How to Add Dog Training to Your Pet Business

How to Add Dog Training to Your Pet Business

by | Feb 2, 2019 | Business, Recent Blog Posts

Have you ever thought about adding dog training services to your grooming, pet sitting, or pet store business? Dog training is a crucial part of raising a new dog in today’s busy and social world.

Your clients are already looking to you for guidance when it comes to other aspects of their dogs’ care so why not provide an extra, special experience for them and their beloved canine?

 

Benefits of Adding Dog Training Services to Your Pet Business

Providing dog training services for your clients will help your pet business become the go-to place for all your clients’ dog care needs.

Value-Added Offering

If your business is already a hub of pet owners, adding dog training services will enhance their experience and help you become even more of a pet industry leader in your community. Offering dog training services is a wonderful value-add offering for your clients.

Key Differentiator And Customer Loyalty

Unlike veterinary services, dog training is unregulated so it is fairly easy to add these services to an existing business. This can help you differentiate your business from other pet businesses in the area.

Whether you’re a groomer, pet sitter, or pet store, dog training services can help your business stand out as one that truly goes the extra mile for their customers. This will help grow your customer’s loyalty to your particular business for the life of their pet.

Easy Sell

It is well known in the business world that increasing sales to existing clients is much easier and provides a better ROI than working to acquire a completely new customer.

You already have customers who may be struggling with their dog’s behaviors or who may have just gotten a new puppy that need dog training services. Why not offer services that your existing customers need?

New Income Opportunity

Without even having to acquire one new customer, you can increase your income by offering additional services to existing clients. When structured correctly, dog training services could help generate consistent foot traffic and sales for your pet business.

 

Hiring Someone vs Learning the Skills Yourself

Whether you should hire a dog trainer or become a dog trainer yourself will depend on how quickly you want to begin offering these services.

If dog training is something you want to begin offering this year, look for someone that can meet the needs of your clients in your community. Becoming a good dog trainer will take some time, education, and experience and there is likely someone else in your community with the right skillset and is waiting for this kind of opportunity. 

You can hire them and then take some time to acquire the right dog training skills yourself. Rushing into training your customers’ dogs without understanding animal learning theory could be detrimental for the long term success of your business, your customers, and their dogs.  

 

Qualifications of a Good Dog Trainer

Whether you choose to become a dog trainer yourself or hire someone to come in and offer classes in your space, there are a few things you should look for or acquire.

Like I mentioned above, dog training is not currently regulated in the US. This makes it difficult to differentiate qualified dog trainers from unqualified ones.

As a dog trainer with over 10 years in the industry, here are a few expectations I’d have of a qualified dog trainer:

 Consistent Continuing Education & Certification

  • Regularly Attend Seminars – A great dog trainer will consistently attend seminars and conferences. This exposes them to other ways of training and expands their understanding of dog training. Just like in any industry, the best keep their skills and knowledge sharp!
  • Certification – The CCPDT is the leading independent certifying organization for the dog training profession. Certifications from this organization are often a good sign that a dog trainer is committed to education, experience, and choose to abide by modern and humane dog training practices.
  • Formal Courses – Many trainers opt to invest in formal in-person education through a variety of dog training schools (Karen Pryor Academy, Dog Trainers Academy, CATCH, etc). In my opinion, these are certainly a plus, but are not completely necessary to becoming a great dog trainer. They are often very expensive and do not necessarily prove that someone knows how to train a variety of dogs. Structured education based on the science of learning theory plus adequate experience is a perfect combination.

 Experience

Dog trainers can acquire substantial experience through a variety of avenues. Working with a variety of dogs and their people is the best way to learn how to apply what you learn in a course, seminar, or book to real life situations.

Look for dog trainers with experience:

  • Working with rescue dogs – You’ll likely have many customers that adopt puppies and dogs from a rescue. These dogs often come with unique challenges due to their unstable upbringing and unknown genetic history.
  • Working with young puppies – Puppies will require consistent training for at least the first two years of their lives, so find a trainer that can set up your clients with a training program or plan for the duration. Puppies need different behaviors addressed as they progress through puppyhood, adolescence, and young adult stages.

Attitude

Finding team members with the right attitude might be the hardest piece. You want to make sure your new team members are on board with the way you want a training program implemented and find someone that can execute it to the best of their ability.

 The dog training industry, just like the rest of the pet industry, has a high turnover rate due to the type of work and long hours. You’ll want to find someone that’s interested in working on your project for the long term.

Team Members

Many dog trainers get into dog training because they love dogs. Unfortunately, this doesn’t lend itself naturally to people that love spending time with other people. Be sure to evaluate your potential hires for personality and attitude towards others as well as their dog training and handling skills.

Customer Service

Training dogs requires patience, but often it is working with their people that is the most difficult part. Being a dog trainer means you are essentially becoming a teacher to people. People call and email you for help – not their dogs.

This should be a key consideration when building your dog training practice. Your policies on how to treat people and handle customer service issues should be clearly documented and discussed with potential employees. Set your employees up to be successful just as you would a customer!

 

Dog Training Insurance

Since you likely already have a pet business up and running, adding dog training services shouldn’t come with huge costs. It has a low barrier to entry.

I’m not a lawyer of any kind so please consult with your attorney for official recommendations for your business, but many dog trainers have the following insurances to cover their services and business.

  • Professional Liability Insurance also known as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance – This insurance covers you and your business in case a client claims that you did not fulfill your promises when they hired you. Find company that is used to servicing dog trainers since trainers have unique circumstances to consider.
  • Updated Property Insurance – Notify your existing insurance provider of the new services you’ll be offering and make sure they are covered under your existing plan or update it so that it is.
  • Dog Trainer Liability Protection Coverage – Since you or someone in your business will be working with a variety of dogs with different behavior issues, this particular coverage is important. This insurance covers claims for bodily injury, personal injury or property damage to others. A good policy will include coverage for damage to property in your Care, Custody or Control including the Pet.  

Consult with an attorney that is familiar with the unique situations that dog trainers come across to help you decide which insurance policy is necessary for your business.

 

Structuring Your Dog Training Services

Training services are usually delivered in a few standard ways:

  • Private Lessons – These lessons are held one-to-one in the client’s home or public place. Private lessons help clients get precisely the assistance they need with their dog’s particular challenges.
  • Group Classes – Group classes are typically held once a week for a few weeks with a start and end date. You may decide to customize the structure and implementation of your group classes to better suit your clients by making them open enrollment (on-going classes that anyone can join at any time).
  • Day Training – Day training services typically supplement private lesson clients to help them make progress more quickly. With this service, the dog trainer works directly with the dog several times a week without the owner present.
  • Board & Trains – A board and train program is when you host the dog in your facility for a few weeks to complete it’s training goals. It is an intensive program that is beneficial to dogs that can handle the environmental change from living at home. Board and trains are usually followed up with private lessons at home to make sure the dog maintains his new behaviors in the home environment.  

 

Recurring or Drop-in Classes

Many trainers start off by offering single lessons for purchase or one group class at a time, but this is not a sustainable way to generate recurring income month to month. It also does not serve your customers in the best possible way because, in reality, they will need ongoing support and training throughout their dog’s life.

In order to better serve clients and their dogs, you could offer initial foundation classes followed up with recurring group classes or drop-in class memberships to come in for a training skills brush up when they need it.

 

Package Services Together

Since your pet business already has services and products to offer, you could easily transition to offering special packages or memberships to your clients that include dog training services.

For more information on packaging training services for the best results, consistent income, and how to set your pricing, check out the lesson:

 

How to Structure Your Services & Pricing (PDF)

Use this lesson to:

  • Discover what services your customers really need and want.
  • Research competitors to differentiate yourself.
  • Create packages of services for results and sustainable income.
  • Understand your operating costs.
  • Learn about pricing strategies so you can charge enough for your services.

Includes: Lesson (2 Parts) + 2 Worksheets

 

View the Lesson
Trainer Ethics: Calling Your Well Trained Dog A “Service Dog.”

Trainer Ethics: Calling Your Well Trained Dog A “Service Dog.”

by | Jun 29, 2015 | Business

ethics and service dogs

You may have missed the social media explosion resulting from a blog post by a well certified dog trainer admitting she passes off her pet dog as a Service Dog. At first glance this may not seem like a big deal. After all, the dog is well-behaved and giving a good representation of what a “well-trained Service Dog” looks and acts like. That’s not so bad, right? In fact, now that she’s come clean with her fakery, wouldn’t it be a good idea to allow all well-behaved dogs in public places? Should there be limits to where regular pet dogs can go if they’re well-trained? Maybe there should be a Pet Dog Access ID that could be earned that would allow dogs to go places. While the sentiment to allow our dogs in more public spaces is sound, the method she used is incredibly disturbing.

Before we go any further, let’s clarify some of what she admitted to.

  • Telling taxi drivers her dog is a Service Dog so they would be allowed in a cab.
  • Police were called when a cab driver denied her and her dog a ride.
  • Having a friend create a fake Service Dog ID.
  • Using the fake Service Dog ID when questioned by shop owners if the dog was a Service Dog.

While most of us can agree that going to such lengths as to call the police to perpetuate a lie is going too far, where do we actually draw the line of pushing our dogs into no-access spaces? As an example, let’s say it’s 105 degrees outside, your perfect dog is in the car, and your father was just rushed to the Emergency Room. Would you claim your dog was a Service Dog to be able to wait in the hospital lobby ? Would you push to be able go into the ER with your dog? Would it actually harm anyone if you did it? Or is harm only done if you get caught?

What is a service dog?
Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.

What is a disability?
An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment. The ADA does not specifically name all of the impairments that are covered.

Let’s cut to the chase. If you don’t have a disability you do not have a Service Dog. Period. If your dog isn’t trained to do a specific task that mitigates your disability then your dog is not a Service Dog. Period.

To fake a Service Dog is illegal and insulting to people who rely on their dog to get through the day. How many daily conversations do people with disabilities need to have about their Service Dog just to get things done? We see articles all the time about businesses denying access to a person with disabilities with their dog. Just this week we saw a Purple Heart Recipient Denied Access. If you are a fake you are making it harder for people with legitimate need to get access.

In a time when we should be trying to educate businesses about what they can and can’t do, fakery only adds to the idea that everyone is faking it. A friend of mine owns a local deli which is visited by a woman with a completely unruly “Service Dog.” On the surface it would appear the dog is a fake. Aren’t Service Dogs supposed to be well-behaved? No, actually, they only need to be trained for a function. If the dog is unruly a business owner can ask them to leave. When I asked my friend why she didn’t ask her patron to leave she said, “I asked the health inspector since the dog is trying to get behind the deli counter. He said to just endure it. If I remove the woman and her dog there would be a huge backlash and I’d lose business.” Having businesses as allies is important. Why make this harder? If a business owner thinks they have no recourse if a Service Dog destroys something they’re not going to be accommodating. Trainers should be advocating for well-behaved Service Dogs and getting businesses on board, not trying to fool them.

One of the more interesting topics to come out of this social storm is what, if anything, the certifying bodies should do when one of their members makes an admission of guilt. Is a blog post enough to remove their certification? Is there a mechanism for a reprimand or probation or temporary removal of a certification? Or is it all or nothing? If we are positive reinforcement trainers advocating an ethical hierarchy to teach behavior in animals, aren’t humans animals? Do we have to go directly to +P? What is an appropriate response?

On the flip side, most of us have no idea how ethics investigations work with the certifying bodies we belong to. At least if you break a law you have some idea of the consequences. It would be beneficial to have an idea of the process of an investigation and the possible consequences, both as members and as witnesses to possible violations of standards.

As professionals, when you see another trainer presented with overwhelming evidence that they should reconsider their actions, what would you expect their reaction to be? This particular storm grew quickly because of the trainer’s gloating, defensiveness, attacking her critics, and further justifying her actions. She then took the offending blog post down and posted on her business page, “I am too busy training to argue with faceless people on the Internet.” An important lesson from this event: Once it’s on the internet you can’t get it back. Google cached it, people printed it, took screenshots of it, etc. It’s still out there. Her business page was barraged with comments. She simply could not remove them fast enough. As one popped up people replied and added more. It was The Perfect Weekend Social Storm.

Lesson: If you’re in over your head and taking attacks from all sides, step away from the computer and make a plan. As we all know, reactivity gets you into trouble every time.

For those of us who share this trainer’s certifications, we feel guilty by association. Is this what following a code of ethics looks like? Not to many of her fellow professional trainers. In this case a sincere public apology would be appropriate, both for the benefit of the profession as well as a demonstration to the Service Dog community that she understands how hurtful her actions were.

Since the blog post and firestorm happened on a weekend I’m sure there will be more to come from this story. We will post an update if more information becomes available.

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