Why is dog training so expensive?
There’s no doubt that professional services are both expensive and in high demand, and it’s been my own experience that when hiring someone for a service, you often get what you pay for.
Over the years, we’ve found that cut-rate estimates to repair our home can result in cut-rate service, or being ghosted altogether, leaving us scrambling to get essential work done.
We’ve also had wonderful experiences with true professionals worth every cent of what we paid them for a home repair or other service.
A credentialed dog trainer is a similar professional.
What’s behind the cost of training your dog
Like many of my colleagues, I’ve heard the assumption from friends and family that I train dogs for fun, not to earn a living, and that people don’t expect to pay for quality dog training services. (This second part may be true ... hence this blog!)
Here is just some of what a one-hour private training or class fee covers when you hire me or another credentialed, professional dog trainer:
The time to prep and create a training plan for training sessions
The actual hour or so of training
Time to write follow-up homework after training sessions
The cost of training gear and treats for training sessions
Renting space to run classes
That hourly rate also covers the costs of:
Current and continuing education: certification programs, workshops, seminars, books, conferences (like other professionals do, the best trainers keep their knowledge current)
The software and apps we use to host our website, book our appointments, and manage our business
Other costs of running a business: state business license, liability insurance, advertising, professional services such as attorneys and accountants, professional memberships, business taxes, credit card processing fees
Office supplies, software, and equipment (yes, we need computers, printers, pens, and paper too!)
Community donations of free training time and behavior consultations
The net income after expenses supports our households.
Like other professionals, most trainers I know set their rates according to what our local markets will bear. Our rates also reflect the quality of the services we provide because of the level of credentials and education we bring to working with dogs and their people.
Cut-rate pricing, in dog training or any profession, can sometimes reflect a lack of credentials — remember, dog training is an unlicensed and unregulated profession. While your electrician, hair stylist, and mental health professional are required to have an education, credentials, and a license, your dog trainer is not.
The high cost of cut-rate dog training
Jean Donaldson, the founder of the Academy for Dog Trainers, calls grads like me the “mop up squad.” What she means is that we often are hired to help a dog guardian who has worked with one, two, or more previous trainers to try to resolve a behavior issue.
[And full credit to those guardians for sticking with training and not giving up on their dog!]
Very often, we have to undo behaviors caused by aversive training methods. For example, I might be called in to help a family whose dog moved from quiet growling at a toddler to snapping and biting, because a previous trainer recommended squirting the dog with water whenever the dog was near or even looked at the toddler.
Problem is, the dog can come to associate the child (and the person squirting them) with something very unpleasant, which creates an extremely unsafe home environment and may lead the dog to escalate her behaviors toward the toddler. So rather than simply set up the dog for success with new behaviors and a safe home environment, I first will have to undo those negative associations and create new, pleasant ones for the dog. This can be a complicated, painstaking, and lengthy process that could have been avoided by hiring a credentialed dog pro to start with.
Guardians of dogs with separation anxiety are routinely told by unqualified trainers to lock them in increasingly-stronger crates to prevent escape and home destruction. Often, the dogs end up with broken teeth and claws, resulting in costly vet bills and immense pain for the dog, whose panic at being left alone is not being addressed.
So how do you find someone who’s worth their fee?
Here are four questions to ask a prospective dog trainer and answers you’ll want to hear:
How will you train my dog?
What tools will you use?
What will happen when she gets it right?
What will happen when she gets it wrong?
Bonus question if it’s not evident on their website: Where did you study dog training? See the educational programs recommended by veterinary behaviorists here. Taking a dog training course here and there is not the same as a well-grounded education in the science of behavior modification, which is what dog training is.
Answers should be along the lines of:
I’ll create a training plan that increases in complexity or difficulty at your dog’s pace to reach the goal behavior. (This is the case for manners training as well as specialist training, such as separation anxiety.)
We’ll use food to motivate your dog. We may fit your dog with a front-clip harness or a head halter to help her walk without pulling. We’ll set up safe spaces and management in your home for peace of mind for your family.
When your dog gets it right, she gets a reward and we move on in the training plan.
When she gets it wrong, we drop to an easier step in the training plan until that’s solid, then move ahead again.
If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.
A favorite quote of my colleagues is the one above by the oil well firefighter, Red Adair. It’s true for any profession, including dog training. To borrow another phrase, when looking for a trainer hire once and hire well or, as my mom (and maybe yours) often says, as I did at the start of this blog, “you get what you pay for.”
Hiring a credentialed, rewards-based dog trainer is an investment that will pay off over the dog's lifetime.
ABOUT JANICE
Janice Zazinski (she/her) is a Certified Trainer & Counselor, a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer, and a Family Paws Graduate. Based in Townshend, VT, Janice Z Dog Training serves the local community in person, works with clients everywhere online, and is a referral trainer for veterinarians in several states as well as the Springfield and Windham County Humane Societies (VT) and the Baypath Humane Society of Hopkinton (MA).
Janice Z's training methods are rewards-based, force-free, and humane. You and your dog will love how it feels to train together!
Help Janice Z Dog Training continue to spread the word about effective, humane, rewards-based training by buying me coffee.😀