Hey everybody. Welcome back to Shape by Dog. I am Susan Garrett. And today's topic,

it comes from one of you listeners who wanted to know, how would you go about becoming a professional dog

trainer? And Susan, what was your path? They'd been Googling how to become a trainer and they

got a wide range of answers. So, before I jump into that, I want to share a memory I had from,

I think it was third or fourth grade when the teacher asked, what do you guys want

to do for a living? Now, how romantic would it be if I said my answer was I wanted to be a dog

trainer? In fact, I'm doing what my answer was, but I'll get back to that. There was a little

boy who's up beside me. Brian, I think his last name.

I'm not going to even tell you his last name. Casey listens. Who knows?

Brian said very confidently, I either want to be a garbage collector or a minister.

And the teacher said, wow, Brian, those are two really different careers. Why do you want to be a garbage collector

or a ministry? He said, because there are the two things I can think of where you only have to

work one day a week. Obviously, that's not true. I remember thinking at the time, gee, Brian,

what are you going to do with the other six days? You don't got things to

do. That was my thought. Now, my answer was I wanted to be a teacher, which lo and behold,

that's exactly what I am. Why am I telling you that story is because although from the outset

it might look like if you are a garbage collector or a minister, you only

work one day a week. The truth is, there is a lot more to it than that. And that, my friends,

is how I'm going to open the answer to that question. I want to be a professional dog

trainer. How do I go about doing it?

It's not just training dogs. That isn't. That actually is just a small bit. That actually is

more like your qualifications more than what keeps you going, although a love of training dogs

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