What Can You Do With an Animal Training Certificate?

Published on: October 11, 2023

Female dog trainer teaching two dogs how to lay down.

Do you have a love of animals? If you are intrigued by the possibility of turning your passion for animals into a career, you may wonder what your options are and what educational requirements exist.

The good news? There is a wide array of careers that allow you to work with animals, along with an equally diverse range of training programs.

Husson University offers an Undergraduate Certificate in Animal Training that allows you to develop the animal training and behavioral knowledge needed to effectively work with them. Although everyone who works with animals could stand to benefit from the information provided in this certificate program, let’s explore the niche for which it is specifically designed: animal trainers.

Get Your Animal Training Certificate

What Do Animal Trainers Do?

Animal trainers are highly skilled professionals who work with animals to either correct problem behaviors or help them learn specialized skills. This involves coaching the animals to consistently get them to respond to various commands and cues or perform specific tasks. These trainers may work with many kinds of animals, from domesticated pets to exotic species, depending on their animal training role and work setting. For example, you could become a dog trainer and work with families to provide obedience training to their dogs, or you could work at a zoo training seals to perform tricks for park guests.

Qualities of a Successful Animal Trainer

So, you’re interested in the prospect of training animals for a living, but do you have the right traits and skills to thrive in the role? What qualities can help make an animal trainer successful?

Patience

Working with animals can sometimes be frustrating — no matter how “domesticated” or “well-trained” they may be, they are still wild animals at heart, after all. They might behave in unpredictable ways, have variable learning speeds and styles, and be untrusting of humans. Remaining calm and patient with the animals in your care means you’ll be able to build trust with them and reduce their stress levels, both of which are conducive to achieving your training goals.

Effective Communication

In the realm of animal training, effective communication means consistent, predictable training routines that use clear and understandable cues and signals. Using the same signals and cues to mean the same thing each time is vital to avoid confusing the animal, as is positive reinforcement when a task or action is completed correctly.

Empathy

The ability to put yourself in an animal’s “shoes” can help you tailor your training methods to meet the animal where it’s at. By empathizing with the animals you train, you can better understand their needs, emotions and motivations, allowing you to adapt your training approach accordingly.

Knowledge of Animal Behaviors

What does fear look like in an animal? How do animals behave when they’re stressed or anxious? What are the signs that an animal is about to lash out? A broad knowledge of animal behavior will help you identify these behaviors in the animals you work with and adjust your actions around them.

Problem-Solving Abilities

No matter how thorough your training, the unpredictability of working with animals means unexpected problems are bound to arise on the job. You’ll need to be able to think quickly and solve problems in the moment to help ensure the safety of animals (and yourself) at all times.

Types of Animal Trainer Jobs

There are several types of animal trainer jobs to consider, mostly depending on the kinds of animals you want to work with and the kind of training you’d like to do. Whether you want to work with family pets or train the most exotic of wild animals, there’s an animal training role for you.

Domestic Animal Trainers

In this role, you would deal with domesticated animals like dogs for a variety of purposes. Many dog owners seek the services of an animal trainer to help with obedience training, such as teaching their dog to sit, stay, come and heel. You could also help pets overcome behavioral issues, including aggression or anxiety, using positive reinforcement techniques. Some trainers specialize in training therapy animals, service dogs, search and rescue dogs, and guide dogs for the visually impaired to learn complex tasks and behaviors tailored to their unique roles.

Exotic Animal Trainers

Want to work with more exotic animals? Plenty of opportunities to do so exist in zoos and aquariums. Animal trainers can help ensure the safety and well-being of animals in these facilities’ care by helping with feeding, training the animals for veterinary care and providing educational programs for the public.

Wildlife Animal Trainers

Wildlife animal trainers can work with injured or orphaned animals to help them prepare for release back into their natural habitat. In this role, you would help animals learn to look for food, avoid predators and navigate the outdoors. This makes wildlife animal trainers vital to conservation efforts, such as training captive-bred or endangered species to survive reintroduction to the wild.

Marine Animal Trainers

Those with a love of the aquatic may wish to focus on becoming a marine animal trainer. In addition to performing the same types of rehab and training for vet procedures as exotic and wildlife animal trainers do, marine animal trainers may also work at aquariums doing research and training animals (such as dolphins) for public performances.

Entertainment Animal Trainers

Circuses, zoos and aquariums employ entertainment animal trainers to prepare animals to participate in public performances. Additionally, they work in the entertainment industry; any time you see a real animal in a movie or television show, an animal trainer was probably there on set to instruct and care for the animal performer.

Responsibilities of an Animal Trainer

Whichever of these specialties speaks to you and your interests, you can expect to have the following responsibilities as an animal trainer:

Teach Animals Specific Behaviors and Commands

Sit, stay, fetch, roll over: These are the kinds of commands with which most of us are familiar through training our own pets. As an animal trainer, you would work with animals to get them to execute significantly more complex and specific behaviors. You might train a service dog to open doors, fetch medications and alert their human to an impending medical emergency. You could train zoo animals to cooperate during veterinary procedures or to enter a particular area of their enclosure during feeding time so the zookeepers can safely provide food. Regardless of the setting or complexity, you would be using commands, gestures, signals and cues to get the animals in your care to perform desired behaviors.

Reinforce Positive Behavior

The Humane Society of the United States recommends positive reinforcement training for modifying behavior, not only because it’s more compassionate (and, well, humane) but also because it is more effective. While the Humane Society is concerned mostly with dog training, many facilities that work with animals, such as zoos, also implement positive reinforcement training with animals like seals and gorillas. Rewarding positive behavior makes animals much more likely to repeat them, setting clear expectations to follow.

Monitor the Well-Being of Animals

In your role as an animal trainer, you will be uniquely positioned to advocate on behalf of the animals you work with. You could help monitor the animal care practices at a zoo, ensure animal health and well-being on movie sets or help train animals to cooperate during much-needed medical procedures.

Address Behavior Issues

Animals in zoos often experience mental health issues due to living in captivity. Likewise, many dogs and cats in animal shelters deal with generalized or separation anxiety as well as distrust or aggression toward humans. If these behaviors aren’t properly or promptly addressed, they could result in the animals harming themselves, other animals or their handlers. As an animal trainer, you can help animals develop less maladaptive coping strategies for dealing with their past or present trauma.

How to Become an Animal Trainer

Although more than a high school education is not strictly necessary to become an animal trainer, obtaining a certification in animal training could certainly help give you an edge in a competitive job market. It demonstrates you are committed to providing the best possible care and training to animals without the more extensive and expensive commitment of a degree program. Contact Husson University today to learn more about our Undergraduate Certificate in Animal Training.