Reading dog body language and communicating effectively with our own behavior are practiced skills that we need to mindfully develop over time. In this course you'll analyze videos of dogs and handlers having conversations. The handler needs to understand what the dog is telling them and also communicate their intentions to the dog. The goal is always for the human and the dog to be in agreement that "I'm into you!" Through this course, you'll recognize behaviors that suggest the dog is unsure, and consider how to de-escalate the conversation to "I'm into you!"

Course author: Devan Amundsen, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog trainer with over 15 years of experience working with not just dog owners, but dogs in shelters, assistance dogs and other working dogs

Nota: Este curso también está disponible en español.

The adoption process is the final step in finding new homes for shelter pets. It begins with getting to know the pet, writing a narrative and posting photos/video, continues to making a match with a potential adopter, and ends with sending the pet home with an adopter and providing support.

This course provides guidance for navigating the adoption process, with an emphasis on adoption counseling. The course demonstrates the general adoption counseling process and then dives into adoption counseling for pets with behavior or medical conditions. Text content is supported by videos, infographics and exercises. All videos are shareable and all infographics are available for download so you can use them in training. 

This course is eligible for 2.0 hours of credit from the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement (AAWA) and the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). 

This course will teach you everything you need to know in order to place 50% or more of shelter pets into foster homes. You will learn to utilize the seven guiding principles of foster programs to set your organization up for foster success; create a year-round, comprehensive foster recruitment plan that extends the invitation to foster to all members of your community; create a community culture of fostering to make foster the standard of care; create a process for marketing and adopting pets from foster care; and utilize staff and volunteers to assist with management of foster care. 

Note: This course was previously titled A New Model for Shelter Care: Replacing Kennels with Foster Homes.

Human Animal Support Services, HASS

Some dogs arrive at the shelter struggling to cope with fear, anxiety and stress, and may not be ready to accept handling or leave their kennel for a walk. These dogs may benefit from Social Time: low-pressure, positive interactions that build trust from outside the kennel. The positive association built through Social Time can then serve as the foundation for a trusting relationship that may eventually help the dog accept more handling, go out for walks and cope better with the shelter environment. Through a series of videos, this quick course presents three Social Time activities along with automated forms to help you collect behavioral information. 

This course was authored by Kristen Brown, CPDT-KA, VSA-CDT, Lifesaving Programs Specialist, Lynchburg Humane Society.

This course is the follow-up course to Fundamentals of Canine Communication and Safe Dog Handling. Please complete that course before taking this one. 

As in the first course, this course offers a series of short video examples to demonstrate behaviors and techniques in a real-world setting.

This course will explore some of the reasons why we might see some of the more challenging behaviors we experience working with dogs. Throughout this exploration, it's important to remember that behavior is neither "good" or "bad." Behavior is a response to the environment, but it is influenced by countless factors: genetics, health, injury, learning history, current environment...and the list just goes on!

We also want to keep in mind that our primary job when working with dogs is prevention. Our goal, especially during assessment, training or behavior modification, should not be to provoke potentially dangerous behavior. We want to recognize early warning signs and de-escalate whenever possible.

Course author: Devan Amundsen, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog trainer with over 15 years of experience working with not just dog owners, but dogs in shelters, assistance dogs and other working dogs

Resource guarding is a common canine behavior observed in shelters. It is a problem that can have negative outcomes for dogs because shelter dogs exhibiting human-directed aggression are at greater risk of euthanasia. Resource guarding is a natural behavior that occurs on a spectrum. It can be improved through a behavior plan, and some dogs never exhibit resource guarding again after  implementing that plan, but it is a behavior that is never completely cured.

This course addresses one form of resource guarding behavior – food bowl guarding. You will learn one resource guarding protocol that is effective at reducing mild to moderate levels of resource guarding behavior in a shelter. After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

• Set up safety management
• Implement a food bowl guarding behavior modification plan

Course author: Ferdie Yau (MA, CPDT-KA)

Many dogs display reactive behaviors while on leash. This course will help you work with leash reactive dogs by identifying and avoiding triggers, noticing threshold levels, using games to give your dog alternative behaviors to practice and providing alternate enrichment activities.