Tuition is $3000. The course can be completed in as little as 6 weeks. Students will have up to year to complete it. Payment agreements must be kept current in order to continue in the course. Financing is available.
There is a prerequisite to this course. Students must first take the Behavior/Obedience course, either online on in-person at the College.
The course covers most every aspect of service dog training except for seeing-eye. It includes diabetic alerts, therapy dog training, seizure assistance and alerts, mobility assistance, autism assistance, PTSD assistance, hearing alerts, and more.
There will be handouts for you to download, videos to view, and notes to be taken while watching the videos. Some videos may not have accompanying handouts; it is therefore your responsibility to take notes of the information therein. There is a Final Exam at the end of the course so these handouts and notes will be extremely valuable for review. Another option is to attend here at the College with other classmates/Instructors and take your Final Exam on-site here at the training center: 717 Beaver Hollow Rd, Spencer, IN 47460.
To facilitate hands-on training, online students are invited to visit us here at the College. This is NOT required but certainly encouraged. Be advised that there are prerequisites for your visit. The visit is designed to be towards the end of the course. Therefore, at the time of your visit, you and your dog will need to be on cold trails and be nearly finished with task training. Your visit will help to expand the skills of both you and your dog. If you are not far enough along in by one of the available dates, you must wait until the next available date.
Course requirements for graduation: complete all course material and homework assignments, Final Exam, send videos to your instructor of you and your dog/s completing SD skills (what we call the Practicals), or visit on-site to take your Final and Practicals. The final grade will be determined by these Practicals videos as well as the Final Exam. As with all of our other courses, students must at least acquire a final grade of 80% to graduate. Graduates are certified as a Service Dog Trainer.
The two video requirements are: #1) a tracking/trailing dog trained/handled by you on cold trails at least 10 minutes old and 1/4 mile long, #2) task training.
Course Outline:
Introduction to Service Dogs
Selection of Service Dogs
Puppy
Adult
Service Dog Equipment
Working with Disabled Handlers
Application Process
Delivering the Service Dog
Handler & Family Training
The Trailing Dog
Scent Theory
Variable Surface Trailing
Scent Discrimination Trailing
Problem Solving
Americans with Disabilities Act
Public Access
Interrogations
Travel
Service Dogs
Puppy Program
Signal Dogs
Mobility Dogs
Autism Assistance
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder assistance
Traumatic Brain Injury assistance
Military Sexual Trauma assistance
Seizure alert and assistance
Therapy Dogs
Service Dog Etiquette
Environmental Stability
Puppy Conditioning
Public Settings
Schools and Workplace
