Level Up Your Dog Training Business by Offering Additional Services

Everyone, trainers and pet parents included, are strapped for time. The most valuable thing we have (other than our pets and families of course) is TIME. But if there is one thing that we feel strongly about, it is that training and enrichment are critical throughout the life of a pet. How can we help pet parents make time for training their pets?

Maintaining long-term relationships with clients and providing value to them will go a long way. There are additional services that you can offer that not only help provide convenience and give pet parents back some time but will help drive more business for you. What are the benefits of offering more services to your clients?

Provide more value

Expand your client base

Build loyalty

Check out three recommendations on additional services to level up your dog training business.

Dog Walking

As a dog trainer, it is safe to assume you are comfortable walking dogs. Not only that, but you are uniquely qualified and can provide much more than a standard walk. This is so valuable to pet parents and helps level up your training business.

So many people wish they had more time to walk their dogs – but life gets in the way. Dog walking services are a great way to help fulfill that simple need. The fact that you’re a trainer adds a level of trust and allows you an opportunity to build a lasting relationship with future long-term clients. You might come across a client with a dog that can’t walk well on a leash. Guess what? You can help with that! Later, they will turn to you if they have another dog or even a future training need.

Types of walks to offer:

Social Stroll – great standard walk for simple exercise, aging dogs, or multiple dogs

Sniffari – enrichment walk

Leash Skills Walk – use this as a walk plus an opportunity to train the dog a bit (premium walk opportunity)

Hike with a Hound – if you live in an area with parks or trails and can identify clients with active and fit dogs a hike would be a great option

Of course, dog walking can be a service you add to your current training business and provide to clients you already have, but it can also be a great way to generate new training clients.

Virtual Sessions

While a virtual session is certainly not the ideal solution for training, especially for more detailed cases, it can be a good solution for a few reasons and an easy add-on to your services.

Virtual opportunities are flexible for both the trainer and the client. First, they can be taken from anywhere which is a big plus for clients who may not have time after a busy day of work, family schedules, and other obligations. However, it may be easier to find a quick 30 minutes at home to pop into a session.

Do you have a client that you’ve worked with in the past, but they’re past the point of needing regular training sessions? A virtual session can be a great way to connect for a short period of time, discuss how things have been going and provide advice on a handful of challenges they may be facing or questions they may have.

Have you ever worked with a dog who is simply not exhibiting the behavior that the client is challenged with out of the home or their normal environment? When you bring the dog out of the home and into the training setting many times they can act differently and for some pet parents that can be frustrating because they feel they may not be able to address the behavior. If a client is able to capture video of the behavior in the home setting and have a productive virtual conversation with you, this may be impactful to them for an initial session or two before bringing them to the training facility.

Other virtual session suggestions:

Meet-and-Greet before an initial training session to become comfortable with one another

Group Sessions: Learn the fundamentals prior to in-person classes. Plus, connect and learn from pet parents who have experienced similar training challenges

Follow Up Calls to training sessions that you’ve had prior

Trainer Q&As – access to these can be offered for free to client

Consider adding a virtual session or two as an option to add on to packages that you may offer, or as an option to purchase for past clients to show flexibility and provide an added convenience.

Drop Off & Pick Up Services

If you have a training facility or train dogs out of a specific location, providing drop off and pick-up services is extremely valuable. It can be difficult to work around work or school schedules to get dogs to and from the training facility. Another added perk to this? This could open opportunities to do half-day training for folks who otherwise wouldn’t be able to take advantage of picking their pup up in the afternoon! There may be extra bookings because of this, on top of the added drop-off and pick-up service.

Things to consider if offering this service would be:

Mile Radius – define a mile radius that you are comfortable with and can service

Transportation – do you and/or other trainers at your facility feel comfortable transporting dogs in their car or will you need another vehicle to do this?

Staffing – would you need a dedicated individual to do this, would this pull staff away from other services, etc.?

If you are ready and can add additional services to your training offering services that help with the typical “I would but I don’t have time” pushback not only will help you, but will also add value for the pet parent and the pet.