Dog Trainer Career Guide: What It Is Like to Be a Dog Trainer

Transcription

(Music)

Kathleen Troy: If you ask a dog trainer how to train a dog to sit, you're going to get different answers. But no matter how you train a dog to sit, the secret is...

Dan: Today on Time We Discuss, I wanna welcome Kathleen Troy and it's time we discuss what it's like working as a dog trainer. Kathleen, thank you for joining me today. My pleasure, thank you. I've had dogs my entire life. We always tried to train them ourselves and had, you know, mild success to good success. Somewhere in that realm. But let's talk about you and being a dog trainer. Let's start with, how did you become a dog trainer? Why did you go down that road?

Kathleen: I love all animals, but I especially have a passion for dogs. I grew up with a dog. You know, I've never thought I've seen a furry face that wasn't attractive or wonderful to me. I just love them. So I've always been involved with dogs. So I've had many dogs and I believe in training. I love agility training. I teach all my dogs American Sign Language because at some point, every dog will lose its hearing. And I am especially interested in search and rescue and also service dogs for hospice, for people actively dying. So I have that background, yeah.

Dan: And is this something you've been doing your entire life or was this more of like a second career? Talk to me about that.

Kathleen: Well, it was one of those things where I was doing it in my life and then suddenly I discovered it was my life. And it was one of the things that I just discovered it was a career. So people, you know, they say, gosh, you could do this with this dog and you could do that with that dog. I want my dog to be like that. And I said, well, okay, let me help. And it just took off from there. And then, you know how it is. You start mingling with like type people and all my friends suddenly became dog trainers and they taught for the canine unit and things like that. And then we just kept bonding together.

Dan: So that's interesting. If you're working with a canine unit, does the dog trainer need to have a certain level of training? Do you need to be certified in some way to train the canines or how does that work?

Kathleen: Every city municipality is different as far as what the requirements are. But yes, they go through a lot of training. They have to have a certain temperament, just like the dog has to have a certain temperament. You could love dogs, but you may not be a good trainer in that you have to be the alpha dog, especially with the canine unit because they typically use Belgian Malinois. And those animals are so smart. They're so smart. And if you're not ahead of the game right away, you're done for. I mean, you're done for. You will never be the alpha dog. So it's all those things. And I really think that, and this is, I think the way people kind of get into a little trouble area. The owner or handler and the dog have to be trained at the same time. That's how they bond, how they work together. That's how your dog will know to look to you and so on.

Dan: I'm assuming you started your own business doing this. I'm assuming, right?

Kathleen: Yeah.

Dan: Okay. So how did you decide to do that? Were you originally working for like a doggy daycare and then you decided to start your own business or you were just like, you enjoyed it so much? It was kind of something you started on the side and it grew. How did it start?

Kathleen: I just enjoyed it so much. So all my dogs, again, I've always had a lot of training with and things like that. But where it really blossomed is I was doing dog training and I think successfully. But a friend of mine was an American professor in South Korea and he was lonely. And so he bought a Cocker Spaniel at Walmart. You can buy anything at Walmart in South Korea. And so I said, well, you really need to train him. And he's like, oh, Kathleen, you don't know what you're talking about. And I said, yeah, I think I got this one. So he said, no, no, no, I want a bohemian dog with no restrictions. I said, okay. So life was good until my friend got married. And by that time, Dylan the dog had turned into Dylan, the serial chewer, and he had eaten all the furniture in the apartment, all the baseboards, all the electrical coverings, the inside of the BMW. And here's the funny part. When he ate the wedding pictures and the negatives, his wife said, the dog's going to Kathleen. So Dylan traveled 27 hours in cargo hold and arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. He had knocked his water bottle loose. So he had no water for 27 hours. I mean, that poor little dog. And my idea was I was going to find him a good home. But I opened up the door. And if you know anything about Cocker Spaniels, they've got those mommy eyes. And he just gave me the look. And I said, do you want to go home? And he said, yeah. So he was 18 months old. He didn't know his own name. He wasn't potty trained. Took him home. We started working together. And after a while, a friend of mine who actually trains for the canine unit, he said, Dylan is really smart. You could do much more with him. Maybe get him a search and rescue. And I said, well, yes. But he's not a Labrador. He's not a Great Dane. He's not a Belgian Malinois. He's a little short, fluffy guy. But he's really, really smart. And actually, dogs with shorter noses have more receptors than other dogs. And so started training Dylan. So leaping to the end of the story, Dylan developed a 500-word phrase vocabulary, could contact 911 with a special device, new American Sign Language, bilingual understanding, English and Korean. And he could count to 10. He could detect a dead body under 10 feet of water. He was only Cocker Spaniel on the search and rescue team. And this was a dog that nobody wanted, that someone had written off as a problem dog. And so what I would tell people is, if I can do this with Dylan, you can do this with your dog. Any dog can be trained. Any dog.

Dan: That is wild. That is so cool. Wow, I'm just blown away.

Kathleen: Well, here's the good part of the story, I think. At the end of the working day, Dylan would get two tablespoons of Baskin Robbins vanilla ice cream. And he actually became a spokes doggy for Baskin Robbins. They had this contest about, send us your story. Why do you like ice cream? So I thought, well, he's got a good story. So I sent it in and he won.

Dan: You said something earlier that made me think of this when it comes to teaching, to training dogs, okay? And I've recognized that probably dogs, much like humans, are gonna be, so I'm gonna be easier to train than others. Okay, but let's talk about specific when it comes to the breed. Are certain breeds significantly easier to train than others? Or is it more about personality? What's that like?

Kathleen: Even though a dog is a domestic animal, there still a dog. And way back when they were bred to do something, to hunt, to herd, to root out vermin. And those instincts are still going to be there. So you may have to work a little harder. You may have to be a little more patient. And I think that's really what it comes down to. Just patience, consistency, and love. I mean, who doesn't need a little extra love in their life? And that's how you're going to bond with your dog.

Dan: I wanna talk about it from this angle. So a friend of mine is a behavioral specialist. I've met a number of behavioral specialists during the course of my adult life. And we talk about behavior reinforcement and changing behavior. Can those same principles essentially be applied to dogs? Or not quite the same way? What's that like?

Kathleen: Start off easy in that if you're going to train your dog, you want to be in a good mood because they're going to pick up on you. And you're hopefully the alpha dog by this time. And they're going to be looking to you for direction. So you wanna be in a good mood. And everybody wants enthusiasm. They wanna be cheered on. So if you're not in a good mood, save it. There's always tomorrow. So, okay, you're in your good mood. You wanna be consistent. You wanna be patient. But I really have to tell you this, Dan. Okay, if you ask a dog trainer how to train a dog to sit, you're going to get different answers. But no matter how you train a dog to sit, the secret is yummy treats. That's it. I mean, that's the whole big secret. And what you want to have, even if you have a big dog, let's say a Great Dane, you want to have a treat that is no bigger than your fingernail on your pinky because you want the dog to gulp it down. You don't want the dog chewing the treat because if they're chewing the treat, they're going to be going, "Hmm, this is pretty yummy. And, you know, I wonder if there's any more." And they don't care that you wanna teach them to sit or not to jump or anything like that. They don't care. All they care about is the treat. So you want them to gulp it down and then look to you.

Dan: That is really, really good advice. (laughs) So let's talk about the business side of things. Let's talk about you starting the business. How difficult was that from like a marketing perspective, getting noticed? What's the saturation level like? Generally speaking, go back to when you first started this business, how difficult was it to get up and running? And is it still just as difficult nowadays or is it easier? All of that stuff. Talk to me about starting a business.

Kathleen: Well, first of all, I love business and I love marketing. I love it. I started my first business when I was 15 years old and I don't know how many businesses I've had since. So I always tell people, if you don't have a business plan, you're not a business person, you're a gambler. And so you need to know, where are you going to go? What do you want? But also very importantly, what does your client need? Those could be two different things. So start to associate yourself with people who would want you, who cares about you, who wants what you do. So I associated myself with various animal interest groups. Mutts in Need, ASPCA, Sunny St. Bernard's, things like that. Also, and this may sound like something that's not important, but I really think it is, I always tell people, be thankful, be grateful and accept opportunity. If somebody asks me to come and speak or ask me to do a demonstration or they want to come witness something that I'm doing, I'm all for it. I always say, if you want me, invite me, I'll come. So I guess the moral to that story is always give back more than what you get. So by doing that, you're going to get the message out that, hey, you know, she's a nice person. Hey, if I were a dog, I would want to be in her class. Or hey, you know, I've seen the things that she does. So with that in mind, you are your best spokesperson, but get yourself out there. So where I live, I belong to the Chamber of Commerce. I belong to special interest groups. I also teach full-time at Cypress College, which is the number one community college in California and third in the nation. And we have events on college all the time, you know, through foundations. I always say, hey, I would love to come. You need a speaker, I would love to be there. And that's how you do it, I think, is offering your services. And then it will get out. If you've got something that people want, they will want you.

Dan: That is really, really great information. And you said a couple of things that made me think of some really good things that I can add on to that as well. And I shared this very, very early on in the show's history. I talked about my father being in business and he had his own trophy business. And people would approach him and they'd say, oh, you do trophies, you also do plaques. No, I don't do plaques. Oh, okay. Then someone else would show up, do you do plaques? No, I don't do plaques. Then finally he said, you know, maybe I should do plaques too. So he started doing plaques as well. And then the t-shirts and then the mugs and (bttons) ... all kinds of different things happened. You know, he didn't say no to the opportunities anymore. He just kind of accepted them and kind of baked them in. The other thing you talked about was giving more than what you get. And that reminded me of, I spoke to Dallin Huso, who had his own pool business. And he talked about leading with giving people value. Like this is what, this is the value I can give to you. And then just kind of see what comes back. And he had a lot of really, really good success really good success with that.

Kathleen: Absolutely. And you know, even as the small things that we all know, for example, always have a business card with you. I'm surprised that people who don't or they have some sort of promo thing. I have something about the size of a postcard that I have with me. If I go into any meeting, first of all, I have a little name badge, professionally made, who I am, what do I do? And people ask, what is that? What's Dylan and Friends? I go, well, let me tell you. And then I have a business card. And for example, this is February. And it is Girl Scout Cookie Month. Okay, so you got those cookie pushers out there. So I'll go up to their cookie stand. And I always buy a box of cookies who could resist. And then I'll say, here's my card. I understand that Girl Scouts earn badges, you know, pet responsibility, business, things like that. Please invite me to your group. I would love to make a presentation. And I do it for free. So I will offer my services for free to organizations like that. I offer them to schools, career days, read-a-thons, things like that, because I believe in them. And I believe in the things that they do. And it's education, you know, I love education too. So make yourself accessible. And it may sound corny, but I really think karma exists. And I really think it does come back. And people, again, they get to know that you're dependable, or they're in a fix. They're like, oh, the speaker canceled. Who could we get? Oh, Kathleen, you know, that nice girl. You know, my whole life I've been Kathleen, that nice girl. So there are worse things that you can be.

Dan: I was gonna say, it's not bad at all, not bad at all. So you talked about working at the community college, and this made me think of this. A friend of mine has a dog, I can't remember if it's going through to be a therapy dog or emotional support training or something like that. But that's kind of what made me think of this. So if someone is training dogs, how difficult is it for them to then train the dog to be an emotional support animal or to be a therapy dog? Is there certified training that goes along with that or not so much? What is that like?

Kathleen: There are in California, that's where I'm at. And so they do go through a training process and it's pretty rigorous. And one of the things that we have our dogs go through is American Kennel Club K9 Good Citizen Test. It's a 10 part test. The dogs have to do it perfectly and the first time. And the owner or the handler can be another person, can't interfere. So there's an evaluator there, they give the test, they give the prompt and you have to do that. When that is finished successfully, the dog will have a vest and they will have a patch that says AKC K9 certified. And that's important. And you know, Dan, in the world of technology, you can get anything off the internet now. I mean, you can. But as someone who's in this business, I know the difference in that, for example, I'll be at an outdoor cafe and someone will have their dog there and they have the vest on and that supposedly it's a support dog or something like that. And the dog is begging from the table and it just isn't true. So the dogs are trained, for example, in a situation like that to be under the table, they cannot eat when they are working. So they have to eat beforehand and so on. There's just things that you know when you're in the business. And some people try to pull it off. And I think that's sad because it took a long time for dogs to be recognized in capacities as an emotional support or service dogs or therapy dogs. And they're all valuable services. And the truth is there's never enough dogs to fill those capacities. So we want them to be recognized and we want them to be welcomed.

Dan: So I wanna talk about this concept of niching down. You might hear this with like different, it's very common in like the online business world. You know, you wanna niche down. Does this exist in your world where it's like different dog trainers work with, maybe they only work with certain breeds or something and they're well known for they work with Cocker Spaniels or something like that. Does that exist or not really?

Kathleen: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Going back to Dylan, he was a fluffy Cocker Spaniel and he looked like something that would be sitting on a little girl's bed. And his feet look like Ugg boots. I mean, this tug was just so beautiful. And when I first started training him as a service dog, I remember this one handler, his name is Roger and he only worked with K9 dogs and he did not wanna work with Dylan. Yeah, he says, "I work with K9 dogs and I have big dogs and I don't like little pretty dogs." And I said, "Well, my friend is a SWAT Lieutenant, a Brea PD and he says you're the best." And he was like, "Well, okay, I guess I could do something with a dog." Well, it turned out that Dylan was just so visible and he attracted so much attention and people were just so much interested in what he could do. He again became kind of a spokes dog and it created a good liaison between the public Brea PD and search and rescue and things like that. So it got people interested and it got them thinking, "Well, gosh, if that little fluffy dog could do this, my dog could do that too."

Dan: Completely unrelated. So you have people that are very strong dog people, which I am ... love dogs. And then you have the other people that are the cat people. So my question for you, has anyone found a way to corner the cat training market yet?

Kathleen: All right, I love cats. I've had four cats in my life, two to live to be 22, 1, 18 and 1, 16. And I am convinced that feline and felon are synonymous. (Laughs) I love them. They're like clever little ninjas and they're smart. And I love them. People always say cats are aloof and that wasn't the case with mine. Mine were very much in your face and you better recognize me and recognize me now. So I think again, you will bond with your cat in some degree and they will be a certain way. They may wanna be on your lap and not on anybody else's. And so I think, I know this is silly, but I think animals just know if you like them or you don't. And they have a good judge of character. And so if you're a good person, if you're kind, if you're respectful and you love them, they're gonna love you back. They are, yeah.

Dan: I always get some enjoyment when you have a gathering of some kind and you have the person that is not a cat person or not a dog person. And invariably that animal goes over to them and tries to get all kinds of attention. I absolutely love that.

Kathleen: Oh yeah, I had a black cat named Cabernet and he knew who was not a cat person. And he would jump on their lap and it was almost like, I'm gonna make you like me. And people would come around. They would say, you know, I'm not a cat person, but this is a pretty cool cat. And he would think, I told you, I'm a cool cat.

Dan: Kathleen, one of the things I like to ask, when it comes to your business, what are some unexpected perks that came along with having your own dog training business?

Kathleen: I guess it's just doing what I love. People ask me all the time if I work and I say, not really, not really. It's fun. Seriously, Dan, I wake up every day and I think I'm the luckiest person I know. I love it. I love my life. I love what I do. I love all my clients. I love the people I meet. I'm outside. I, you know, I train indoors too, but I love it. I love my life. Maybe it's a little life compared to everybody else, but I like it. It suits me.

Dan: That is awesome. I've spoken with over 165 people at this point and a handful, just a handful of people have said how much they just love their life. They love what they do. They wake up every day and they can't wait to continue doing what they're doing. And I just love hearing that. It's awesome. I think that's all we strive for. We all try to find enjoyment in a career and because we do that for a long time every day for many years, you know, that's the goal. Kathleen, I feel like there's so much more we could talk about when it comes to dog training, but unfortunately I am running out of time. One thing I like to do whenever I'm speaking with someone, I like to give them the opportunity to talk about a project they're working on, a cause they believe in, more about their business, books. I know you have a couple. So if there's something specific you'd like to discuss, the floor is yours.

Kathleen: Oh, thank you. I'd love to talk about that. So I told you the story of Dylan and that actually prompted a series that I have. It's called the Dylan's Dog Squad series. Six books are out, seventh is in progress, and it's based on the true story of Dylan. So everything that dog does in the book, Dylan has done in real life. So people always ask me, does Dylan really like surfing and zip lining and whitewater rafting? And I say, well, he didn't say no. So in the book, so it's fiction, yeah, series. And it's about two boys and Dylan. They live in Brea, California. They do search and rescue and they solve mysteries all over the map. So they get into a lot of trouble. They have a lot of adventure and they always save the day. And the books are available on Amazon and wherever books are sold. And then about last year, I was having a visit to a school and the school wrote me this adorable email. It was from a second grade class. And they said, we've read all of the Dylan Dog Squad series books and we want to know how to teach a dog how to count. Can you tell us? Okay, Dan, I really have to tell you, that's a hard one. So I sat down, I wrote it all out and I started thinking about it. And I said, you know, I have hundreds of letters and emails and wherever I go, book signings and appearances, people always want to know, how do I teach my dog to sit? How to teach them from jumping on someone? And so I wrote Dear Dylan's Dog Squad. It's nonfiction and it also came out, it's coming out in audio, I should say, in a couple of months. But it's about pet ownership, pet responsibility. It's nine easy chapters. You don't have to read it from cover to cover. You can pick out what you want. It has chapters in there, simple dog training, crate training, American Sign Language, problems, maybe how to travel with your dog. Should you get a puppy? Should you get an older dog? Things like that. So that's what prompted that.

Dan: That is awesome. All that is such great stuff. What I'll do is I'll make sure we get all those links from you, we'll put them in the show notes. They'll be in the description, they'll be on the website, they'll be all over the place when people are trying to find the good information, they can find it.

Kathleen: Thank you.

Dan: Kathleen, it's been absolutely awesome having you on Time We Discuss and we learned what it's like being a dog trainer.