Dog training can be a fun experience. You get to teach dogs new skills while helping them get used to unfamiliar situations. Whether you want to do this as a passion or simply a career choice, becoming a personal dog trainer requires a lot of effort and dedication. Many dog owners prefer private training programs for their animals. Only certified personal dog trainers can offer such training. Dog training is an ever-evolving field. This means that even experienced personal trainers will have to take refresher courses from time to time to stay abreast of all developments in the dog training field. If you’re considering this as a career choice, you may have to start from the bottom.
Becoming a Certified Personal Dog Trainer
Professional dog training is one of those fields where experience is crucial. For example, if you’ve been around dogs for a long time, such experience becomes invaluable when you choose to enroll in a certified dog training program. On average, acquiring the core skills to become a personal dog trainer takes about 4 months. This is because most such training programs are based on contact hours. For example, you’ll need to do at least 300 hours of hands-on training experience in the previous three years to be considered for certification. At the end of it, you’ll have to sit a theory exam before becoming certified. The basic steps required to become a personal dog trainer will determine the exact amount of time you spend to become certified. These steps include:
1)Gauging Your Personal Experience
Your previous experience (or lack thereof) with dogs will determine where you start on the learning curve as far as becoming a dog trainer goes. For instance, a good grasp of animal behavior is essential to such training. If you already have a dog of your own, work on training it with some basic commands. If you’re completely new to the whole dog training thing, seek out resources to get you started. You can read books about the topic or attend seminars and workshops. Volunteering at an animal shelter that caters to dogs is also a great way to gain valuable experience. This initial phase will tell you exactly where you are on the learning curve.
2) Enroll in a Formal Dog Training Program
After gauging your personal experience regarding dogs, you’ll get a pretty good idea of how long it’ll take you to become adept at personal dog training. If you’ve had previous experience handling dogs, this will be easier for you compared to a complete beginner. During such a training program, you’ll get to learn about basic dog behavior, teaching dog commands from basic to advanced, what to expect from the dog during each training phase, and everything in between. Even when you’ve managed to successfully train your personal dog, a formal training program helps you to teach other people’s dogs with whom you have no previous experience.
If you’re reluctant to enroll in such a program, there are other options. For instance, you can do an apprenticeship under a certified personal dog trainer. In many instances, such an apprenticeship is worth its weight in gold. A good recommendation from such a certified personal trainer will go a long way toward helping your certification later on. Many such apprenticeship programs and other such training run for a minimum of six months. In other instances, you may be required to do this for up to a year. The time spent during such training programs is well worth it. You’ll get to interact with clients and their dogs as you learn the ropes.
3) Become Certified
While there is no central authority that offers certification for personal dog training, there are independent organizations that do it. For example, the International Association of Canine Professionals (IACP) is an organization that aims to promote proper and efficient dog training practices. They have certification exams like the Dog Trainer Foundation Certification (DTFC) and Certified Dog Trainer (CDT).
Other organizations that offer personal dog training credentials include the American Kennel Club’s Canine Excellent Citizen (CGC) and the National Association of Dog Obedience Trainers (NADOI). Admittedly, some of these certification courses take at least a year of study before completing them. A good example is the DTFC, which includes six modules on which candidates are examined. If you have one of these certifications on your resume, dog owners will be more likely to believe in your personal dog training skills and offer you a job.
Read more interesting articles at organisedeveryday