By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Think scientifically about animal training and behavior consulting for all species.
- Break training into component principles.
- Analyze environmental events that maintain behavior.
- Recognize how labels such as “aggressive” or “submissive” cloud your thinking and work.
- Establish accurate descriptions of animals who are said to be “confident,” “creative,” “a problem solver,” and how you should approach those learners.
- Understand the common principles at play in different animals & species.
- Directly assess behavior and train more humanely and effectively by cutting through the jargon.
Duration: 4 weeks
Instructor: JoAnna Platzer, B.Sc. & Dr. Erica Feuerbacher
This four-week course will begin on the specified start date. The first three weeks will explore the scope of the course. There will be no new content in the fourth week which is reserved for completing final projects, discussion and synthesizing the course content.
Students will have access to the course for 1 year from the date of their most recent IAABC Foundation purchase.
Online Lectures: Each week there will be several short videos (10-20 minutes each; typically 60-90 minutes total per week) that will discuss the topics for that week.
Online Readings with Reading Guides: Each week you will have a scientific reading with a guide to help you navigate the reading. The paper will exemplify the principles being discussed that week.
Online Assignments: During Weeks 1-3, you will have 1-2 short online assignments each week. Some of these will entail you giving an example and then giving feedback on examples provided by a few of your fellow students.
Online Posts: During Weeks 2-4 you will post two questions, comments or reflections relevant to the material from the previous week to the discussion forum. You will also respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts from that week (= a total of four posts per week). Your questions and responses will be graded based on their thoughtfulness and completeness.
Final Project: During Week 4, you will complete a final project/paper in which you will synthesize the topics covered to cohesively analyze and scientifically critique publicly available training videos and handouts.1
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