Through understanding the differences and functions of animal behavior (including human animals) clinicians can help clients see themselves and the animals within a new therapeutic context. Clinicians will learn basic animal evaluation, socialization, communication, and training techniques that can help enhance the bond with their therapy animal, develop therapeutic skills, and provide an enriching therapy experience for clients.
In this course, you will focus on determining if your animal can and wants to be a therapy animal and if so, how to evaluate and train them for certain skills. We want to emphasize that doing therapy work is a choice for the animal, so while you may determine your animal can be a therapy animal, it is ultimately up to them if they choose to participate.
During this course, we have you learn about and practice clicker training, as it is a positive, reinforcement based method for training and can be integrated into work with various animals. It can also be a wonderful intervention to practice with some clients. While you do not need to use clicker training for your therapy animal, we do want you to learn how to use positive, reinforcement-based training methods to teach your animal.
In addition to writing and submitting papers, you will be asked to provide a video of what you have taught your animal. You will upload the video to the Course Lounge so that others can learn from you.
Course Objectives:
• Students will understand basic ethology of their primary therapy animal, as well as some general ethology of other animals
• Students will understand how to evaluate their animal as a therapy animal and how, when, and why the animal’s behavior and adaptation can be incorporated within the therapy context
• Students will understand, utilize and practice positive, reinforcement-based training methods
• Students will be able to integrate animal ethology and animal learning as a means to develop and implement rich therapeutic interventions
