Certificate Program (15 credits)
The Service and Therapy Dog Training program is designed for dog trainers that would like to train dogs for various forms of assistance, with an emphasis on service training and animal assisted therapy. Students will develop strong skills in canine training, understanding canine communication and body language, and training dogs for specific assistance tasks. Our Service and Therapy Dog Training program will help you to:
- Create a multi-step training plan using shaping or chaining complex canine tasks.
- Put canine behavior on cue to control it.
- Interpret canine communication and body language to more effectively train dogs for different tasks.
- Select and assess dogs for use in service training.
- Socialize dogs to prevent or eliminate fears, phobias, and excessive reactivity.
- Train dogs for basic obedience, public access and a wide variety of specific service dog tasks.
- Working effectively with disabled individuals to facilitate training.
- And much, much more!
The Service and Therapy Dog Training certificate requires the completion of five online courses (15 academic credits) and a field requirement consisting of 40 hours of hands-on experience as an employee, intern or volunteer at an approved institution of your choice. The field hours from the Advanced Canine Training program, the Canine Training & Behavior program, or the Canine Sports Training program can be applied to this field requirement. The required courses for this certificate program are:
- ABI 232 The Human-Animal Bond
- ABI 234 Canine Training
- ABI 238 Therapy Dog Training
- ABI 271 Canine Behavior & Enrichment
- ABI 338 Service Dog Training (prerequisite is ABI 234 Canine Training)
Upon graduation, students may begin using the designation CSTDTP, Certified Service & Therapy Dog Training Professional.
Our program in Service and Therapy Dog Training is unlike any other distance education program. Students at the Animal Behavior Institute participate in a highly interactive online classroom, engaging in regular dialog with their professors and student colleagues. Students receive feedback each week, working on collaborative projects while training their own animals. This allows them to achieve a deeper level of understanding than they would develop on their own. This collaboration, coupled with the mentoring each student receives from their instructors, ensures that they receive a very personal education.
Tuition is $1,320 per course; The cost of the certificate program is $6,600 (this does not include the cost of textbooks, purchased separately). Tuition assistance is available via interest-free financing. If you have questions on the program, or need help getting started, please contact us at (866) 755-0448 or via email at [email protected].