Canine Behaviour and Training - Diploma

This course is a combination of relevant modules from several courses for those who would benefit from a specific approach to training and behaviour rather than one or the other.
Course Modules

1. Ways of Explaining Canine Behaviour

• The affects of biology on behaviour
• Natures approach to behaviour
• Nurtures approach to behaviour
• How food affects behaviour
• Associative learning
• Do dogs think?
• Canine intelligence
• Various ways dogs communicate
• Canine instincts
• What is a behaviourist?

• Introduction to developmental psychology
• The newborn puppy
• Associative learning in the newborn puppy
• Reflex actions
• Initial development in the newborn puppy
• The puppy's vision
• The puppy's hearing
• Lapping behaviour
• Early experiences with semi-solid foods
• The Nature/Nurture debate
• The behaviour of the mother
• Natural selection
• Elimination behaviour in the newborn puppy
• The behaviour of the father
• The importance of play in the newborn puppy
• Why puppies play
• The play bow
• The role of hormones
• Social development
• Canine senses
• Artificial selection
• What is an adult dog?
• Sexual maturity
• Physical maturity
• Psychological maturity
• The dog as a predator
• Instincts
• Types of aggressive behaviour
• The dog as a social animal
• The structure of a pack
• Personality expression
• Vocalisation
• Posture
• Scent marking
• Burying food
• The elderly dog

• Charles Darwin's biological adaptations
• The nature verses nurture debate of learning
• Environmental influences on behaviour
• Canine learning
• The parental influences on learning
• Critical and sensitive periods of the puppy's development
• Classical conditioning
• Chaining
• Instrumental or operant conditioning
• Reward and punishment in learning
• Reinforcers and punishment in learning
• Primary and secondary reinforcers
• Reinforcement schedules
• Shaping behaviour
• Sensitisation
• Cultural transmission
• The importance of play
• Insight learning
• Habituation

• Why train dogs?
• The senses and training
• Schedules of reinforcement
• Primary and secondary reinforcers revisited
• Choice of primary reinforce
• Benefits of using positive reinforcement
• Putting the theory into practice
• Basic training of house training, the recall, the sit, sit/stand and progressing to heel with problems and solutions
• The advantages and disadvantages of using Clicker Training
• Summary of training principles

• Touch or tactile communication
• Meet, greet and licking as a form of communication
• Lip smacking
• Teat nudge
• Kneading
• Muzzle-nudge and nose to throat nudge
• Muzzle grasp
• Hip nudge

• Dealing with aggression
• Learning theory
• Operant conditioning
• Positive and negative reinforcement
• Positive and negative punishment
• One trial learning
• Generalisation with behaviour to different surroundings
• Initial measures
• When should training begin?
• Desensitisation and Counter Conditioning Techniques
• What is flooding
• Aversive conditioning
• Learned helplessness
• Over learning
• Holistic approaches to behaviour modification
• Legal Issues and the Dangerous Dogs Act