The Animal Behavior Technology: Diploma of Canine Behavior Science and Technology program is our flagship program. It is a rigorous program of study intended to help the students upgrade and develop important skills for their careers in helping resolve problem behaviors in companion animals.
The program addresses key topics in dog behavior, behavior change project management in comprehensive depth including the principles of behavior; tactics, strategies and procedures in dog training; functional assessment; behavior change programming; professional activities; and professional ethics.
This is not a cursory and basic program of study but rather an in-depth 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.
This program requires approximately 350 work-hours; 40 hours in actual assignment preparation.
Courses:
- Principles of Behavior 104
- Domestic Dog Behavior 103
- Animal Training Technology 105
- Functional Assessment 108
- Behavior Change Programming 114
- Differential Reinforcement Workshop 206
- Professional Activities in Animal Behavior Technology 113
- Professional Ethics 106
Students who wish to include further coursework in their studies may add electives to their program from the list below. The tuition for electives is in addition to the program tuition. If you select 3 or more electives, you are allowed 24 rather than 18 months. The elective choices include:
Learning Objectives (excluding elective options):
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
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- 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
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- 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.
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- Describe, contrast and compare the behavioral approach to assessment versus the medical model approach
- Analyze problem behavior situations as a functional relationship between behavior and the environment and describe and explain the behavior in a 3-term contingency
- Define functional assessment
- Identify and describe the three approaches to functional assessment: Informant interview; Direct observation; Functional analysis
- How to identify behavior of concern
- Track level, trend and variance of behaviors of concern quantitatively in graphical form
- Explain how to carry out a functional analysis
- Guidelines for performing functional analysis
- Explain how to choose a measure of the behavior concern (e.g., rate, relative frequency, duration, magnitude etc.)
- Producing a contingency statement for the behavior of concern that will be the basis for the rest of the behavior change project
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- Identify the stages in a behavior change project
- Identify the components of the intervention stage of a behavior change project
- Contrast and compare the constructional approach to the eliminative approach to changing behavior
- Determine quantifiable behavior objectives for the behavior of concern and track them quantitatively
- Choose appropriate behavior change procedures for the problem contingencies in question including both antecedent control procedures and/or postcedent behavior change procedures
- Describe systematic desensitization and respondent extinction and explain what behaviors they are appropriate for
- Describe differential reinforcement and its variants, including shaping and for what situations these are most appropriate
- Describe more aversive approaches to changing behavior including extinction, negative punishment, graded negative reinforcement and positive punishment and explain why these are best avoided in favor of less aversive approaches
- Identify exactly what information should be included in a complete written behavior change program and the structure of such a document
- Describe how to effectively coach clients on the procedures they will need to carry out
- Describe how to implement the behavior change program and adjust as appropriate to achieve objectives
- Describe how to shift from intervention stage to the maintenance stage
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- Apply principles of learning and training techniques to actual training projects
- Develop and implement a formal training plan
- Describe what behaviors and training objectives differential reinforcement is most appropriate for
- Transfer stimulus control to a verbal cue
- Generalize performance to new environments
- Effectively deliver reinforcers
- Deliver reinforcers with effective timing
- Establish and maintain a conditioned reinforcer
- Improve flexibility in training
- Communicate about training tasks
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- Identify potential liability problems and how to avoid them
- Outline a basic structure for working through behavior cases
- Produce a service agreement document to be used in professional settings including identification of services and payment arrangements, informed consent information and liability clarifying and limiting clauses
- Formulate a liability limiting clause
- Define and describe informed consent
- Discuss personal safety issues in case management
- Describe boundary issues with regards to veterinarians and how to work effectively with them as allied professionals
- Describe and discuss effective attending behaviors to promote more effective communication
- Explain the importance of utilizing written documentation of assessment and behavior change programming as well as end-of-services closing documents
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- Work through a formal ethical decision making process
- Explain why confidentiality is important
- Define informed consent and explain how to achieve it and why it is important
- Define professionalism and explain why it is important
- Explain what professional practice guidelines or codes of ethics are and how they can help the professional
- Define and discuss competency and explain why it is important
- Discuss responsible advertising practices and why they are important
- Explain how to decide when aversive stimulation may be necessary and work through the LIEBI model
- Discuss ethics of assessment processes
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 an 18 month time limit.
Note: The program is not vocational and is intended as a professional development for animal trainers and behaviour technologists to help them improve or upgrade their knowledge and skills. The program does not provide all the skills and knowledge required to obtain employment as an Animal Behavior Technologist. Further, hands on, supervised development of mechanical skills are also necessary.