First is to ask yourself first whether you really enjoy working with people as well as dogs.
People who enter the world of dog training to become a dog trainer do not realize that dog trainers exist to train people so they could train their dogs.
One must have a lot of patience and empathy, and you must be as good a coach to human clients as you are to dogs.
The two common ways to jumpstart into the dog training business is to be an apprentice with an experienced trainer or enroll in a dog training school or academy.
Educate yourself by attending seminars, reading books, and enrolling in dog training programs.
Self-help books or videos alone are not enough to help you learn the basics of becoming a trainer.
There are a hundreds of ideas on how dogs should be handled and trained and you will never really get them in books unless you discover your own techniques and methods on how you should handle every dog of different breeds.
Second, one does not need a degree to become a dog trainer but you should be responsible enough to get an education or educate yourself if you consider pursuing this profession.
You will also need a hands-on experience before you can offer your services to the public and a good place to apply what you learn is to render your services in dog training schools.
At first, you will get to observe first how the experts conduct the training and then later on they will give you the opportunity to try it on your own.
You can learn dog handling according to breed by undergoing training in a dog training facility where you can get the chance to handle real, live dogs and train them the basics of obedience training.
For starters, you can start by handling and training the simple and basic trainings conducted with animals.
While undergoing a hands-on training in a dog training facility, you can study and enroll in a school offering dog training courses.
These should give you an overview of the different training strategies and philosophies allowing you to find what style and technique will work well for you.
Being enrolled at school exposes you to different instructors that conduct a wide variety of ideas and training styles in handling dogs.
This will give you the ability to make a comparison on the different training techniques based on your experience rather than on theoretical level.
When you think that you have taught these animals well the basic of obedience and that they respond to your commands, it is only then that you can move on to the next level of trying it out on your own in dog training.
Last but not the least, can you handle teaching group classes and are you ready to do private lessons? Whether you plan on working as a dog trainer in full-time or part-time, it still depends on how many classes or sessions can you handle and you are willing to handle on a weekly basis.
If you want to try the business on your own then you should start educating yourself again on how to break into the business of dog training and acquiring the necessary permits and licenses to start your own dog training facility to train dogs or to teach people on how to become a dog trainer.