caught a 10B bass I'd be like oh dang

but uh you know I'm assuming that was the energy right so I was all for it I was laughing so

hard it was pretty wild all right so uh we've established I

may be a better golfer than you for now but you're going to be you're going to be doing a lot more golf uh just so you

know if I'm better than you that means you've got real problems because I'm a pretty crappy golfer but how often do you go golfing uh I average once every 3

to four years probably okay see that's that's light years ah of me I think last time I went golfing I was in the second

grade so it's a hard sport it is so back to oh

sport back to Dog Sports right we came full circle that's a hard sport that was good I don't know if you planned that

but that so you know I I think we can maybe kind of move on a little bit but you

need to think through what you want to do right what kind of training you want to do and you're probably not going to

know uh unless you have a decent amount of experience already but maybe you've gone to training with your own dog and

you've done tons of private sessions or classes or whatever and you've realized like yes this is what I want to do so

then you have to start kind of getting into you know what where do you go to get you know get more experience yeah I

would also say you need to understand the divide in dog training between

purely positive and balanced and make sure that you are going to work in a

place or trainer School whatever which we'll talk about that shares those values you have and I would tell you to

learn a little bit so if you say hey I'm I really like balanced training doesn't

mean you can't learn about some purely positive and if you're like hey I really like purely positive I'd recommend that

you you know look into balance training as well and see the difference you know reading a book is great but I would also

then make sure you see it in real life CU I I don't like when I see people go down a path that becomes a huge waste of

time for them and that could happen if you are go down the purely positive

route you go to one of the schools that offer that and then you get out and it's not working for you and then you want to

go get a job as a balanced trainer you're unlearning so many things that

it's not even really helpful that you went yeah now and that was my experience right I worked at PetSmart first I did

that's all all pure pure positive and and I would say that the benefit was

seeing that it's it fails in certain situations and that it's good in other situations and learning how to talk to

people and stuff like that but that's why we give the advice that we give right I mean it was it was good purely

for the fact that it showed me what kind of training I actually wanted to go down

umh but that's you know like you still want to be well-rounded even if you were like hey I'm a pure positive trainer to

you know through and through and I'll never change it's still worth learning about balanced dog training and if

nothing else at least you're well-rounded and able to answer questions and concerns from future

clients right so it it's it's worth learning why there's a division or

rather what the division actually is you know where does one start and the other stop that kind of stuff because

obviously there's similarities throughout the entirety of dog training it's just you know style and stuff like

that that really kind of gets you into one camp or the other definitely need to

take the time to learn for sure and we have a lot of trainers in our company

that went to either purely positive schools or did something else realized

it didn't really work and then looked for balance training and end up joining our team um you know some went to purely

positive schools you know quite a few did that and then um one one of our trainers here in Nashville used to work

for a a uh I me huge worldwide company in their uh Pet Care Division um working

with their dogs that are like living on you know on their property for I don't

know you know food testing and some some other things um and it was purely

positive and realized that wasn't giving the dogs like what they really needed and you know moved moved on from there

so it doesn't mean if you do purely positive like school like oh now you're out of luck right but what I would say

is you could if you're not going to follow that you could put your energy you could save the money and put your

energy elsewhere from the start save the money for sure so let's get into that for a second

if we talk schools there there's only two schools I know of that I think are

pretty decent uh and maybe there's more but Tom Rose for sure and Then star mark

down in Texas those are you know real dog training schools that if someone's

getting into dog training I think are worth considering and we could dive into pros and cons for you know for a few

minutes here of them but if you're looking for a school I think those would be two good places to start to look

up uh do you want me to take this Nelson yeah go ahead take that one cuz I have

more experience with ABC or animal behavior College that's that's what was big in Chicago remember and so yeah go

ahead and take these out on these two so Tom Rose and starmark neither either one are cheap and that's not an insult it

just is what it is right like it's it's a lot of work they maintain a property so you pay a lot of money if you're going to go to either of the two of them

if you do you need to do a lot of research about what it is they do what you're learning and doesn't make sense

for you and the reason I say that like so if you go to tomrose and you take like one of their like upper level like

training like you're there for a long time so big opportunity cost right and then you're paying a bunch of money

you're learning obedience you're probably learning tracking you're learning personal protection you're doing all these different things if

that's what you want to do like if you want to be a a competitive sport dog trainer I think going to Tom Rose is

probably the way to go now there's other options too but if you said that's my that's my life path I want to be a

competitive sport dog trainer I would probably say go tour Tom Rose's school

and I I I think that's probably the route for you um if you can afford it and you know if you can you know take

enough time off your life to live there and you know for quite a while and learn so that's a great option but that

circles back to what we talked about earlier do you want to be a sport dog trainer if you don't you need to

determine is that does that make sense do you need to learn and do you want to learn all of that stuff about building

drive and build you know building that willingness to work and how to do things that you might then never do in real

life so our company does does not do protection we don't do any bite work whatsoever we don't believe in it in the

sense of and for you you know those of you listening that do it with your own dog I'm not like knocking you for doing it it's just the calls we have always

gotten over the years for people that want their dog trained in protection you hear the call and you're like yeah I

don't want to train your dog in protection right it's like like I don't want that on my conscious like when you

know a protection trained dog is like a loaded weapon right sure and if you know

how to you know care for that weapon and maintain it and keep it out of their wrong hands and use it properly it's

fine many people don't and I mean there's you know there's all these stories I think we've talked about one

in the previous episode of a a protection trainer up in Wisconsin who had a you know protection trained dog

that he was selling and talking about how great it was it was a really good dog and the dog ended up killing his

child and don't know tons of details on it but this dog was for sale by a

professional protection trainer and then it killed his own child which obviously is horrific beyond belief uh to me that

that's always a worry right so that's why we don't do it and that was a longer segue that I meant to take but just

think about it right if you want to and if you want to do protection and you want to do sport work I think that's a

great place but if you don't it might not be worth the time and money to learn that stuff and I guess like so with that

we've talked about this uh in previous episodes but more for clients right if

you have the resources and you just you know want the best of the best or you

know something along those lines you know our premium packages sometimes are the best way to go whether they were

necessary because you had an easier dog whatever it is you know this could be looked at very similarly and a lot of it

is hey I have the resources to go I have the time to go I have the time to do all this stuff the the

benefit or the value that these schools really give you is letting you try a lot

of different Avenues and different training you know Sports and styles and you know all that stuff so I mean it's

it's not that it's useless it's not like you're paying for nothing but it's it's also a huge cost right and if you if you

do have a a more uh straight line that you're trying to trying to go you know

because you have an understanding of what kind of training you want the value isn't there anymore so I I agreee with

you I and I I should have I think been clear on that right there is there's value if you have the money and time so

if someone said I've got unlimited money unlimited time sure go to a purely

positive School spend months there and then go to a balance School spend months there right like education is education

most people that we run into have a shortage of time and money so but if you

had unlimited and so I just looked up Tom Rose for a second their master program is 18 Grand

um and whether that's a good value or bad value I don't I don't know that's kind of a judgment call but it's not cheap right yeah and I don't know if

that includes your room and board I think that is separate um so it's a lot

of money right you know 18 Grand plus room in board and you're there for months away from home and you're not

working so I would really think about it and like I said if you want to get into

Dog Sports and operate at a high level I think it's a great place to start I think I do want to jump in too before we

start talking about that other school even that school is not always needed

either you know Matt you didn't go to a dog training school I didn't go to a dog training school we've spent our lives

around dogs and training dogs and you know a lot of experience actually hands

on but um you know that's schools aren't always needed you know uh like I said

ABC for example that's that's in Chicago um I don't know if they have multiple locations Animal Behavior College they

uh are mainly pure positive based if I'm not mistaken they have like a small section on other styles but everything

goes back to to Pure positive training and they have their own like

accreditation or whatever it is but that's that's doesn't actually mean anything you know like they made it up

and therefore they get to enforce it and it's you're not actually getting any benefit to to having that so I I did

want to throw in in the middle of our kind of school and which way you wanted to go that you don't actually need it if you get experience you're already ahead

of the game so I think that'd be our next subject we should probably segue into uh I looked up star Mark real quick

theirs is 12 grand for 12 weeks and then room and board and stuff is on top of

that so you know it it adds up for sure for sure mhm so to your point yes you

don't need school so we have a lot of trainers in our company uh and the

majority did not go to dog training school they were trained inhouse by our team mhm and I think that's that's a

great way to go when the company is like providing training and does training

like that the same style and the same goals that that you have right so we're pet dog trainers we've already talked

about that so the trainers that come into our team that's what they're looking to learn right I want to help people with their dogs is what they're

looking to learn and so that's what we show them how to do so I would say if

you're looking to be a pet dog trainer a better option than school is probably to

find a good pet dog trainer or excellent pet dog Trader and Apprentice under them

or work for them I think it's a much much better everybody agrees it's the best dog training you could get is

Suburban K9 so that's you know so to Joey I mean

that's where our new trainers you know like they come from they you know apply for the job and it's usually people in

positions like yours that are like hey I want to get into this industry and we're obviously not the only ones so uh

there's other companies that you know bring on dog trainers there's you know there's franchises that you know are all over

the map where it's like you know pay 12 Grand and come here for three weeks and then now you're a dog trainer and you

own your own business that's that can be kind of sketchy um if you know because you there's a good chance you don't have

the experience to really know our our training program is about six months and our trainers are paid during that time

so as opposed to you know and you're not running your own business either you know once you're done with with the

whole training process you know the uh it's not an apprenticeship what do you

guys I mean it's the Superman Canon Academy but whatever you know once you go through that you're not running your

own business you have resources still with the company you know we have a lot of support that we give to you know

every territory that kind of stuff so you're you're still in a better place because you're you're still learning you

know you need experience and what I would say is when it comes to the

franchises you shouldn't be learning dog training when you get to when you decide

that you're going to open a franchise you should probably be learning uh their

style of business and then run your own business because to my knowledge it's it's pretty

hands-off once you once you get that far right they're just checking to make sure you're keeping up with standards but they don't help you run your own

business right yeah the they are hands off and the person that's doing like the local person is doing all the marketing

all the if there's any payroll filing their own taxes accounting all of that stuff and what I always encourage people

to do is think about what do you want to do do you want to be a dog trainer or do you want to be a business owner being

both at the same time kind of sucks you know so you know if someone said hey I

I'd like to be a business owner and to just be in the dog field that's different but if someone says I want to be a dog trainer I would for sure

suggest working for an established dog training company and it's not just us there's many you know there's other

companies right but it allows you to spend your time actually training versus

you know Workers Compensation Insurance and payroll and taxes and doing the marketing and just dealing with all of

those things that are you know arguably much less fun than than dog training yes

absolutely uh I would say for sure if you're looking to get into pet dog training I would look for a dog trainer

that if you find one that has a you know a program like ours does where that we do where you're trained fully trained in

house you know it's actually a job and you're paid that's I think by far the best choice if you can't find that then

there's other options even if you just found a local trainer who you've heard is great they've got great reviews you

you know you meet them you like them and ask can I work for you and maybe they

pay you maybe they don't but at least it would give you time to you know to learn

and of course make sure that you actually like like the job yeah for sure and and like some places have facilities

and we don't which is why our Avenue or our first thought isn't hey become a

kennel you know cleaner or a Kenn hand but I mean that's a that's probably a

great place to start right I mean you would get your feed into the company already and then more than anything you're just learning what it is uh about

their training style that you either do or don't like you know without without making that your career yet yep and

that's I learned the most working in kennels and working in the back

supervising groups of dogs breaking up dog fights uh trying then learning from

there how to prevent dog fights rather than just them up how to care for dogs

you know how to deal with a dog who's in its cage and it's freaking out and you need to get it out without it hurting you and without it hurting anyone else

and uh working with all types of different dogs so that and that's why we'd mentioned at the start working at a dog daycare could be a great option

absolutely yeah an experience right I mean experience is everything and even if you're older and you're not the I

mean typically Dog Daycare workers are pretty young I would guess a lot of dog daycares if you went to them and you

said Hey listen I'm 40 and want to get into the dog training field I'd like to work here to get experience I'm not

going to be here forever but you know I would like to be here for like six months or so and I'm going to work

really hard and you can trust me to not come to work high and you can trust me to not you know call off Saturday

morning because I went out and got blasted the night before um there's a good chance that Dog Daycare owner

manager is going to be like yeah let's do that I know you're not going to be here forever but I know you're going to

be unlike you know some of the other workers I have to deal with hey you know those 40y olds okay maybe they are going

out and partying on Fridays but hopefully they're up on in time oh there you go okay and that's not a crack

Against All Dog Daycare workers but man I've worked at enough dog daycares that you've got about 30% of the workers who

love dogs and they're just awesome and they're like they're dog people and then you've got 30% that are just kind of

passing through that are like you know it's just kind of a job but they you know show up and they're going to you

know work hard to get paid and you've got 30% who get high on their lunch break every day and come in and are like

just looking around that are not watching the dogs and then they just quit one day and never show up and call

so um I think there's a lot of Dog Daycare owners or I shouldn't say I think I know there's a lot of Dog

Daycare owners that would hire a temp worker that's a little bit older because they trust that hey even though you're

not going to be here forever I know you're unlikely to it's quality time while you're here yeah yeah so do we

want to talk cons for a minute yes I but before we get to a con this is like a

good Midway point right uh one of the things that I really wanted to make sure to to talk about is the fact that

there's this uh concept with especially with young trainers right or just younger people just younger trainers

that kind of stuff that dog training is all about the dogs you know and that

you're spending all your time with dogs and I mean believe me I I spend a lot of time with dogs right but at the end of

the day if you want to be successful and you want to be a successful trainer not even just a

successful business owner but just a successful trainer you have to come to the realization and be be good and be be

accepting of the fact that we're still working with humans a lot and more than with dogs

right and um the reason I bring it up is because I hear about this all the time of like oh I just want to work with the

dogs because you know like dogs are better than people and people suck you don't like all that stuff and that's not

the case and one of the things that's really opened my eyes and especially when I was younger and I started with

the company is the fact that how you interact with the people determines the success of that dog you know you need to

make sure that the people are not only happy with you so that they do what what you need them to do but understand

exactly what you're telling them so that they can work with their own dog I mean your relationship ship with those owners

is Paramount to the success of that dog and to think that like oh I'm just going

to be training up dogs and I never have to deal with people or anything like that I mean that that's just at least for companies like ours that's just not

the case and you know good right it's it's good that it's not the case because

again you really get to see both sides you a lot of the uh fulfillment you know

I guess of the job is getting to see the whole family the the people and the dogs

really working together and you're really coming together but um that's just something I hear so often and I

can't shake my head enough right when when I do hear it but it's not I only

want to work with dogs and I don't want to work with people or anything like that it's you know you have to be good

with the fact that you're going to be working with both because both sides of the coins are extremely important yeah

and I think maybe I want to rephrase when I was saying to jump into cons I think maybe it's more make it let's talk

realistically about what the job is like yeah right and so that's a a great Point what you just said uh because I get

worried when someone's like yeah I like dogs way better than I like people yeah like that that can be a problem because

a big part of our job is training people how to handle their dog and that's a big part of what we do absolutely for sure

so and as we get realistic um you know dog training especially what we do it's

not easy and I don't mean it's not easy like you know we're so awesome only only

we can do it I mean it like it's not um it's not easy in the sense of every day

is the same and everything is cut and dry and predictable it's very unpredictable you know it's very it can

be it's a tough job but you know some people thrive in tough jobs I can't

imagine every day being the same I'd go crazy for sure and I think that's the vast majority of the trainers in our

company is that every day is wildly different and you don't know what you're going to get

yourself into you know day after day and there's some parts that are predictable if you have I might be getting a a

10-week old French Bulldog for a board and train in a week or so here which I'm excited about that will be predictable I

will be housebreaking him and training him how to sit and come and all these things on a daily basis that'll be

predictable but I've got a house call coming up I guess tomorrow that'll be

very unpredictable the dog is bit people in the face right and don't know what

it'll be like as we get into training right so every day is different and sometimes you just don't know what

you're going to get MH yeah and I think

you know along those lines every day is different but you also you have to be good at um being

able to keep your composure through anything right because people that don't

know you know it's very easy to get frustrated with people that's like I don't even understand how you did this

or how you let this happen or anything like that and seems so clueless to us but you know they didn't know right

you're there for a reason and so you know along with the fact that this is

part of what makes it a hard job is that you also have to be able to stay calm and keep your composure throughout

everything including dog bites right when you get bit you can't fly off the handle you still have to figure out okay

what happened what did I do explain the situation to the owner you know that kind of stuff so that can make the job a

little bit a little bit tougher yeah it's definitely a more high intensity job from time to time than than the

average job and there's many jobs out there that are more high intensity than ours of course right but this is much

different than like your typical office job for sure you know one of the biggest challenges we have as dog trainers is

motivating and coaching clients and just something to think about if you're looking to get into the field

that's the most frustrating part of my job without a doubt I think that goes for almost every trainer because you get

to the point where you're like oh I can I can get that dog to stop lunging and trying to bite people and I can get that

puppy to come and called or whatever but how do you get that client to put in the work right and everyone's different some

clients are dream clients right and you show up a week later and they're like I've done it I've did my daily walk I

did 15 minutes of this like you said I did five practices of the doorbell I did this this this this this and you're like

okay let's move on that's great and then you have others where you show up the following week and you're like how'd it

go and they're like I didn't have anyone over like okay well that was the homework right did how how did the walks

go I'm like oh it's really it was hot this week we didn't walk okay like how did it go with the

obedience like oh I was busy with work I didn't do you know any obedience and like how how can we help you if you

don't work to help yourself right and so that can be for you have to really work hard to motivate that client like okay

we've got to be different this week let's talk about what we can change and you have to like put on that happy face

and really work to motivate them and I always equate it to like a uh like

workout or weight loss coach that's like with someone and they're working out and the person's like I want to lose weight and they give them all this advice and

they come back the next week and they're like I'm not losing weight like what'd you eat well I mean I know you said not

to go to McDonald's but I went to McDonald's most meals and I drank a sixpack of beer last night and I did all

these things like you're never going to lose weight if you don't listen to me and I feel like that's what we deal with

some very much so yeah absolutely uhhuh and it's I you know people aren't doing that purposely right they're just you

know habits old habits die hard and it's up to us as trainers to really work to motivate them so something to think

about if you're looking to get into the field that there's going to be a time where you're firing in all cylinders you're killing it you're doing

everything right with the dog and it's still really hard to make progress because you can't figure out how to get

that client to do the work absolutely yeah and that's a that's where style

comes in you know you have to learn how you're going to be able to motivate you're going to have to learn you know

like uh your personality and how you'll be able to relate to others and that

kind of stuff also reading personalities you're going to have to be able to read your clients and see hey what's what's

going to be the best way to actually uh manage someone like this

and sometimes they're competitive and you got to challenge them you know that kind of stuff sometimes they're uh I

don't know more sensitive and you have to hold their hands the whole time right but just like docs you know we we have

to cater our our training to each individual dog we have to cater our training to each individual person but

that's also one of the biggest reasons as to why this is never going to be a I only work with dogs type of uh type of

job the other way right I mean you could become a behaviorist and only work with

people but you could never only work with dogs so that's a thing I mean I

guess if we really want to split hairs there's probably or I know there are some trainers who are like Junior

trainers I mean they get paid next to nothing that board and train facilities will have and the senior trainer does

the lessons with clients and the junior trainers do all the work with the dog but that person's also probably making $111 an hour yeah exactly not

sustainable not the profession profession you probably want mhm I touched on this a minute ago but

important to understand the job is unpredictable and thinking through do you thrive on that and I do but not

everyone does some people are creatures of habit and if you are and you want every day to be very similar this job

would probably not be a good job for you mhm and it's just wor you know it's not

not every job is right for every person yeah so if you really love predictability being a pet dog trainer

going to people's homes do is not if you want predictability every day that's probably not for you and the the big

difference that I would tell people is training one dog like your own personal dog or you know like this is a hobby of

yours and so you get to pick who you work with you know that's vastly different than when you start to make it

a profession and you're starting to get your hands on a ton of different dogs because you know your own personal dogs

they're it's it's one dog it's one personality and then you're just teaching that one personality that one

dog how to do all of these things and that's awesome and that's that's great

but you might be having three house calls in one day if you do house calls right you know like obviously there's a

bunch of different jobs but you might be doing three house calls and one might be a goofy puppy the next one might be a

very dominant Rottweiler and then the next one might be a Chihuahua that's scared of its own shadow and is willing

to bite anything that moves right I mean like that's it that's the inconsistency too

of you never know what your day is going to look like because it's a different combination of dogs that you're actually getting hands on with and with this dog

I need to be you know very assertive myself with this dog I can't be assertive you have to be able to kind of

switch that up as well and I think to kind of sum all of that up this job makes sense for you if you like dogs you

like people you want you know you thrive on excitement and things being different

every day you're comfortable thinking on your feet you enjoy that aspect and

you're you're willing to continue learning every single day which we haven't really touched on but you know

you're going to learn new things all the time because all of a sudden you're going to work with a dog and nothing's

going to be working or working with a client and nothing's working you're like how do I motivate this person and you've got to be willing to experiment and try

new things and realize okay that type of person or that type of dog I need to do

this and put that your toolbox and and know that your toolbox is always growing you can't this isn't the kind of job

where you have your toolbox with nine things in it and you never need a tenth yeah you're going to need a 10th an 11th a 12th and you're going to be up to a

thousand it's just going to keep growing through time you're absolutely correct right and because different people that

we work with have different uh moralities right it's what they're comfortable with and what they're not

comfortable with and sometimes they'll put restraints on you as hey yeah I know if I could put a prong collar on this

dog than I would have been done a week ago but they're they strictly only want to work with a harness or something like

that and now you have to get creative as like how are we going to get to a you know to a good place with this dog with

all of these restraints on it and that's why yeah you have to be able to kind of think on your feet and get creative with

how are we going to set these types of situations up when there's all these limitations you know you don't you move

to a town and you don't know anybody so we can't get anyone over to the door how are you going to work on this type of

homework all of that stuff I mean these are these are very common things that come up you know years ago my

brother-in-law was uh went on an appointment with me we needed a stranger like you know for something you know for

the door and then it was like he wanted to see what the just what the job was like and uh so he was you know on the

appointment and we got done and the people had just that moved to town and they weren't working on the front door

at all and he's like afterwards he's like so the main thing I got from that is you're encouraging those people to

make friends huh laughing but like we spent so much time talking about like you're going to

have to if you want this dog to accept people in the house you've got to have people come in the house so we sat down

and we made specific plans like I want you to go to the neighbor's house knock on the door introduce yourself tell them

what's going on and anyone you see that has a dog go to their house you know in the neighborhood and knock on the door

they're going to be willing to help you and tell them I just moved to town I I don't have any friends here my dog is not great with new people he's you know

18 months old we need to get a hand on this now is there any way you'll come knock on my door you know they're going to say yes mhm and then we talk about

ordering pizzas you know to have piz is classic yep give them a good tip and say do you mind ringing the doorbell again

and they're going be like for five bucks yeah let's let's do it um but yeah I mean it's it's h sometimes you're

telling people you need to make friends you got to have people come over absolutely yeah different places to uh

to go explore right right because you need a a certain type of experience but

again that's all about really uh thinking on your feet

and problem solving you know because like you you can't berate somebody for

not knowing anybody yeah you just gently encourage yeah there you go so I think we've covered a lot of ground Joey I

hope this was helpful for you and anyone else listening I hope it's helpful for you as well you know if you have

follow-up questions ask if we said something on any of these topics and it like you know brought up a new question

please ask we'd love to answer it absolutely uh and then if you have another topic you'd like to see us cover

ask us that as well we love doing this podcast it's a lot of fun it gives us a chance to argue about who's a better

golfer all kinds of all kinds of relevant stuff I love that if you have questions

ask him we'd love to help you but thank you for listening thanks guys