Working with dogs

stressed70

I'm looking to work with animals. I have no experience.
Where could i begin?

scamalert

working like doing what ? theres different niches theres,grooming,walking etc.

If no experience volunteer at closest shelter,pretty sure most places would need a hand and would teach.

grooming isnt smth easy to pick up and requires investment learning and space.

walking dogs is your best bet depending on your time,since plenty of people nowadays that own dogs and cant be arsed to walk them twice a day,depending where you live you could have quite few customers or none,but good starting point,if your active and flexible.

stressed70

Yes i would be flexible & active. I'm not even sure what... I guess dog walker would suit me. I have Social Anxiety so i don't really know anyone, i don't have neighbours or friends i can help out unfortunately

Cherry Blossom

Why don't you volunteer to walk dogs for a rescue to start with. You will find people more willing to entrust their dogs to you if you have some experience. If you are going to charge people to do it you will also need insurance.

VonVix

stressed70 wrote: »

Yes i would be flexible & active. I'm not even sure what... I guess dog walker would suit me. I have Social Anxiety so i don't really know anyone, i don't have neighbours or friends i can help out unfortunately

Definitely consider volunteering at an animal rescue as a starting point, that's essentially how I started. You start getting to know breeds of dogs and notice little characteristics about various breeds and then about their individual personalities.

I also had social anxiety for the longest time, I still get flashes of it here and there but it's no way as bad as it used to be. Working with dogs 100% changed that for me, I became enthusiastic about what I was doing, in turn learning as much as I could (reading about them, going to seminars, working with my own dogs, etc), which grew my confidence in working with people and trying to help them when it came to their dogs. It helped me come out of my shell and find a passion.

There are LOADS of avenues you can go down, working with dogs isn't just being a vet as a lot of people think. There's grooming, dog training, dog walking, dog sitting, working in kennels, working in a rescue, detection dogs, search and rescue dogs, guide dogs for the blind, assistance dogs, heck even training your own personal dogs to work in the TV/film industry! Loads out there.

Go for it, it was the best thing I ever did.

stressed70

Thanks VonVix im going to PM u