Friday, June 06, 2008

Dog Trainer?

Phoenix dog trainer
Phoenix dog training
Dog Training Phoenix
Dog Trainer Phoenix

Looking for a dog trainer in the Phoenix area? Need a dog behaviorist in the Phoenix area? Or, do you need assistance, but live outside Phoenix? Send me an email. I can help you out.

I know... it's a shameless plug...

People think that all it takes to be a dog trainer is to love dogs, read a couple of books, put out the word, and the world will flock to you and love you. It's just not that simple. It takes years and years to get good. There are a lot of hard lessons to learn along the way that no one tells you about. You make a lot of mistakes early on. No one wants you experimenting on their dogs, so you should learn by training your own dogs first. And you need a mentor... and that means a heck of a lot more than just joining some program, or buying into a franchise, and paying them money to teach you about being a dog trainer. It means finding a true expert to learn from. Then you have to learn to work with pet owners. That takes time and effort, too. You can't get that from a book. If you haven't lived and been where they are, then how are you going to relate to their situations? You can't get that in a 3 week course at the local pet store. Lastly, you have to decide what kind of person you really are to see if you should be doing this at all. There are the quick buck artists out there that think that sales means tricking people, and making the bucks is so important to these greedy types that they have no problem hurting dogs to get a paycheck. Real salespeople know that sales is an honorable endeavor, and means truly helping people, not tricking them out of their money. And good business people do everything with an eye on the long term, even if it means swearing to your own hurt at times to make sure that the customer is happy and the dog is treated properly. Being a professional means keeping your integrity even when times are hard.

There's a lot to being a good dog trainer. Most people just aren't willing to pay the price to be that, even many of the ones in the business already.

Let the buyer beware.


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