17 year old trainer?

[DJEtzel]

What would you guys think of a 17 year old trainer? Would you automatically disregard them? I'm curious, and have a few questions about it, because right now I'm 17 (18 in July) and am really interested in doing some private training this spring and summer to start with as a way to make some extra cash and get more experience. I would obviously not be trying to train anything that I didn't know about, and would tell a person that I couldn't train their dog if I couldn't do what they wanted.

I would be focusing mainly on;
puppy stuff (I know this best)
an idea I found called pre-puppy awarness (talking with a family about a dog/puppy breed/age that best fits their lifestye)
basic obedience
some advanced obedience
simple trick stuff (shake, bang, sit pretty, etc)
socialization & play dates (with my dogs and other client's dogs)
and any behavioural issues that I am familiar with (food, leash aggression, barking, etc)

I wouldn't be charging much as I'm not a professional, and anything is better than nothing for me. Should I charge hourly though, or in a different way?

Also, should I buy my own training equipment or tell them to purchase it for our lessons? If I should buy my own (which I'm thinking I should/want to, should I buy it all at once or wait until the need arises for a certain tool?

And is it absolutely necessary that I am insured? I've heard this mentioned, and if I had to, I would, but would really rather not mess with it. If so, how do I go about getting insured and what are reason for needing it?

What could be the problems with this idea as far as age and experience?

[onyx'girl]

I would tend to disregard someone so young to help me train my puppy. But I would never go to a petsmart or petco for training, either.
Coming from a site as this, vs joe public that will be the answer you'll get here, IMO. We are a bit more concientious than most dog owners.
I guess if I was "joe public" I would want to know what credentials you have, did you work with dogs in 4-H, or show train dogs while growing up?
How many dogs have you trained and what breeds?
There is competition in most towns, so many would not give someone so young a chance, unless they had a reputation of sorts.
I think you need a good spacious facility, with padded flooring(bonus) and secure entrance/exits.
Insurance would be a must.
I trained with a lady that ran a doggy daycare, she had a beginning obedience class and truthfully, I knew more than she did, but we went for the socialization aspect. Because she was an aquaintance I met a few years ago, we had several conversations, and her philosophy was like mine, so I decided to attend a group class.
She hadn't heard of several good books/trainers, so I gave her a list of great books, websites, information on NILIF, and a copy of Turid Rugaas Calming signals(for her daycare business more than the training class), before I decided to attend her class.
If you held group classes, there is so much that can happen in a 1/2 hour session, all dogs are different(as well as their owners) so you really need experience to the handle problems that may arise, situations that people go thru...
And most private lessons usually deal with problems or temperament issues.

Most go to obedience class for the basics, but some have dogs that they have no idea how to handle.

The kennel club that I have gone to, goes thru the motions of training, it would be easy to teach that class, the trainers have over 20 years experience showing/training dogs. I think a fresh person would really be best, and some trainers get burned out after 20 years of the same type training.
Your enthusiasm will sell you, if you have the knowledge to back it up.

[MaggieRoseLee]

In agility, there are some really good trainers that are pretty young, cause they started with their agility dogs and training even younger! It's amazing how patient they can be and what a good eye some of these young 'whipper snappers' are!

But I also know they've trialed and trained dogs and the 'proof is in the pudding' so to speak about what they are teaching. So for me, not so much the age specifically, as the skill level of the teacher.

[StGeorgeK9]

Actually, if you are really interested, you may want to consider working with an experienced trainer, see if you can apprentice yourself to someone you admire. I think working side by side with a trainer would be much better and give you a better idea of the entire world of training. For me, I would not hire someone so young, but you have to start somewhere.

[Dainerra]

here, there isn't much in the way of trainers. There is PetCo now. There were a couple private trainers, but they don't do group classes, only one-on-one and they are expensive.

But, it's also a community of older adults, and they can be very distrustful of someone young. And to them, young is 30s!

For me, I wouldn't dismiss them just because of their age. I would want to know what they've done, see their dogs, and probably watch them at work. The last is most important to me, simply because so many people just plain suck at explaining things.

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by StGeorgeK9

Actually, if you are really interested, you may want to consider working with an experienced trainer, see if you can apprentice yourself to someone you admire. I think working side by side with a trainer would be much better and give you a better idea of the entire world of training. For me, I would not hire someone so young, but you have to start somewhere.

That's a really good idea, and how most of the trainers I know started...

[debbiebrown]

i agree you should apprentice with an experienced trainer...........if you are really serious about training.....there is nothing like working with someone that has had years of experience, best way to learn...........your age wouldn't really bother me, but at 18 you need more years and learning under your belt..........but that is just me, being that i own a breed of dog that needs experienced trainers.....

for the general public, general breeds what you mentioned might be fine on the side, but i would still try to seek out an experienced trainer and keep learning.......

[Elaine]

There is no way I would train with someone your age unless you had a lot of experience and had a number of titles under your belt. Your best bet is to train and compete with your own dog to get those titles and experience, and train with an experienced trainer to learn more.

[DJEtzel]

Well I can't compete with my own dogs as my GSD and Beagle aren't registered, and my pitbull is a mix, I wish I could've from a young age, I would've.

As for training under someone, I don't know how well that will work, but I will try it. There is one, maybe two local trainers (30ishmiles) that I can try contacting, and that's pretty much all there is for training around here, except for some petsmarts 20-50 miles from here.

I know I have a lot more learning to do, but I do have more experience than most people that would want to go into this at this age, I think. I've obviously trained my own dogs; GSD, Beagle, and APBTmix, along with relatives dogs; chocolate labs, pomeranian, and yorkies, and handfuls of dogs at the Humane Society I work with, dog aggressive, reactive, generally aggressive, puppies, older ones. Some breeds I can think of off the top of my head that I've worked with there are a papillion/brittney mix, mastif lab mix, APBT, Huskie/shepherds, lab/hound, boston/hound, doxie, shipperke mix, and rott/cattle dog.

I'm really just trying to get a grasp at what I'd need to work on/do to be able to do this, as I'm really interested in pursueing a secondary career in training dogs, and I'd love to show too. I'm looking into buying a registered aussie next year for this purpose as I'd love to get into agility, flyball, maybe some conformation. I'm hoping I can try to get a secondary registry through AKC for Frag, my GSD, because I'd love to get started in some agility and I've yet to find any shows locally that don't require AKC registration. Is this common?

Thank you all for your advice and help.

[Elaine]

Not having a registered dog is no excuse for not competing. Any purebred dog can get a PAL number from AKC as long as the dog looks purebred and is spayed or neutered. Mixed breed dogs can also compete now in AKC performance events so long as they are spayed or neutered. I'm not sure how they are listed with AKC though, PALS or something else?