Dog Trainer

Question: How much do petco or petsmart dog trainers typically earn?

(Posted by: ACtimes3 on 2010-02-17 16:18:58)

How are they scheduled if most training is an hour one day and another hour another day of week? Do they typically only work a couple of hours? What are the typical earnings?

Posted by: anne b on 2010-02-17, 20:21:57

I have one part time trainer who works 16 hours a week. When not in class, she spends her time helping pet parents in the store find the right products, while recruiting new training opportunities. She makes $9.00 an hour and usually gets around $150-$200 a week in commission for the classes she teaches. Averaging that out, she makes about $20 an hour. You get that kind of money if you are good at what you do. It doesn't matter where you work. ETA: LOL, seems I have struck a nerve. Really, it doesn't matter where you train. If that is what you want to do for a living, go after it, be the best of the best, and you will be successful. If you are not committed, and not willing to be available to your students when they need you, a training career is not for you. If you are not willing to advance in your own learning, so you can be a better trainer every day, you will not be successful.

Posted by: Heart W on 2010-02-17, 16:57:41

Not much. Petsmart tried to recruit me some years ago and I can't remember the exact figure, but it was a dollar or two more an hour than they paid the regular store workers. It was also tied to how many students were enrolled in and came to the class. I just laughed as I was making a heck of a lot more money doing group classes and private lessons myself. Most of their "trainers " are part time or else they work stacking cans of dog food or cleaning fish tanks the rest of the time. Having occasionally watched one of their classes in session, I can say their instructors are, for the most part, absolutely pathetic and those tiny little slippery areas in the middle of a store are no place to train a dog! If you want to make money training dogs (as in make a living), do private lessons or some type of specialty training like service dogs, bomb dogs etc. There are schools for dog trainers, but the only real way to get into it & do it well is to apprentice someone for a couple years and volunteer with a not for profit training club, which is what I did, and then I put over 30 AKC titles and multiple top 10 rankings on my own dogs. Top show dog trainer/ handlers also make a decent living, but you spend your life on the road and it is hard work. To get into this you need to apprentice for several years as well and accomplish yourself with your own dogs. In short, if you want to make money & work with dogs, your best bet is to go to vet school LOL! You work with dogs because you love it, not to get rich.

Posted by: KatieW on 2010-02-17, 18:14:45

I started out as a Petco trainer. I am not going to list what I earned...but at the time I was very happy with it. You also get commission for each sale of a training class. I worked 20-30 hour weeks doing regular jobs in the store such as salesperson, caring for animals, stocking, cleaning, etc. (they rarely hire a person just to do classes vs. Petsmart who does) Then, I held two 1 hour classes, three days a week. A puppy class and an adult dog class each day. For two out of the three days, they were off days where I just came in for two hours to conduct my classes. The third day, I worked a morning shift and held classes after my shift was over. This was stressful because at one point, I worked 3 months straight without having an actual day off that I didn't have to apply for. I worked at least 2 hours a day, every day of the week. However, the pay was really good and I REALLY enjoyed the job. It got my dog training career started off well. Petco trainers spend typically 3-6 months training to be dog trainers. You have to work through exercises in a textbook during your spare time. Then you have to spend a 40 hour week at a training site working under a dog trainer...trainer. You also have to own a dog. Then, after the week of training, you have to spend 6-8 weeks as an assistant to another Petco dog trainer. You also have to pass a couple tests that do require some serious studying. Also, your personal dog must know the commands taught in Petco classes, because you sometimes use your dog as a demonstration.