Separation anxiety is a problem that has been overlooked or treated inappropriately with many dogs. I wanted to help do something about that, so this year I enrolled in Julie Naismith’s SA Pro Trainer program. The course covers her well researched and unique approach to handling separation anxiety in dogs. It spans over a 2 month period — although she allows up to 6 months to complete it. She covered every type of learning style for her students, which was a refreshing change from other courses I’ve taken. As a result, the course kept my interest with this heavy topic, always waiting in anticipation for the next module.

The course material, which was dripped out at a steady pace, consisted of both written material and live Zoom lectures. Each module ended with a multiple choice quiz which we were required to pass in order to move on to the next module. Julie kept her hand in the process through FB discussions, and live videos for the 2 month period. To qualify for the final assessment, we wrote an online exam, and completed an exercise in writing training plans using her technique. For the grand finale, we were each paired with an actual client. We were assessed using the rubrics system. Our ability to communicate the process of SA training, our advice for dealing with the dog’s current issues, and to conduct a live training session were all part of this grading system.

I thoroughly enjoyed this course, and look forward to helping dogs and their humans overcome this debilitating disorder.