How do you become a dog obedience trainer?

How do you become a dog obedience trainer? Do you need certification? Do you take classes? How do you become an AKC good canine citzen judge?

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3 Responses to “How do you become a dog obedience trainer?”

  1. hilidox said :

    Becoming an obedience trainer starts with training your own dogs (and not just one) and competing and earning titles through Utility. You can’t be a trainer if you haven’t done it yourself. It is also a good idea to have trained more than one breed of dog because different breeds require different training techniques. Don’t fall into the Cesar role. That man is an idiot and does more damage than good and he is not an obedience trainer or even a behavioral trainer. Just someone with a good publicity staff who is out to make money.

    While you don’t need a certificate to be a dog obedience trainer, the titles that you have earned with your dogs become your certificate. You have to show that you know how to train. And, yes, you will be taking classes, lots of classes as you train your own dogs. Then if you are a pretty good trainer, you should ask the group where you do your training if you can become an assistant trainer (volunteer, no pay) and begin working with a lot of different dogs and handlers all with different needs. This is not something that you can accomplish in a few weeks or months. It takes years to become someone who can train people to train dogs.

    Pertaining to the CGC (Canine Good Citizenship) evaluator or tester (they are not judges), you can find the requirements at the AKC.org site. Basically, you have to take a test and it isn’t easy. Even people who have been doing CGC for years have problems passing the test. Most CGC evaluators do not charge for their services or very little. This is considered a community support type of position and one will normally work with their local training club. It is not something that one should look toward as a job.

  2. Bobbie L said :

    Contact AKC.ORG.

  3. Single Worker 1230 said :

    You don’t need any type of certification or licensing to call yourself a dog trainer. The good trainers start out by training dogs. They train many dogs, big dogs, small dogs, family dogs, shelter dogs, young dogs, old dogs, etc. Taking classes in animal behavior. animal husbandry, psychology, business management, and the like helps too. Having a mentor helps a bunch as well as belonging to a kennel club or training organization. Many good trainers compete with their own dogs at shows in obedience and rally competitions. Good trainers also have good people skills as every dog is usually attached to an owner.

    To become a CGC Evaluator You have to be at least 18 years old, and have worked with a variety of dogs and their people for over two years. Having some titles on your own dogs doesn’t hurt either.




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