DOG TRAINING SCHOOLS - Learn to become a dog trainer!
So you want to become a Professional dog trainer, and you are looking for a good dog training school that can help you accomplish that goal. Sit Means Sit dog training has 2 professional dog trainers schools that both only take 3 people at a time. The 2 Sit Means Sit dog trainers schools are located in Las Vegas Nevada, and in Denver Colorado.
Here is a little web homework that you can do before going to work. Dog training is a booming industry. Most people only dream about the type of business that they love to do, and can also make an unlimited amount of money in. You are probably looking into a dog training school, so that you can have a successful career at.
Method: Research the method that the dog training school employs. You will find some schools that may knock another method in order to raise themselves. Don't fall for that. At Sit Means Sit dog training, we never try to prohibit you from seeing someone else, in fact, we promote very highly that you should go to see the others. The cream always rises in this type of comparison shopping. Besides, what problem would you have in someone visiting a competitor that does not have what you have to offer? At Sit Means Sit dog training, we are concerned with 3 things for our location owners. 1. Having the best trained dogs, 2. having the ability to make the most money, 3. and having the very best customer service for our location owners and our clients. If you don't fall into these categories, then our school probably is not for you, but a different one might be.
In this day and age, with the advent of technology, career fields in many areas are growing at an astounding rate. We live in a fast paced, results oriented society, and being the new kid on the block in any field of endeavor, you better have the capabilities to make a big difference immediately, or get left in the dust.
How do you find out what method will work best in this competitive area?
This is a thought provoking question. Practically everyone has opinions on everything and anything, and since this is going to be your career, it's important that you see what will work best for you. Here are a few tips that will help.Here is a tip that you can try right on your computer before you start your journey of phone calls and visits to dog training schools.
Check out their website to see videos of their work. After all, this is dog training and looking to see how well the dogs are trained is certainly not unreasonable. Usually, the company is bragging about how good they are in their literature, so call them on it. Dog training is about passion. If a company does not have the passion to show their work, they may be hiding something. If they say they are too busy to train their own dogs, this lack of passion for their own dog will probably be carried down through the organization as well. I know that when I seek out someone who designs websites, and draws me in by speaking about their talents, but is very hesitant about when I ask to see some of their work, something is usually amiss. Remember, they drew you in by saying how good they were. Call them on it.
In this interview, Sit Means Sit CEO and Founder Fred Hassen, responds to some of the more commonly asked email questions that he has received over the years from people that are looking to find a dog trainers school.
Question: Can someone make a good living training dogs?
Fred Hassen: I think it's fair to say that 65 thousand dollars a year is on the lower half of the spectrum of the location owners that we have that have been doing this for a year and a half or more. We also have owners that have made over a 1/4 million dollars in their first year. It's all relative to the person's individual work habits, and what their goals are. You really set your own bar as far as money is concerned. I think the important thing to do when looking for a dog trainers school, is to really do your homework. If I can give you 2 pieces of advice, that would be to:
1. Get a list of all of the graduates from the school, we actually have all of our location owners on our website, but not everyone does that. I would randomly call about 10 of them, or make contact with them in some fashion. The reason that I mention to do it randomly, is by doing it that way, you will get a pretty good overall feel of the place, and will probably get some highs and lows in there, and you can sort out the difference. I would not ask the owner to give you referrals, because in all fairness, he is only going to give you the best, and you will have much less of a chance of hearing the negative comments that may arise. Talk to the people that actually went there, because they will know best. They also obviously would not tell you about all the people that may be failing, or cannot make a living, and that number might be quite high. The bottom line will be your own talents, and the product that they have, but talking to these people will give you something more to base your information on what dog training school that you want to be involved with.
2.
Visit the places on your wish list (Once you have it down to a couple), to get a better feel. Dog training is a field where a lot of people talk a big game, but can they produce? Look at the facility and how clean it is, check out the place that you will be staying in. Will you be staying in your own room, or will you have to share it? Will you have maid service, or will you have to do the cleaning. Watch their dogs perform. After all, this is a professional dog trainers school that you are looking at, and I would expect them to have professional quality dogs that are being trained. Pay close attention to the rest of the staff, and how their dogs look as well. Remember, a lot of times the owner of the school may not be the one teaching you all the time, so I would really look closely at the staff as well. I really think that this step is very important, because you will get a good feel of the place, and whatever is right for you will be easier to tell.
Q: What is the support like in your program?
Fred Hassen:
I feel support is the most important part of any program. It's always interesting in the initial process of screening that we do, that when my personal cell phone number is given out to not only the people that are current Sit Means Sit dog training location owners, but also to people that are in the inquiring stage at how surprised they are at that. That always takes me a bit by surprise, because someone that is as close to this program as I am, and that is constantly working to upgrade it, it's very obvious to me that a lot of this happens because of me being so close to the pulse of everything that happens, in that this team concept is what makes it all happen
.You can talk to any of our location owners and I think that is one of the things that really stands out strong. Everyone gets to know everyone else, and there is constant feedback amongst ourselves on getting better. This is a company that constantly evolves on both the marketing aspect, and the training aspect.
I think it is kind of like computer software and how their are constantly updates, and our program is similar in that things are constantly evolving, and our strong support system and team concept make that happen.
It's a heck of a lot easier to grow and stay strong with a lot of minds working together on a common goal. That's a very powerful thing, and those in the middle of living it, like our location owners, certainly understand that.
We have a lot of things that we schedule collectively to keep people the best we can on the same page, and there is no denying it showing up on the quality of the product that we are producing with the dogs, our marketing, our internet marketing, and our cohesiveness as a unit. We are like a well-oiled machine. Most of that is due to our support system.
Q: When do the classes for your dog training schools run?
Fred Hassen: With the addition of our second school that is run by Dave Skoletsky in Denver Colorado, to go a long with our main training headquarter school in Las Vegas, this has made it possible to run our dog trainers schools on a constant basis throughout the year. We do not take more than 3 students at a time per school, because of the specialization of the product, it's training, and our marketing concepts. Both schools are usually booked at least a month, to 2 months in advance. We can fit any time frame into your schedule with advanced notice. Both businesses operate 7 days a week.
Q: Once we fill out our paperwork, deposit etc, do we automatically pass the course and become a Sit Means Sit trainer?
Fred Hassen: No, we definetly have had people that we felt were not going to be able to uphold the high standards of Sit Means Sit dog trainers at our dog training schools, and they were not certified. These people were also given a full school refund.
Q: What is the length of the course at your dog trainers schools, and where are they held?
Fred Hassen: The course is 3 weeks long, and it is all hands on training and marketing. Our schools to become a Sit Means Sit business owner are held in Las Vegas Nevada, and Denver Colorado. Those are the training hubs for the students.
Q: Where do we stay during the 3 weeks we are at the school?
Fred Hassen: In Denver, the students are housed at a very nice La Quinta hotel with lots of amenities and maid service. In Las Vegas, the students stay at a Micro-tel inn on Las Vegas Blvd. Both locations are very, very, clean and you have your own private room.
Q: Can we bring our dog?
Fred Hassen: Of course you can bring your dog. At the Sit Means Sit dog trainers school, we pride ourselves on our dogs. We love to show our dogs. Our motto is: Talk is cheap, we SHOW you!
Q: The videos on the Sit Means Sit website are incredible, these trainers must have all been training dogs for a long time before they became a Sit Means Sit.
Fred Hassen: Actually, it's quite the opposite. While we do have quite a few trainers that came from dog training backgrounds, many of the dog training videos that you see on our site came from trainers that have backgrounds as: A piano teacher, a waitress, Senior executive for Macy's, Mortgage Analyst/Loan Officer, a Bank Manager, an Ecologist/Environmental consultant, a registered nurse, a Corporate Travel Manager, Dolphin and Sea Lion trainer, a farmer, and a sheet metal worker amongst other things. We also have quite a few police K-9 handlers, ex-members of the Presidential K-9 team, and a few State Troopers. Quite a diversified group that have now become outstanding dog trainers, and predominate dog training business owners in their communities.
Q: What have some of the Sit Means Sit dog trainers accomplished in the dog world?
Fred Hassen: The great thing about also having a lot of trainers that are training competitively, is that virtually every dog training type of competition does not let you use any sort of 'aid' during the trial or testing of the dogs. This would usually include prong collars, choke chains, clickers, food, ecollars, remote collars, shock collars, or anything else they may be called. Trialing your dog also puts to rest any wives tales of whether a dog can perform in any sort of system without the training aids as well as with them. (for more info on training aids, and performing without them, please (READ AND WATCH THIS)This list obviously grows every day, but here are a list of some of the accomplishments. 2006 Ringsport National Champion, 2007 Ringsport National Champion, Perfect 100 score Rally AKC Obedience (Excellent Level), All-Time NAPD high score obedience record holder, NAPD open division National Champion, 3rd Place Obedience National Championships NAPD, 2007 U.S.P.C.A. Region 7 Champion, 2005 U.S.P.C.A. Region 15 Champion, USPCA Region 15 Patrol Dog Case of the Quarter (9-2001), USPCA Region 4 4th Place Overall (6-2002), USPCA Region 4 2nd Place Agility (6-2003), USPCA Region 4 3rd Place Suspect Search (6-2003), USPCA Region 6 Top Dog Award (Novice Division) (9-2003), USPCA Region 6 1st Place Obedience (9-2003), USPCA Region 6 1st Place Scent Work (9-2003), USPCA Region 6 1st Place Criminal Apprehension (9-2003), USPCA Region 6 2nd Place Agility (9-2003), USPCA Region 15 1st Place Team (4-2004), USPCA Region 6 1st Place Criminal Apprehension (9-2004), USPCA National Field Trials 5th Place Scent Work (11-2004), USPCA National Field Trials 11th Place Overall (11-2004), USPCA National Field Trials 2nd Place Team (11-2004), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2005 (1st Place Obedience), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2005 (2nd Place Scent Work), USPCA Region 6 Field Trials 2005 (1st Place Obedience), USPCA Region 6 Field Trials 2005 (2nd Place Criminal Apprehension), USPCA Region 6 Field Trials 2005 (3rd Place Team), Township of Ocean Certificate of Commendation (4-2004), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2006 (1st Place Top Dog Overall), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2006 (3rd Place Criminal Apprehension), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2006 (2nd Place Scent Work), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2006 (1st Place Agility), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2006 (2nd Place Obedience), USPCA National Field Trials 2006 (5th Place Overall), USPCA National Field Trials 2006 (3rd Place Obedience), USPCA National Field Trials 2006 (4th Place Agility), USPCA Region 15 Field Trials 2007 (3rd Place Overall), USPCA National Field Trials 2007 (3rd Place Region Team), 2 AKC Senior Hunt titles, FEMA certified dogs with 'live' finds, Therapy certified dogs. Many titles in AKC Agility competitions, AKC obedience competitions, Dock Diving a long with many, many appearances on Television, media and newspapers.
Q: I see you have your own 'Sit Means Sit' dog training collar. How does that help me if I graduate from your school?
Fred Hassen: The 'Sit Means Sit Collar' is of course advertised as 'The only remote dog collar you will ever own', and the reason for that is simple. We are the only ones that have a LIFETIME warranty with our product. No, this isn't some 'read the fine print' lifetime warranty with glitches in it. Sit Means Sit provides this warranty so that if ANYTHING EVER happens to your collar, if your dog chews it up, or even if your pet elephant accidentally steps on it and smashes it, assuming that you can return the broken pieces, we will replace it for just the cost of shipping. Next week, next month next year, or 6 years from now. It's truly the only collar you will ever own! That's not the best part though. The best part is that the Sit Means Sit collar can only be purchased through Sit Means Sit and that would include you! We also feel that with all the locations that are out there, and all the videos and all the advertising, why should you be putting out a different product, when you are doing all the work to make the product work so well!! Those benefits should be coming back to YOU and to Sit Means Sit. Other companies have literally hundreds of trainers and dealers on their web pages, and they certainly are not going to be sending their people necessarily to you in a respective area. The politics behind all that, and all of their dealers just would not allow that to happen. We obviously have a huge mass marketing advantage over any of the competititon. That's not the important part though. The important part is that our dogs are better trained than anyone else and DOG TRAINING is our product! Don't believe me? I dare you to find anyone, anywhere, that has the level of training success that we have, and the videos to prove it! Go ahead, do your due diligence and try and find results like ours. We built our company on lots of training doing just that.
Q: You have incredible rankings on the internet, how important do you think that is to the success of a dog training school?
Fred Hassen: We have an incredible web marketing team that is really constantly going at it all the time. The internet has become a great marketing tool, and someone that does not recognize that in today's society is just being left behind. Our students have enough to do with concentrating on the incredible dog training that they are accomplishing everywhere, and the cost and time factor that goes into a well done site, is just something that are people take advantage of in our support system, rather than trying to accomplish that themselves.
With the constant flow of information, videos and accomplishments that come in on a constant basis, and with our events that are seen by lots of people everywhere, it would be virtually impossible for any one person to keep up with that type of credibility, and when you factor in that we are still in our infancy stages, and the number of trainers that are coming on, it's really just a tremendous business opportunity for any business minded person, that loves working with dogs.
When someone asks about our web marketing, I just tell them to pick the terms that they feel would be relevant to the dog training world, and when you do it that way, and they see the wide array of exposure that we have on the internet, it's quite evident to them that this is a business that they would like to become a part of.
You have to remember that I actually built a good bit of the business without even having any sort of website that had any rankings, and the first 20 locations were somewhat in the same boat. We obviously recognized that this was a big part of the equation as well, and have worked hard to become a front runner in this part of the dog training business world as well. The training system was always so strong, and something that no other company could ever copy or compete with, and that is more than evident in the videos that you see on line, and the level of perfection, and the number of trainers that are accomplishing it. We truly are revolutionizing the world of dog training.
The more that we can keep letting our web marketing team take care of their job, that is less that are trainers have to worry about, and can concentrate on continuing to learn and get better at our ever evolving dog training system.
Enjoy an exciting dog training career!
