Well at this point they're grandfathering in all dog trainers who have been training dogs for at least a year without any competency test.
Honestly, if written by dog people, I'd love to weed out the stupid clicker-trainer people who are experienced training shelties and golden retrievers for AKC obedience and so put up a shingle calling themselves a dog trainer.
They don't have a clue how to handle a dog who actually needs trained, or has a difficult behavior problem... I've seen it.
Heh... oh well.
Hmm...I trained golden retrievers for the most part (that's what I raise/show). I always turned away dogs with aggression problems, for instance, because it wasn't something I felt comfortable handling.
I also stopped training (professionally) about the time clickers came into vogue, so I can't say if I would have liked or used it. However, the principal is sound (insofar as I understand it--I have never gone to a seminar on it tho).
But, you just underlined my point. There are alot of different ideas about what works, and it depends on the dog and the particular problem you're dealing with. Who decides? Better to let the market decide (in my opinion). Things that don't work will be cast into the dustbin (for the most part).
susie
That would be good area for liscencing - animal behaviorist, but not a simple trainer. I've fostered animals that had degrees of behavior issues that a lot of quacks would anthopomorphize. And too many AR types do just that - assign complicated human thought processes onto animals. The big problem with liscencing is that politics takes over. The training will have to follow how the political wind blows. Look what's happened to psychology and psychiatry and the reworking of definitions to suit political goals. Homosexuality was removed as a mental disorder. There is even a movement to make pedophelia a sexual orientation (whci would carry civil rights protections), thereby giving legitimacy to child molestors, and possibly even legal protection from prosecution.
They don't have a clue how to handle a dog who actually needs trained, or has a difficult behavior problem... I've seen it.<
But, but, you might harm Pookie's self esteem, if you actually compel him to position his furry butt on the floor! How COULD you??? I must retire to the couch, I feel faint, at the thought (Hee Hee).