Being a professional dog trainer can be an incredibly fulfilling profession. You can work for another company, but most quickly find out that to make a sustainable living, it’s best to run your own business.
Being your own boss isn’t always something that comes easily, but it certainly can be learned and perfected over time. Below I’ve listed some important aspects of running your own dog training business that should be top-of-mind if you are pursuing this as a professional career path.
1. Take Yourself Seriously
You’ll quickly realize that no one is going to give you permission or an official “stamp of approval” to be a professional dog trainer. You have to claim the title of “professional” and start by respecting your own skills, knowledge, and experience.
While there are many fabulous dog training schools out there, in the U.S. there are no education requirements to begin a career as a professional dog trainer. That being said, getting a solid foundation on the science of animal behavior is something I strongly recommend and a dog training school is a great place to get everything you need in one place.
Getting an education before you get started formally training other people’s dogs for a living will increase your confidence, grow your expertise, and improve your ability to articulate behavior challenges with your clients. When you’re more confident, articulate, and skilled, you will take yourself more seriously and others will, too.
2. Charge What You’re Worth
With education and experience under your belt, you’ll also want to remember to charge what you’re worth. Running a successful dog training business doesn’t mean you’re going to be playing around with puppies all day long although that is a common perception when you share your career goals with others.
As a professional dog trainer, you’ll have a direct and dramatic impact on the quality of life of your clients and their dogs. Do not forget this. If your skills and knowledge are able to help someone through a frustrating and debilitating behavior challenge with their dog, that is extremely valuable (some might even say priceless).
If you’re just getting started, you probably won’t be working with severe behavior issues, but you’ll still be making an impact on your clients’ lives for at least their dog’s lifetime. Often, you’ll also be teaching your clients’ skills they will use with future pets for the rest of their lives. This impactful knowledge transfer is also incredibly important!
Your clients look to you as the professional. They trust that you have put in the time to learn skills and knowledge about dog behavior so that they don’t have to. Convenience is an additional benefit you’re providing and convenience should not be underestimated.
3. Listen To Your Customers
Understanding your clients, their needs and wants, and what they see as beneficial will help you stand out from the crowd. I’ve seen a lot of professional dog trainers that make the mistake of assuming what is important to their clients. Their clients then get frustrated and may not seek out additional services since their voices were not heard in the first round of training.
Listening to your clients will improve the quality of service you provide which can encourage repeat business and generate referrals. Understanding what your clients’ value can also help you improve your marketing message to attract more of the clients you enjoy working with.
Being a great professional dog trainer mostly involves solving your human clients’ problems.
Think about how you can improve your ability to listen to your clients and limit your assumptions.
4. Have Processes In Place
In addition to taking your dog training skills seriously, you should take your business seriously. Having thought-out processes for situations like new client email correspondence, new client onboarding, accounting, and marketing will greatly increase your productivity. There’s something to be said for not reinventing the wheel everytime a new client knocks on your (virtual) doors.
When you’re first getting started, each time a new, but soon-to-be recurring situation arises, create a process for how you’ll respond and plan out what tools you’ll use to deal with it. Processes help with time management and allow you to take on more clients with ease.
Having a formal new client onboarding process with a New Client Information packet like I include in the Template Bundle makes you come off as professional and organized right off the bat. Your clients will appreciate your organization and timeliness throughout their experience working with you.
If you’re really starting from scratch as a solo-dog trainer, I help you through the dog training business start-up process and give you insights into what to expect in my 12-week, “How to Start & Run a Successful Dog Training Business” course (Business Plan Template & Template Bundle included with this course!)
After almost 10 years in the dog training industry and 6 years running my own business, I’m able to help you better prepare your dog training business from the bottom up and give you a structured runway to launch successfully.
5. Have A Great Website & Get Found Online
If no one knows you exist, it will be hard to make an income as a professional dog trainer. Without a doubt, a website that is easy to navigate and is quickly found on Google is key to running a successful dog training business.
Your website is your virtual storefront. Would you want your storefront to be hidden behind larger, prettier stores? Would you want a storefront that isn’t attractive?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of editing and updating your website so that it is more appealing to search engines like Google. By utilizing best practices on your website’s design, content, and structure, your website is more likely to be listed on the first page of Google when people are searching for dog trainers.
Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions when it comes to SEO. It isn’t rocket-science and you don’t need to pay someone else to do the most impactful optimizations to your site.
Learning SEO and implementing it on my website has single-handedly contributed to the most income for my business. If you’re interested in learning more, I actually put my knowledge into a quick 5-week course that walks you through how to do your own SEO.
Once you learn it and understand the foundation, you can use the same knowledge to improve your own website for years to come!
6. Pursue Continuing Education Like It’s Your College Degree
The sign of a professional in any industry is the amount of time and energy they have put into their education. As your income allows it, actively pursue ongoing education to increase your skill set. The more skills you have, the more services you can offer and the more people and dogs you can help. Growing your skill set, including to animals other than dogs, will expand your understanding of animal behavior and the impact you have on the animals you work with.
Another benefit to continuing your education is the opportunity to meet all kinds of different people that are doing the same. You’ll make invaluable friendships that will refresh your perspective and give you emotional and professional support for years to come.
