Fortnightly online dog training classes available to members

Clinicians - Our courses are suitable to count active PD hours for the majority of the hours, as the activities are clinical in nature and all require worksheet activities which are reviewed. 

Self-paced students - Your 1:1 tuition will be with either Amy or Sam, both are registered Psychologists and board-approved supervisors. Your tuition is clinical in nature, which means that you can count those 5 hours towards your supervision requirements for the year. 

 One of Australia's only Therapy Dog & Handler Courses supported by Animal Therapies Ltd. this course if run by professionals (Psychologists, OT, Teacher, Guidance Counsellor, Teacher, Counsellor, formally accredited dog trainers) with over 10 years of experience working, researching and teaching in this industry. 

Our course content is a living beast, constantly evolving with the current industry standards and guidelines as we keep our finger on the pulse with our involvement in the Animal Assisted Services Unit at the University of Queensland. 

Our primary presenters and content developers (Sam & Amy) both sit on the Animal Therapies Ltd QLD state committee, and have presented at various national conferences and events on the topic of animal therapies. Visit our Trainers page for more info. 

Let us share with you our knowledge and passion in this field. 

This Therapy Dog & Handler training course is designed to equip you and your dog with the skills required to work together in an animal-assisted therapy setting. It is our primary goal that your dog and your client/s are both safe and enjoy their experiences together. Therefore, this short course covers a wide range of topics from obedience, manners and canine body language to specific animal assisted intervention training. 

This course is suitable for:

--- Bachelor trained health professionals (or another relevant field) 

--- Bachelor trained & registered teachers 

This course is for people who have their own dog and are looking to become involved in the field of AAT. It is also for those practitioners out there who are already taking their dogs to work, but have not yet had any type of formal training or assessment of their dog. While we do not require your dog to have had prior training, they must already have a suitable temperament (friendly, confident, interested in meeting new people). 

This course is designed to provide  you with a range of dog-training skills and techniques to assist you and your dog to meet the criteria for graduation as a human-canine therapy team. The content of this course is specifically designed to meet the needs of clinicians who are working within the scope of their existing training in respect to their regular industry, meeting the requirements on their regulatory bodies (e.g. AHPRA, APS, Medicare, NDIS). Some of the theoretical course content includes:
​- Clinical case studies

- Intervention training

- Insurance requirements

- Funding options & restrictions

- Client & Canine ethical considerations

- Application of theoretical perspectives

- Review of available research

- Real World dog training 

- Canine body language and welfare

- Canine first aide

Throughout the  course we do a range of assessments and if you and your dog meet the criteria, you will graduate at either Learner or Level 1. 

A Therapy Dog bandana will be provided to graduating teams.

Graduates will also receive a certificate, all certificates have an expiry date upon which time you and your dog will need to be assessed as a team again. 

Therapy Dogs Australia works in conjunction with locum dog trainers all over Australia, this means that interstate teams are able to participate in our online learning and complete all of their assessments with video submissions and face to face with a dog trainer in their local area.  

Course Structure

Your online course runs like a short course with a combination of recorded lectures, live discussions, readings, and worksheet and video activities to submit throughout the 5 modules of your course.  

ALL learning activities need to be attended with meaningful participation, if you are unable to attend for any reason you will be required to book individual consulting time to catch up on learning outcomes.  

This course is scheduled to run over five Monday’s, commencing at 9am (AEST – Brisbane time) each Monday morning and concluding at 4:30pm AEST each day. 

Intensive courses run over 5 consecutive days (Monday to Friday). 

Self-paced course option available - there are additional costs for individual tuition times (5hrs required). Pay as you go option available, pay per module (5 modules). 

There are worksheet and training activities to complete each week as homework (approx. 1-2hrs of time commitment per course day). 

All assessments are to be submit within 3 months of the course commencement date. 

Participants are able to start their course immediately upon registration and full payment, via receiving access to our online library of dog training videos - and enrolment in our casual online dog training classes for just $20 per class (pay as you go). The group learning commences on your course start date and will take place over 5 weeks (to attend online classes one day per week and complete tasks between weekly classes). 

Cost *Payment plans are available - Including pay-as-you-go option for self-paced courses*
The 5 week course cost is $2200*incl. GST) plus the cost of team assessment ($300 for local teams, or $150 + cost of Locum dog trainer for interstate teams).

$825 additional fee required for self-paced course option, to cover individual tuition costs. You can share these costs with a friend if you schedule your tuition times together. 

(note: reassessments are to be completed every 12 months minimum). 

Location

This course takes place online (via Zoom).

Dog & handler assessments are completed face-to-face either with our team (North Brisbane), or with one of our approved locum trainers (we have trainers all over the country, but please contact us prior to registration if you are intending to use a locum trainer, we have a list of recommended trainers).