Someone texted me today, inquiring about our classes and asking whether I was a “certified” dog trainer.
I have heard about people looking for certified trainers, but this was the first time I personally encountered one. I was perplexed for a moment or two, not knowing where to start. How do you explain to a real person—not a keyboard troll—that what they are looking for is a scam term used to get people to pay for poor services?
Generally speaking, whenever someone says they are “certified” in something, it sounds like a good thing. Being certified usually means undergoing training and passing applicable exams. This holds true for many disciplines and industries—because most of them have clear procedures in place for certification and accreditation. Unfortunately, this is not the case with dog training.
There is no credible or nationally recognized school for dog trainers. One cannot get a degree in dog training, nor can they truthfully claim to be certified in anything dog-training-related—there is simply no organization that conducts such accreditations. Therefore, “certified dog trainer” is simply not a real thing.
One could, of course, pursue a degree in a field tangentially related to dog training—such as Cognitive Science, Biology, Animal Behaviour, or Veterinary Medicine. I, for instance, hold a Ph.D. in the humanities, with a research specialization in interspecies communication.
A non-degree alternative is to attend seminars led by well-known dog trainers who have proven their worth by competing with their own dogs, or to complete courses designed by those same trainers. There are several of these, both online and in person, but one has to conduct quite a bit of research to find them, and to distinguish between those who are truly knowledgeable and those who are not.
Even then, no degree or certificate alone can support someone’s claim of being a dog trainer unless it is complemented by years of practical experience.
In this regard, the profession of a dog trainer is similar to that of a martial artist: both must prove their worth through years of practice and discipline, and both must demonstrate something tangible to earn the title they claim to have.
I ended up taking the time to educate that person and clarify that, while I do have a research degree combined with years of practical experience, I am not “certified” in training dogs. They may have taken it or left it—time will tell.
The moral is: do not fall for the letters and titles behind a person’s name—they mean nothing without experience. Run as fast as you can from anyone claiming to be a “certified dog trainer.” These people are, quite frankly, lying. Trust your eyes and the results a person can demonstrate. A good place to start is to simply search their name, check the reviews, and observe their online activity.