Companion Animal Sciences Institute

Course Title: Dog Training Technology - 105

Credits: 3 (Approx. 42 work-hours)

Instructor: James O'Heare, CABC

Course Description

This course provides both hands-on and academic elements with an emphasis on hands-on exercises. 

This course does not explore specific sports but provides information on training techniques and strategies, concentrating on animal friendly approaches (being creative and avoiding aversive stimulation). Students can expect to do some studying and writing in this course but mostly to do actual dog training (with your own dog or that of a friend). 

You will require access to a dog for this course. This can be your dog, the dog of a willing friend or a shelter dog. The assignments involve specific training tasks that you will report on in written assignments. You will also require access to at least a couple other people (friends, relatives, coworkers etc.) for the 'training game' assignment.

Students should emerge from this course with a foundationalunderstanding of:

• Applying the principles of learning to training dogs
• Prompting versus nonprompting as a means of getting the behavior
• Behavior shaping and free shaping skills
• Manipulation of variables such as distance, duration and distraction in order to build behaviors
• Working through acquisition of behavior to maintenance by manipulating schedules of reinforcement
• How to apply generalization and discrimination training to improve resilience of behavior.
• Specific strategies for training sit, down, stand, recall, loose leash walking, look etc.

Course Texts

• The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson.
• Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor.
• Getting Started Clicker Training for Dogs (new expanded edition) by Karen Pryor.
• Electronic Training Devices: A Review of Current Literature by Jo Jacques, CPDT, CPCT and Sandy Myers, CDBC. (will be provided)
• Millikan, D. A. (2007). To Buy Or Not To Buy: A Guide to Dog Training Equipment. Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior, 1(1), 46-55. Available to Students upon request.

Enrollment Package Includes

• Coursework document with assignments and course notes
• Student Handbook
• Access to Classroom, with transcripts from Guest Visits and handouts
• Free membership with IIACAB and to all issues of its journal JACAB
• Access to your Instructor for one-on-one guidance

Schedule

The course begins as soon as your enrollment is complete and you receive your enrollment package. Although we allow 4 months for this course, you are free to complete the course sooner if you can, and we do allow extensions if need be.

Prerequisites

None

CCPDT Credits: 6.5

Tuition

$300 Cdn. (Currency Converter) + 4% fee for for online payments. 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.

Enrollment

Visit the "ENROLL" page and follow the application instructions.