Courteous Canine, Inc - Final Results from Dog Trainer Survey Summer 2006

Summer of 2006 Dog Trainer Survey by Angelica Steinker, M.Ed.

This survey was a non-scientific questionnaire. No attempt was made to get an accurate sample. The survey was emailed to a variety of dog training and dog sport lists and 131 responses were gathered. One response appeared confounded as many questions were blank or answered in illogical ways so this response was pulled from the results leaving 130.

Several patterns appeared when tallying the results and two were of particular interest to me so I will discuss them here. Out of 130 trainers only 19 used e-collars. I was very pleased to see this and it shows that education within our industry is effective. I wanted to examine the 19 e-collar user surveys for additional patterns and discovered:

Of 18 e-collar trainers 12 were members of professional organizations. APDT (7); IAABC (2); NADOI (2); and Dog Pro (1). A total of 10 trainers were certified. CCPDT (5); IAABC (2); NADOI (2); and Petsmart (1). The e-collar trainers saw a variety of more than 100 to zero dogs a week. Dogs per week: 100+ (1); 60+ (3); 30+ (4); 15+ (6); 5+ (4) and none (1). Financially the e-collar trainers responded as follows: Net income after taxes: 50K (1) --this trainer had no memberships in any organizations and no certifications-- 30K (2); 20K (3); 10K (2); 2K (4); and left blank (8) – one trainer said it was her first year and no records were available.

The second pattern of interest was which trainers are actually making money and how they are doing it. Only 12 trainers made more than 30 thousand US dollars a year. One trainer making 50K a year was running a dog sport camp and doing seminars nationwide; several of these trainers also provided grooming, day care, in-board training and/or boarding.

Now onto the overall results, I am going to insert comments after each question regarding thoughts I had and observations that would benefit a person who would conduct a future survey.

Dog Training Survey Results Total surveys: 13 Results closed September 12, 2006

1. Are you a member of, check *all* that appy: 83 American Pet Dog Association www.APDT.com

4 Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers www.CAPPDT.ca

24 International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants www.IAABC.com

4 International Association of Canine Professionals www.DogPro.com

8 National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors www.NADOI.org

2 Other, please explain: APDT Australia; International Positive Dog Trainers Association www.ipdta.org

Several trainers held memberships in more than one organization, but it seems fair to say that more than 50% of trainers responding to the survey belong to a professional organization. One can see at a glance that APDT was the most popular, the new IAABC was a distant second but considering it has only been in existence for a short time it seems very popular.

2. Are you certified as a dog trainer, if yes, through which organization/s check *all* that apply: 3 ABC – Animal Behavior College www.AnimalBehaviorCollege.com

0 The Association of Animal Behavior Counselors http://www.animalbehaviorcounselors.org/

47 CCPDT - Certification Council of Pet Dog Trainers www.CCPDT.com

12 IAABC – International Association for Animal Behavior Consultants www.IAABC.com ; pending (1)

8 NADOI - National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors www.NADOI.org

9 Other, please explain: Vet and has masters in behavior (1); Purdue University (1); Petsmart (1); Canada West Canine Centre School for Dog Training (1); CAPPDT (1); SF Dog Trainers Academy (2); Triple crown 12 week trainer certification course (1)

Again, the APDT shows its popularity in the results above since its CCPDT certification was the most common. 3.Check one that applies to you: 82 own dog training business 18 independent contractor 12 employee 19 teaching at a club and you are an officer of that dog club 8 Other, please explain: volunteer at shelter (4); works at a vet hospital (3); Volunteer at a biz (1) An interesting pattern here that the vast majority of trainers also own their own dog training biz. Much lower numbers in the other categories.

4. Which one of the following applies to you, check one: 20 Not for profit club 16 Corporation 48 Sole proprietor 6 Partnership 15 Employee 12 Independent contractor 5 Other, please explain: Limited Liability Corporation (4); rescue organization (1)

If someone ever does a survey like this they would do well to explain each of these labels. It seemed to me that their may have been some confusion as to what these mean and how they apply. This may also mean that there needs to be more extensive education of dog trainers in regards to business structures.

5. Primary source of clients for your dog training services, check one: 69 Word of mouth 30 Vet referrals 5 Phone book 7 Print ads 3 Signs 15 I work for a trainer/club/school and he/she provides the clients 9 Other, please explain: Animal shelters (1); media (1); Webpage (6); Pet store (1); flyers at Humane Society (2); dog club (1); Public radio ad (1)

The big winner here was word of mouth. The problem that this poses to us dog training biz owners is that word of mouth is the most challenging form of marketing to expand. It simply takes time to network and build a reputation. If this survey was repeated I would expect to see the number of vet referrals as primary source of biz to go down. Petsmart and Petco have a supreme biz system that allows them to sell a client on a puppy class or basic before they see the vet. People go to the pet supply store more frequently then to the vet. I also suspect that phone book referrals will drop to close to zero. Most professional trainers do not find the phone book a successful means of marketing, especially since most ads are extremely expensive.

In general ask all clients how they heard about you. This way when using print ads or coupons or signs you can track your success. If the ad, coupon or sign does not pay for itself in terms of new clients signing up then it was not worth it. Most print ads do not pay for themselves. Signs can be effective, but again everything depends on your market so experimentation is key.

6. Does your business require the use of a building? (If you don’t have a building skip to question # 10.) 70 Yes

A building enables you to offer more services, but it also substantially increases your overhead. Most dog trainers do well doing in homes and avoiding the massive overhead of a building. When speaking to several dog trainers they mentioned that a building usually meant 10K a month in overhead. If you have a building day care and boarding are probably a must in order for your biz to survive.

7. If you have a building, check one which applies to your building below: 38 Rented warehouse space: rent turf field at sports complex (1); Rent space from doggie day care (5); Rent space from local boys and girls club (1); Rents space from pet supply store (1); parks and rec (1); fairgrounds bldg. (1); in nursing home (1); national guard armory (1) 11 Building located on property you rent: building/room with vet hospital (4); use vet clinic exam room (1); room at vets (1) 12 Building located on property you own 6 Rented Office space: kennel building 11 Other, please explain: use back of feed store (1); rent former horse arena (1); training room in shelter (3); area provided for trainer by organization (1); volunteers at shelter (1); adult school (1)

The smart biz move here is to find a biz like a day care or boarding kennel or vet that is willing to let you use space for free in exchange for attracting clients to their facility because you are bringing people to their location. Phone calls, sign ups and marketing, in this case, are handled by the dog trainer.

8. How large is the building: Check one: 14 More than 10,000 sq. feet (several worked for pet supply retail store) 20 More than 5,000 sq. feet 2 More than 4,000 sq. feet 14 More than 2,500 sq. feet 14 More than 1,500 sq. feet 17 More than 500 sq feet

The bigger the space the better for the dogs and likely the more overhead. My guess is that most of the trainers that indicated more that 10 K of space, if not all, work for a pet supply store. This question should have been phrased to exclude space that was not available for training or to clarify how much space was for other pet related services.

9. If you have a building, what type of zoning is your building in? Check one: 58 Commercial 7 Agricultural 7 Residential 2 Other, please explain: don’t know (1); mixed use (1)

Zoning problems are causing trainers to face challenges world-wide. Dogs bark and noise ordinances do not allow for that. Most counties in the US only allow dog training businesses which they categorize as “kennels” in commercial zoning. The few counties remaining that allow kennels in agricultural zoning are tightening up regulations (requiring double fencing, paved driveways, etc) making it finanicially almost impossible for a small biz to afford a dog school in that zoning. Of course commercial zoning is even more expensive in most areas.

Of the responses above, 7 are in residential zoning. It is a violation of code to have a “kennel” which is what zoning law considers dog training schools to be regardless of whether they do over nigh boarding or not. This means these 7 businesses are operating one phone call away from being out of business. Most counties do not enforce violations of code unless someone calls and reports that violation. If you have a dog training biz in residential zoning make sure you have a plan B for when you get turned in.

10. How much does it cost you to operate your business per month? Including rent, insurance, supplies, trainer education? Check one: 5 More than USD 10,000 (in commercial zoning) 6 More than USD 5,000 (in commercial zoning) 2 More than USD 4,000 7 More than USD 3,000 5 More than USD 2,000 14 More than USD 1,000 17 More than USD 500 – one trainer charging 90$ per hour 32 More than USD 250 – one trainer rents bldg for only four hours a week 13 Other, please explain: less then 250 USD (2); Owner supplies everything (3); club supplies (2)

This question was problematic because some of the people responding to the survey did not know or were not involved in financial matters regarding the biz. It would have been helpful to narrow this question down by asking only small business dog trainers to respond and creating other questions for different categories.

11. Which dog training services do you provide, check *all* that apply: 82 In-home dog training (one trainer mentioned he/she charges 40$ per hour; one trainer 100$ per hour) 65 Private instruction at your physical location 42 Private instruction at other locations, provide info: 76 Group instruction at your physical location 41 Group instruction at other locations, provide info: at shelter (1); groomers (1); sports complex (1); vets (3); friends yard (1); dog park (1); adult school (1); at other trainers location (1) 14 In-board training 4 Other, please explain: Behavior consults (2); train animals for media (1); public places (1)

It would be really interesting to positively correlate income with services provided. It seems to me that the most successful businesses were those that provided either only in-home services (keeping their overhead very low) or the trainers with buildings providing tons of services were financially able to create income.

12. If you provide group class instruction how many weeks are your group classes? 4 4 weeks ( and 90 min sessions (1)) 2 5 weeks 48 6 weeks 18 7 weeks 34 8 weeks (and 90 min (1)) 1 9 weeks 2 10 weeks

It is very interesting to see the popularity of both 6 week and 8 week class lengths. A good question would be why are you selecting the number of weeks that you have? Also it might be interesting to see which classes are the most successful in terms of consistently filling. Are dog trainers picking 6 or 8 weeks because that is what is popular or is that what clients are signing up for the most? What is it that clients want?

13. How many minutes do your group classes last? 1 30 min 1 45 min 11 50-55 min 99 60 min 2 75 min 1 70 min 7 90 min (and 8 weeks(1)

The vast majority here are offering 60 min. A few smart biz people are offering 50=55 min. This is very smart because teaching group classes is a high burn out activity by cutting the hour to 55-50 min there is less “wear and tear” on the instructor. It also allows for a few min break before starting the next hour or session which again is excellent.

In my opinion 90-minutes is a very long time for a group class. It seems to me that dogs and humans may have lost their ability to focus. Obviously upper level dog sport classes would be an exception to this, but these dogs and humans have habituated to the group environment.

14. You charge (circle one US Dollars or Canadian Dollars) $_____________________ for one group class? 1 zero 1 40 USD 2 45 USD 4 50 – 59 USD (one trainer charges this per hour in home) 9 60 - 69USD 9 70 -79USD 15 80 -89 USD 17 90 -99 USD 15 100-109 USD 3 110 - 119 USD 17 120 - 129 USD 2 130 -139 USD 1 140 - 149USD 5 150 -159USD (for six weeks (1)) 3 175 USD 1 180USD 1 185 USD (for six weeks) 1 259 USD (90 min six weeks) 1 280 USD (seven weeks/ 60 min)

To be able to compare the charges I converted all the monies to USD. Unfortunately the responses aren’t nearly as interesting as they could be because I did not ask them what they charge per group class hour. For example is the trainer charging 280 for a group class offering 4 weeks of one hour sessions or ten weeks of 90 minute sessions?

Never the less you can see that most charge around 100 USD per group class session. Considering the low net income of dog trainers it seems that this may need to be raised.

15. Which of the following services do your clients use *most frequently*: 39 In-home dog training -15 USD per hour (1) 18 Private instruction at your physical location 7 Private instruction at other locations, provide info: 70 Group instruction at your physical location 24 Group instruction at other locations, provide info: (vets; Parks; recreation center) 1 In-board training 1 Other, please explain: Animal media

This question turned out more interesting for the individual responses of which locations trainers were using. Again, it would have been ideal to rephrase this question and either go for the where trainers are training or ask a more precise question then “most frequently.”

16. How far do most of your clients travel to receive your most common dog training service? Check one: 18 Zero – in home dog training 1 Less than 5 miles 14 Less than 10 miles 52 Less than 20 miles 34 Less than 40 miles 2 Other, please explain: one more then 60 miles; one more than 100 miles

I think this question is probably confounded, because it occurred to me after the fact that a lot of instructors may not even know where the client lives unless they are doing in home. I think it is safe to assume that most clients don’t want to drive a long distance to train their dog. Multiple locations therefore present a good strategy if you can keep your overhead low.

17. What type of dog training services do you provide. Check *all* that apply: 89 Training with food and use of leash 20 Training with no food and the use of a leash 104 Clicker training 103 Lure and reward training 8 e-collar training (trainer checked all of the categories in this question (2)) 59 Positive reinforcement/negative punishment exclusively 5 Other, please explain: Behavior mod (1); toy rewards (1)

I had hoped to establish how trainers train with this question. Unfortunately I did not phrase the responses well enough to separate out the compulsion trainers. The results do show that only 8 e-collar trainers consider themselves providing the service of e-collar training. This may indicate that the remaining 11 trainers only used e-collars as a last resort or in isolated cases. Again, it would be ideal to target questions to establish this.

It is wonderful to see that of 131 trainers 104 provide clicker training services.

18. I or we have used or recommended the use of e-collars: 19 Yes -Bark collars (2); vet with masters in behavior (1); send to other trainer for ecollar training (1) 105 No If yes, what type: Tritronics (7); Dogtra (5); for dog aggression (3) sport dog (1); pet safe (2); boundary (1)

E-collar trainers did not consistently provide info on what type of collars they used. Tritronics and Dogtra were the two most popular. If you have not experienced a shock from a e-collar you may want to experiment with shocking yourself. Most low level shocks are quite aversive and effect people in different ways. After shocking myself with a level 2 shock on my arm with a collar that went up to level 9, I continued to have spasms in my muscle well after I had stopped pressing the button. The spasms were uncomfortable and definitely aversive.

19. I or we have used or recommend the use of choke/slip/check chains: 23 Yes –rarely less than 1% of clients (1) 105 No

A huge victory for dogs and humane training the vast majority are not using what Jean Donaldson calls “strangle collars.”

20.I or we have used or recommended the use of prong/pinch collars: 38 Yes –less than 1% of clients (1); in extreme cases while dog is getting used to GL (1); 88 No

The numbers are not quite as encouraging here but still the majority are not using prongs!

21. I or we have used or recommend the use of head collars: 93 Yes –but stopped using them (2); 28 No If yes, what type: new trix (1); Mostly Gentle leader; halti (15); snootloop (6); new era (1); comfort trainer (1); canny collar (1)

It was fascinating to see that two trainers have stopped using head collars. It would be fascinating to know why. I know some dog sport trainers that feel that turning a dogs head could cause trauma in the dog’s neck. I know that I personally have felt knots in my dog’s necks after using head collars. As a result I prefer anti-pull harnesses. Having said that, I think that a head collar is an outstanding tool and that any strain that may occur to neck muscles would be off set by an aggressive dog rehearsing barking and lunging. Aggressive behaviors are ideally avoided.

22 I or we have used or recommend the use of anti-pull harnesses: 91 Yes – used to but doesn’t anymore (1); not sporn (1) 36 No If yes, what type: Easy walk (23); sensation (15); promise (1); gentle glider (1)

Again, Premier provides the most popular training tool. Premier does not only provide excellent customer service they also do great marketing.

23. I/we provide services to clients, check one: 63 5 or more days a week (6 of the e-collar trainers worked full time) 34 3 - 4 days a week 35 1-2 days a week – as needed (1)

Probably a better question would have been how many hours a week do you provide dog training services? I was trying to determine who was full time and part time with this question but many part time trainers provide services 5 or more days a week.

24. I/we work with how many dogs per week, check one: 10 100 or more – e-collar trainer (1) 7 80 or more 5 70 or more 11 60 or more 31 30 or more 31 15 or more 28 5 or more 1 3 to 4 dogs a week 3 1-2 dogs per week

This question was my attempt at narrowing things down more precisely and again it may have not been the ideal approach since I am not distinguishing between group and private instruction.

25. My/our gross receipts (the amount of money you take in *before* you pay for expenses and taxes) per year are: US Dollars or Canadian Dollars (circle one) CONFOUNDED QUESTION – website reported weird answers so I threw question out

26. My/our net (the amount of money *after* you pay for expenses and taxes) receipts per year are: US Dollars or Canadian Dollars (circle one) 9 More than 50,000 2 More than 40,000 6 More than 30,000 --ecollar trainer (1) 10 More than 20,000 20 More than 10,000 2 More than 7,000 36 More than 2,500 10 Less than 2,500 – less than 1500 (1) 2 Other please explain: not for profit club makes zero

Of course we can’t know if people answered this question accurately or honestly, however clearly dog training is not a lucrative business. If you are hoping to get rich, train part time!

27. How many dog training service businesses do you compete within your immediate area? Check one: 18 More than 20 dog training service providers 14 More than 15 dog training service providers 26 More than 10 dog training service providers 54 More than 5 dog training service providers 4 1 or two dog training service providers 8 None 2 Other, please explain: Three other trainers (2)

Again, my wording is problematic. What constitutes “your immediate area.” But the results are interesting. Positively correlating these results with income could be particularly interesting. Are trainers with lots of competition making more money or less money?

28.Which type of dog sports training do you provide. Check *all* that apply: 62 Agility 7 Disc Dog 25 Flyball 14 Musical Freestyle 76 Obedience 49 Rally Obedience 2 Schutzhund 11 Other, please explain: field training (5); tracking (5); therapy dog training (1); dock diving (1); herding (1); tricks (2)

According to this survey agility, obedience and Rally are the most popular dog sports. I suspect that if sampling was more appropriate these numbers would shift. It seems unlikely that obedience is as popular among clients as it ranking here would reflect. Sanctioning organizations world-wide are reporting a drop in traditional obedience and increases in agility and rally.

29. In addition to dog training what other services or products do you provide for clients. Check *all* that apply: 11 Grooming 9 Kennel 7 Day care 46 Collars and leashes, list type: premier most popular 29 Toys, list type: tugs/ motivator/kongs 31 Treats, list type: 39 Training aids, list type: books; handouts 16 Other, please explain: Pet sitting (1); dog walking (1); free phone consults (1) clickers (9); Agility equip (2); physical rehab (1); vet services (1); dumbbells (1); in board training (1); ecollars (1); monthly training membership (1); target sticks (1); infini8 head collar by black dog (1)

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