I would very much appreciate any help or advice on learning to become a qualified dog obedience instructor.

What organisation would Instructors recommend that I contact?

What background or previous experience of dogs will be expected of me?

How long are the Courses and what sort of agenda is involved?

Planning ahead - approximately how long might it take to qualify?

Thank you in advance for any help/information/guidance you can offer.  Helen

There are no actual "qualifications" per se to becoming a dog instructor, anyone can set themselves up as one.

You can become a member of various organisations by fulfilling some criteria and the KC are now plugging their KC accredited trainer schemes.

Some of the best trainers I know belong to no organisation and have no "qualifications" other than fabulous success with their dogs and those of their clients.  Some of the worst I know have "letters" after their name..........

To successfully train people to train dogs you need a great deal of hands on experience with both dogs (of all breeds) and owners.

Your best bet would be to approach someone who IS highly regarded and ask if you can "assist", as well as studying dog behaviour etc

Hi,

Do you mean formal dog obedience, or pet obedience, or both? as pet obedience is different in the sense that it's not necessary to be so accurate :)
To train formal obedience, i would suggest you need to train your own dog to a reasonable level ...

As Tohme says, there are the KC schemes, the APDT also runs courses for pet instructors (www.apdt.co.uk)

Lindsay
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