Free course · 5 lessons · about 25 minutes
Service and Therapy Dog Training Fundamentals: A Free 5-Lesson Course
Five short lessons for trainers: the work behind service and therapy dogs, how reliable tasks are built, choosing candidates, staying in scope and assessment.
0 of 5 lessons done
- 1What Service and Therapy Dog Training Really InvolvesThe different jobs under the title, what a typical week looks like, who does well at the work and the mistakes trainers make when they move into it.
- 2How Reliable Tasks Are Built: Shaping, Chaining and GeneralizationThe learning science behind a service dog task: defining the behavior with the handler, shaping and chaining it, then generalizing and proofing it until it works anywhere.
- 3A Real Case: Can This Dog Become a Service Dog?A worked case of an owner who wants to train their own dog, showing how a trainer checks health, assesses temperament in stages and gives an honest recommendation.
- 4Safety and Scope: Dogs, Handlers, the Public and the LawHow trainers protect working dogs, handlers and the public, and where the trainer's role ends: medical questions, legal questions and claims about a dog's status.
- 5How Competence Is Judged, and How to PrepareWhat practical observation, outcomes and knowledge assessments each show, what strong scenario answers have in common, and how to prepare for an assessment.