Understanding why animals act the way they do and teaching them skills, from service dogs to falcons to film stars.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Veterinary Behaviorist: A veterinarian who specializes in serious behavior problems in animals, like aggression and severe anxiety. Typical pay $140k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist: A PhD-level scientist who solves animal behavior problems and studies why animals act the way they do. Typical pay $85k.
Animal Cognition Researcher: Studies how animals think: memory, problem-solving, communication, and emotions. Typical pay $100k.
Police K9 Officer: A police officer partnered with a trained dog to find drugs, track suspects, and search for missing people. Typical pay $75k.
Detection Dog Handler: Works with a dog trained to sniff out explosives, drugs, or contraband at airports, borders, and events. Typical pay $65k.
Certified Dog Behavior Consultant: Helps families solve serious dog behavior problems like aggression, fear, and separation anxiety. Typical pay $55k.
Protection Dog Trainer: Trains dogs to guard and protect families and businesses on command. Typical pay $55k.
Starter: fastest way in
Conservation Detection Dog Handler: Works with dogs trained to find wildlife scat, invasive species, or endangered plants for scientists. Typical pay $50k.
Dog Trainer: Teaches dogs (and their owners) manners, obedience, and tricks. Typical pay $38k.
Service Dog Trainer: Trains dogs to help people with disabilities: opening doors, alerting to seizures, or calming PTSD. Typical pay $40k.
Guide Dog Mobility Instructor: Trains guide dogs for blind people and teaches new handlers to work with them. Typical pay $45k.
Abatement Falconer: Uses trained falcons and hawks to scare pest birds away from airports, landfills, vineyards, and stadiums. Typical pay $42k.
Herding Dog Trainer: Trains border collies and other working dogs to herd sheep and cattle on farms and in trials. Typical pay $35k.
Pest Detection Dog Handler: Works with a dog trained to sniff out bed bugs, termites, or mold in hotels, homes, and offices. Typical pay $45k.
Dog Sports Instructor: Coaches people and their dogs in sports like agility, flyball, and dock diving. Typical pay $35k.
Medical Alert Dog Trainer: Trains dogs to detect medical emergencies, like dangerous blood sugar drops, by scent. Typical pay $40k.
Parrot Behavior Consultant: Helps pet bird owners solve problems like screaming, biting, and feather plucking. Typical pay $40k.
Gun Dog Trainer: Trains hunting dogs such as Labradors, pointers and spaniels to find, point and retrieve birds, and to compete in field trials. Typical pay $40k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.