If you’re ready to launch your new dog training business, you’ll want to make sure you have all the pieces of paperwork that you need to protect yourself, your clients, and the dogs that you work with!
Whether you’re working with clients in group dog training sessions, offering boarding and training, or creating bespoke packages to suit individual customers, using contracts is essential. They help protect your business and give confidence to your clients that you’re both protected if anything happens to go wrong.
If you’re a dog owner working with a trainer who doesn’t offer their own contract, consider asking them to agree to and sign a contract that you provide instead.
If you’re not sure where to start, we rounded up a range of different contracts to suit a variety of scenarios. Choose the right one to suit you, fill in the details, print, and sign!
Working as a dog trainer can be an incredibly rewarding job, but as with anything, things can go wrong. Having a clear contract in place helps your clients understand the process if something happens. Dogs can get injured using training equipment or become sick and require veterinary care when boarding with a trainer. Detailing what happens in these kinds of situations means you and your clients will be on the same page regarding what to do.
It’s also important to specify your rules regarding canine vaccinations and which ones dogs need to have before attending your training sessions.
Using a contract protects you and your clients and ensures that everyone knows the procedures and policies in case of accidents, cancellations, or any other incidents that may arise.
If you’re employing a dog trainer to help you reach your goals with your dog, it’s essential to ask them if they use a contract. If not, you should suggest this as something you want to put in place. Knowing who’s going to be responsible for veterinary bills, if you’re liable to pay when you miss a training session, or how much notice you need to give if you want to cancel a session is vital information. It may feel overly cautious to request a contract, but using one ensures that both parties have agreed in advance on how to deal with each scenario.
As you’re starting to think about building a contract for your dog training business, you’ll want to make sure it includes everything that you need to know about each dog in your care and covers your terms and conditions.
For each dog, the minimum that you’ll need to know before you develop a training plan for them is their previous training and age. The level of detail that you need to add to your contract will depend on the type of training that you’re offering. For in-person group training sessions, you probably won’t need to know if a dog is crate trained or whether they need medication. If you’re offering boarding and training packages, however, that information will be vital.
