Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
Puppy classes pay the rent. Reactive-dog work pays the bills.
Dog training is two businesses bolted together: a high-volume, low-margin entry tier (puppy class, loose-lead walking, basic obedience) where you compete on suburb convenience and time-slot fit, and a low-volume, high-margin specialist tier (reactive-dog rehab, separation-anxiety work, in-home behavioural, board-and-train) where you compete on credentials and trust. The marketing for these two businesses is completely different and most trainers run one undifferentiated 'dog training' page that loses both. The principal trainer can't fix this from the training field at 7pm. The trainers who grow do three things consistently: they win the puppy-class search before the breeder's referral conversation happens, they convert the 'my dog pulls on lead' enquiry into a 6-week program (not a one-off lesson), and they publish enough positive-reinforcement, credential-led content that vets and rescue groups refer the reactive-dog work to them on autopilot.
Good dog-trainer marketing has three pillars: a program-plus-suburb page library that splits puppy class from loose-lead from reactive-dog so each tier sells itself ('puppy class Newtown', 'loose-lead walking Marrickville', 'reactive dog trainer Inner West'), a positive-reinforcement content stream (Instagram, blog, Google Business posts) that does the credential and method work before the prospect has spoken to you, and an enquiry-to-program follow-up sequence that converts the 'my dog pulls' contact form into a 6-week loose-lead program by default. The pages do discovery, the content does the credential trust-build, the follow-up converts the assessment-only contact into the multi-week program that actually pays the rent. Most trainers do one of three; the trainers who grow do all three weekly.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Sets the plan around the two numbers that move the business: puppy-class term enrolment and reactive-dog program conversion. Briefs the other agents so the program-suburb pages, the puppy-class ads, the credentialled content and the enquiry follow-up all push toward the right mix: full puppy-class terms paying for the lights, and a steady stream of high-margin reactive and behavioural programs from vet and rescue referrals.
Imports your existing site, ships a program-plus-suburb page library (puppy class, loose-lead, recall, reactive dog, separation anxiety, in-home behaviourist, board and train), builds a real online enquiry flow that asks 'what's the main issue you want to work on' so the lead routes to the right program automatically, and keeps the trainer bios and program pages up to date.
Owns whether you appear in the map pack for 'dog trainer near me' AND the program-specific searches ('puppy class [suburb]', 'reactive dog trainer near me', 'in-home behaviourist [city]'). Complete Google Business Profile, dog-trainer schema, review prompts after every puppy-class graduation, and the technical fixes that keep you indexed. Auto-applies low-risk fixes.
Runs two distinct campaigns. Meta puppy-class ads targeted at owners of dogs under 5 months in your service area, with term-intake dates and a small-group promise. Google Ads on high-intent reactive-dog and behavioural searches ('reactive dog trainer near me', 'in-home dog behaviourist [suburb]') where the search itself signals a high-stakes, high-value enquiry. Never bids on dominance-theory or correction-trainer search terms.
Turns every field session into a credential-building post in your voice: a reactive-dog threshold breakthrough, a puppy-class recall demo, a 60-second 'why we don't use prong collars' explainer, a board-and-train day-in-the-life. This is the content that earns vet and rescue referrals. You take a 15-second video on the field, agent drafts the caption and the educational layer, you approve.
Drafts the longer-form pieces dog owners search for between problem and booking: 'how do I stop my dog pulling on lead', 'when should my puppy start training', 'how do you fix a reactive dog', 'positive reinforcement vs correction training'. Two a month, in your voice, that pull consideration-stage search and double as homework reading for new program clients.
Your first 30 days.
- Existing Squarespace site imported, legacy hosting torn down; CRM and Calendly enquiry capture re-embedded
- Puppy-class-term enrolment and reactive-dog program-conversion targets baselined by Sam against this term's diary
- Google Business Profile primary category corrected from 'Pet store' to 'Dog trainer', services expanded from 3 to 14
- Puppy class, loose-lead and reactive-dog program-suburb pages split out and indexed on the long tail
- Karen Pryor Academy and IAABC credentials surfaced on every program page and in the Google Business bio
- Vet-and-rescue referral pipeline live with a scope-of-practice one-pager emailed to three closest vets and the local rescue group
- Enquiry-to-program follow-up sequence wired into the CRM: the 'my dog pulls' lead now converts into a 6-week loose-lead program by default
- Field-session reactive-dog and puppy-class breakthrough Reels queued for the next fortnight, no-prong-collar messaging baked in
Dog training is a credential business. The trainers who grow are the ones whose Instagram the vet watches on a Sunday morning before referring the next bite-report case. Puppy class fills the calendar; reactive-dog work pays the lease; the program-conversion sequence is what turns a $90 assessment into a $1,500 6-week program. The old-school correction trainer two suburbs over isn't your competition on outcomes, just on the search results page until you fix that.
Agencies are too dear to actually run the program-page library and the credential content stream for $2.5k a month. Tools are cheap but the puppy-class term goes out half-full because nothing was promoting it. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the program pages, post the field breakthroughs, run the puppy-class and reactive-dog ads, and convert the cold enquiry into a 6-week program. You take a 15-second video on the field, approve the week, done.