Have you been typing away underneath the fluorescent lights at your corporate job dreaming that a dog training career would someday become a reality?  Do you feel like you should be out in the sunlight with the breeze blowing through your hair helping people learn the intricacies of dog training?  Maybe a dog training career is in your future or maybe you just strive to be a better dog owner by learning more about how to train a dog.  I fall in the latter half and truly enjoy reading about dog training, dog tricks, dog breeds, and pretty much anything I can get my hands on to learn more about my dogs.

Today I came across an article about three entrepreneur’s who did exactly what I mentioned in the opening of this post.  They left the corporate life to pursue dog training careers.  Well…actually two left the corporate life for dog training careers and the third left her teaching career to pursue life as a dog groomer.  The point is they all left the regular working world for their dream of working with dogs as a career.

Dog Training Career

Photo by cryrolfe

Okay…for openers lets not get crazy and walk up to our bosses and hand in our letter of resignation just yet. The article: Entrepreneur’s Best Friend: Three Local Business Owners Find Fulfillment in Dog Care sheds some light on some of the good and not-so-good things about a career in dog training.  Here are a few negatives about joining the ranks of dog training, grooming, daycare careers:

• If it’s money you’re after then you might stick to dog training as a hobby.  Lydia Wade-Driver founded Blue Ridge Assistance Dogs (BRAD) and says “It’s a hard business to make any money in,” says Wade-Driver, who earns less than $20,000 a year.
• If you plan on opening a doggy daycare like Dog-ma then plan on picking up a lot of poop. “We’re always picking up poop. That’s the thing we do more than anything else. You want to go home and burn your clothes after a full shift at Dog-ma, that’s for sure.”
• If you’re not into getting a decent workout and cleaning up occasional accidents (read point 2 about poop) dog grooming like Paws of Enchantment might not be for you.  “Some of these dogs weigh 100 pounds, and if they’re trying to struggle, you have to support them,” Kraham says. There’s also plenty of bending: “There’s the occasional accident on the floor. Not everyone walks their dogs in the morning. It happens.”

The only thing that would stop me from a dog training career is point number 1.  Here in California it would be very difficult to live off of $20,000 a year.  Maybe when I hit the lottery I will join the ranks of dog trainers, but until then I’m always looking to learn more about how to train my dog.

How about you?  Would you choose a dog training career?  If so, I’d love to hear what you think about dog training as a career.