Thread: Career- Training Advice

Hi Derek,

I and a few others in here are currently studying the Certificate 3 course in dog behavuiour and traing with the National Dog Trainers Federation (NDTF). This cert 3 course is the only Nationally Government certified dog trainers course in Australia. They offer this course by either part time or distance mode. It is based in Boronia, Melbourne. Go to NDTF - National Dog Trainers Federation

Next year they will hopefully be offering certificate 4 courses which are more specialized, such as behavoralist, detection work, tracking, assiatnce dogs, law and enforcement, etc. They use to offer these courses but have put them on hold until the recieve the government recognition for this level as well.

There is also a few companies that offer security dog handler courses, so you can be a qualified K9 security guard. The one in Melbourne is with International Security Training Acadamy in the city. You have to do a basic level 2 security guard course first and then the level 3 security dog handler course after completing the cert 2. However currently in Victoria it is not compulsory to have to do the dog handling course to work with a dog in the security industry, you just need to be a licenced security guard.This may be changing in the future. Have a look at ISTA - International Security Training Academy
There next security dog handling cert 3 course is in May. I plan to do it then myself.

There are a few other courses around for dog trainers, such as the RSPCA's Delta course. This is only really a companion dog training course and if you want to really work with dogs, dont even look at it. Just as a point of interest they advetize this course as Nationally government recognized also but the actual course is for an animal attedant just with dog training subjects thrown into it.....so really it is not a course to certify you as a dog trainer as such.

Hope this helps

Steve

G'day steve.

Mate you are full of knowlage. She has been looking at the ndtf course. But as you say she would like to go further with it. but there does not seem to be any further education unless you are milatary. or you know someone -who knows the right person if you get what i mean.

Hey mate,

I am not really that full of knowledge, just very keen and passionate.

AQIS/customs/corrections have an "in-house" course for their handlers which is run in Canberra and various other locations. The only problem is you need to get the job first which comes back to what you are basically saying......not what you know but who you know.

Companies such as Detection Dogs Australia, Detector Dogs Australia - Home - Explosive/Narcotic Detection and Security Specialists to my understanding, run their training through NDTF. The problem, as I mentioned, is the cert 4 courses are currently not being run until they (hopefully) achieve Government recognition, the first of which should be next year. For companies like Detection Dogs Australia, the proplem is getting qualified handlers. It is a catch 22 at the moment!!

A word of advice here, do the Cert 3 course now, if you want to get into the specilized cert 4 course when they become available. The reason being they have over 800 qualified certificate 3 people on the waiting list to do the cert 4 courses when they become available!!

The only other real option for training is to go overseas to do a course of your choice. This too is a catch 22, as many employeers want their detection dog handlers to work to their standard. Therefore if you are overtrained or trained in different techniques to what they use, they may overlook you and put you in the too hard basket!!

There are a few detection dog or ex-detection dog handlers in here who maybe able to offer you better advice as mine really is only either second hand or an observation. I suggest you pm... Pack Leader, SnifferK9 or Mark Singer to name a few if you want advice on Detection work and/or training. I am sure there are others in here also

Hope I have helped and all I can suggest is keep trying!!

Cheers,

Steve

There have been some good suggestions made for sure. A good start would be the NDTF Course.
BUT
It is very hard here in Australia to get a full time dog handler/ trainers job. Some government agencies dont like you to have any prior training.They prefer to train you their way. The pet dog market is a more common place for people to make a career. Maybe that might be something to look at.
Good Luck with it.

NDTF is actually a privately owned for profit business isnt it? The name seems to indicate it is a not for profit industry group.

Originally Posted by Invictus

NDTF is actually a privately owned for profit business isnt it? The name seems to indicate it is a not for profit industry group.

Yes you are correct, it is a privately owned company

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