This is a free and open-source source designed for aspiring professional dog trainers and dog owners who are looking to go deeper in their understanding of animal behavior.
Certificate
To earn a certificate of completion for taking this course, you may take the quizzes and pass the final exam within the School For The Dogs Professional Certificate Course Tier 1.
About
Most pet owners turn to the first available, credible-looking resource online when they have a problem, well before turning to an expensive professional. That information is most likely FREE. Likewise, most people who have used techniques they learned on The Dog Whisperer never paid any money to anyone. In order to make Good Dog Training a part of the public consciousness, we need to take away a major barrier of entry: cost. The amount of money in someone's pocket shouldn't determine whether or not they have access to dog training information that is force-free, science-based, and easily implemented. When a critical mass of people sees how much sense this kind of dog training makes, we hope that it will become permanently tied to the way people think about dogs and dog ownership, in the same way, that people once assumed dog behavior could only be explained with such concepts as "dominance," "packs" and "energy."
We see a future in which a pet guardian searches for solutions to a problem online, and the first two search pages that come up are filled with ethical and effective solutions, created by the entire positive reinforcement training community - including you. You don't need to be a certified professional dog trainer to share useful information and problem-solving techniques with those who need help. If you are considering working with other dog owners and their dogs, either professionally or on a volunteer basis, we encourage you to start small and to use the Internet. That might mean offering to answer a friend's dog training questions on Facebook; Zooming with the friend-of-a-friend who has a new puppy; starting your own blog; or many other options. Offer what you know about Good Dog Training to others, for free, and guide people towards more experienced trainers if that is what they need.
This course is the beginning of what we hope will grow into a large resource library of free-to-use material. You may use our content and resources to help people; if you create content you'd like to share with us, email us at info@schoolforthedogs.com.
In short:
The behavior we want to train: ethical and effective care for all animals.
The animal we are training: our entire species.
We understand how behavior works. Let us use our knowledge, unite, and get training together!
Creators
Born To Behave was initially conceptualized by Ilana Alderman. Most of the content in the course was written by Ilana Alderman (who initially conceived of the idea for a free and open-source information hub for positive-reinforcement-based animal trainers), Em Beauprey, and Annie Grossman. All content is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) and may be attributed to School For The Dogs.
Donations
This course is free, but if you'd like to "pay it forward," you may enroll with a donation to the School For The Dogs Scholarship Fund, which provides free and low-cost training to dog owners in need.
