Mentorships
Canine Behavior & Dog Training Internships
We’re hiring fully paid interns starting June 1st at the Canine Academy of Berwick. We’re also looking to make permanent hires for potential new locations.
Tuition
Summer Session
Join Us Now!
Introductory Dog Training Internship
An open mind, and a will to learn! Must pass a back round check, and drug test.
Who can Apply: Ages 16+, Driver’s License Required.
About The Internship
We have a strict application process.
We’ll help you pass the accreditation to become a Certified Dog Trainer through the IAABC or CPDT. You can become a Dog Trainer, and work for yourself, consulting with clients on your schedule. However, we expect our interns to work just as hard as we do. We take excellent care of our client pets, and our facility is video monitored with full transparency to the client 24/7.
Do you breathe dogs?
Do you just LOVE the idea of starting your own business?
Does training dogs all day sound like the dream job?
Are you un-phased in stimulating situations, and able to “keep your head”?
Does the thought of leaving your current job to do something that makes your heart sing just EXCITE you?
Did you know we need more excellent dog trainers, utilizing science-based methods, “people people”, and upbeat/friendly attitudes?
Not made for Entrepreneurship? No problem!
Through our internship, we are hoping to find the perfect fit (or two!) for a full time dog training instructor at the Canine Academy of Berwick.
This position is an exciting career path, and salary starts at $50,000 per year, with PTO, sick days, and Full Benefits.
This internship will qualify you for dog training in general circumstances (puppy training, manners, concerns around excitability). Following this internship, we’ll be hosting a canine behavior internship. This is where the fun begins in handling behavior cases. Pre-requisite for the Canine Behavior Internship is a Dog Training Certification, which we will help you achieve at the end of the first internship.
Dog Training Mentorship Syllabus
June – August 2023
Classroom Schedule: Mondays and Fridays from 10am-1pm. Please bring a note-taking supplies, a laptop, and an eagerness to learn in class. Cell phones are prohibited during class hours.
Week One
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Introduction to the Canine Academy & Behavior Science
- Introductions/Getting to know each other
- Syllabus review & goals for this course
- Work culture at the Canine Academy & professional expectations
- What is a marker in training?
- Quadrants of operant conditioning
- LIMA
- No marker signals
- Training tools, equipment, use, function
- Management & barriers of protection
Week Two
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Behavior Science Continued & Canine Specific Information
- Training techniques: Luring, cueing, shaping, & capturing
- Operant Conditioning vs Classical Conditioning
- Canine needs
- Breed groups
- Debunking alpha dominance theory
- Learned behaviors
- Approaching dogs & consent testing
Week Three
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Body Language Part I
- Negotiation signals and cutoffs
- The language of play
- Review of “capturing”
- How to facilitate group play
Week Four
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Canine Meditation
- Arousal states in dogs
- Canine meditation
- Review of behavior science concepts
Week Five
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Body Language Part II
- Predation and prey drive
- Conflict and escalating signals
- The ladder of aggression
- Stress, fear, and anxiety in dogs
Week Six
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Putting Behavior Science into Practice
- Environmental cues, importance of consistency
- Antecedent arrangements
- Behavior chains
- Sit to say please
- Waiting at gates
- How to teach an obedience cue
- Place cue
- How to teach recall
Week Seven
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Puppy Skills
- General puppy skills, common questions from owners
- Puppy socialization position statement
- Potty training
- Crate training
- Exercises to work on separation anxiety
- Exercises to reduce mouthiness
- How to work on home entry (excited)
Week Eight
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Leash Walking
- Leash skills
Week Nine
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Desensitization
- Counterconditioning
- Cooperative care principles
- Head halter desensitization
- Muzzle desensitization
- Protected Contact vs Free Contact
Week Ten
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Engage/Disengage
- How to desensitize to a trigger
- Defensive Handling
- How to work on home entry (reactive)
- Exercises to safely work on resource guarding
- Over threshold protocol
- Behavioral medications
- Quality of Life discussion
Week Eleven
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Shadow Week
- Shadow a trainer 1-on-1
Week Twelve – Thirteen
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How to Build a Behavior Plan
- Accurate history taking
- How to build a training plan
- Ethics of sales
- Health and the link to behavior
- The role of exercise in a training plan
- Strategies for communicating with owners
- How to present information to clients
Week FOURTEEN-FIFTEEN
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Case Study
- 2-Week Case Study “intern project”
Week SIXTEEN
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Exam Week
- Exam review session
- Presentation of individual case studies
- Written exam
- Credentialing
Schedule may change to suit the needs of the class
*Note: Full syllabus is available upon acceptance to the program.
Additional Details
- Compensation is $18-25 hourly starting, depending on experience level. We are open to 20-40 hours.Compensation is $18-25 hourly starting, depending on experience level. We are open to 20-40 hours.
- With the internship, you are offered a position in our course (100% tuition covered) to learn to become a dog trainer.
- Starts June 1st and runs until August 15th. This course is Tuesday to Thursday weekly 1000-1200pm.
- Thursday classes will be open training where you are coming in to work with a client’s dog.
- There are TEN spaces still available.
- TUITION: $1250, if you are not employed with us.
- Tuition is 100% covered for those who work a minimum 20 hours per week (including 4 weekend or evening hours) for the Canine Academy or our dog walking company. Pay differential offered for weekend shifts.
- Science Based Behavior Consulting.
- We are focused less of sit-stay-down, and more on counseling families and overarching behavior concepts.
You’ll Learn
Learning Theory
Basic Obedience Skills
Dog Playgroup Skill Management
We’ll finish the internship by assigning you a mentor project, where you’ll be training an actual client’s dog over 2-4 weeks.
Please Apply If
- You “love dogs” but are also equally willing to change and learn about how your behavior needs to change to work with them.
- You love learning about science, and the reason why things happen.
- You love working with people just as much as you do dogs! In fact, you’d consider yourself a “people person”.
- You know how to set clear boundaries for yourself. You feel you communicate well in almost any situation.
- -You currently work at a dog daycare, and you feel you’d love to learn about how better to manage interactions between dogs.
Whom we are looking For!
- Ideal candidate is patient with people and empathetic.
- Ideal candidate is reliable and loves to drive. We compensate mileage to client’s homes at IRS reimbursement rate ($0.625)
- Willing to complete dog walking visits as needed.
- Ideal candidate is willing and open to learning new ideas.
- Interested in pursuing dog training certification through CPDT or IAABC if hired. This involves a test, and studying test prep materials. (We are willing to write recommendations for those who complete their commitment to 100% completion and those who complete the final exam, practical and written)
- Willing to photograph clients pups with 100% effort.
- Capable of learning new handling skills, is willing to learn, and not set in ways. This field is different from teching or other pet care fields in a few ways, behaviorally.
- This course is an introduction and will not qualify you for complex behavior cases. This course is focused on neurotypical behavior and the basics of classical/operant conditioning.
- Completion will qualify you for our behavior internship where you will complete complex behavior cases, both supervised then on your own.
- We support entrepreneurs. If you are interested in starting your own business, we offer small business internships as well. We will support you, as long as you enter our business with integrity and a solid moral code. Skills can be taught, readily. We don’t support overestimating your skill set too early however, as it can be a dangerous field working with upper level behavior cases.
DO NOT APPLY if!
- You hate driving – Often, our clients are at varying locations within 45 miles of our facility (Mileage – Compensated).
- An unexpected stressful situation will stress you out! Dogs are certainly full of unpredictability and a stressful situation will need a level-headed person to figure out the best solution.
- You feel you cannot actively engage with people or you have extreme anxiety over minor situations. We understand anxiety happens, but if you like your work extra-predictable, this internship and the field is likely not for you.
- You are not stable emotionally, and feel an animal should pick up emotional labor for you. Our job is to help dogs with what they are feeling- not dump our emotions, wants, needs, and feelings onto them. We have to have patience to change their problem behaviors!
- You cannot lift up to 50 lbs, or a dog jumping on you is going to stress you out!
- You are not interested in maintaining a commitment to the Pet Care Extraordinaire position** or sending in tuition for the internship.
- You’re unable to take direction. You must be willing to admit what you don’t know or understand yet, and be willing to take direction.
- You’re unlikely to show up at specified times. Your commitment is required if you are accepted into the internship program.
Please provide!
- Your Resumé (via email) – [email protected] SUBJECT: Training Internship ATTN: KARA
- Indicate if you’d like to work for a scholarship to the program