One of the best dog trainers in town has a story a lot like yours. She adopted a severely abused dog 20 years ago and couldn't find anyone in the area not using choke chains, prong collars and dominance theory training techniques, which her dog just couldn't handle. So she set about learning a new way to train and began offering her services to others. Now she's the recognized expert of the area in problem dogs and gets amazing results with positive methods.
She dipped her toes into the waters by training at PetSmart. (They pretty much let you train any way you want as long as it's positive.) Once she had a client base and was known in the local dog community, she set out on her own. Her personal dogs have CGCs and TDs, but she doesn't train for competition, she deals solely in behavioral problems, so she doesn't have any agility, schutzhund, etc. titles. I guess it depends on your focus. If you want to train people in agility, you should get agility titles with your own dogs, but if you're dealing solely with behavioral issues, I don't think it's necessary.
Good luck! (If a certain opportunity comes through for my husband, I may try to become a trainer myself, as well. So I'm really rooting for you.)
She dipped her toes into the waters by training at PetSmart. (They pretty much let you train any way you want as long as it's positive.) Once she had a client base and was known in the local dog community, she set out on her own. Her personal dogs have CGCs and TDs, but she doesn't train for competition, she deals solely in behavioral problems, so she doesn't have any agility, schutzhund, etc. titles. I guess it depends on your focus. If you want to train people in agility, you should get agility titles with your own dogs, but if you're dealing solely with behavioral issues, I don't think it's necessary.
Good luck! (If a certain opportunity comes through for my husband, I may try to become a trainer myself, as well. So I'm really rooting for you.)
