As a child I knew I wanted to work with animals, as I got older and went through college I ended up working with children and earned my degree in Child and Adolescent Development with a concentration in Early Childhood Education and a minor in Special Education. I was a teacher for a few years and did behavior therapy for children with autism. Shortly after I felt the need to begin working with animals as well as I have always wanted to do so I began working at a pet hospital. Began as a receptionist with little interaction with the animals and eventually got trained to be a vet assistant and helped do technician work. I love working at the hospital but I find myself more interested in behavior more than medicine. Now my question is, how should I begin? I have lots of experience with animals but am not sure if I need to go to school for training and then where to go from there? It’s also hard too I need to maintain a daily job to sustain myself while also reaching for this dream. Any suggestions are much appreciated!!
Answers & Comments
Are we talking about training ESAs (which is honestly, exclusively about temperament) or service animals? There is a HUGE difference...
There is NO legitimate training for ESAs. Even certificates from reputable places are worthless, since anyone can go online and print their own.
Training for service animals is very regulated. I'd check with your local (state) societies of the blind and the Seeing Eye programs, they train the majority of legitimate service animals as thats the biggest demand.
There is NO money in this profession. Most of the people who train are volunteers, which keeps the costs down dramatically. You'll always need to have a day job, even if you are training service animals.
You'd still need specialized training to learn how to train the animals. The best place to start is working for an organization that trains therapy dogs for a couple years.
You contact one of the local groups and are taught by them.
There are schools and certifications for that stuff. Great idea ! I wanted to do that with my dog but he is way too active...he'd be sniffing all the nurses while the poor kid just lay there and watched...