Dog Trainer?

Since my time in the Army will soon be ending, I find myself once again dealing with the delema of what to do with my life. Not knowing what I wanted to do for a carreer (as well as not having the funds for education anyway) is how I ended up in the Army in the first place.

Over the course of my life, I’ve had many dreams as to a career, many of which reflected my age.

• Age 5 – Hermit. I wanted to sleep in a tree-house in the woods and just live off the land.
• Age 7 – President. Some boy told me women couldn’t be president. Being a feminist even then, I told him he was full of doo-doo.
• Age 9 – Super Saiyan. Who needs money when you have the power to shake the planet just by looking serious and grunting?
• Age 11 – Soldier. Because I wanted to be a badass when I grew up.
• Age 13 – Rock Star. I’ve always loved rock music. Too bad I have no talent.
• Age 15 – Truck Driver. I had a bit of an unsocial phase…
• Age 17- Video Game Designer. Wouldn’t it be great if I could use my years spend indoors, controller in hand, neglecting school and having a social live, as work experience?
• Age 18 – ????????????????????????? Shit! The closer my graduation date got, the less I was sure.
• Age 19 – Anything but the Army. It wasn’t a great deployment.
• Age 22 – Teacher. I looked around me and saw nothing but idiots. I thought maybe I could do a better job than their teachers did.

I’ll be 23 by the time I’m out, and I honestly have no idea what kind of career I want. Much like I did late in high school, I found things to distract myself from thinking about it. I know, avoidance doesn’t help.

I’ve always loved dogs, and wish I could have one. Sadly, I can’t as I live in a barracks and would have little time for it because of work anyway. But, since I’ll be getting out soon, I’ve been thinking about getting one then. It would sure be nice to have four-legged hiking companion. So, in my free-time, I’ve been watching dog-training instructional videos on youtube. Even though I don’t have a dog yet, I really enjoyed most of the videos I’ve seen. Dog training looks fun the way the trainers demonstrated it. It’s my hope that when I do get a dog, I’ll be able to train it myself.

Then that got me to thinking… maybe I could get certified? If I could study dog training, I would be a better dog owner myself, but maybe I could become a professional dog trainer? Finally, a job I would enjoy!

I spent a portion of this week looking up certification schools and job placement opportunities, and even got to speak with some school counselors.  The more I look into this, the more appealing I find it to be.

Finally, some optimism.