BECOME A DOG EDUCATOR COURSE

Prerequisites

• Adults, unemployed or working, whether for a professional reconversion project or for your first steps in the workplace.
• People wishing to perfect their knowledge either for volunteering purposes in associations, shelters, or to bring their skills to the well-being of the animal cause.
• Or simply for oneself, for their own dogs, whether to start their own business or to honor a position in a canine center that is recruiting.

Goals of the training course

• Master the skills and knowledge necessary for working as a dog educator.
  The idea is to train up professionals, people capable of managing canine education sessions the day after training finishes. By giving relevant advice, by setting up professional situations. Each trainee will carry the Au Coeur des Chiens image, we must offer complete training and let our trainees leave with indisputable skills. This is why we advise people wishing to train up to select their center carefully.
• We do not recommend distance learning, which in itself is of no use. At the end of this training you will be a canine educator, you will have to advise clients but also show them how to do the work. Something difficult to do when your knowledge only comes from paper.

Educational goals

• Make dogs follow basic commands
• Teach the dog’s owner how to get their dog to obey the basic commands
• Identify canine behavioral disorders
• Solve canine behavioral problems
• Teach the owner to understand canine behavioral disorders
• Define canine codes
• Read canine codes
• Implement an action related to the reading of canine codes

Training course combining practice and theory

The center Au Cœur des Chiens chooses to have you work at home on the subjects that can be studied without our support, the basics such as anatomical charts, dog breeds, diseases. You will then be invited to come to the training center for one or two months depending on the option chosen. And it is here that you will learn the essentials, putting it into practice!

The center only accepts 4 to 6 people per session, in order to be as available as possible for everyone, and above all to be able to put the trainees in as many situations as possible. This is where you will gain experience, contact with the dogs, and learn by their side. Nothing better for learning than by doing hands-on scenarios! The first day is dedicated to the presentation of the structure, to the organization of training (schedules, transport for meals, breaks, accommodation, etc.) During the visit of the center, the trainees will discover the structures, the surrounding environment, the equipment, and the Au Coeur des Chiens team.

Terms and access times

The start of face-to-face training is only possible after a maximum period of 3 weeks during which the candidate revises independently thanks to the training materials sent by the organization by email during final registration. This preparation makes it possible to meet the requirements of the evaluation submitted to the candidate at the start of the training.

Let’s summarize the steps:

• Contact us by phone, email, or come directly to the dog center
• We collect your information and we offer you a short questionnaire in order to target your expectations
• We transfer to you from Google drive the learner’s file which includes:
  • The welcome booklet
  • The training quote 
  • The training program 
  • A training contract 
  • An appointment 
• Send us back all the completed documents as well as payment of the deposit. Either by mail (payment by check), or by bank transfer (we can send you our bank details upon request)
• Once your documents have been received, we will transfer the theoretical lessons to you by Google drive (as a reminder, the first two days of the training will be dedicated to the visit of the center and the theoretical tests)

Methods used

TRAINING WILL BE DONE HERE AT OUR CANIN CENTER AU COEUR DES CHIENS

• Theoretical courses will be sent to you before the start of the training course, the theoretical lessons will have to be learned beforehand in able to access the two months practical course, however this is not possible if the deadline is less than 3 weeks before the start of the training course
• Active pedagogy – 30% theory – 70% practice 
• The practical work will be done on our educational grounds
• You will have use of basic equipment and specific equipment (leashes, collar, lanyard, muzzle, collar, harness, treat, toy, intelligent games)
• You will be able to work with our customers dogs for the 2 month period
• You will be in contact with a wide variety of dog breeds and clients that allow learners to be in real life professional situations.
• At the end of the training you will have a solid experience given the rich panel of customers.

Lieu de la formation

Once you are an official Dog educator, with your capacity certificate and dog educator attestation you will have to make some choices:

Where to work?

You do have options, either you buy some land, work in your garden or work directly at the clients place. Each choice has its pros and cons, it maymoney to rent if you rent somewhere it will cost you in money and you will have upkeep fees but you would be able to work more comfortably.

Working at the clients place, you don’t have fees to pay but you will have to adapt to the terrain, and sometimes clients don’t have a garden. Or, sometimes the garden doesn’t have a fence around it, or they live too close to another dog which can make the session difficult. As an alternative,  you will have to find a park to do the exercises in.

What prices?

During the training course, we will talk about this subject which can be very delicate. What we can say is that if the price is too low it can scare the client as they can see the discount price, which does not lead them to think of how professional you are. Or a price which is too high and it scares off the client as they think that educating their dog will ruin them financially. It’s best to be in the middle of the price range.

What investiment is needed?

You will need a personal vehicle, a field if you want to do training from yours, a telephone to answer calls and some accessories (leeds, collar, bowl, treats, long leeds etc…). Another subject which is mentioned during the course. It is not necessary to start off with spending a lot of money, it’s one of the perks of the job, the most important thing is your knowledge and how you pass it on.

What can I offer?

With our experience, it is hard to start off by just doing education, another activity would be a good idea. You can sell dog food or accessories, offer boarding, organize group walks, etc.. These activities associated with education will provide you with enough income to be able to pay the bills and develop your business.

What is the salary of a dog educator?

There are a lot of factors to take into account to answer this question, but we can already give you some figures, following our 17 years of experience. Dog training lessons should be anywhere between: 30 and 60€. To start off with, an educator can get a minimum of 2 lessons a day and work 5 days a week. Which would be 300€ per week-1200€ per month.

Our advice

It is clear that where you live will have a big impact, we have seen that the countryside is in more demand than big cities.

We do advise that you do another activity on top of education like selling dog food or pet products. But also other activities like grooming, pet sitting, group walks, agility, expo handling etc.. During the lessons we will go over this topic to be able to guide you as much as possible.

A good educator who takes care of his image and his development can hope to bring in 2000€ a month.