Dog Health Questions: Dog behaviourist requirements?

I am currently 17 and plan to become a canine behaviourist/trainer as my future career. I am going to study animal management in collage and then hopefully go on to do a course with the Cambridge institute of dog behaviour and training. I will hopefully then have the qualifications and things that I need and I may also do some extra courses to build my knowledge even more. However, everything I have read on the internet or read says that I need experience with training dogs but I don't know how I can get this unless I get a dog of my own to prove my skills to join a dog training club. Is it important that I have my own dog and get experience with it? I am scared that all the things I know just wont work when there is a real dog in front of me. My mother is determined that it is not important and I can have my own dog when I move out because she doesn't want one. My dad does seem quite open to the discussion though. However, with the economic climate as it is I am not sure I will be able to move out for quite some time and wont be able to get the experience I need to get onto the Cambridge courses or get a place at a dog training school or club.
Can anyone help with any advice please?
Thanks

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First things first...there are NO canine behaviorists degrees offered by ANY accredited University in the US. UC Davies has one of the best programs in the world as far as ANIMAL behavior, but, that is centered around mice, whales and primates, NOT dogs, so it does not qualify.
Do not be fooled, there is no such thing as a behaviorist, but, you can print out your own cards right now and pose as one, MANY do and some even make money fooling the stupid people who are willing to pay them.

Second..there are dog trainers, yes, the vast majority of who have no idea what they are talking about and cannot train a dog to save their lives. The few, VERY few that do know dogs and behavior and drives and how to bring out those drives started out training at a sport dog club like Sch or one of the ring sports, not that poor excuse of dog trainers association that is one of the biggest jokes going around within the pro dog trainer circles.
Forget the pound and vets, find your local Sch club or ring sport club and see if they let you start training with them and learning about behaviors and drives and how to bring them out in a dog.
Book know how is not going to give you the tools to start working in this field as a pro, real life experience will. Hope I helped.

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• I think it's important to have a dog, dog training is really something you learn by doing. If you absolutely cannot have your own dog, you should borrow your friends' dogs and train them for your friends. But it really would be best to have your own dog so you can get the proper experience. No one would really want to hire a dog trainer that didn't have any real experience with dogs.


• Volunteer as much as you can at your local animal shelter. you will experience the whole spectrum there of best to worst behaviour, and it will also assist you with your animal management course. if you can handle what is thrown at you there, you will have no problems with your chosen career.
  
  When I wasn't in a position to have my own pet, I volunteered at my local animal shelter, I got all the animal contact I missed, with the added bonus of helping out a good cause. :)


• You will need hands on experience with different dogs, and a lot of it. The only way to do this with out having a dog, (or any friends or family having a dog?) would be to volunteer at a rescue center or other care institute such as a vet. Maybe you could offer a cheap dog walking and/or grooming service in your area? The more contact with dogs you have the more you will learn.


• All the behavior courses in the world are useless unless you have something to prove them on.
  Without a dog, all you will have is book knowledge, which doesn't work very well when someone comes to you for help with their animal. Your plans for education are great, but you might want to wrtie the Cambridge Institute for information about requirements for entrance.
  No dog club or training club will allow you to do any instructing without having had hands on knowledge, so you will definitely have to get a dog.......probably more than one, train it and even show it, at least in obedience to get experience
  Call up the Association of Animal Behavior Professionals site on the net and read some of the things there.


• Without dog ownership, and dog training, my personal opinion of University Grads who claim to be "behaviorists" is not much higher than politicians.
  
  In other words - VERY LOW.
  
  I have read opinions here by so called "behaviorists" who have no real experience, and the advice in some cases is idiotic - other advice borders on dangerous. Some is just so dumb it is hard not to laugh.
  
  Theory in dog behavior is just that - THEORY. There is no absolute proof the thinking is correct. Today we have all new terminology, some is good - some is just drivel. Im saying without a dog and real world experience, you have no basis to discriminate. You have no idea if what they are teaching you is just ad-speak from some veterinary college, or has actually been proven in the field. You have no method for discrimination. In your mind - its an absolute world of "good" and "bad" dogs based on some text book definitions and scripted scenarios.
  
  The veterinarian community is often an example of intelligent persons, who have taken a course or two in University on behavior and nutrition - and then put out a shingle, open up a practice, and provide advice with no field experience. To do so is misguided, deluded or useless. They get away with it because they have other skills that add value - but read enough here and you will realize many of us have lived long enough to realize vets are not usually respected in the field of canine behavior.
  
  So why would you?
  
  Finally, breeds differ a great deal - what will work for one dog "in theory" will have no effect on another.
  
  So, what to do:
  
  If it was me, I would be majoring in a discipline where you can get a job to pay you enough money to move out, get a place of your own, and get a dog and start training. Then, you need to join a club, and /or get more involved in a few breeds - to at least get exposure to many dogs.
  
  The most respected behaviorists (Job Michael Evans, Carol Lee Benjamin, Volhard, Ian Dunbar) are people of middle age - who have literally spent decades learning, evolving. A person of 22 years of age, fresh out of University who has never even been raised with dogs, is someone with zero credibility.
  
  If you were raised in a home where dogs were trialled, or worked, or shown, at least you would have some credibility. Right now, respectfully, you have a pipe dream.
  
  Are you prepared to face a 120 lb Rotti and deal with its aggression problems? Are you physically able to manage a Mastiff? Have you put any thought into this - because frankly, talk is cheap, and dogs bite - and haven been bitten several times in my life, I can attest to the fact it hurts.
  
  I have a niece your age who wishes to study art and graphic design - she wishes to apply to a University that specializes in that. They tell her she must have a portfolio - ie PROOF that she has talent and not just some dream of being the next Picasso.
  
  I do not understand how Cambridge would simply accept any young person without actual dog experience to back up their courses. If that is true, I think little of the curriculum.
  
  I would be inquiring with the University about practical experience and get grounded in reality before I wasted time and money.
  
  Good luck in whatever you decide.