Advanced Animal Training

This course is unfortunately closed. Opens again for admission in April 2024.

Ready to take your animal training to the next level? Here’s how!

• Do you have a full-blown or at least a semi-developed nerdy interest in animal behaviour, learning and training?
• Do you feel like you’ve mastered the basics of animal training, and it’s time to move on?
• Have you heard of terms like  “start buttons behaviours”, “do as I do”, “concept training”, and “loopy training” – but don’t quite know what they’re about?
• Are you curious about how latent inhibition, blocking, overshadowing, learned irrelevance, keep-going signals, non-reward markers, end-of-session signals, stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination will impact your animal’s learning and the outcome of your training?
• Are you committed to using ethical, gentle and fun ways to get enthusiastic and willing learners?

Keep reading – this is for you!

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There are many introductory animal training courses out there, and if you’ve attended some of those, you’ve likely learned about positive reinforcement.

Clicker training, perhaps.

At some point after that initial exposure to animal training, many people get bitten by the training bug. You too, maybe?

Training opened up a new dimension of communication with your animal, and you became obsessed with learning more. 

And at some point you plateaued and became frustrated, because let’s face it, most of the available courses are introductory.

“here’s how to walk your dog on a leash”. 

“here’s how to start clicker training your horse”. 

“here’s how to teach your parrot to step up”. 

Sigh. Where’s the challenge?

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I can relate.

I made that journey, too.

I had a pressing need to learn more on this topic – I still do. In the last 20 or so years, I’ve attended more than 60 international animal training courses, conferences and seminars, learning from some of the best contemporary animal trainers in the world.

And I created the Advanced Animal Training course so that you don’t have to.

I distilled all that nerdy, sciency stuff related to animal training into one online course.

I’m a proponent of training based on positive reinforcement, creating joyful interactions, harmonious relationships and empowered learners.

Advanced Animal Training fills your toolbox to help you understand the intricacies of behaviour even better, and is all about encouraging, communicating and motivating the animal to exhibit desired behaviour.

Advanced Animal Training is not a problem solving course and doesn’t discuss how to prevent and address undesired behaviour in any great detail (I cover that topic in another course, that’s why!).

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How will the advanced Animal training course change your life- and that of your animal?

• You’ll become more confident as a trainer.
• You’ll be able to watch another trainer and analyze what they’re doing in nerdy detail.
• You’ll rethink how you interact with your spouse and children. And everyone else. You’ll find yourself watching how other people interact with each other, and nodding to yourself in recognition.
• You’ll find a tribe of equally obsessive – and helpful – training geeks in our online community.

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Who is this course for?

This course is for you if:

• you have a passionate interest in animal behaviour, learning and training. 
• you are ready to take your training to the next level.

What I’m getting at is that this course is not for beginner trainers. You don’t have to have that much practical experience, but you should have a working knowledge of basic theoretical concepts related to operant learning and classical conditioning. If you feel like maybe you’re not there yet, you may want to check out this foundational course instead!

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How is this online course delivered?

• Once you sign up, you’ll get immediate access to the introductory review module. The other main 9 modules will become accessible with weekly intervals once course enrollment closes – so full course access to all the material happens after 9 weeks.
• This course makes the most out of the online format by using micro-learning: the content videos are short and actionable (most are 5-15 minutes long).
• The course modules are prerecorded and you can watch the videos anytime.
• There are 10 modules ( ̴ 130 videos) in the course, and they have a running time of about 17 hours in total; there’s also numerous carefully selected links and written resources that tend to lead students down different rabbit holes. Many students return again and again to the videos, links and discussions, revisiting the material, so estimating “how long the course takes to finish” is difficult.
• All videos are subtitled in English – this makes it easier for the many non-native English speakers among the students.
• There are some voluntary practical exercises (each module contains a practical challenge) and thought-provoking questions.
• There are voluntary self-assessment quizzes for each of the main modules (only compulsory if you require CEUs, see below!).
• Many students will take an active part in this course and help shape it! This peer-to-peer learning in the comments’ section is one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of this course!
• There are written summaries and audio files that you can download and keep.
• You have access to the course for an entire year after purchase.
• You’ll be invited to a secret Facebook Group, where you can connect, share and discuss with other animal lovers – with continued lifetime access!
• If you have use of Continued Educational Units, the IAABC and the PPAB give 17 CEUs for this course. Let me know if you need any other organization’s CEUs!
• After you finish, you get a certificate of completion and a banner that you can proudly display on your website.

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Course details

This course builds on my course Getting Behaviour – the foundations of animal training, although it’s not a prerequisite to have attended it.

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Bonuses!

I’m super excited about the bonus material for this course: I managed to secure short interviews with nine world-leading animal trainers on a specific topic, one for each module:

• Module 1 – Bob Bailey (know your animal)
• Module 2 – Jenifer Zeligs (intermediate bridges) 
• Module 3 – Chirag Patel (the bucket game)
• Module 4 – Judy Luther (trust-centered training)
• Module 5 – Jesus Rosalez-Ruiz (poisoned cues)
• Module 6 – Ken Ramirez (the modern principles of shaping)
• Module 7 – Kathy Sdao (the Premack principle)
• Module 8 – Susan Friedman (the cultural fog)
• Module 9 – Eva Bertilsson (who-does-what-when, and flow charts)

When you become a student, you’ll be getting weekly emails while the course is being delivered. I’ll also keep you posted on my other free webinars, masterclasses, silly experiments, online courses and blog posts!

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Frequently Asked Questions

• “How do I get the most out of the course?”

By engaging in discussions and in the practical challenges. Even though the course is delivered over 9 weeks, you have a full year to finish it – there’s no rush! Some of my previous students consider this course almost like an encyclopedia – and they return to some of the different topics several times. Indeed, some of my students have bought this course up to five times, in order to get access to the new iteration even after the old course expires!

• “Is it worth it?”

If you’ve been bitten by the training bug, this course should keep you satisfied (and away from expensive international conferences) for years to come.

• “Is there a scholarship program?”

Yes, there was, but unfortunately it is now closed for the 2023 AAT course.

• “Will it work for me?”

This is an Advanced Course. If you’re a beginner, probably not. If you’re a nerd, it’s a smorgasbord. Something for everyone!

Don’t gorge.

Pick one topic. Digest. Come back for more.

• “But I’m interested in dogs/horses/cats/parrots – wouldn’t I be better off taking a dog/horse/cat/parrot training course?”

This may sound counter intuitive, but you’ll actually become a better dog trainer (or horse/cat/parrot trainer) by learning more about how to address and solve the challenges involved in training other animal species. This requires flexibility, which is one of the most important qualities in a great trainer.

• “Hmmmmm… I notice there’s a whole module about Negative Reinforcement in this course. I’m committed to Positive Reinforcement and am concerned about the inclusion of this topic in a course that claims to use ‘ethical, gentle and fun ways to teach animals’?”

I totally understand where you’re coming from, believe me – and we’re in full agreement! Just to be clear: the animal’s joy, empowerment and quality of life is my top priority, and a harmonious human-animal relationship is tremendously important. But despite our best intentions, unwitting R- mechanisms might be at play – and we should learn to recognize them.

I do not teach R- to beginner trainers, but in a course claiming to teach Advanced Animal Training, it’s an important topic and I would even consider it negligent of me to omit it. So yes, this is a controversial and potentially uncomfortable module, but previous students still thought it was interesting. Here’s what some of them said:

• Alison: This is so complex and fascinating. I have listened to this about 3 times and then I had to sit and write notes in order to assimilate it… still mulling it over. Brilliant! (Chapter 2)
• Kristin: This is one of my favorite chapters so far. I learned a bunch! It’s on my “will return to many times” list (chapter 6)
• Susan: Just when I think I only use positive reinforcement, and only help my dog succeed with enthusiasm, you show us a subtlety that we are missing. Thank you!
• Cynthia: I absolutely love this module for many reasons. One reason is that no matter how much we want to use R+ only, we are going to use R- whether we realize it or not. But the best part of the lectures, or one of the many best parts (!), is information on how to use it in the least intrusive way possible. Also, the idea of transitioning R- trainers AND their animals to R+. Also I’m much more aware now of watching for inadvertent R-. Thanks SO much for this very informative and very important module.
• Anna: I anticipated being bored in this module. I was like, “I’m not interested in intentionally using methods that could be considered aversive by my animals and I know the definition of Negative Reinforcement”. I was so sure about that. But, I actually have to say this was my favorite module.

• “What if I change my mind?”

If you sign up and later feel that this course is not for you, there’s a 30-day refund policy. You’ll get your money back – guaranteed! This means that you can actually get free access to more than half the course content, since 6 modules are released by day 30.

• “Wow, sounds great, but I don’t have time for this right now. When is the next opportunity to join?”

The 2023 version of the course is closed, and the next opportunity to join the Advanced Animal Training course will be in April of 2024.

The cost of this transformational Advanced Animal Training Course is US$ 447:- plus local taxes.

Perhaps I’ll *see* you in 2024? Meanwhile, if you want to get notified about other courses – and when this one is about to re-open, sign up below and I’ll keep you posted. I’ll also let you know about blog posts, webinars and other things I might be up to – all related to animal behaviour, learning and quality of life.

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