Why did you become interested in the profession of dog trainer?
I have been passionate about dogs since I was a child. I’m very young, I’ve already read a lot of scientific studies to understand how these animals perceived things and adapted to them. I had my first dog when I was 10 years old, she came from SPA. I trained her myself and I believe she inspired me to become a dog trainer.
In the equestrian environment, I have seen horses violently punished after…
Why did you become interested in the profession of dog trainer?
I have been passionate about dogs since I was a child. I’m very young, I’ve already read a lot of scientific studies to understand how these animals perceived things and adapted to them. I had my first dog when I was 10 years old, she came from SPA. I trained her myself and I believe she inspired me to become a dog trainer.
In the riding world, I saw the violent punishment of horses after a wrong step, so I began to question the things we saw on TV. This allowed me to educate myself, in a sense, about the issue of positive education. When I decided to make it my career, I went through training to acquire the basics of education and dogs, at Canidelit in Toulouse. Since then I have followed several others.
What is positive education?
Initially, positive training is a learning method that integrates the scientific aspect of the dog into its training. Absolute obedience is not expected, as they are opportunistic by nature, but good behavior is appreciated. The dog does not know the difference between good and bad, so we reinforce the attitudes that we want to reproduce. For me it’s more of a dog’s vision, although today it’s more of a marketing tool, everyone uses it.
Isn’t it forbidden?
Obviously, we have the right to say “no” in positive training, if the dog knows why we are saying it. Saying “no” stupidly, constantly, to the point that the puppy wonders if that has become his name, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t understand it. I say no to my dog when what he is about to do is stupid and he knows it, I have worked on it with him.
What simple actions can we adopt?
I train owners to be independent with their small company. In fact, 80% of education is focused on humans and 20% on animals. It’s important to keep an open mind and question yourself. Just because you’ve always had dogs doesn’t mean you’re a professional in the field.
We can reward him every day when he does something good, to emphasize good behavior. The reward must be adapted to the animal, what it likes and the situation. We can also pay attention to “calming signals”, precursors to bites. Because a dog does not bite for no reason.
Is it possible to train a dog at any age?
Yes, the oldest I helped was between 12 and 13 years old. He was starting to become aggressive towards his peers. We were able to resolve the issue fairly quickly. However, there are certain issues that, of course, I do not deal with, because I am not comfortable and not trained enough on the subject, such as separation anxiety or destruction. Therefore, I recommend other, more specialized educators to the owners.
What do you remember from the experiences with the dogs you followed?
Last year I supported about 120 dogs. We can see big changes when people get involved. That’s why the most frustrating thing in the profession is that the results are related to the working ability of the person. Sometimes I see potential in animals that we cannot use because they are not necessarily at the center of human lives.
Can you make a decent living as a dog trainer?
It’s a great and profitable business, the owners come with a problem and leave without it. We help them. Of course, if you want to earn 10,000 euros per month, forget about this profession. But you can make a living from it. For reference, after a year I started to live more comfortably, but I still continued to be careful. Knowing that complete monitoring of a dog costs an average owner between 250 and 350 euros.
What are your next goals?
As for the projects, I plan to further develop the business and improve myself. Eventually, I would like to run courses myself. I intend to create a community, I don’t know what form it will take yet. The dogs will be with me all my life, so I plan to continue for at least a good ten years. And if I stop, I will certainly move on to the horse case.