When you join the Academy, you gain access to a wealth of knowledge. By the time you graduate, you’ll understand dog behavior like never before, you’ll know how to train complex behaviors and handle complex issues. You’ll know how to train with training plans and standard operating procedures, which means that you’ll be able to tackle any and all challenges with confidence and competence.

Our curriculum is carefully designed to develop you into a highly skilled, well-rounded, versatile professional whether you choose to run your own dog training business or work for a rescue or shelter. Everything we teach about dog training is based on science and applied science, in particular the study of applied animal behavior. Our methods are all positive and have been tried and tested on thousands of dogs. There are no fads – just the latest science.

Course content

The topics you will study focus on two main themes: how animals learn and how best to change their behavior; and how to work with the people who will be your clients. For the dog training component, this includes training obedience behaviors and understanding basic behavior problems, but also includes working with fearful and aggressive dogs. Fear and aggression is typically not covered, or not covered well, in other educational opportunities available. In addition to learning how to handle this broad range of dog behavior issues, you’ll learn how to counsel clients with empathy and respect. Although you may be considering a switch to a dog training career because you love dogs, there is no way around the fact that dog training is largely a people-oriented business. Good counseling skills are absolutely vital to helping dogs, and this is a skill which can be taught and learned. The curriculum has a breadth of other relevant modules as well: you’ll learn how to apply critical thinking skills to the dog information around you, and you’ll learn about evolution, genetics, and canine ethology. You’ll also learn about the history of dog training, and about dog breeds and their characteristics. Finally, you will learn about branding and marketing your business, and managing and developing customer relationships.