The Dog Training program is intended as a challenging, yet foundational program of study in dog training. It does not include topics related to conducting professional dog training services. It is intended to help the student develop their skills in training dogs. It involves an intensive distance course on the principles of learning and the technology of animal training with both academic coursework and hands on skill practice. This is not a cursory and basic program of study but rather an intensive and challenging educational experience. Students can expect to do a lot of studying and writing as well as actually working with their own dog, hands-on, in this program, exploring the various topics in depth.
The graduate would be awarded a Dog Training Certificate and allowed the letters Cert.DT after their name.
If you are looking for a program, that includes coursework in working as a professional dog trainer, check out the Cert.PDTST.
This program requires approximately 100 work-hours; 15 hours in actual assignment preparation.
Courses:
Learning Objectives:
Upon completing this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe the assumptions of the natural science of behavior, and distinguish this approach to behavior from others: psychology, ethology and the medical model orientation
- Define, contract and compare sensitization and habituation
- Define, contrast and compare operant and respondent behaviors as well as operant and respondent conditioning
- Define key terms utilized in the science of behavior
- Describe the Law of Effect
- Define and relate the 5 basic principles of operant conditioning: Extinction, +R, +P, -R, -P
- Describe the 3-term contingency and relationships between each of the terms
- Identify and describe variables affecting operant conditioning
- Describe respondent conditioning and the four basic respondent conditioning procedures (i.e., trace, delayed, simultaneous, backward)
- Describe respondent extinction
- Identify and describe variables affecting respondent conditioning
- Define, contrast and compare conditioned and unconditioned reinforcers
- Describe the problematic secondary effects of aversive stimulation
- Define and discuss learned helplessness
- Define the compound procedure differential reinforcement, including different types, and explain how it can be utilized as an alternative to aversive control of behavior
- Identify the basic schedules of reinforcement and describe their effects on the rate or frequency of behavior
- Define, contrast and compare generalization and discrimination
- Define stimulus control and explain how it is transferred
- Contrast and compare the behavioral perspective on behavior with the ethological, psychological and medical model orientation
- Explain the process of biological evolution and outline the primary hypotheses regarding the speciation of the domestic dog
- Define and explain the notion of the human-dog bond
- Define and explain the notion of social behavior and a function based model
- Identify and describe the sensitive periods of the domestic dog
- Identify and describe the basic breed categories and their behavior tendencies
- Analyze problem behaviors via the principles of behavior and the contingencies they are a part of rather than with diagnostic labels and generalizations
- Discuss common problem dog behaviors including aggressive behaviors, separation distress behaviors, barking, digging, undesirable attention seeking, feces eating, voiding in the house and jumping up including common functions for these behaviors
- Explain how to choose, establish and utilize a conditioned reinforcer
- Define target behaviors and training objectives
- Define prompts and explain when they might be appropriate and inappropriate
- Explain why it is important to fade prompts quickly and how to fade prompts
- Explain why physical prompts are often counterproductive
- Explain how to transfer stimulus control
- Explain, under which conditions shaping, chaining or simple differential reinforcement would be an appropriate procedure
- Apply the principles of behavior and training strategies and tactics to training animals to perform common behaviors, such as: either walking on a loose leash, come when called and sit for dogs, or step up, come when called and target objects for parrots, or come when called and walking on leash for cats.
- Carry out a shaping program for one's own companion animal, analyze results and identify problem areas and likely solutions
- Carry out a behavior chaining program for one's own companion animal, analyze results and identify problem areas and likely solutions
- Carry out the Training Game with friends or family members, analyze results and identify problem areas and likely solutions
- Develop and implement a formal training plan
- Generalize performance to new environments
- Effectively deliver reinforcers
- Analyze one's own training programs and identify ways to improve training performance
- Communicate effectively about training tasks
- Define behavior chaining and explain the behavior chaining process
- Contrast and compare total task chaining, forward chaining and backward chaining
- Differentiate between chaining (single trainer delivered cue) and "sequencing" (in-chain cues producing a series of separate chains)
- Dog training equipment and its proper and improper use.
Tuition:
The tuition is identified at the top of this page with the payment button. Tuition is in Canadian funds (Currency Converter). Textbooks not included in tuition. They may be purchased through http://www.dogwise.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.abebooks.com or http://www.half.com in most cases. Also check the Student Library. Canadian Residents 5% GST.
Schedule:
This program is self-paced within a 1 year time limit.