DB204: Understanding Canine Behavior
Purpose: Students will learn to observe and interpret canine behavior. Their new understanding will help them prevent potentially dangerous dog to dog, or dog to human interactions.
Prerequisites: None
Live Class Starts: October 18, 2010 (Meets every Monday for 10 weeks from 8-9:30 PM EST)
OnDemand Class NOW Available at your convenience. CEU's are the same as for the Live class.
Course Information: Dogs have deliberate, subtle, and often humorous ways of expressing themselves. The ability to recognize, interpret and understand this canine "language" will be the major emphasis of this course. The course is suitable for everyone interested in dogs – pet owners, trainers, veterinarians, ethologists and behaviorists. Using photography and videos, this course will illustrate and explain canine behavior and communication.
Primary Textbook: Canine Behavior: A Photo Illustrated Handbook
Other reading as assigned by instructor or chosen by the students. Click on the book titles to order each.
Course Length: This course meets every week, once a week for 10 weeks. Each class is 90 minutes. All times are EDT. All classes are recorded for your unlimited viewing for 6 months.
Course Cost (Register above):
For Certification: Live =$394.00
For Audit: Live = $263.00 (This allows you to attend class but no homework will be required and no CEU's will be awarded. Register above and this choice will be available during the registration process. Only 5 audit seats available per class.)
Payment Plan (Certification only):
4 easy payments of $99.50 each. First payment must be received at least 3 days before the start of class. All four payments MUST be received before any Certificates or CEU's will be provided. NO EXCEPTIONS.
CEU's:
This course approved for 18 CEU's from the IAABC.
This course approved for 15 CEU's from the CPDT.
Course Format:
This ten-week course will be presented in “seminar style” with ample opportunity for discussion and Q & A with fellow students and the instructor.
Reading assignments will be from the primary class text: Canine Behavior: A Photo Illustrated Handbook, and the secondary text Changing People Changing Dogs, by Dee Ganley. Students will select at least 3 readings from provided bibliographies to validate ideas presented in the paper they will complete during the course. Download syllabus.
- Class will meet at a specific time each week.
- Material from missed classed will be available on line, but the opportunity for real-time discussion will happen only during designated class times.
- This class will be graded on a “pass/fail” basis,
- CEUs will be given only to those who participate actively and complete all assignments
- Be able to define “behavior” as a concept
- Become skilled observers of canine behavior
- Recognize different categories of aggressive dog behavior
- Develop awareness of how anatomy is relevant in understanding and interpreting behavior
- Recognize and understand:
- Displacement Behaviors
- Distance Increasing Behaviors
- Distance decreasing Behaviors
- Dominance: definition and relevance in behavior
- Epimeletic and et-epmiletic behaviors
- Metasignals
- Differentiate different types of canine play
- Understand predation in domestic canines
- Understand the difference between socializing and socialization
- Understand social hierarchies in wild and domestic canines
- Recognize the signs of mild, moderate and severe stress in dogs
- Quizzes: will not be graded because they are an integral part of how each class will be structured, and the answers will be provided as part of the discussions.
- Participation and Attendance: All students will be expected to participate in discussions of reading material. Students will be prepared to analyze canine behavior interactions presented by the instructor.
Course Objectives:
As a result of this class, students will:
Expectations:
Instructor: Barbara Handelman, M.Ed., CDBC
Barbara has been a Clinical Mental Health
Counselor for forty years. Early in her career, her work focused on relationship therapy with non-verbal children. In that context, Handelman became a careful observer of human body language. Studying the ways dogs use their bodies to communicate became a natural extension of her work with children. She is now a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant specializing in training assistance dogs for people with disabilities. For the last twenty years Handelman has
had a second career as a professional photographer, using her camera to capture the moods and movements of people, horses,
and dogs.
Student Testimonials
I would highly recommend the seminar to anybody who wants to be better prepared in the understanding of canine body language as well as their behavior.This 10 week course was fantastic in gaining additional insight about the research that is ongoing in our world today.Her view is global. Barbara shared many photo's and video's to help us gain insight into a different species. The research she presented was on target and recent.A lot to read but very worthwhile. The art of communication with an other being is always full of surprises but with a little work on the human end of the equation it becomes absolutely fascinating to be able to gain a better understanding of a different species. Again I would highly recommend this course for all who want to be able to understand canine behavior.I found this very useful in my classes. Barbara did a great job in projecting her knowledge and making it available to us. (Joyce Clemons, CPDT, CABC)
Student Information
Download Flash Player for free. 98% of computers worldwide already have Flash.
You must also read and agree to the E-Training for Dogs, Inc. Standard Terms and Conditions prior to taking a course: Click here to read these. You will be asked when you register if you have read them and will not be allowed to take the course if you do not agree to the terms.
Click here to return to Dog Training Courses.
