Becoming a trainer

Where are you?  I don't know about schools, but I would definitely suggest reading up a lot about dog training and behavior.  In case you haven't already read the books, here are a couple of leads for you:

The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson
The Truth About Dogs by Stephen Budiansky
Dog's Best Friend by Mark Derr
Dogs by Raymond and Lorna Coppinger

I would surf dogwise.com and see what you can fidn at the local library and online.

Don't know your area, but I think Jean Donaldson runs a dog training school in San Francisco, CA.

I am sure there are colleges that offer courses.  Or I would think so anyway.  Maybe Mic will come along and get you started on the right path.

You didn't specify dogs, you said "animal trainer".  If that is your aim, as in training zoo animals, dolphins, or dogs, for that matter, then you would want to start with a degree in psychology or one of the biological sciences, then aim for a Master's degree in animal behavior. 
If you want to stick only to dogs, you can go to San Francisco SPCA's course, or the one at Dogs of Course.  Both are excellent and give you hands on training.  You can also train your own dogs for higher level skills, such as service work, SAR, therapy dog, tracking, field trials, etc.  Apprenticing with a well known and respected trainer is a good idea, and if you want experience with some of the tougher dogs, volunteer at an open admission shelter for a while, especially one that has a good behavioral program.  Cynology College seems to have the right idea, in terms of material taught, but you can get all that knowledge just by reading the books they list on their curriculum.  Also, go to all the seminars you can - here are some presenters that I think are good (there are more, this is just a short list):
Suzanne Clothier
Patricia McConnell
Karen Pryor
Karen London
Brenda Aloff
Sue Sternberg
Pia Sylvani
Kathy Sdao
Trish King
Terry Ryan
Patti Ruzzo
Donna Duford
If you want a credential, you need not go to school, although it can't hurt - you can study and pass the CPDT exam. 

Found this place when I was searching for trainers a while back; it's located in Columbus.  Hope it's helpful. [linkhttp://www.nk9.com/SFDT.aspx]http://www.nk9.com/SFDT.aspx[/link]

At that facility, you would certainly learn to train dogs, but the question is whether you prefer to train using mainly positive methods, or force methods.  Anytime you see bite work being done, you need to check out the school's general training philosophy, as it may not be so positive.  A lot of schools still operate on the old "dominance" theory stuff. 
 

Columbus is 2.5 hours away so I didn't even consider it for obedience for Ruby, it just came up in my search.   What is bite work?

Anne, how would I find a good school to take the cpdt exam, how do I know who is legit who is not?

Here pretty much all you need to know about the CPDT.
 
[linkhttp://www.ccpdt.org/]http://www.ccpdt.org/[/link]

I second annes coment about trainers who do bite work. I know of 2 trainers who train protection dogs without force, I am one of them. the other a dear friend of mine.

I recently enrolled in the Animal Behavior college-  I am in TN and they are out of CA. It is a correspondence- and once you ahve completed your written coursework you volunteer 10 hours at a local shelter (training shelter dogs) Then you apprentice a mentor trainer for 50 hours (i think)
They use clicker training and a lot of Karen Pryor's techniques. I love it so far! I am about halfway through. You should look into it!
[linkhttp://animalbehaviorcollege.com/index.asp]http://animalbehaviorcollege.com/index.asp[/link]

Bite work is when you are training the dog to bite the sleeve be it in personal protection and schutzhund training.

Pat Miller has an rogram in Maryland: [linkhttp://www.peaceablepaws.com]www.peaceablepaws.com[/link]
 
SF/SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers in CA: [linkhttp://www.sfspca.org/academy/referral.shtml]www.sfspca.org/academy/referral.shtml[/link]
 
Canine Communications Studies, Inc.: [linkhttp://dogtrainingcareers.com/home.htm]http://dogtrainingcareers.com/home.htm[/link]
 
American College of Applied Science: [linkhttp://amcollege.com/]http://amcollege.com/[/link]