Fame
As mentioned in Salary, Victoria Stilwell and Cesar Millan are among the most famous (current) animal trainers.
Ms. Stilwell, who originally trained as an actress, has a widely-watched TV show, It's Me or the Dog (on Animal Planet) which airs in fifty countries worldwide, and created Victoria Stilwell Positively Dog Training, a network of positive reinforcement dog trainers. (The actress's part may be her impetus for wanting to lead such a public life.)
Mr. Millan, whose show Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan is broadcast in more than eighty countries worldwide, also founded the Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles, has written three books, and has a monthly magazine called Cesar’s Way. Millan is rumored to be worth approximately $45 million...and he's had no formal training.
But besides these two, can you name other famous animal trainers? Frank Inn won more than forty Patsy awards. Karen Pryor and Ivan Pavlov are renowned for their research in animal behavior. And then of course there's Siegfried & Roy….
But mostly, these folks did their work for the love of it and not to achieve fame.