Who am I to tell you what to do? (Opinion)

What makes Someone a qualified professional dog trainer

I want to invite you to do a quick exercise with me. Look up “dog trainer near me” and just count the number of results that pop up. If you’ve got extra time, open some of their websites. By just glancing through them, could you tell who actually knows what they’re doing? If you’re a rational person, you probably have the thought “well, if they can call themselves dog trainers, they must at least have some knowledge, right?” And I wish you were right. I really do. But the reality is that almost everywhere in the world, dog training is completely unregulated. (Shoutout to Germany for being the only country I could find that has any sort of requirement for someone to be a dog trainer.) The US, where I am, is no exception.

So, if the government won’t tell you who is a good trainer, and it’s not readily apparent by looking at someone’s site, how the heck are you supposed to choose someone that is actually going to help you?!

Lucky for you, I’ve come up with an acronym to make things a little easier! I’m going to explain why I think each of these elements is important, and, of course, I’m going to share how I fit into the category of “qualified professional.”

The Acronym

Ok, so first off, I do want to give a disclaimer. This acronym is a GENERAL GUIDE to finding a good trainer. I have met some people who don’t fit all (or any) of these and are still good trainers. And, on the other hand, I’ve met some trainers who check all these boxes and they kind of suck. However, those cases are very few and far between. I think if someone hits all three of these boxes, it’s pretty likely they know what they’re doing. 

Anyway, my magic acronym is….

E.T.C. It stands for Education, Time, and Certification.

Let’s break this down.

Education

Look at the trainer’s educational background. What did they go to school for? Where did they learn how to be a dog trainer? Have they ever worked in an educational role before?

Keep in mind, barely any colleges in the US have an actual degree for dog training. There are a few institutes that do provide education on how to train dogs though. The Animal Behavioral College (ABC,) Karen Pryor Academy (KPA,) and the Victoria Stillwell Academy (VSA) are notable examples. These programs teach people how to do this job, and they require an exam to get their certification/degree. Other degrees or majors could also be a source of education as well. A bachelor’s in Animal Behavior or Psychology indicates that the person knows a good deal about some of the skills that are foundational in training dogs.

If they didn’t go through a program like this, you want to know where they learned how to train dogs. Lots of trainers mentor under a qualified trainer, and I think that’s totally valid!

The main, important thing is that they have gotten some sort of knowledge acquisition and hands-on experience under the guidance of someone who knows what they’re doing. Training their own dog does NOT count. There has to be some form of feedback given on not just the performance of the dog and person, but the ability to explain the concepts to other people.

Time

How long has this person been training for? How often do they get continuing education? Can they spare the time to talk to you and answer your questions before you pull out your wallet?

For the amount of time someone’s been training, I actually think somewhere in the middle is where the ideal trainers are. If someone is brand-new, they most likely don’t have the experiences to shape their skills. After a certain amount of time, the ability to learn and improve kind of tapers off. I think if someone has been training for more than 4 years, they know what they’re doing to a good extent. After about year 25, the amount of new learning experiences has vastly diminished. They can definitely still happen, but I don’t think someone whose been in the field for 50 years is exponentially better than someone whose been training for 30.

This can be circumvented if the long time trainer gets a lot of continuing education. This comes in a lot of forms. Reading a new book, attending a class with a new trainer, going to an expo or attending a webinar, even looking at new scientific studies all count. These experiences help stop us trainers from getting stuck in our ways. They broaden our horizons, and can make us change the way we do things (or at the very least, affirm that we’re doing things right.) 

I personally see this as an absolute requirement to make a good trainer. After all, how can you know if what you’re doing is still the best way out there if you never look at other techniques? Good dog training is based in science. Science is always changing. Therefore, we need to always be willing to change.

Lastly, a trainer who cares about their clients will take the time to answer your questions, regardless of if you’ve guaranteed them payment. Now, I don’t mean that they need to give you an in-depth explanation. But basic questions about their policies, ethics, and experience should all be free and easy to find out. Their goal should be to help dogs and their people, not to make The Big Bucks. (If you are a dog trainer, you’d know that they’re in the wrong field if they’re expecting to own a mansion from this industry.)

Certification

Do they have a certification? Where is it from? What does that certifying body believe in? This one is a bit controversial. But I truly believe that if you are dedicated to this job, you will have at least one well-recognized certification. Certifications that require a skills assessment are ideal, like the Pet Professional Guild’s PCT-A. It shows that an unbiased person, with no relation to the trainer, has verified that they have knowledge and at least some basic skills.

Not all certifications are created equal, though. There are a lot of trainers who will GIVE certifications to other trainers simply because they got paid or worked with them in the past. I recommend looking into any accreditation that someone is holding. To make it easy, here are some of the common certifying bodies that have standards:

-Pet Professional Guild

-Karen Pryor Academy

-Victoria Stillwell Academy

-Animal Behavior College

-CATCH training academy

-Association for Professional Dog Trainers

There are some others as well, but these are the big names. What we want to see is that the certifying body is focused on ethical, modern, and humane methods.

A note I want to make as well, PetSmart and Petco actually do have pretty good certification programs for their trainers. I worked at PetSmart, and we were required to pass a 100 question test AND attend a two week intensive with a skill assessment. The problem that I found was that the regulation of how closely trainers followed the teaching varied wildly. So I would look at the two other categories extra closely if you go with a trainer from one of these big box stores.

About Me

So let’s put this acronym to work. Why am I a qualified person?

Education

I technically have a degree in Biology. But I did everything in my power to customize it to make me a better dog trainer. I took courses on animal behavior, LOTS of psychology courses, communications classes, business management classes, classes on education, and any class that wasn’t directly related to dogs, I shoehorned in a way to make my projects and research about dogs. I once did an ecology project about dog breeding. I’m not kidding. (It got an A by the way.)

On top of this, I have mentored under a local service dog trainer who has several certifications and decades of experience. I also learned how to train from a lot of different trainers who knew I wanted to be one. PetSmart was one of them, that mentor was another, and most of the sports classes I’ve done also knew I was a trainer so they were extra picky with me.

Time

I’ve been a professional trainer for almost 5 years. During that time I have absolutely crammed my life with training. Nearly every moment of free time I have is spent doing something with dog training, whether it’s dog sports, research, or just working with my dogs and recording it to watch back. I worked with dogs at shelters and boarding facilities before this as well, so I had that extra benefit of learning dog behavior and how to approach all sorts of different dogs.

As for how responsive I am, well, you’ll just have to find that out for yourself! I could say I respond very quickly and am happy to answer questions, but there’s not really any proof of that unless you reach out to me.

Certification

I am working on improving this aspect. I was certified through PetSmart, but that doesn’t really transfer once you leave. I am Fear-Free certified, and this does require some basic training knowledge. But they don’t really test your skill. I am currently working on getting my PCT-A certification as well as Do As I Do certification. The second one is kind of a “secondary” certification. It is about a specific style of training dogs rather than dog training knowledge in general. Both are very modern in their beliefs and requirements, and both require training methods that are heavily backed by science. The Do As I Do training style is very cutting-edge and scientific.

In Conclusion

The most important thing at the end of the day is to listen to your gut. If the way a trainer is talking about your dog makes it feel like you have to be domineering or always on-guard, that is a red flag. If they make you feel guilty, unimportant, or just bad at doing things, that’s also not ok! Always seek someone who treats both your dog and you with empathy, patience, and kindness. I like to think I can check that box, too!

-Louca