Overseas Dog Behaviour Courses

[Simply Grand]

Following some unexpected and very generous Xmas money from my dad I find myself in a position to be able to do a dog behaviour/training course, yay! :D

I've been looking into what course I want to do for a while (thinking it would be a long time before I could actually afford to do one). I feel like Delta and NDTF aren't really what I'm looking for, not that I know a huge amount about either but have read on here and have colleagues who have either done or are doing each of them. My concern is that they may not be quite in-depth enough for me to get what I really want out of them - I did undergrad psychology at uni which teaches you all about conditioning, association, reinforcement/punishment etc and am already working full time in the field with the guidance of an experienced behaviour trainer and am about to start teaching puppy classes.

I'm more interested in learning more about the science and psychology of dog behaviour, learning and interaction than how to train them per se (although obviously they are closely related).

So I'm looking at these two overseas distance education options -

CASI in Canada

http://www.casinstitute.com/dip.abst.html

BCCS in the UK

http://www.britishcollegeofcaninestudies.com/Dog%20Behaviour.html

I'm leaning towards the CASI one as it appears a bit more in depth and professional and has some interesting extra electives.

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about BCCS though, and thoughts on either?

Thank you!

[DobieMum]

I'm doing the BCCS one now, I'm up to unit 3 and while this unit hasn't given me a lot of reading to do, the questions they're asking me to answer are going to take a bit of research. It's been good so far, I'm doing the Practitioner one, even though I won't be able to do the practical bit.

[Simply Grand]

Oh cool, thanks DobieMum. Are you finding it interesting? Have you had anythin assessed yet? If so do they seem fair and do they get things back to you in a reasonable time so you know if you're on the right track or not?

Edited January 18, 2014 by Simply Grand

[Podengo]

I'm planning on doing one that looks very similar to the CASI one this year, but through a UK place. Have heard great things about it from colleagues.

[Simply Grand]

Do you have the name of the place DD? I think I did come across another UK place in my seatching but I wasn't sure it did distance ed.

[DobieMum]

Oh cool, thanks DobieMum. Are you finding it interesting? Have you had anythin assessed yet? If so do they seem fair and do they get things back to you in a reasonable time so you know if you're on the right track or not?

Interesting yes, I'm liking it as I am allowed to write it in my own words (have done Uni before and don't have to use Uni language). I've had the first 2 units assessed and both times I've had it emailed back to me in 4 1/2 days (ie. the last one I sent off late Sunday night, acknowledged they had it, Monday afternoon and back to me Friday night). I've passed all questions so far. With some comments on some questions both good and bad. The last one, they said they would like to see some more research, so we'll see what happens as time goes on.

Through their website, they advertise businesses of people who's already done their courses. I contacted a girl in Melbourne and asked her a whole heap of questions and felt a lot better about it after that.

I'm doing it that I have payed by instalments.

[Simply Grand]

Wow, that's a great timeframe for results, and sounds like they give you a reasonable amount of feedback. Good news about the language, uni language can be a PITA.

Thanks so much for the info :)