Therapy & Facility Dog Training for Dog Trainers Course
Therapy & Facility Dog Training for Dog Trainers Course Details
Training dogs is what you do. The Association of Animal-Assisted Intervention Professionals (AAAIP) can help you shape them into trusted therapy and facility dog partners.
Discover the key knowledge behind therapy and facility dog work so you can design the right training programs and guide your clients with confidence. You’ll learn how therapy and facility roles differ from typical obedience work, and how to prepare handlers partnering with dogs in schools, healthcare, and other professional settings for success. Learn the unique challenges of therapy animal work and why it’s necessary to go beyond the lessons of a traditional obedience course.
Built for busy trainers, this fully online, self-paced course lets you learn on your own time. You’ll finish with tools that help you avoid common mistakes, support your clients the right way, and stand out as an expert in this fast-growing niche. Get an outline of a sample 6-week therapy animal training course with a list of skills, practice ideas, and coachable opportunities you can apply with your clients right away. This course earns 4 CEUs for Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers.
Module 1 – Unique Aspects of Therapy and Facility Animal Training
- Identify suitable therapy animals.
- Debunk common misconceptions about therapy and facility animals and their training.
- Understand a handler’s role as an advocate for their therapy or animal.
Module 2 – Setting Teams Up for Success
- Describe therapy animal settings.
- Define key training approaches and common cues essential for therapy and facility dogs.
Module 3 – Creating a Therapy/Facility Animal Prep Training Program
- Develop a training curriculum that includes essential team skills, outlined in AAI guiding documents.
Module 4 – Assessment
- This 20-question quiz covers all content for Therapy & Facility Dog Training for Dog Trainers.
- A passing score of 70% is required. You must complete Modules 1-3 before accessing this assessment.
Save with AAAIP Membership
Get the best rate for the Therapy & Facility Dog Training for Dog Trainers Course, plus all other animal-assisted intervention coursework, by becoming a member of AAAIP.
| Regular Price | Digital Members | All-Access Members | Organizational Members |
| $231.75 | $154.50 | $118.45 | $118.45 |
Buy Therapy & Facility Dog Training for Dog Trainers Course
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Our courses are fully self-paced and easy to follow. They are designed for busy professionals like you—those new to working with therapy animals, or those already working with them and looking to do it even better. You’ll hear the lessons read aloud, and you’ll answer real-world, scenario-based questions (think: multiple choice and drag-and-drop). At the end, there’s a quick knowledge check and you’ll get a certificate you can show your administrators. The content is based on trusted national guidelines, so you’ll know you’re doing things the right way from the start.
You can go at your own pace—seriously. Courses are self-paced and usually take people 2–4 hours to complete, depending on how deeply you engage with the content. You can start, stop, and return whenever your schedule allows—no pressure, just progress.
Yes, they’re designed to be as inclusive as possible. Every course has accurate closed captions, can be used with screen readers, and includes features like keyboard shortcuts, playback speed controls, and zoom-in options. Whether you’re using a laptop or assistive tech, you’ll be able to access everything you need.
Our courses are built by and for professionals in animal-assisted interventions. Each one was developed with input from AAI experts and grounded in national Competencies to make to make sure what you’re learning is meaningful, ethical, and relevant to your work.
You will see a Buy Course section at the bottom of each course page. Simply enter your email address and click “Next”. You will receive a login code via email, which you can use to log in to the LMS. Follow the instructions on the screen to proceed.
The email address you used to log in to the Learning Management System (LMS) might not match the email address used for your AAAIP Membership. The same email must be used to have your membership discount applied to your course purchase. If you were charged the wrong amount, please Contact Us.
Good question! AAAIP’s online courses are interactive learning experiences with activities, knowledge checks, and a certificate at the end. Recordings are replays of past events and webinars.
All the AAAIP courses are built to match the key skills and knowledge areas used in certification. We even label which topics connect with which domain on the Specialist Certification exam, so you can choose what’s most helpful. Whether you’re pursuing certification now or planning ahead, these courses will move you closer to professional recognition in AAI.