Ways to Use a Dog Trainer in Your Facility

Over the past 20+ years, The Dog Gurus have seen the daycare industry move from stand alone daycare facilities to facilities that are one-stop shops offering pet parents a wide range of services.  Over and over we see that facilities generating higher incomes often offer multiple services.  If you aren’t offering training in your center, consider hiring a trainer. The first question I am often asked about hiring a trainer is “What would they do?”  Here is a list of a few things you could delegate to a trainer that is either on-staff or contracted to work in your center.

• Group classes – this is one of the most common jobs of a dog trainer. Provide basic manners classes for family pets. You can solicit new daycare clients from these classes or refer your rowdy daycare dogs to get some additional training. Consider offering classes in the evenings or on weekends when daycare isn’t in session.  Use an empty daycare room or an outdoor play yard for the classes.
• Private lessons – private lessons are great options for the daycare client who has discretionary income. You can offer board and train classes as an add on service when clients go out of town, day school options in which a dog gets a specific training program (often manners training) for 5-10 days while they attend daycare, or teach tricks, introduce obstacles or work on individual skills the owner requests. For these training programs, the goal is to transfer the training skills to the owner and help them to understand how to get their dog to respond at home.
• Socialization of puppies – One of my personal pet peeves is daycares that bring puppies into playgroups without a special puppy program. Since puppies need extra attention and socialization, consider hiring a trainer who can manage your puppy program.
• Behavioral modification – Got dogs who need some one on one attention due to excessive rowdiness, mouthing, or lack of impulse control? Or maybe you have dogs that aren’t suitable for daycare at all but the owner needs some help.  These are great referrals for your training department if you have a trainer that is experienced in handling more advanced behavioral issues. Rather than losing the client, you turn them into a revenue source for another department at your center.
• Private socialization for daycare dogs – For dogs that need help acclimating to daycare, you can hire a trainer who is experienced in group play to help create small specialized groups that can help get a dog more comfortable with playgroups. This is a great alternative to turning dogs away if you think they have some potential as daycare dogs. It just requires the skill of a trainer to create the right groups to get the dog comfortable. This is really a form of behavior modification done in a small group environment and can be a niche service for those with dog trainers on staff.
• In-service training for the staff – Both your daycare staff and your training staff can learn from one another. Set up times when staff members can get together for in-service training. The daycare staff can teach the trainers more about canine body language and off-leash play, while the trainers teach the daycare staff about learning theory that can help them reinforce good behaviors in playgroup.
• Assessments and advice (other than for dog to dog play) – Your daycare staff knows how to do dog evaluations for off-leash play. A trainer can add to your base of knowledge by assessing the dog and owner to make the best recommendations on training tools, best advice for living with the dogs, and how to get a good canine citizen. Rather than taking up  the lobby staff’s time answering the myriad of questions from the pet parent, assign your trainer to offer educational classes or Q&A times to your clients.  This makes your center more valuable because you are a go to source for all the questions an owner might have about raising their dog.

These are just a few ideas on how to get started with a trainer.  Implement as many or as few as you like to get started, but hopefully you’ll see that having a trainer on staff can be a valuable asset to any pet care center.