The Business of the Dog Business

  Being a professional dog trainer isn’t easy. Everyone assumes that it’s a “dream job”. Little do they know, you work twice as hard for half as much as anyone else. All the schools out there tell you all the money you’re going to make so they get you to sign up as a student. You watch all the TV personality dog trainers and think: “look at all the money they’re making”. Yea right.

  Truth is, most of the time you’re not a dog trainer at all. You’re in the marketing business. And it has been said that you don’t have to be good, just a good marketer. That’s one of the problems. This economy is the pits. And if stupid was a crime, we would need allot more jails.

  I just recently moved to south eastern Colorado. It is a very different world from New York. The things I see out here in the dog world are unreal. Some people out here buy a dog or get one from the shelter. They get him a dog house in the yard, and that’s it. And that’s where he stays. People here and all over are not very knowledgeable to dog training and what they think its worth. Truth is that it’s worth more than they think.

  There are allot of good dog trainers out there. There are also allot of bad ones. If you’re a good, educated, certified behaviorist, what’s that worth per hour? Some people assume that you just love working with animals so much you should do it for free. Sure, that’s how my rent gets paid. My landlord loves me so much he lets me live there for free. The business has been diluted with amateurs that are just looking to take people’s money. Also, many big corporate stores ,really are in the pet supply business and use cheap training as a clever way of bringing clients into their stores. They hire young, underpaid, minimally skilled people to train dogs. They save the really hard, aggressive dogs for guys like me. Because they don’t have the skill or guts to take on that task. And they call themselves dog trainers. They just want to work with cute little puppies that couldn’t hurt a fly and call themselves dog trainers. Give me a break.

  The general public needs to be educated. Some people think that their dog is just another child in their home and it will just learn on its own. Again, yea right. But maybe I’m asking too much. After all look at how people treat each other. Why should they care about treating a dog better? Or being considerate enough to pay a decent wage to a qualified dog trainer. I guess I’ll never understand. But in the meantime I’ll keep fighting the good fight to educate people on why they should have a good, qualified dog trainer to help them train their dogs.