Our Pro Dog Foundations program is designed for passionate people who are interest in pursuing careers or side gigs as professional dog trainers and behaviour consultants. Whether you’re an experienced rescue volunteer or employee, dog walker, breeder, groomer or a dog lover with a geeky side looking for more advanced tools, tactics, and theories, or if you want to turn your natural affection for dogs into a rewarding job, our professional dog trainer certification program in Calgary is for you.
From mastering the art of loose-leash walking to diving deep into the nuances of complex dog behaviour, our curriculum sets a high bar, exceeding standards established by prestigious organizations such as the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
Our immersive professional dog trainer certification program in Calgary (online only options coming 2025) program balances theory and practice, seamlessly integrating theory with hands-on experience.
Enroll in our Pro Dog Foundations program and join our vibrant community of passionate dog professionals committed to innovation, education and the human-canine bond.
Curriculum Highlights
- Introduction to Operant Conditioning (BF Skinner)
- The four quadrants of operant conditioning
- ABCs of behaviour
- 3 and 4 term contingencies
- Motivative operations
- Function altering stimuli
- Extinction
- Schedules of reinforcement
- Differential reinforcement
- Exploring Respondent Conditioning
- Introduction to respondent conditioning
- Relationship between Conditioned and Unconditioned Stimuli
- Conditioned Responses
- Conditioned Emotional Responses
- Respondent Conditioning as a System of Responses
- Extinction
- Premack Principle
- Stress, Resiliency, and Behavior
- General Adaptation Syndrome (Selye)
- Resiliency: buffering and protective mechanisms
- Stress and arousal models
- Stress signals
- Understanding Attachment
- Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Test
- Types of attachments
- Recognizing attachment patterns in dogs and behavioural significance
- Ethology and Social Communication
- Creating an ethogram
- Species and breed specific motor patterns (MAP’s/FAP’s)
- Lorenz’s Hydraulic Model
- Motivation and “drive”
- Innate behaviours
- Social communication model:
- affiliative, aggression, appeasement, flight and ambivalent signaling
- Development and Learning
- Developmental stages
- Pyramid of development
- Dog Training
- Designing training programs for obedience, manners, tricks etc.,
- Types of equipment
- Acquisition of new behaviours
- Clear communication system in training
- Marker training
- Stages of learning
- Leash handling techniques and safety
- D-parameters
- Dog Behaviour Consulting
- Functional assessment
- Functions of behaviour
- Intervention design
- Interventions i.e., DS/CC, graded approach, adjunctive procedures etc.
- LIMA and LIFE
- Systems Thinking
- Systems
- Systems thinking
- Systems principles
- Systems dynamics dyadic model
- Comprehensive Behaviour Problem Solving:
- Addressing aggression in its various forms (territorial, food, dog-dog, protective, multi-dog, human etc.)
- Leash reactivity
- Separation anxiety
- Resource guarding
- Leash pulling
- Prey drive
- Jumping up
- Fear
- House soiling
- Pica
- Coprophagia
- Complex behaviour cases
- Writing Case Studies
- Elements of a case study
- How to write a case study
- Practical application: writing case studies
- Exploring Learning Theories
- Overview of learning theories in dog training
- Social learning theories
- Constructivism
- Cognitivism
- And more!!!
1 Year Calgary Professional Dog Trainer Certification Program
This one-year program is based in Calgary, Alberta. The program features one three-hour Zoom class per month, typically held on Friday evenings, along with one three-hour in-person workshop in Calgary, typically scheduled for Saturdays or Sundays.
*Online only option coming 2025
What's Included
- Experience personalized mentorship under Cat Harbord, Dip.CBST, CDBC, FDM, boasting 15 years of expertise, including 11 years of mentoring trainers and behaviour consultants.
- Shadowing opportunities.
- Monthly lectures and workshops.
- In depth curriculum that surpasses certification standards of prominent certifying organizations such as IAABC, PPG, APDT, CCPDT (some organizations may require extra teaching or consulting hours, vet and client letters of recommendation before exam eligibility).
- Teaching opportunities
- And more!!!
Upcoming Dates
Please reach out for upcoming intake dates.
Tuition
In Person Tuition: $6750 + GST.
Application
Interested in applying for this program? Please complete the following application form, and we will contact select candidates to arrange a phone interview. Please be aware that applicants must be 18 years or older. While some post-secondary education is preferred, it is not mandatory.