Canine Behaviour Consultant

The Canine Behaviour Consultant is an experienced Canine Behaviour Practitioner with many years behind them and is at a point in their career where they generally only consult on cases rather than working directly with the dog; as such the face to face practitioner-client skills are no longer key.

The Canine Behaviour Consultant will have worked extensively as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner prior to taking on a Consultant’s role. They will generally have at least one assistant / associate Canine Behaviour Practitioner working with them to carry out the remedial work with the dog.

The consultant’s role, however, may encompass areas beyond the consultation room, for example working with the government on various canine issues, giving lectures, providing consultatory advice or working within the education sector.

Minimum vocational training requirements	As a dog trainer	As a dog training instructor	As a professional trainer	As a canine practitioner	Dogs handled	Hours required
Theory / academic knowledge
Reading for interest	150			200		350
Watching videos	50			50		100
Coursework	250			500		750
Practical experience / courses attended
Courses attended	100	100	100	200		500
Individual dogs trained					150	150 (dogs)
Breeds handled – minimum					20	20 (breeds)
Behaviour modification consultations				200		200 (consultations)
Teaching
Adult dog classes			100			100
Puppy classes			50			50
On-to-one training sessions			100			100
Mentored learning
Observation of / attending training / classes	150					150
Observations of consultations				50		(50 consultations)
Instructed learning one-to-one	100					200
Teaching assistant: adult dog classes		50				50
Teaching assistant: puppy classes		100				100
Totals	900	250	350	950	150	2450

Overview of minimum skills and experience required

Overview of minimum skills and experience required:
The Canine Behaviour Consultant will have vast experience as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner and Professional Dog Trainer. As such the minimum skills and experience required apply.

The Work Based Learning Path to being a Canine Behaviour Consultant
The only path to becoming a competent Canine Behaviour Consultant is through vast experience as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner.

Ancillary Work Based Learning Skills
As well as having extensive experience as a Canine Behaviour Practitioner and Professional Dog Trainer, the candidate may also have a plethora of other dog training skills, attended many courses and achieved many awards on a personal basis with their own dogs.

They may have qualifications outside of the Dog Behaviour and Training arena that contribute to their competence, confidence and skill as a Canine Behaviour Consultant and, under the Work Based Learning ethos, these should be acknowledged and recognised as achievements to date within the profession.

The Work Based Learning Path to being a Puppy Behaviour Assessor
More often than not, we start training to be a Puppy Behaviour Assessor without actually realising we’re doing it. Through experience we learn the nuances of normal behaviour and by default can begin to spot any unusual or problematic behaviour.

With practical hands on experience one learns the development of certain behavioural traits and characteristics of an individual or breed of dogs as well as how those behavioural traits in puppies manifest and develop in the adult dog.

An alternative route is via Dog Training. Many clubs won’t allow a new trainer to take on the puppy class until they have shown competency at training, and teaching others to train, adult dogs.

Casual observation / formal observation
Owning and training own puppy
Dog Training

Ancillary Work Based Learning Skills
As well as being an established Puppy Trainer, the candidate may also have a plethora of other dog training skills, attended many courses and achieved many awards on a personal basis with their own dogs.

They may have qualifications outside of the puppy and dog training arena that contribute to their competence, confidence and skill as a Puppy Behaviour Assessor and, under the Work Based Learning ethos, these should be acknowledged and recognised as achievements to date within the profession.

Accomplishments and Qualifications

Theoretical

Cambridge Institute for Dog Behaviour & Training
Animal Care College
Guide dog training
National Association of Security Dog Users
Home Office police dog training
The British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers
Other courses are also available

Personal (Work Based) Achievements

KC Competition obedience

KC Beginner
KC Novice
KC A B C comp-C

KC Agility
KC Working Trials

UD/UDX
CD/CDX
WD/WDX

KC Field Trials
KC Bloodhound Trials
KC Herding Tests
Search & Rescue Cert
KC Accredited Instructor

The Kennel Club (KC) standards are some of the best in the world and to compete and win is an acknowledgement comparable with other high standards of training knowledge as in the horse world and international competitive events.

Reflective Learning

As a Dog Trainer, of any kind whether that’s club or professional, adult dogs or puppies, we are constantly evaluating what we are doing when we are doing it.

We start training an exercise and modify what we are doing depending upon the response we get from the dog we are training. Sometimes we change our position, the dog’s position, the motivating force (us, toy, food etc.,) or the equipment we use. As a dog trainer we just call that dog training, however, in the work based learning arena it’s called being a “reflective practitioner”.

It is imperative that Dog Trainers realise that they are reflecting back; not only with the dog they have in front of them but of past cases and dogs they’ve worked with. A Dog Trainer cannot progress without this aspect of experiential learning, it would be impossible as no two dogs are the same and no two will react in the same manner.

Although we do it automatically, the importance of reflection in learning at work and awareness of the process, needs to be acknowledged for an individual to be able to carry out any kind of self-accreditation via the work based learning scheme.

Technical and textbook knowledge, though important, is insufficient to prepare individuals to be practising professionals. Knowing how or “knowing-in-action” must also be recognised as important. Knowing-in-action is referred to tacit and intuitive, rather than explicit knowledge, learned through doing rather than in the classroom. It is the kind of knowledge that underpins much everyday activity, whether at work or not.

Knowing-in-action is vital for Dog Trainers, as, as we all know, ‘real’ world problems tend to be “messy” rather than well formed. Problems with dogs tend to come along in rapid succession depending upon our reaction rather than nicely organised “first solve this problem, then solve that” as is often written in dog training books. Also some problems may well be unique to that situation, in the sense that they do not fit theoretical categories and therefore do not lend themselves to the applications of rules from the profession’s theoretical knowledge base.

When something untoward does happen it is likely to reflect on what’s going on in the midst of the activity itself. It is a consequence of this process that is known as “reflection-in-action” i.e., thinking about what we’re doing while we’re doing it and changing the process as we go along.

To be able to put into practice these reflective skills, both during and after the action, is what makes you a truly reflective practitioner.
Donald Schon (1983, 1987)

Comparative Assessment elements:
In general an Animal Behaviour Degree will average 1800 hrs study time on wild animals and some domestic species. Dog specific theory is generally taught at less than 5% of the entire degree and rarely by a dog expert but by a teacher who has no practical experience. Animal behaviour degrees are not an expertise level in dog behaviour, training, theory or otherwise.

All vocational learning in canine work-based roles should be taught by highly skilled people with extensive hands-on experience. Degrees obtained, therefore, provide targeted theory learning in canine behaviour and training as well as extensive hands-on work to prepare the student for their chosen vocation.