Animal Training Academy

Veronica Boutelle, MA Ed, CTC Bio

Veronica is the founder of dogbiz, through which she has been helping +R dog trainers learn to run successful businesses since 2003. She is the author of multiple books, including How to Run a Dog Business: Putting Your Career Where Your Heart Is and Minding Your Dog Business: A Practical Guide to Business Success for Dog Professionals. She also writes regular business columns and articles for key dog training industry journals, including those of the US, New Zealand, and Australian APDTs, as well as the PPG. Veronica is a sought-after speaker at conferences and dog training schools across the US and internationally, including her two favourite places to visit and work, New Zealand and Australia.

As former Director of Behavior & Training at the San Francisco SPCA, and as a dog training business owner before that, Veronica understands what it means to be a dog trainer first hand—the daily worries about everything from client compliance to financial security, the unique challenges of a “flexible” schedule that requires evenings and weekends, and the struggle to balance clients and training with the minutiae of running a business—and to balance all of that with a rich non-work life. Her background as a trainer, her business expertise, and her work as an educator put Veronica in a unique position to help professional dog trainers learn to become as skilled in business as they are as trainers—and that means more dogs’ lives touched by positive training.

To support trainers through the beginning of the pandemic, Veronica and her team provided +R trainers the world over six weeks of group coaching at no charge. That experience led, by popular request, to the creation of THRIVE!, a unique ongoing program bringing like-minded trainers together for weekly business teaching and support. This new community approach to building successful, sustainable, and stress-free businesses is yielding remarkable results for +R trainers’ businesses and lives, as well as for the clients, students, and dogs they serve.