13 Famous & Best Dog Trainers In The World

A Dog Trainer is a person who trains a dog. As you all know training is the most important factor in keeping a dog. I have seen that training is highly effective in making any dog disciplined and well-behaved. Trained dogs are always mannerable when in public and at home as compared to untrained dogs. Trained dogs don’t chew and crack things and remain calm even when situations are different. 

So, as training is crucial, a trainer is also important. Everyone deserves nothing but the best. You also deserve the best. So, now here I will list famous and best dog trainers in the world. I am mentioning this because I believe that best training needs the best trainer. And the best trainers are not easy to find. Therefore, I am here to help you to figure out the best trainers not only in a single country but in the world.

Following is the list of such world’s best trainers.

Cesar Millan (USA)

Cesar Millan is ranked as the number one trainer of the world. He was born on August 27, 1969, and is a Mexican-American dog trainer. He is known for his television series named “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan ”. This series was produced from 2004 to 2012 and is broadcast in 80-plus countries. Millan is a New York Times best-selling author and has his own dog products and DVDs related to instructions about dogs.

Besides “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan ” the other series of Millan are Dog Nation, Cesar 911, and Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog.

He is the best trainer not only because of his television series but Millan focused on rehabilitating severely aggressive dogs. Moreover, Millan founded a rehab complex, the Dog Psychology Center. His foundation, currently called the Cesar Millan PACK Project, is to provide financial support to animal shelters and organizations that are involved in rescuing, rehabilitating, and re-honoring abused and abandoned animals.

 Cesar Millan Live” is a dog training lecture and stage performance where he presents his techniques to train dogs in front of a live audience. You can also join these lectures which can prove to be helpful in training your dog.

Millan’s work focuses on handling a dog with “calm assertive energy”. According to him, dogs have three needs: exercise, discipline, and affection. An owner should fulfill the dog’s energy level needs through exercises; then tell it the boundaries and limitations and then provide affection. He believes that a person’s energy affects a dog more than his speech because dogs sense, understand, and respond to energy levels more than speech.

Millan once said, “My goal in rehabilitating dogs and training people is to create balanced relationships between humans and canines.”

Victoria Stilwell (UK/USA)

I listed Victoria Stilwell on the 2nd as she is also well-known and undoubtedly one of the best dog trainers. Now let’s discuss her as a trainer.

Victoria Stilwell is an English author, dog trainer, and television presenter. She is pet behavior expert and she is a producer of a few TV series that are related to dogs. Dogs Might Fly, Dogs With Extraordinary Jobs and Greatest American Dog are Tv series while It’s Me or the Dog is a dog training Tv show in which Victoria plays the role of star and creator.

She gives a different idea about dog training. According to her, positive reinforcement-based dog training tools and methods should be used instead of traditional methods including pain, fear and intimidation. This viewpoint of Stilwell is quite different from others and I like her method of training dogs with kindness and politeness.

She is Editor-In-Chief of Positively.com. And is founder of Victoria Stilwell Positively Dogs Training( VSPDT). She received an OBE  for her charity work. Stilwell works with animal rescue organizations around the globe, serving as behavior advisors for shelters in different cities of the world.

She has been involved in animal welfare and protection organizations on the international stage.

Ian Dunbar (USA)

Now I will list the third best trainer, here I would explain all of the trainers that I mentioned are the best but I have to place them in the former and latter. Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, animal behaviorist, and dog trainer. He has a veterinary degree and a Special Honors degree in physiology and biochemistry. He earned a doctorate in animal behavior from the Psychology Department at UC Berkeley where he researched aggression in domestic dogs. 

Dunbar designed and taught the world’s very first off-leash puppy socialization and training classes named SIRIUS.

He created and developed SCPA’s animal behavior department, and wrote a column named “behavior”and K9 Games that continue as an annual event in Japan. He worked as host in a UK popular series named “Dogs with Dunbar” for five seasons. He has appeared in various radio and television programs Today Show and Dash Village in Japan. 

Dunbar has given more than 100 seminars and workshops for dog trainers. His popular idea is off-leash puppy training.

He is also the founder of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and was included into the Dog Fancy Hall of Fame. Moreover, he is the author of different books and videos about puppy behavior and training.

Karen Pryor (USA)

Karen Pryor is our other best dog trainer. She is an American author and she specializes in behavioral psychology and marine mammal biology. She is considered as the founder of clicker training. She published many publications including On My Mind, Reaching the Animal Mind, Don’t Shoot the Dog, Dog And Dolphin, and many others. She is the founder of Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Behavior and Training.

 Where effective and force-free training is taught. In Karen Pryor Academy they teach detailed and effective lessons about dogs and other pets training. Do you know that she is the first who spread the idea of clicker training?

KPA offers such training that is a type of positive reinforcement training. Besides training dogs, she also trains dolphins, horses, and cats. One of the sad things about her is that as she is 91 years old she is not active anymore. However, her methods of training are still active in KPA.

Brandon McMillan (USA)

Here we have another best trainer named Brandon McMillan. He was born on April 29, 1977. He is an American television personality, animal trainer, author and producer. He is well known for his role as a host. He is the trainer of the television series Lucky Dog on CBC. Basically, his family members are also animal trainers. So, he was already raised in an environment where there were a variety of wild animals living around him.

 At a very young age, he started to work for an animal training company, which supplied animals for movies and television series.

In 2009, he first appeared on TV screen when he hosted the most famous show The Animal Planet series NIGHT. He showed the behavior of wild animals.

In 2010, he opened a dog training facility in Los Angeles and has been a dog trainer.

Besides, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Best Host in Lifestyle Series” for Lucky Dog. He is a host of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. In this show, he investigated shark attacks along coastlines. Moreover, He is a co-founder of the non-profit “Argus Service Dog Foundation” , which trains service dogs. Nonprofit organizations always inspire me.

Jean Donaldson (USA)

Now I am going to tell you about Jean Donaldson who is also an American. It seems as if America is rich in having dog trainers because every other dog trainer belongs to America. Like the above-mentioned trainers, Ms Jean Donaldson has many accomplishments. She is the founder of the Academy for Dogs Trainers. This academy of hers has trained more than 700 people.

In the academy, they teach about dog behavior and training. This Academy has started in 1999 and is still teaching people. Ms Donalson is four times winner of the Dog Writers Association of America’s Maxwell Medallion. She is the writer of different books including The Culture Clash; Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs; Fight! A Practical Guide to the Treatment of Dog-Dog Aggression; Dogs Are from Neptune; Oh Behave! Dogs from Pavlov to Premack to Pinker; and Train Your Dog like a Pro.

 Ms. Donaldson is the founder of Montreal Flyball Association and Renaissance Dog Training that was the first positive reinforcement-based school and counseling service in the province. She is such a good trainer that her dogs and dogs she has trained have earned numerous titles and won competitions.

At the end I would like to add her quote about dog training, She said :

Training improves your dog’s life. Regardless of age, breed, or size, training is environment enrichment for dogs.”

Zak George (USA/Italy)

Zak George is another American trainer. He is a writer plus a YouTuber. Zak started training dogs in 2005 when he got his dog Venus. He and his dog started competing in Frisbee competitions and he found his passion in dog training.He is known for his YouTube channel.He started his YouTube channel in 2006. He started posting videos about dogs training and advice. Then his channel crossed over 3.5 million subscribers. 

He is the host of different shows like Super Fetch and Who Lets The Dog In?  He also hosted Animal Planet and is the writer of  Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution which was published in 2016.

 Like many other trainers, he is also famous for his positive reinforcement training in which he stated that only reward-based and kind training methods are helpful. He is against strict and painful training. He believes in making positive bonds with dogs and training dogs through developing communication rather than using strict and dominant methods.

 Here I would like to state his most famous training philosophy in which he said: 

“I began teaching people how to teach their dogs out of a genuine desire to bring the world of dog training into the 21st century and to show people that through relationship-based training anything is possible.”

Doggy Dan ( New Zealand)

Doggy Dan is an online dog trainer. He lives in New Zealand and started his career in the Tv series Dog Almighty.

He got his Degree in Civil Engineering from Birmingham University in London. He did a job as a teacher and in the IT industry. But he was never interested in these jobs. After moving to New Zealand and adding his dog peanut to his life, he tried to pursue his passion. And then he founded www. Doggy Dan.

 His philosophy of training dogs is different from others. He believes in pack training or this method is also called “Alpha training” or “dogs whispering”. Doggy Dan is fully endorsed by S.P.C.A. And people call him a balanced trainer as he is correction-style training with no force. Doggy Dan stated 5 golden rules that are very famous among dog’s trainers. Here I would like to mention his five rules. Followings are the rules he stated;

• Go at your dog’s pace.
• Consistency and patience are key. 
• Make the reward worthwhile. 
• Set your dog up for success. 
• Never punish.

Turid Rugaas (Norway)

Here is another female trainer Turid Rugaas. She is a  Norwegian. She is also a  dog trainer and has been training since 1969. She opened a  dog school Hagan Hundeskole in 1984. And she started giving seminars to the people and educating dog trainers in 1992.

 She conducted workshops in 12 different countries where students from 24 different countries were present. As she is an old lady she is not an active trainer but still she conducts seminars to train people. She has published many books and DVDs. One of her publications, On Talking Terms with Dogs is the most famous. In this book, she invented 30 different ways to calm down a dog. She observed several signs that dogs use as a part of their repertoire. She called these Calming Signs.

She founded the Pet Dog Trainer Of Europe PDTE and now she is president of this institute. She is still working on new and natural methods of training.  Natural methods of training focus a lot on understanding dog communication and being able to communicate back with the dog.

 Rugaas is working on changing the tests in Europe and making them focus on the dog’s capability by allowing him to show what he is capable of in terms of problem-solving, without having to scare him or confuse him. 

She also received the King’s Badge of Honor from the Norwegian king.

Sophia Yin  (USA)

Now I am going to introduce you to another professional trainer Sophia Yin. She was a veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist. I mentioned the word ‘professional’ here because I wanna differentiate between those who pursue dog training as a career and those who get degrees related to this profession. No doubt both are equally best. She graduated from the University of California Davis. She worked on pets and then got inspired by the behavior of pets she studied Animal behavior.

Yin remained in UC Davis for five years and there she was supervising the students’ projects. From 2007 to 2008, Yin was president of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. She worked on different ways to train and tried to learn the behavior of pets. She believed in positive reinforcement and negative punishment. Negative punishment means the removal of rewards for the negative behavior of a pet. Unfortunately, she is no more. Yin died on September 28, 2014, by suicide at her Davis home.

Pat Miller  (USA)

Pat Miller is a famous American dog trainer. She is known for her experience in clicker training.

She was born in Springfield, Illinois and then later in life, she moved to New York. She also worked at the Marin Humane Society in Marin Country.

 Pat is also a freelance author and writer. She regularly publishes articles about dogs and their behavior. She wrote The Power Of Positive Training in 2001, which is the best Amazon-selling book. Her other books are: Positive Perspectives, Positive Perspectives 2, Play With Your Dog, Do-Over Dogs, How to Foster Dogs and Beware of the Dog; and Positive Solutions for Canine Aggression.

She is the author of more than 500 articles. She has been training dogs for more than 40 years. She launched her own dog training company on the West Coast in 1996, after five years of assisting nationally acclaimed obedience instructor Judie Howard of Marydith Obedience. 

Emily Larlham (USA)

Another American female dog trainer is Emily Larlham. She is also known as Kikopup. Well, Kikopup is quite a funny but cool name. She is also a YouTuber like many other trainers that I have told you about earlier. Larlham runs a dog training business “Dogmantics Dog Training”.Well, I liked the name of her training center also. Miss Kikopup became famous because of her YouTube channel where she has posted over 400 free dog training videos. Nowadays, free videos available on YouTube are kind a blessing.

Like her name, she created a new term “ Progressive Reinforcement Training”. She is beginning her training as an animal caregiver in a shelter. She met her dog; ‘s trainer Kyle Rayon there. After years of study, and learning from both human and dog mentors she started her business. She has taken her seminars in America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. 

Steve White (UK)

I am mentioning such a trainer who worked with police. Yea, that’s interesting Steve White is a British. Unlike other trainers, he served as a trainer, handler, and supervisor for the Seattle Police Canine Unit. He served as a vice president of Certification Counselor For Professional Dog Trainers. He is an instructor for the K9 academy for law enforcement. He provides administrative and legal issues training there.

He is recognized as an expert witness by Washington and federal courts in police k9 and dog behavioral matters. Steve has instructed at seminars in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

FAQs

Wrapping Up

So I first mentioned why dog training is important then I mentioned the famous & best dog trainers in the world. Almost all of them are experts in the field but in this article, I tried to mention their education, work, and achievements, so it might be easy for you to find who is best of all.

Different people focus on different abilities of trainers. So, I also mentioned their way of training and their saying about training. Because of this, their ideas of training are more elaborated. At the end, I wrote FAQS to solve your queries. I hope you will enjoy reading this.