E-Training for Dogs is grateful to work with holistic veterinarian Dr. Ella Bittel and provide world-wide, online access to information on animal hospice care through her work with Spirits in Transition™.
Spirits in Transition-Hospice Care for Our Animal Companions
These classes pose an exceptional opportunity for everyone whose animals are members of the family. It is tempting to not think about the time when our animal gets closer to the end of its life. However, not preparing ourselves ahead of time frequently means we have no other option but euthanasia. Providing hospice care is a great final gift we can give to the ones who have brought much joy to our lives. Often it is also experienced as lessening the grief, leading to a sense of great completion.
Course Information: The SPIRITS in Transition™ online classes are designed to give tools to people who are interested in providing end-of-life care for their animal friends. The best time to prepare for this is truly well in advance. In the unique program SPIRITS in Transition, we will explore a variety of ways that allow us to be the greatest possible support to our animal loved ones when they come closer to their departure. This puts euthanasia back in its rightful place, as an indeed last resort if comfort of the animal cannot be maintained. If it is skillfully supported however, an animal may well be able to pass peacefully on its own.
Prerequisites: None for Part I. For Part II: Successful completion of Part I, including sending in exercise and homework results for review.
Course Length: Part I and II each consist of ten sessions. Each session is between 60 and 90 minutes long. The last session (Session 10) of each part is held as a webinar. This allows participants who have completed all previous nine interactive online sessions to get answers to their questions in person.
NOTE: A recording of the webinar can be downloaded by those unable to attend it live via computer and phone.
Course delivery format: OnDemand/Recorded Webinars —Watch classes "OnDemand"- at your own pace. You will have unlimited access to each session for up to 3 months. Extensions are available on request at no cost.
Cost: $ 375.00 USD for each, Part I and II of the online classes. (This is only $37.50 per session.)
Part I: "Approaching Animal Hospice: Geriatric and Special Needs Care for Animals"
• Re-evaluating common reasons for euthanasia
• Overview of several holistic modalities helpful in special needs and end-of-life animal care
• Integrating our personal experiences on death and dying
• Challenges and choices in geriatric and special needs animal care
• Cancer prevention
• Easing pain– conventional and holistic options
Part II: "Foundations of Animal Hospice Care" - Release projected for the second half of 2010 Prerequisite: Successful completion of Part I
• Learning from foundational principles in human hospice care
• Building a network of support
• Special care considerations in animal hospice
• Training our intuitive perception
• Creating an environment conducive to a peaceful transition
• The Dying Process: stages of dissolution and support options
• Euthanasia: procedure, options and alternatives
• Caring for the body
• Caring for remaining animal family members and caring for ourselves
Instructor: Ella Bittel, Holistic Veterinarian Born in Germany, Ella followed her childhood desire to "help animals" by becoming a veterinarian. Now living and working in Arizona and California, Ella has specialized in holistic modalities for over 20 years, among them veterinary acupuncture and chiropractic, cranio-sacral work, homeopathy, TTOUCH and energy medicine techniques adapted 
from Donna Eden, including work on the animals aura and chakras.
When Ella's dog companion of 17 years, Momo, reached the end of her life, it became clear to Ella that none of her expansive training in traditional nor complementary veterinary care had included any information on how to support an animal dying naturally.
This reflects how strongly the trend in modern societies is to keep the topic of death and dying out of our awareness, leaving us helpless and unprepared once the situation occurs that one of our loved ones concludes their physical existence. For an animal family member, this very commonly results in euthanasia being employed to end its life.
Her experiences with Momo passing naturally, and feeling that just like birth, the dying process is of inherent value and an important part of an individual's journey, led Ella to engage in animal hospice and create a live weekend seminar as well as online classes for anyone interested in options in end-of life care for our animal companions.
Ella has been a speaker at various professional conferences and published articles on the topic of animal hospice care. She graduated from veterinary school in Hanover, Germany in 1994. Ella is on the board of directors of the IAAHPC (International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care) and on the advisory board for the NHFP (Nikki Hospice Foundation for Pets). Certified with AVCA (American Veterinary Chiropractic Association) 1998, with IVAS (International Veterinary Acupuncture Society) 1999. Member of AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association), AHVMA (American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association), AAVA (American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture). VBMA (Veterinary Botanical Medical Association), IVAPM (International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management).
For more information and registration, please visit: http://www.spiritsintransition.org/index.html
To register for the online Sessions, please visit:
http://www.spiritsintransition.org/calendar.html
Student Information:
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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.
Live—You will speak to the instructor in an online “classroom” with other students. Choose from the listed times in the Course Registration box above.
Certification/For Credit-You will participate fully in the class with required homework and tests. You will send in homework (may include video) to learn "hands on" with the instructor examining and providing individualized feedback, attention and assistance on course material.
Audited-You will participate fully in the class with no required homework or tests.
The instructor will not provide any assistance out of class such as viewing your videos in order to be able to give you individualized feedback.
Course Information:
This course will focus on the five important attributes for the athletic dog. We begin with structural evaluation of your dog as it relates to performance – in other words we are evaluating for purpose, not for fancy. This will create your “Problem List”. Using the information from your problem list, we will develop a program to enhance the aspects your dog may be lacking and preserve the ones it already has; this will create balance by strengthening adjacent musculature in addition to the primary muscles used for your particular event. We will not only take your dog’s physical fitness to a new level, the Conditioning program will create variety, which is the key to maintaining mental sharpness for any athlete!
What a student can expect to learn from this Course:
- Enlightened appreciation of their dog as an athlete
- How to evaluate structure in relation to potential injury
- Understanding of conditioning vs training
- Importance of balance/proprioception to achieve optimal performance and enhanced wellness
- Skills that will enhance abilities to raise and train each dog better than the last
Instructor: Racine Hyatt
