Starting a Dog Training Business

Dog training services are getting more and more popular, as dog owners are always striving to improve the well-being of their beloved pets.

This can be a very lucrative business to run, as start up costs are generally not too high. However, there are many things that should be considered before starting a dog training venture.

Here are a few key points to keep in mind if you are interested in starting a dog training business:

1. Does the area you live in have enough demand for dog training services?

Any kind of business needs to have a decent sized market of potential users available to both get off the ground and maintain momentum in the longer term.

Use your research skills to find out how many people in your potential catchment area are dog owners, and use your own judgement to decide if and how much they would pay for your service. A dog training business located in a wealthy town will inevitably be a better prospect than the same business in an economically challenged locale.

2. Dog training experience:

Do you have the skills, knowledge and expertise it takes to start a dog training business?

Ideally you will have solid experience of owning, handling and training dogs of various temperaments. Of course you can learn to be a dog trainer before opening the business, but it’s best to at least know for sure you like dogs, and are confident enough around them to take charge.

3. Do you have people skills?

Running a dog training business means interacting with both the animals and their human caregiver(s). As a large part of your work may well involve teaching the owner how to behave with the dog some solid customer service skills and the ability to get along with most people are pretty essential.

4. You need to have a plan:

Presuming you have already worked out the financial aspects of the venture the next step is to plan how you will promote and market your business. This may involve local networking, creating social media accounts and looking at advertising possibilities.

Before doing anything else spend time developing a clear brand and message to share with the world. 

Here are a few points to help you with that:

- Choose a catchy but relevant name for your business; this will help potential customers remember your name easily.

- Have a great logo created to brand your dog training business. Keep it fairly simple and relevant.

- Network with others working in the dog training field; your peers are a great learning and support resource. Also, don’t overlook the local vets, pet store owners and even pet insurance providers, who could all prove to be good referral sources.

- Price your services properly. Don't go too cheap to attract new clientele, but at the same time, don't be too expensive to drive them away. Make sure you do thorough research on your market and see what prices people are willing to pay to have their dogs trained.

As you can see, starting a dog training business requires a good bit of hard work, commitment and research, particularly in the early stages. However, it is a fantastic line of work to get into if you have the correct temperament and some form of experience with dogs.