Dog Health Questions: I want to be a dog trainer as a side job?

However, the places I am seeing offer complete certifications for professional, full-fledged career seekers in dog training. I love dogs, and have an act for understanding them, as well as read so much about behavior of dogs. I want to help owners adjust to living with their animal and vice versa, but I don't want to take an entire semester of several credit hours to do that..

Is there an easier, cheaper way to get certified and/or have a more marketable source of experience than "I own 2 dogs and read"..

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I would suggest joining a local obedience club with your dogs, as a student. Even if your dogs know the basics, you can do more advanced training, or trial preparation if they're purebred. If you have purebreds, get their obedience titles to PROVE that you have trained them well. Once you have a fair amount of training time under your belt, you can inquire about assisting in classes (or they may ask you, if they think you're talented), and once you've assisted enough classes you can graduate to instructor. This is all volunteer, of course, and you pay for your classes (although instructors and assistants usually get their classes either for free or at a reduced rate), but the experience teaching a wide variety of dogs and people in these classes will give you the credentials to set up on your own.

Well, I don't know if that's cheaper or easier, but it is another route to take.

Nothing that's really worthwhile is likely to be cheap or easy.

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• Owning dogs and feeling like your knowledgeable about them doesn't make you a dog trainer. Dog training is currently moving into the professional sphere to avoid people without certifications from calling themselves professionals. This is to keep the integrity of the job high. If you want to do dog training I do suggest going through a course or apprenticeship to do it. I went through an apprenticeship and we had lots of people doing it on top of their full time job so they could get certified and train on the side. But don't take short cuts about it. If you take a less professional path anything you've learned will be obsolete in a couple of years because the training community is working very hard to move into being professionals and get legislation passed about certain criteria that needs to be completed before anyone can work as a dog trainer.
  
  EDIT: When I say course I mean offered by trainers or training schools. Not a college course. There are certifications offered from various organizations such as the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) that offer professional certifications that you can get without taking anything like a college course. I am a part of both these organizations and a member of the community of dog trainers. There is a movement to bar anyone without certification from practicing dog trainers in order to protect the integrator of the programs. There are many non professional things being offered now but I'm just warning you that there is legislation that is going to pass and make those kinds of things useless in the next 5 years or so. So it's better to do the professional stuff now so you have it under your belt. I did all this so I know.


• Please ignore your first poster...it is obvious that they have no idea what they are talking about.
  There is NO certification and no college requirement for college credits.
  You can study under a REAL trainer, like a Sch club that may help you by letting you study with them. There are no REAL schools that will offer you a real trainers course and as far as "behaviorist" course, there are none that are focused on DOG behavior.
  There are University course from recognizes schools that offer PhD programs in ANIMAL behavior, primates, whales, etc....
  Hope I helped!


• Anywhere you can gets "hands on" with REAL trainers. ANYONE willing to pay can be "Certified" as a trainer. There are NO "Certifications" that mean you can train dogs. They only CERTIFY that you were dumb enough to pay. A "CERTIFICATION" designed by you, and printed on your home computer is absolutely just as valid as anything you can "PURCHASE" from one of the bogus "K9 Colleges" or various "Associations". Listen to Greekman...find a Schutzhund club. I would go so far as to recommend "Petsmart" group classes over any of the crooks that offer "Certifications". I've had well over 100 certified "Wannabe Trainers" trying to get a job with us....over 30 were "Certified" as "MASTER TRAINER"....meaning they were dumb enough to fork out about $50K for a piece of paper they could've printed at home. None...zero of these "Certified" fools could train a dog....they weren't qualified to clean our kennels. As far as "Behaviorists" go...that's just someone that has educated themselves...but lack any training skills. A "successful" Behaviorist is one that is very skilled in BS'ing.
  
  If you'd really like a good laugh....visit the websites of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT).
  If you'd like to LEARN something...find a REAL trainer..and be his/her shadow for as long as he/she will let you.