Dog Health Questions: Is it possible to be a "part-time" dog trainer?

Okay, well I am an 18 year old college student. I am going for Psychology. I want to get into Forensics or something in the school system. Anyway, I love dogs. I have a 5 month old pug, and he's just amazing. People say college and a dog is hard, but I find it no harder with him. If anything, he makes it easier. Anyway, I've found the time to train him and he is wonderful. At 5 months he is VERY well trained. Of course there's more to be done, but he is doing great for his age. Part of me wants to get into dog training. I love the feeling of helping a dog and their owners. (I trained my roomates' dog, too.) I feel like you can train ANY dog, and that makes a happy dog and happy owner. My question is, could there be ANY way of doing dog training on the side? Like my main career be something with Psychology, then on the side I do dog training? I know it would take a lot of work and studying, but I'm up to it. Any thoughts are appreciated. Please no rude comments.

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I work full time and teach classes twice a week. I attend seminar and other events to help me be a better instructor, as well as attending classes and competing in obedience with my own dogs.

Training is not a part time gig, even though I actually only TEACH twice a week for 3-4 hours total, I spend about 18-24 hours a week trying to make myself a BETTER instructor. Be careful about thinking you can train ANY dog - while dogs CAN be trained, some dogs can simply not be 'wired right' and while their people think they can 'fix' the dog with training - the trainer must sometimes be the voice of reason and suggest other alternatives - not ALL dogs are meant to be here on earth - for whatever reason they are not safe.

Between full time work, teaching part time and classes/competing with my own dogs, it is VERY easy to get run down, VERY quickly. Sunday evenings or Monday mornings are my times to 'do what *I* want without the dogs' - which often means a trip to the chiropractor!

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• Of course there would be. Keep in mind if you go into Psychology, you can also do that part time as well. Many psychologists work for themselves so they can set their own hours. If they're both something you want to do, look into what you need to do to become a professional trainer.
  
  And for college and having a dog, I don't think it's hard either. I currently work full time, take 14 credit hours and have a puppy (which I have plenty of time for). It makes life a little more enjoyable and teaches you how to be organized and how to prioritize.


• I'm a successful part time dog trainer. You need some training first, you can't just become a trainer without school first.
  I'm certified through Animal Behavior College. It is a year course which is partially online and partially hands on. You can google them for more information.
  
  Either no one will hire you because you don't have any experience, or you'll mess up someones dog if you don't know what you're doing.
  Also consider the liability involved with dogs. You may need insurance if someone tries to sue you!


• by all means, yes! i work a ''regular" job but still do training on the side. I take the dogs, though, and have them for a month at a time. if you aren't set up for this it may be harder scheduling but still possible. good luck!
  p.s., i have no ''DEGREE" in dog training, word of mouth is my best tool. and any dog can be trained, just to different degrees. and the only additional insurance i carry is an umbrella policy, which costs $20/month for a million bucks.
  also, YOU DECIDE which dogs you want to train. you do not have to accept EVERY DOG for training, so the 120 lb aggressive dog quip is not an issue....


• First, no offense, but training a couple of friends' dogs doesn't mean you can train ANY dog. When's the last time you were faced with a 120lb dog with serious aggression issues that couldn't even be outdoors without a muzzle on and drags it's owner down the street? How precisely would you handle that? What about a rescue that was terrified of absolutely everything? Or a hyper-active less than intelligent puppy? You really need to take some classes and become certified as a professional trainer if you want to even think about getting into this field, part time or full time. A lot of people would be very upset if they tried to hire you only to find out that your 'experience' consisted of training a few dogs to what you believe is an appropriate level. The trainer I use is certified by AKC, including the Good Citizenship test, and has taken courses in Protection training, Agility, Obedience, and more. I trust her, but I would never use someone without such training- even the Petsmart trainers receive very little education about what they're doing.
  
  As far as the actual time constrictions, that really depends on your schedule. I don't see any particular reason why you could train dogs on the side, provided you had the time to do everything else you needed to and still found extra time for training sessions. But you might find it difficult to do all the training required for you to even be worthwhile as a trainer while you're also taking college classes. That's entirely up to you though.