Dog Trainer & Dog-Walking Team Trainer for Frolic Pet Services

Frolic Pet Services is searching for an experienced Dog Trainer to not only train and support dog and cat sitting clients, but most importantly assist in supporting and training our team of professional dog walkers that offer a variety of in-client-home pet care to pets of all walks of life! This part time position is typically paired with our office scheduling position or dog walking positions to combine for more full time hours (35+), if wanted.

**Please apply through our website's job positing as job websites that have quick apply settings, like indeed/etc, don't always show the required application questions correctly - we don't want you to be auto-disqualified! We are a team of 2 that reviews every single application, so no robots here! Application should take you 10-15 minutes. Applicants that feel very uniquely qualified for this role are encouraged to email us a quick message after they apply, so we can ensure we quickly review your application and resume**

About us:

Frolic Pet Services is a locally owned, women led, professional pet care company offering a variety of in-home pet care options to clients in the Puget Sound region since 2008 - We're in our 18th year! We provide many customized services to clients in their homes: dog walking, cat care, daytime drop-ins, vacation and extended care, sleepovers, training services, and more! We are a group of deep loving, inclusive, and diverse humans who love all animals.

A core of what makes us great is that we provide our Dog Walking & Pet Sitting team, who are all w2 employees - not independent contractors, expert training and continued guidance by professional dog trainers. Additionally, the team is supported by our small closely-knit home office team who assists in coordination and scheduling with clients so they just get to focus on providing the pets with the best care.

Our clients list expands from North Seattle down to the Federal Way area, our service area is based upon where our staff live and client needs. Our scheduling team handles all the coordination and communication with clients, and this position would be supporting part of that. Our founder, who we lost in 2024, was a dog behavioralist for over 20 years, and Frolic was founded to ensure that any pet, no matter the behavior, had an experienced team of sitters to care for them and support their needs - no matter breed or where they were on their training journey.

About this position:

As a Dog Trainer and Staff Trainer you'll primarily provide insight, guidance, training, and evaluation to the Dog Walking team, client pet behavioral evaluations for successful services, and client dog training. This includes working closely with the office team to coordinate with clients, services, and staff. Our procedures, structure, and systems have already been built, but may need a creative mind for adjustments as things change. You will be working directly under the operations manager and interim owner in the Des Moines WA home office and in the field at client appointments.

Additional Note: WHILE THIS SPECIFIC POSITION IS PART-TIME, MORE FULL-TIME HOURS ARE AVAILABLE. This position is often paired with our Dog Walking and Pet Sitting roles to combine for more hours. For more experienced candidates with team management and small business office or operations experience -- roles in our Scheduling team and Management team will be available, as well as options for ownership in the company!

For those who may not qualify for this role at this time - we are also currently hiring part time for the dog walking/pet sitting positions in various neighborhoods - please apply to our other job postings. We hire based on experience and recurring availability schedules to provide clients with reliable and professional pet care services. If you do not qualify for this position, we may contact you for applying to the other open positions.

Main Responsibilities:

Not an inclusive list, additional responsibilities added as company needs arise.

Client Assistance: ~40%

1. Assistance with and/or at client appointments like dog walking and pet sitting of all pets, breeds, temperaments and training methods. - including overnight pets sitting in clients homes on an occasional basis as needed.
2. Covering emergency call-outs to ensure pets are always cared for - all service areas.
3. Behavioral evaluation of client pets over phone with client, in person, at client home, and over messaging.
4. Identifying issues and coordinate a plan with the team.
5. Providing basic training guidance to clients, when issues are identified, to ensure our staff can safely and successfully complete services.
6. Take client and staff calls to support them through emergencies, questions, and provide guidance in various situations that may arise.
7. Assist Operations manager and scheduling team in the companies scheduling system
8. Update client profiles

Staff Training ~50%

1. Initial dog walker interviewee evaluations
2. New staff training - online, in person, and evaluation of service area / client introductions as necessary.
3. Create and maintain a training profile for each staff member
4. Provide continuing education, guidance, and training support to staff on an ongoing and case by case basis.
5. Staff safety evaluation and body mechanic guidance. Ie. dog walk leash handling.

Dog Training: ~10%

1. Provide Dog training to clients using a combination of Frolic related methods/materials combined with your own.
2. Provide hands-on, customized training services to new and existing clients
3. Create a guidance plan for dog training clients for the dog walking team.
4. Behavioral evaluations
5. Use and adapt to any and all training methods that our clients request.

Qualifications, Skills, & Experience:

General Requirements:

• 3+ years experience working as a leader within a team, training, managing or supervising
• Comfortable with the many methods of training and various gear used by clients. ie comfortable supporting clients and staff with handling pets with different training styles, methods, and gear (harness, collar, prong, etc) to ensure the highest level of safety.
• Confident communication - high level
• Accountability and ownership - thinking ahead and making a plan
• Attention to detail and follow through - find an issue and execute
• Interpersonal skills to train and guide clients and staff of various personalities, behaviors, and physical skill and ability.
• Enjoys working in a small close knit team with a shared mission to provide the highest level of pet services to clients.
• Confident in being a spokesperson for our company - ie marketing in person, at events, and outbound calls.

Dog Training Skills:

• 2+ years professional experience with one-on-one Dog Training - we are not interested in group setting experience at this time.
• Professionally trained - with IN-PERSON HANDS ON EXPERIENCE. While we appreciate online training and continuing self education, our team needs practical experience.
• You adopt and adjust to various training ideologies
• High level leash handling skills - understand all tools clients could possibly use
• Behavioral analysis experience
• Behavioral modification - understanding various physical, mental, and emotional aspects
• Knowledge of dog body language
• Ability to read animal body language and adjust your own, as well as teach others to do the same
• Prior experience with a variety of breeds and behaviors - no doggie breedists, we love them all!

Additional requirements

• 21+, Drivers license, reliable car, travel within our service area required, technology savvy
• Meet all the requirements we request of our Dog Walkers - see our website under the Tell Me More About "Physical Requirements" section.

Schedule & Pay:

Pay: $21.30-26.00 Hourly W2 employee, with options for commission. Rate is Depending on Experience, Duties, Abilities, and Schedule Availability.

Hours: Initially range from 10-25, with more hours available depending on experience and ability to take on additional roles (ie client services (dog walking) shifts, office/scheduling, management or ownership roles).

Schedule: TBD depending on your availability and company needs - we will customize what works best!*

*Most of our clients are M-F 9-3, but we provide in-home services and support our staff in all neighborhoods North Seattle to Federal Way, 365 days a year between 8a-6pm, plus overnight services. You will assist in a varied capacity and schedule will be adjusted to reflect. We expect a routine schedule with changes only planned ahead for new staff training, only last minute changes would be due to other staff emergency coverage, which is rare since our team is highly reliable.

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We are looking forward to speaking with you!!