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Specializations

Program Details

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Students or graduates who wish to advance their program of study may consider the Advanced Graduate Track, which extends their studies to a higher level of theoretical exploration, incorporating both human behavior and companion animal behavior. The track is included on the graduate's diploma. If enrolled before graduation, it extends the deadline by an extra 2 months. This add-on module represents approximately 5 to 6 of our regular courses in length and depth.

Students and graduates can include an Aggressive Behavior Specialization track in their program of study. The specialization will be included on the graduate's diploma. This additional module addresses aggressive behavior in dogs more extensively than the core program content and provides a thorough grounding in the topic. This add-on module represents approximately 5 to 6 of our regular courses in length and depth.

Tuition

 

$400 per specialization ​(Currency converter. This provides only an estimate).

Schedule

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Self-paced within a 2 month time limit per course. Extensions are available at a fee if required. Enroll and get started any time you want from anywhere in the world.

CEUs

 

Continuing Education Credits Available. See Course Approvals page for credits available for each course.

Entrance Requirements

(Click Here for Details and Elaboration)

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  • High school diploma or equivalent (exceptions can be made)

  • 18 years of age or older

  • Professional experience​

Course Descriptions

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Advanced Graduate Track

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The Advanced Graduate Track takes coverage of behaviorology to the next level. It's content includes humans as well as other animals and utilizes the discipline's most advanced textbook that is used in masters and doctoral programs. Many of the topics are review from the main program but they take each into more depth and into more or the theoretical aspects.

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Required Text:

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General Behaviorology: The Natural Science of Human Behavior available at www.behavior.org (let me know if you cannot find a copy from a place that ships outside of the USA)

For students that would like to purchase a digital copy of General Behaviorology: The Natural Science of Human Behavior, please contact me at jamesoheare@gmail.com .

Topics include (taken from textbook table of contents):

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  • Introduction

  • The General Nature of This Book, and the Audience at which it is Directed

  • The Style and Thematic Development of This Book

  • The Organization of the Natural Science Community

  • Basic versus applied.

  • Reduction.

  • Sociocultural importance.

  • The classification of natural sciences in this book.

  • Mystical Accounts: Their Implications and Resistance to their Proffer

  • The Cultural Contribution Enabled by the Distinctiveness of Behaviorology

  • A Natural Science of Behavior

  • Natural Science Assumptions

  • Variables in the Natural Sciences

  • Science and Human Behavior

  • The Emergence, Nature, and Capacity of Behaviorology

  • Behaviorology as a discipline.

  • Curriculum.

  • Relation to other disciplines.

  • Disciplines and Fields

  • A Definition of Behaviorology

  • Kinds of Behavior: Definitions and Classifications

  • Perspectives on Behavior

  • Some Traditional Classifications

  • Motor behavior.

  • Verbal behavior.

  • Emotional behavior.

  • A Behaviorological Classification Scheme

  • Respondent behavior.

  • Operant behavior.

  • The Properties of Behavior

  • Environment.

  • The energy to behave.

  • Other non–behaviors.

  • Behavioral continuity.

  • Different ways to account for behavior.

  • Operant–Respondent Distinctions

  • Avoiding Private Internal Events During Analyses

  • Traits are not Behaviors

  • The Relation of Traits to Behaviors

  • Ambiguous References

  • Functional Relations in the Science of Behavior

  • Definition of “Functional Relation”

  • The Nature of Environment–Behavior Functional Relations

  • A Practical Example of a Behaviorological Functional Relation

  • Terms and Phrases

  • All Behavior is Controlled

  • The Analysis of Behavioral Events

  • The General Analytical Approach

  • Antecedent events.

  • Postcedent events.

  • Terms of function.

  • The question of immediacy.

  • An Illustrative Analytical Example

  • Answering the Basic Analytical Questions

  • Common Explanatory Alternatives

  • Avoiding Difficult Analyses

  • Time as Cause

  • Genes as Cause

  • The Necessary Elicitation of Respondent Behavior

  • The Bodily Support of Behavior

  • Biological versus Behaviorological Control of Behavior

  • Distinguishing between “Evoke” and “Elicit”

  • Explanatory Fictions

  • The Point of Being Scientific

  • Explanatory Fictions

  • Introduction and Definitions

  • Practical behaviorological technologies.

  • The hypothetical fictional construct.

  • Explanatory fictions versus untrue explanations.

  • Time–lapse explanatory fictions.

  • Teleological explanations.

  • Explanatory Fictions in Respondent Conditioning

  • Explanatory Fictions in Operant Conditioning

  • Relations among Kinds of Behavior

  • Levels of Analysis in Constructing Explanations of Behavior

  • The Role of an Emotional Predisposition

  • Departures from the Analytical Level of Functional Antecedent Stimuli

  • A Review of Teleological Explanations

  • Explanatory Fictions: A Quick Review

  • Ambiguous Terms: Like, Want, and Desire

  • The Transparency of Fictional Explanations

  • Behavior in its Natural Context

  • Contingencies of Reinforcement: Their Properties and Analysis

  • The General Analytical Approach

  • A Simple Two–Term Contingency

  • Expanded Notation for More Complex Antecedents

  • A Simple Three–Term Contingency

  • The Locus of the Operant Effect

  • Identifying the Behavior of Concern

  • Chained Effects of Operant Conditioning

  • Problems with the Technical Language

  • The Maintenance of Behavior

  • The Basis of Behavior Technology

  • Invalid Assumptions that Impede Behavior Technology

  • Crafting Science to Accommodate Bias

  • The Myth of Free Will

  • The Basic Mistake and the Compounding Fallacy

  • Dispelling the Free Agent

  • Must You Be Aware of the Contingencies that are Controlling Your Behavior?

  • More Examples: Behavior Unexplained by the Behaving Person

  • Contingencies of Reinforcement and Contingencies of Survival

  • Selection under Contingencies of Reinforcement

  • Selection under Contingencies of Survival

  • Language as the Product of Operant Selection

  • Causal Fallacies in the Analysis of Concurrent Behaviors

  • Concurrent Responses to a Single Antecedent Stimulus

  • A Practical Function of an Emotional Arousal

  • The Different Kinds of Contingencies of Reinforcement

  • Reinforcement in General

  • Positive Reinforcement

  • Negative Reinforcement

  • Writing a contingency of negative reinforcement.

  • Locating the negative reinforcer.

  • Summary of the Reinforcement Function

  • Positive Punishment

  • Negative Punishment

  • Extinction

  • “Extinction versus Negative Punishment”

  • The Analysis of a Potentially Ambiguous Case

  • Further Consideration of the Consequences of Operant Behavior

  • Operant–Respondent Combinations

  • Exclusively Operant Functions

  • Where’s the Body?

  • Reviewing the Basis of Behavior Technology

  • A Third Possibility for Changing a Behavior

  • Important Analytical Considerations

  • Writing Contingencies in Symbolic Notation

  • 6: Concurrent Contingencies

  • The Analysis of Multiple Contingencies

  • Analytical Principles

  • Analytical Illustrations: Multiple Contingencies on One Behavior

  • “Progress” as a Conditioned Reinforcer

  • Conflict

  • Moving forward. / Moving backward. / The oscillations.

  • Private versus Public Events in Analyses

  • Rendering the Analytical Scheme Practical

  • The Functioning of Verbal Behavior

  • Speculation in Contingency Analyses Featuring Private Events

  • The Postulate of Behavior Passivity

  • Analytical Fallacies

  • Time is not Behavior

  • Avoid Writing Contingencies for Behaviors that Do Not Occur

  • The Behaviorological Analysis of “Boredom”

  • The Correct Analytical Approach

  • An Example of Boredom Featuring Positive Reinforcement

  • The Role of Consciousness

  • An Example of Boredom Featuring Negative Reinforcement

  • The Role of Bodily States

  • Body States are not Behaviors

  • Body States as Stimuli

  • Avoiding Remote Antecedents and Postcedents

  • Specific Response, or Behavior in General?

  • Distinguishing between Metacontingencies and Contingencies of Reinforcement

  • Metacontingencies that Yield Nonbehavioral Outcomes

  • Metacontingencies that Yield Behavioral Outcomes

  • Avoiding the Confounding of Contingencies of Reinforcement and Metacontingencies

Aggressive Behavior Specialized Track

(If Canine Species Selected)​

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  • Section 1. Scope of the “Aggressive Behavior Problem” and Risk Factors

    • Perspective

    • Statistics

    • Risk Factors for Dog–Human Aggressive Behavior

    • Risk Factors for Dog–Dog Aggressive Behaviors

  • Section 2. Case Management

    • Roles and Perspectives of Technologists and Clients

    • The Behavior of Guardians of Dogs who Exhibit Aggressive Behaviors

    • Case Management

    • The Consult Sessions

    • Equipment and Supplies

    • Liability Issues

    • Guardian Liability

    • Technologist Liability

  • Section 3. Explaining Aggressive Behavior Exhibited by Dogs

    • What is “Aggressive” Behavior? – Review From Previous Coursework to Set the Stage

    • Why Do Dogs Exhibit Aggressive Behavior?

    • Aggressive Behavior Categories

    • Aggressive Behaviors Generalize… and Fast!

    • How to React to Aggressive Behaviors

    • Problematic Human Behaviors

    • What do “Aggressive” Dogs Look Like?

    • Ambivalent “Aggressive”/“Appeasing” Behaviors

    • Ambivalent “Affiliative”/“Aggressive” Behaviors

  • Section 4. Practices to Prevent Aggressive Behavior

    • Basic Principles of Prevention

    • Early Recognition and Intervention

    • Bite Inhibition Training

    • Management of Child–Dog Interactions

    • Never Tie Out a Dog

    • Avoid Aversive Stimulation

    • Puppy Kindergarten Classes

    • Training

    • NILIF, Leadership and Dominance? Forget it! Just Train the Dog

    • Possession Sharing

    • Handling Exercises

    • Food Bowl Exercises

  • Section 5. Challenge Indicators in Aggressive Behavior Cases

    • Estimating Challenge

    • Goals and Expectations

    • Duration of the Behavior and Schedule of Reinforcement

    • Severity of Bite

    • Predictability

    • Manageability

    • Training

    • Biddability

    • Social Motivating Operations

    • Children, Elderly, Mobility-Impaired, or Behaviorally/Developmentally Impaired Family Members

    • Size of Dog

    • Guardian Resources (Time & Money)

    • Guardian Commitment & Compliance

    • Resident Directed Dog–Dog Aggressive Behavior

    • Technologist Proficiency

  • Section 6. Contingency engineering Strategies and tactics For Resolving Problematic Aggressive Behaviors Exhibited by Dogs

    • Strategies for Resolving Aggressive Behavior Problems

  • Section 7. Sample Strategies and Protocols for Common Scenarios

    • Aggressive Behaviors Exhibited when the Dog is on Leash

    • Pathophysiologically Based Aggressive Behaviors

    • Aggressive Behaviors Exhibited Toward People Approaching the Home

    • Aggressive Guarding Behaviors

    • Food Bowl Guarding

    • Object Guarding

    • Location Guarding

    • Person Guarding

    • Harmful Predatory Behaviors

    • Dog–Dog Aggressive Behavior

    • Remediation of Social Behaviors

    • Vocal Control Training

    • Social Inexperience

    • “Fearful” Social Behavior

    • Guarding Resources (Reinforcers) from Other Dogs

    • Intrahousehold Dog–Dog Aggressive Behavior

    • Train Each Dog Individually

    • Train in Pairs

    • Train in Groups

  • Section 8. Adjunct Measures

    • Rehabilitation for Response Depression and Increasing General Level of Reinforcement

    • Training

    • Play

    • Exercise

    • Exercise and “Mood”

    • Nutritional Support

    • Nutrition and Behavior

    • Psychopharmacological and Nutritional Supplementation Support

    • Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors

    • Fluoxetine (Prozac)

    • Tricyclic Antidepressants

    • Amitriptyline (Elavil)

    • Clomipramine (Clomicalm)

    • Nutritional Supplements / Pseudomedications

    • L-Tryptophan (ProQuiet)

    • 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP)

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