Working with clients as a dog trainer

Working as a dog trainer has a huge appeal for many of us, specifically because it involves working directly with dogs. "Ooh, do you get to play with puppies all day long?" was a frequent question I heard from clients when I first started my dog training business.

"Sort of," I'd chuckle in response.

If you love puppies as much as I do, it's worth structuring your dog training business around exactly that: puppy kindergarten classes, puppy board and train, new puppy orientations, focusing on puppy house training cases, and the like. But while puppies are wonderful, most of us also like to work with older dogs and increasingly complex training scenarios; helping adult dogs stay in their homes may even be the reason we got into training dogs professionally in the first place.

Here's the thing, as any dog training pro who's been working for even a few months can tell you: Most of the work you'll do as a dog trainer involves working with people.

This can be a little uncomfortable for those of us who may seek respite in dog training specifically because we don't want to work with people! In those cases, seeking employment at a kennel, animal shelter, or grooming business in a non-public facing role can be a better bet. Dog walkers, pet sitters, and dog trainers usually run their own businesses, or are employed by organizations that still require them to have frequent and sustained contact with the people who live with the dogs.

Working with clients as a dog trainer means teaching people

A professional training session means you'll teach the client as well as the dog. You have to explain the exercise, demonstrate it, and then watch while the client tries it. That last part can tell you whether your instructions were clear and whether the exercise works for the person who will be practicing it after you leave.

As dog pros, we tend to skip over details once they feel automatic. It's tempting to demonstrate an exercise beautifully while forgetting to explain where the treat should be, when to mark the behavior, or what the client should do if the dog wanders away. We already know which details to watch, but the client is trying to take in all of them at once!

Clear training instructions give someone enough information to try the skill while you're still there to help. Then, step back and let them practice. Watch what they do before adding more explanation. A client may need to see the exercise again and then practice one piece at a time.

Teaching people also means checking what they understood. Ask, “Show me how you'll practice this tomorrow morning.” Their answer gives you much better information than a friendly yes.

A good plan has to fit the household

A technically sound training plan may still ask too much of the person carrying it out. The client may have limited time, a busy home, young children, mobility concerns, or another family member who handles the dog differently. Those details affect which instructions the client can follow consistently.

If the assignment requires 20 minutes twice a day and the client has five minutes before work, then it's up to us to find a version they can do in five. If the setup takes longer than the training, simplify the setup. We can keep the same training objective while changing the route the household takes to reach it.

This is where dog trainer communication skills become practical. Ask what happened when the client tried the plan. Find the exact point where it became confusing or unmanageable. Adjust the instruction, demonstration, environment, or amount of practice from there. When follow-through is the larger problem, this article on helping dog training clients succeed goes further into expectations, manageable assignments, and support between sessions.

Dog trainer people skills grow through the same kind of attentive practice as training mechanics. You notice what the learner in front of you can do, change your teaching when needed, and make sure the client leaves knowing what to try at home.

Dog Training 101 from the Association for Professional Dog Training International introduces this part of professional practice alongside foundational dog-training knowledge. It includes structuring private sessions and writing training plans clients can follow, two professional dog trainer skills that help turn good training ideas into something a household can carry out.