At a glance:

When?: Course seminar on 10th and 11th March, 2018. Four months to complete optional assessment work from there – ends 31st July 2018

Where?: at the AniEd centre, Glasnevin, Dublin 11 (M50, J5)

How much?: Course fees: €120 includes weekend seminar, comprehensive course materials and supplementary resources
Assessment fee: €40 payable at submission

Who should do it?: anyone working with animals, for example, trainers, kennel and petshop staff, groomers, rescue staff and volunteers, and pet owners with a keen interest in animal care and welfare.

Booking: register here and we will respond to you as quickly as possible.
We will ask you how you would like to pay, and raise an invoice for you by which you can pay.
Upon receipt of payment we will send you your Learner Handbook and ask that you sign and return the declaration at the back.
A couple of days before your course starts, we will send you details, directions and so on, for your seminar and then you’ll be good to go!

Why do this course?

An understanding of animal welfare is at the core of what we do, and at the heart of every interaction. But, unfortunately, an understanding of animal welfare is poor across professionals and pet owners alike.
This is often down to a poor understanding of the approaches taken to studying and measuring welfare, and an even poorer understanding of the behavioural needs of animals, particularly companion animals.

This course aims to  help you with all that!

We will look at how you feel about animal welfare related topics, how to develop a good understanding based on reliable data and animal welfare science. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be scared of science – this thought provoking course will keep you busy that you won’t even realise we are applying science approaches to animal welfare!

What will you learn?

This course comprises seven parts:

Part 1: Critical Evaluation
Part 2: What is Animal Welfare?
Part 3: Animal Welfare Science
Part 4: Animal Welfare Ethics
Part 5: Animal Welfare Legislation
Part 6: Assessing Animal Welfare
Part 7: Improving Animal Welfare

Part 1 Critical Evaluation:

It’s truly wonderful that we live in an age where reliable information (and lots of not-so-reliable information) about animals is available at the touch of a button.
But, with so much information bombarding us, it can be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Critical evaluation skills are essential in the information age, and especially when we are looking at such emotive topics.

It helps us directly with our studies of animal welfare, given the very definition and our approach to studying welfare; looking at the animals’ quality of life, from its point of view. Learning to look beyond our personal opinions, beyond our considerations to the bigger picture, to the wider implications.

Part 2 What is animal welfare?

Animal welfare is define and described in literature, and learning to apply this to real life is challenging. We will look at these definitions, how they apply, and how we approach our studies.

Part 3 Animal Welfare Science

This approach to studying animal welfare allows us to measure the effects of what we do to animals, and learn to evaluate how they feel about that.

We look at what animal welfare scientists do and why we need a science of animal welfare.

Part 4 Animal Welfare Ethics

While science measures animal welfare, ethics poses questions about what we do with that information.
Is it ok if animals experience poor standards of welfare? These are individual, cultural, and often biased topics, making it less clear and more difficult – thought provoking and challenging is only the half of it! You will be helped to unravel these puzzles for yourself.

Part 5 Animal Welfare Legislation

We will look at the acts of legislation protecting animals and the organisations charged with safe-guarding animal welfare, and their practices and efficacy.

Part 6 Assessing Animal Welfare

Learn to develop animal centered outcomes so that you can evaluate animal welfare from many different angles, providing you with a full picture.

Part 7 Improving Animal Welfare

Assessing an animal’s welfare is only the beginning…we will look at developing skills that allow you to assess and improve an animal’s conditions, measuring the effects as we go.

Assessment

All assessment work is optional, unless you are completing a Specialisation.
But don’t worry, there are no tests or exams! All assessment will be conducted over a number of months, and as part of your course materials, you are provided with a study planner to help you organise your studies.
Even if you don’t plan to submit, you are encouraged to complete assessment work.

For this course, there are a number of assesssment pieces:

• Q&A workbook relating to coursework, lots of which we will work on during the seminar weekend
• a log documenting your journey to critical understanding of topics that you find particularly interesting
• practical health and welfare demonstrations
• constructing a welfare audit for specific animals

You have four months of complete this assessment work.

Register here.

Yes, there’s been a bit of a gap but there’s just so much good stuff out there that we have more for you…

Petting your cat, a bit like a minefield? This guide may help you understand feline behaviour a little better!

It’s never easy, but how do you know? How to say goodbye

Smoking has an effect on our pet’s health, with increased risks associated with various cancers: Are dogs who live with smokers more likely to get cancer?

Some pretty nifty training here to make your dog into man’s best friend, truly:

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Really nice introduction to Crate Training – such an important skill for your dog to have, training that will pay back dividends!

Summer and autumn are the perfect times to get out there walking with your dog – check out some safety guidelines from Ordinance Survey Ireland.

Lots of ideas for homemade dog toys here and here!

Have fun with flirt poles:

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Labeling breed characteristics in mixed breeds dogs is tricky and best left out – it’s a complex business: My dog is quarter wolf

There’s still plenty of summer sunshine owed to us so being aware of some of the basic care principles needed for pets in warm weather is important:

• Heatstroke in dogs
• Pet sun protection

Perfect for a lazy long weekend…

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Another week of admin as we prepare for CBTT7 and get our warehouse space sorted so we can have a new training area – we can’t wait to get back to teaching classes!

Awesome Pets & their People

Tia came for some behaviour work during the week to help with some reactive behaviour.

Along with her owner, we are developing a program of management, relaxation, gradually increasing the level of stimulation and counterconditioning to specific triggering stimuli, including the latest Vodafone ad (the one with the pig), which Tia is not a big fan of at all!

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Opie came for a recall training session too and we practiced lots of our basic recall games to get started on the road to an awesome recall!

We also practiced a new tug routine so that we are establishing rules with our games, to help Opie learn some better self control, even when excited which is especially hard for a teenager!

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Opie just wants to get back to training, when, during our session the grown-ups have a chat…

And cutie pie Nidge came for a recall session too.

We start our recall games off with conditioning a new cue that will always mean, to the dog, that something AMAZING is about to happen. Pairing the new word with a high value treat, in the right order, is the best start.

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The AniEd dogs are as helpful as usual as we get everything ready for new learners…

Because we know you can’t enough, here’s an extra bonus training game for you and your dog to enjoy!

Where’s my keys?

Transfer some of your dog’s new-found sniffing-genius to a really useful task by teaching him to hunt down often-missing items such as your keys.

Time Allowance:
Practice for 1 minute sessions at a time with plenty of down-time in between.
It’s best to try to work practice into your routine, such as while you wait for the kettle to boil, while you wait for the computer to start up or during the ad break of a TV show.

Family Participation:
Kids are often great dog trainers. Teach each child how to lure safely.
If your dog is mouthy,  jumpy or likely to get over-excited it might be best for you to get the behaviours established and then bring in the kids to help with practice.
Always supervise child-dog interactions and make sure children learn to leave the dog alone when eating his rewards.

Get started…

Work on scent puzzles that encourage your dog to sniff out a hidden treat, like this simple game:

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 With a bit of practice…

Introduce cups or tubs – your dog is learning how to indicate that he smells something interesting:

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 And soon…

Playing the Cup Game with your keys helps to teach your dog the relevance of their smell.

Reward your dog at source for this one – that means to reward with several food rewards, delivered one after another right at your keys.

(Note in the clip I toss food to move Decker away so I can reset – I’m working with one hand and holding the camera with the other!)

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Show us how you get on with this challenge!