THE CANINE INSTRUCTOR ACADEMY

What is The Canine Instructor Academy?

The Canine Instructor Academy is a training facility for those who wish to become a dog behavioural trainer, someone skilled in teaching owners to teach dogs. The courses cover both basic pet training and complex behavioural issues.

What’s The Purpose?

Year on year, the behaviour of pet dogs gets worse rather than better. The average age of a dog going into rescue is apparently now only eight months old - they're still practically puppies at the point when their owners give up on them! And yet there has never been more information on how to educate dogs. There have never been more trainers and behaviourists offering their services on how to prevent problems or alleviate existing ones. So what is going wrong?

I set up the Canine Instructor Academy to address what I see as the biggest problem in dog training and behaviour - dog trainers and behaviourists. There are so many courses out there now suggesting that they will make you an effective educator, but they are often set up and run by people who don't themselves train dogs, some of whom have actually never been dog trainers or behaviourists themselves! And eager students may pay thousands of pounds believing the course will teach them how to train owners to train dogs effectively.

Science has taught us so much about dogs, but I see so many courses that are in my opinion far too science-based, teaching students training that may absolutely work in a scientific setting, but when you try to get an owner to follow that technique in a real-life situation, it is so labour-intensive and/or impractical that the owner is unable to follow through with it, and so heart-broken as they are to do so, they finally give up and put the dog in rescue - or worse.

Make no mistake, reward-based training is the most effective way to teach dogs. Rewarding them appropriately will increase the likelihood of a desired behaviour being repeated. But there is currently a concept in dog training that says that although every species on the planet learns consequences to making the wrong choice which help it to make better ones, the one exception to that rule should be this predatory animal that we bring into our home, many of whom are physically capable of killing us. It suggests that dogs should have no negative consequences, that we should ignore bad behaviour, and reward good behaviour, and all of those bad behaviours will just fade away. Well wouldn't that be lovely? But sadly, this theory is fundamentally flawed because it assumes that the owner will always have a reward greater than one that the dog can get for itself without complying with the owner. As soon as that is the case, the 'training' fails.

Dogs are too clever for that. So, what many of them learn is that it pays to misbehave. If they jump up, they are offered food to get them to sit instead, so they learn that jumping up gets them food. If they refuse to recall, they get offered food, and if they still refuse, the food gets better. So of course they refuse. And on and on it goes. The Canine Instructor Academy ethos focusses primarily on rewarding good behaviour, and paying dogs well for working hard. But for those times when rewards are readily available but the dog rejects them in favour of doing what it wants, the courses will also cover creating non-physical, non-abusive ways to create boundaries for dogs, things that will teach him or her that they really HAVE to do as you have asked. We've stopped teaching our children this, and we can all see how well that's working out.

The CourseS

Each course runs from Monday morning to Friday afternoon, and are held at an amazing training facility in Suffolk, some of you will recognise the site from the hugely successful television programme Dog Borstal. Each day there will be lectures from both Robert Alleyne, and from other vastly knowledgeable expert speakers. There will also be demonstrations, and daily opportunities to train exercises with real pet owners and their dogs under the guidance and supervision of Robert and his staff. Accommodation is available on-site, and breakfast, lunch and refreshments are also provided. Evening meals can be obtained at nearby village pubs and restaurants.

Camping is also available on-site, though there are local campsites and B&B's for people who may wish to stay off-site. The number of students on each course will be limited. Further information about the course and dates are published on the website.

Which course?

I don’t believe that you can be a good dog trainer without understanding dog behaviour. I also don’t believe that you can be a good behavioural trainer without understanding how to practically train dogs. Apart from when working with young puppies, an owner contacting you is likely to have a dog that has a combination of training and behavioural issues, so it is important to know how to address both.

So I have created two courses that are intended to resolve both behaviour and training issues in ways not covered on any other course that I am aware of, enabling students to begin to help owners of dogs with both training and behavioural issues at a professional level.

The Practical training course

This course is designed primarily to teach attendees the training exercises that owners most often have problems with, and the ones that owners starting from scratch with a new puppy are most likely to need - walking without pulling on the lead, don’t jump up, to leave something when told, how to accept being handled for examination, to stay when and where told, to come when called, and how to play appropriately.

We will also cover other issues that attendees should know, even if they are not covered in a class situation, such as diet and socialisation and how to use social media effectively to promote your business. On the last two days of the course, attendees will have the opportunity to actually work with real owners and their dogs. So this course often particularly appeals to people who want to run classes or do one-one basic training sessions. Attendees will receive a certificate of achievement on completion of the course. 

UNDERSTANDING Behaviour course

This course is intended to teach attendees how to help owners with dogs with unacceptable and/or inappropriate behaviours that they may be struggling with.

Attendees will be shown how to help owners with dogs who are showing aggression, separation anxieties, destructiveness, inappropriate toileting, barking and noise issues, among others.

There will also be a live behaviour consultation, where attendees will get to observe how I train a real client and their dog that has behavioural problems.

There will be a number of speakers who will talk on a variety of subjects including the law, working with owners, setting up and promoting your dog business, working foreign rescue dogs, and nutrition. Attendees will be awarded with a diploma at the end of the course.