The Canine Instructor Academy runs online courses teaching how to train people to train dogs, whether to gain a better understanding of your own dog, or perhaps to teach others, addressing training and/or behavioural issues. The average age of a dog going into rescue is apparently now only eight months old - they're still practically puppies at the point when their owners give up on them! And yet
there has never been more information on how to educate dogs. There have never been more trainers and behaviourists offering their services on how to prevent problems or alleviate existing ones. I set up the Canine Instructor Academy to address what I see as the biggest problem in dog training and behaviour - dog trainers and behaviourists. There are so many courses out there now suggesting that they will make you an effective educator, but they are often set up and run by people who don't themselves train dogs, some of whom have actually never been dog trainers or behaviourists themselves! And eager students may pay thousands of pounds believing the course will teach them how to train owners to train dogs effectively. Science has taught us so much about dogs, but I see so many courses that are in my opinion far too science-based, teaching students training that may absolutely work in a scientific setting, but when you try to get an owner to follow that technique in a real-life situation, it is so labour-intensive and/or impractical that the owner is unable to follow through with it, and so heart-broken as they are to do so, they finally give up and put the dog in rescue - or worse. Make no mistake, reward-based training is the most effective way to teach dogs. Rewarding them appropriately will increase the likelihood of a desired behaviour being repeated. But there is currently a concept in dog training that says that although every species on the planet learns consequences to making the wrong choice which help it to make better ones, the one exception to that rule should be this predatory animal that we bring into our home, many of whom are physically capable of killing us. It suggests that dogs should have no negative consequences, that we should ignore bad behaviour, and reward good behaviour, and all of those bad behaviours will just fade away. Well wouldn't that be lovely? But sadly, this theory is fundamentally flawed because it assumes that the owner will always have a reward greater than one that the dog can get for itself without complying with the owner. As soon as that is the case, the 'training' fails. Dogs are too clever for that. So, what many of them learn is that it pays to misbehave. If they jump up, they are offered food to get them to sit instead, so they learn that jumping up gets them food. If they refuse to recall, they get offered food, and if they still refuse, the food gets better. And on and on it goes. The Canine Instructor Academy ethos focusses primarily on rewarding good behaviour, and paying dogs well for working hard. But for those times when rewards are readily available but the dog rejects them in favour of doing what it wants, the course will also cover creating non-physical, non-abusive ways to create boundaries for dogs, things that will teach him or her that they really HAVE to do as you have asked. We've stopped teaching our children this, and we can all see how well that's working out. ABOUT THE COURSE
The Understanding Behaviour course is now entirely online, and I don’t know of any other online course that offers as much. This course runs for two months, and is intended to teach attendees how to help owners with dogs with unacceptable and/or inappropriate behaviours that they may be struggling with, and is attended by people from a wide range of backgrounds – from dog trainers and behaviourists, to dog walkers, groomers, pet sitters, and owners who don’t necessarily want to train others, but want to have a better relationship and understanding with their own dog. Attendees will initially submit an introductory video telling a little about their doggy background. These videos will be accessible to all the course attendees, which will help to create a greater community feel for everyone attending, with people forming new relationships that often extend well beyond the run of the course. Each week, the attendees will be sent a series of videos and handouts that will cover in depth a wide range of behavioural issues. These will include how I retrain dogs with various forms of aggression, separation anxiety, destructiveness, sound sensitivities and noise issues, as well as numerous other behaviour issues. There will also be videos of Robert conducting behaviour consultations with real clients, where students will get to observe how he trains. Between the videos, handouts, Zoom meetings and Q&A sections at the end of each section, my goal is to teach you effective tried and tested resolutions to be able to resolve training and behavioural issues with owners and dogs. There will also be videos from a number of other speakers on the course who will talk on a variety of subjects including the law, working with owners, setting up and promoting your dog business, using social media to promote and enhance your business, imposter syndrome, human psychology and its importance when working with owners, and how to work with emotional issues with both clients and with yourself. Every week you will be sent a selection of videos covering these subjects and more, that you will be able to watch at a time convenient to you. There are no deadlines by which you need to have watched the videos, you can watch them at times that suits you. Then, at the end of each week, there will be a Zoom chat between all of the attendees and myself, where we will discuss any questions that you may have. There are no scheduled classes that you must attend, and no specific time commitments that you must comply with on this course, apart from the weekly Zoom meetings, which are always on the same day of the week and at the same time. There will be a final Zoom meeting on the last day of the course, with the attendees, all of the other speakers and myself. Once the course is over, the videos will be available for a further two months, meaning that attendees will get an amazing four months to go over them as often as they want to, increasing the chance of them fully taking in all of the learning that the course offers. After completing the course, attendees will be able to remain in contact me indefinitely to discuss any questions that they have, and I am still in regular contact with people who did my courses years ago. You will also be invited to join our very active private Facebook group accessible only to those who have completed a course, where you can network with like-minded people, exchanging ideas and discussing a myriad of topics, and again, you can remain a member of the group indefinitely. We also have periodical Zoom meetings just for course attendees hosted by me, where we cover anything dog related. People who have completed the course can also have their details shared to the Find A Trainer section of the CIA website. Attendees will be awarded with a diploma in canine behavioural training (Dip CBT) after completing the course, and will be able to use those post nominals after their name. They can also use the CIA logo on their stationary.
