How can you become a dog agility trainer?

Answer 1

Find a school near you and volunteer. Meanwhile, go to college and get a degree in animal behavior to make yourself more marketable. Volunteer at animal shelters rehabing dogs to make them adoptable. The more dogs you work with the more your skills will grow. Apprentice with a local dog trainer (guide or otherwise) to learn more Dog Training skills.

Each dog is an individual. The key to a good trainer isn't as much knowing theory as it is knowing dogs and how they think and being able to communicate effectively with them. Theory on guide dog specific training must be learned from the guide dog school, but the basic foundation of dog training theory is learned by working with many different dogs and needs to be a life-long commitment on your part. Most guide dog programs, such as the Seeing Eye, require a a college degree and an apprenticeship on top of basic dog training skills. For the Seeing Eye, that apprenticeship is three years.

If you pull together the skills needed, the school you volunteer and apprentice with may either hire you or give you a letter of recommendation to work for or apprentice with another school.

Guide dog training is very specialized. Volunteering may help a little, but you need to go to school for it if you are serious.

Answer 2

Training for guide dogs is usually done through a non-profit. Most of them have puppy raising programs. Do a search for Guide Dogs for the Blind, Canine Companions for Independence, or Canine CoPilots. ---- Each guide dog program has its own policies and procedures for acquiring puppy raisers. Nearly all will require that you live close enough to their facility that you can make weekly visits to the facility for training classes. So the first step is to find a guide dog school near you. See the link below of guide dog schools in the U.S. to see if one is near you. Nearly all programs will require that at least one person work in the home so that the pup is not left alone during the day. Since most puppy raisers are children, this means having at least one parent who is home during the school day and willing to take on responsibility for the puppy's training during that time. There is a link to the Seeing Eye's puppy raiser information below as a representative example of puppy raising programs for guide dogs. Also check with your local 4H organization. Most have a Guide Puppy affiliate. Look for a guide dog program near you. Nearly all programs require that their puppy raisers live nearby so they can attend weekly training sessions at the facility. Each program will have their own requirements as to how to apply to be a puppy raiser. Check with your local 4H organization. Most will have a Guide Puppy club affiliation.

Answer 3

* Agility trainers train their own dogs. So get some books and videos, build some obstacles in your back yard and go have some fun! If you have an opportunity to enroll in an agility class you should go for it. You'll get a chance to work on competition quality equipment and get insider tips and one-on-one coaching by the instructor.

* If you mean to become a dog trainer, as in open a business, I believe you have to get certified. But Im not for sure. I train my dogs and other people's dogs.

Answer 4

I am no authority on this topic, but I have raised a puppy for the Guide Dog Foundation and know that after I had the pup for 1 year, he was taken to school for another 6-9 months before being placed with a blind person with whom he trained for another few months. I taught him basic good manners: come, stay, sit, down, off, wait, heel, and exposed him to as much as I could (no subways where we lived). Guide dogs are taught to not react to other dogs, to stop at curbs, to be calm and steady.

Now I have a German shepherd who just turned 3. She is amazingly smart, loving, and eager to please. As I am getting old, I have been working with her to "help me" as I figure I may need her to steady me, guide me. She knows left and right, among other things, enjoys carrying stuff in her backpack, closing doors, pulling me up hills when we hike.

Answer 5

They are taken away from mum at 6~8 weeks and are taken to a sort of guide dog school. They learn the baisics etc. Sometimes they can go off to owners who have been in the guide dog buisness and live with them until they are fully trained. After they have finish their guide dog days they go back to different owners (a bit like a sanctuary for them) or they stay with their current owner ~ the ones who they have guided.

My ex teacher used to look after retired guide dogs and pups in training. This is how i know my stuff!! I hope this helped :-D