ABC: An Overview - Animal Jobs, Careers & Working with Animals
Evolution of ABC ABC was founded in 1998 by Mr. Steven Appelbaum. At that time, Mr. Appelbaum was the owner and President of Animal Behaviour & Training Associates, Inc., (ABTA), the largest independent dog training company in the United States.

Over the previous decade, Mr. Appelbaum had created a unique company by securing exclusive agreements to provide obedience training classes in all Petco Animal Supplies, Inc. (Petco) stores in the United States and Canadian Petcetera Warehouse (Petcetera) stores in Canada. This was no easy task, but resulted in ABTA, at its peak, employing over 500 trainers in forty-four states and every Canadian province west of Quebec.

The ability to hire qualified dog trainers to continue ABTA's dynamic growth was paramount to its success. The key here was 'quality'. Since there were no state, provincial, or federally recognized testing procedures in the United States or Canada to measure an obedience trainer's knowledge or skill, it was critical to create a method to measure a trainers knowledge and potential effectiveness in performing their animal job duties. ABTA took 6 months to create such a testing procedure and once it was put in place, we were stunned when 70% of all training applicants failed our exam. This was particularly disturbing, as the training applicants were professional instructors with a minimum of 2 years experience. Clearly, there was a need to create an educational process that would allow ABTA to assist professional instructors wishing to increase their knowledge and skill to a level necessary to train for ABTA.

As the largest dog training company in the nation, we had tested and apprenticed thousands of trainers over the last decade. Since we couldn't locate enough qualified trainers to fill our needs, it was a natural step for us to create an educational program to assist trainers wishing to improve to ABTA levels.

As we started to offer educational assistance to professional trainers, we were quickly inundated with large numbers of dog lovers wishing to become dog trainers. As dog lovers ourselves, we saw an opportunity to help them fulfil their dream of having a career with animals, and thus Animal Behaviour College was born. At the time, there were only two types of dog trainer schools.

The first type involved a student travelling to a school and living on or near the campus for the duration of the program. While this type of paradigm was effective, it severely limited enrolment. The average dog loving person wanting to become a trainer could not afford to relocate for months at a time. Cost was also prohibitive, since tuition costs would often total $5,000 to $12,000.

The second type was a traditional correspondence course. While this type of training program was far less costly, it was also far less effective, as it lacked the all important hands-on component necessary for anybody to become an effective dog trainer.

ABC created a third type of school. First, ABC students completed a comprehensive correspondence training program through written material and CD's. Then after mastering the theoretical and scientific principles of animal training, ABC students entered into a hands-on apprenticeship program. This was accomplished by assigning each ABC student to a mentor trainer found in ABTA's extensive database of tested and qualified training professionals. Since only ABTA (ABC's sister company) had this type of national reach, ABC was able to create a unique model that was instantly accessible to people in every province and in the United States. Overnight, ABC became a national school for dog obedience trainers.

As time passed, ABC continued to evolve. Today, the program has eleven stages and literally dozens of contributors to a curriculum that is extensive and cutting edge.

We are very proud of our programs and are extremely excited about the future of our school. The ABC Dog Obedience Instructor Program is available to dog lovers nationwide and its quality coupled with affordability makes it a viable choice for the professionally minded. This program is perfect for the serious student just starting out or for the professional trainer looking for formal certification.

At ABC our goal is to offer a positive and effective training program which will produce highly motivated and qualified ABC Certified Dog Trainers. As an ABC Certified Dog Trainer you will become part of a national movement to raise the standards of dog training professionals everywhere.

We are excited to offer you admission into this program and are looking forward to following your progress.