Dog Breeder Career Profile
- Career Name - Dog Breeder
- Category - Animal Care / Business
- Skills Required - Life skills 45% - Career skills 55%
- Basic School Subjects - Biology, Language, Business Studies
- Minimum Required Education - High School Certificate
- Species Worked With - Dogs
- Kind of Interaction with Animals - Direct
Do you want to work as a dog breeder?
READ: This page helps you to read about the career and the info you need to decide on whether this is indeed the career you want to follow.
RESEARCH: Learn about the skills required and minimum subjects to enter this career, as well as the places where you can study further after school.
PREPARE: If you want to plan and prepare for your career, then join the OZT Community! Members have access to tools while chatting with other students and experts from around the world. Prepare to be amazed!
CAREER MENTORS
UPDATED:
17 January 2023
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What is a dog breeder?
A person who mates carefully selected dogs of the same Breed to reproduce puppies with the same qualities and characteristics.
A dog breeder may set up a kennel to house and breed with the dogs. This kind of kennel is different than the rescue kennels where strays are kept and taken care of until they are adopted.
A dog breeder might also breed specialized dogs that are used by humans in performing specific tasks, such as:
- guide dogs for the blind
- K9 service dogs for the police or military
- search & rescue dogs
- substance detection dogs, and
- herding dogs
Career Categories
The Dog Breeder career can be found within the following OZT career categories:
- Animal Care
- Business
Best of the Best?
Good breeders belong to local or national clubs, with the best earning merits
Gestation period?
It only takes 63 days for a puppy to form before birth
What does a Dog Breeder do?
Groups of animals a Dog Breeder works with
What is the level of Interaction with the Animals?
- Directly - A person works directly with the animals with some form of physical contact at least once every few days
- Indirectly - The career doesn't require direct or physical contact at all.
With who does a Dog Breeder work?
Besides working with all of the animals, Dog Breeders will need to interact with other people while doing their daily tasks. The people might include fellow staff members (if they work within a large business) or the public.
Fellow staff might include:
- Supervisors/Managers
- Operational staff, such as Human Resources, Finance and Maintenance
What does a Dog Breeder focus on?
The main focus of a dog breeder is to mate selected breeds to maintain the purebred bloodline. They also focus on creating a market for the breed and compete at various dog shows.
What are the daily tasks of a Dog Breeder?
- Feeding and caring for the dogs
- clean the kennels
- talk with suppliers
- ensure registration is in place
- arrange coordinated mating
- discuss budget with bookkeeper
- manage marketing campaign
- talk with prospective buyers
- arrange, prepare for and transport dogs to shows
Work Environment of a Dog Breeder?
Where does a Dog Breeder work?
Environment –
The physical enclosure for the dogs might be inside the home, or a separate building (called a kennel) just for the dogs.
Places of Employment –
Dog breeders usually register and set up their own kennels at home. Dog breeders are self employed and run a profit seeking business.
What is the average annual salary of a Dog Breeder?
The average income of dog breeders will be determined by a few factors, such as the scarcity of the breed, the country wherein the kennel is registered. The average income in the US is around $40,000 per year.
Can a Dog Breeder be promoted?
Advancement in the field typically depends on whether you work for yourself, or for a breeding business, as well as your work experience.
First year breeders often fit their training commitments around other work demands. Promotion to senior levels are available in all related careers.
The levels of each promotion might differ from organization to organization, but generally are the following:
Intern -> Junior Breeder -> Senior Breeder -> Supervisor
What kind of difficulties can a Dog Breeder face?
Entry breeders do not make a huge amount of money as most of the costs need to be covered. Running a business means dealing with bills that need to be payed. Breeding can be emotional as there could be deaths of new puppies.
Future Growth and Possibilities
The pet industry is one of the fastest growing animal career industries, and there will always be space for good business.
Which Skills are required by a Dog Breeder?
The skills required for a career as a dog breeder can be divided into two very important groups. The first is the group containing life skills, which are the core skills that are necessary or desirable for full participation in everyday life. The second group is career skills, or the specific skills required to allow a person to enter and operate effectively within a specific career. Some or maybe even all of the life skills can assist in strengthening the career skills, and they might even be the same for specific careers.
Life Skills
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Critical thinking
- Creative thinking
- Decision making
- Problem Solving
- Effective communication
- Interpersonal relationship
Career Skills
- Basic animal handling and care techniques
- Basic business knowledge
- Basic customer service skills
- Good health and physical fitness
- Basic computer literacy
Which Subjects must I have at School to help prepare for this career?
Although it is not compulsory that you do study further after school, it is advised that you do take biology as a major subject in High School.
Business Studies is essential if you are thinking of opening your own breeding business. If your school doesn’t have this subject, then anyone of the economic or accounting subjects will be a good replacement.
Doing well in your language is important, as it will provide a solid foundation for future business communications with buyers and suppliers.
These subjects are the ones recognized around the world. The subjects you choose at school are important as they lay the foundation for further studies at college or university. While still at school, it’s also important to learn more about the animals you will work with, as well as gain some experience.
OZT has a list of various tertiary institutions where you can study further, after school. Each of these institutions also have their own Group page on OZT where you will find the exact subjects they require of you to have passed in school. Keep these requirements in mind, and discuss it with your school, guidance counselor and parents to ensure that you are prepared!
What will I need to Study to become a Dog Breeder?
Minimum Requirements
There is no minimum requirements to become a Dog Breeder, although a High School Certificate or Diploma would be beneficial to prepare you to deal with setting up a business, dealing with costs and basic marketing techniques.
Study Focus
It is important that you learn as much as you possibly can about your chosen breed before you think about opening your kennel. Short Courses in dog behaviour, health, business setup and marketing are recommended.
Study Duration
The duration of Short Courses can be between a few hours (online) to a few months.
Possible Career Preparation Paths
If this is your dream career that you want to pursue, then it’s important to plan the way forward.
Why is planning important?
To ensure that you understand the requirements for your career, and that you are always prepared for the next step on the road towards your dream. A Preparation Path is like your road map to where you want to be.
Possible Paths:
Possible Combined Career Paths
It is possible to sometimes combine two or more related careers. This normally happens when you study and practice a specific main career, but the knowledge and experience gained also help you to have a paying hobby or secondary income career.
Possible Alternative(s):
- High School + experience while still in school + College Diploma in Animal Care + Short Courses in dog breeding
Kennel Managers earn up to 30% more than dog breeders, but they can also use their knowledge to breed specific breeds for trade or even for the working dogs (K9, search and rescue etc).
Some of the possible combinations:
Stepping Stone Career
Dog breeder can also be used as a stepping stone career. A stepping stone career is one which is used to help you get to another career, normally because the other career is too difficult to reach immediately (high fees etc).
You can begin as a dog breeder, after basic short courses and expert guidance (maybe working under a mentor). The money made can then be used to pay for studies towards another career, and the experience helps in gaining knowledge. One paying to help get to the other.
Some of the possible paths:
Training and apprenticeship
Even though it is important to study to get into some of the animal careers, most of the skills you will need will be acquired through on-the-job training. This means that you will learn how to perform some of the daily tasks by actually doing it a few times and learning the steps.
In some cases entry level positions (or junior positions) require training sessions even before you are allowed to actually perform your job duties. These sessions are offered by the place of employment, after you have successfully applied.
Apprenticeship is also possible where you need to learn skills from a more senior person or expert. The more hands on careers, such as animal breeders, might require apprenticeship to help you to enter the market and become a success.
Join the Dog Breeders Group in the OZT Community to learn more and even interact with the educational institutions that will help you secure your dream career!
Average level of education of those who have entered the career:
Licenses, Certificate, Registration and Professional Associations
Certain animal care careers require some form of legal certification to prove that you can indeed do the work, and work with the necessary equipment.
Although not required by law, certifications may help workers establish their credentials and enhance their skills.
Learn more about requirements by joining the OZT Community
Where can I study further?
All of the above information will help you understand more about the Career, including the fact that there are different paths to take to reach it. But if you are almost done with High School (Grades 11 or 12), you also need to start thinking about further studies, and WHERE you will study.
See the List of Universities, Colleges and Online Training Academies who offer courses towards animal care and training.
Do you want to Contribute?
Do you have information that you would like to contribute to this career?
Join the OZT community and career Group
Join us as a special member and learn more about becoming a dog breeder.
Members of the Platform have special access to:
- Info on the best places where you can study (colleges, universities and online)
- Expertly designed advice to prepare you for the career, and links to places where you can gain valuable experience. For some career experience is necessary, otherwise you wont get the job!
- Top notch info on each of the different species you will work with
- Make friends around the world and share knowledge
- Compete and win points, badges, games, prizes and certificates. Be the best of the best, while you learn and prepare!
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