Canine Certification in Animal Assisted Services

Update On Our Canine Certification Process

Dreamcatcher™ Nature Assisted Wellness Academy is no longer offering dog and puppy training classes. As we remain deeply committed to supporting our students through their certification journey, we are actively working alongside individual trainers selected by our students to ensure continuity of care and training excellence.
​Please note: All trainers selected by students must be approved by Dreamcatcher™.

​We are currently developing partnerships with qualified trainers across the country to provide our community with access to trusted professionals in their local areas. This transition allows us to focus our resources on what we do best, guiding students through the Animal Assisted Human Services Certification Process, while connecting them with specialized training expertise.

Please note that the canine certification process will look different moving forward. We are still actively developing this component of our program and will share more details as they become available. Our commitment to maintaining high standards for certification remains unchanged.

We appreciate your understanding as we make this shift, and we're excited about the opportunities these new partnerships will bring to better serve both our students and their canine companions.

To obtain Canine Certification with Dreamcatcher™, students must complete the professional trainings outlined in our AAS Certification Steps. Changes to our canine certification are on pages 1 and 5 of this document and provides useful tips for students looking for a dog trainer.

Setting you and your dog up for success

Are you interested in certifying your dog as a Human Services Assistance Animal (HSAA) to work with you in the field of Animal Assisted Services? Pet visitation, animal assisted education (AAE) or therapy (AAT), along with other forms of AAS require dogs to be well trained and prepared to encounter a wide variety of situations and people. While successful canine HSAAs can come in all different breeds and personalities, there are some common skills that they share. Dogs should be calm, affiliative, and attentive to their handler's cues, to name just a few requirements. Not sure if your dog would qualify as an HSAA? Dreamcatcher™ offers canine screening, evaluations, and private consultations!

Canine Screening 

Offering an industry leading aptitude and temperament test that gathers detailed behavioural information about your canine, Dreamcatcher™ guides you to fully understanding ‘in the moment’ responses from your dog as his or her emotional state shifts during screening. Gain a better comprehension of your furry friend’s perspective through screening, resulting in a deepening of your relationship with him or her. Our skilled Canine Behavioural Experts educate you about what signals your companion uses to relay his or her feelings, needs and wants in everyday and stressful situations.  Let our Experts provide you with detailed recommendations regarding areas of improvement for your canine’s behavior and what population or setting your canine would be best suited to work in as a career.

​Click here for the screening process for your canine.
For more information, please contact us!

 Dreamcatcher™ also screens other animals! For more information on this process and the costs associated with it, please contact us.

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In Home Consultations

​Convenience In A Familiar Place

One of the best ways places to work on behaviours or introduce training tips is where the canine spends most of its time:
In its home.
Dreamcatcher™ offers in-home or online consultations and coaching sessions that are tailored to suit the needs of you and your canine. Let us build a training plan with you, while focusing in on particular challenges your dog is experiencing. Private consults are available upon request. Please contact the office for more information. 

Book Your Consultation

To book your consultation, download and complete the following attachments below. 
Then please upload these documents when registering for your consultation. 
Intake Form
Contract
​Once submitted, we will review your paperwork and contact you to schedule your consultation!

Register For Canine Screening & Consultations Here!

REGISTRATION FORM

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​Go to our AAS Certification page to learn more about getting Certified!

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Class Photo Gallery

​Tips From Our Trainers

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Danielle Clark, BA

Animal Behaviour Specialist

danielle 

Danielle holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and has been certified as a Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed through the Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers (CAPPDT). She completed the Calgary Humane Society Dog Training Apprenticeship program, where she continued to serve as a full time Animal Behaviour Specialist and Trainer, behaviorally screening and training animals in shelter, as well as teaching public classes.
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Danielle has completed 2 trainings in Tellington TTouch for Companion Animals and has been a licensed presenter for Dogs & Storks and The Dog & Baby Connection Family Paws Parent Education programs. Danielle has been professionally training animals since 2006, with an extensive background working with many different animal species, including exotics such as Ring-tailed Lemurs and Nurse Sharks, as well as years of experience training horses.

In addition to her experience training pet dogs, she has also worked as a lead trainer for a Psychiatric Service Dog Training Institute and multiple Animal Assisted Therapy organizations. Danielle also serves as an instructor for Dreamcatcher's Animal Assisted Wellness Academy and Lakeland College's Animal Assisted Wellness certificate program.

​Testimonials 

~Ashley and Lainee

"This is such a wonderful program! Danielle was recommended to me as a highly skilled trainer, and she did not disappoint. This was the very first training class for myself and my Labrador puppy, Gator. I am a therapist and am hoping that Gator will be able to join me as a co-therapist in my career. Gator is a curious and energetic dog, and was one of the younger pups in our class. I was so impressed that Danielle was able to tailor her teaching to every skill and energy level in the class with ease. We quickly learned new skills and techniques that helped Gator and myself succeed in areas where we were previously stuck. Danielle cleared up a lot of conflicting training information I had researched myself, and provided us with techniques that quickly overcame the hurdles we had been dealing with for months. After beginning clicker training, for example, Gator learned to “lay down” with a simple hand signal in a short 5-minute training session. This was a skill we had been working on for months with no success!
Since finishing Prepare Your Dog for AAT, we have expanded on our learning and taught Gator how to retrieve Kleenex boxes and slippers, which can be applied/altered in a counselling setting. We are so excited to continue our learning with Danielle, and I can’t recommend this class highly enough!
Thanks for everything!"
-Kristi and Gator

~Dean, Cheryl, and Daisy J

"Hi Danielle, Thank you so much for everything! We really learned so much from you and for that we are so grateful. If only we would have had you when miss Lainee was a pup! But really, I can't thank you enough. It was such a pleasure working with you and just being out at Dreamcatcher- I often referred to the class as my wellness time so I will certainly miss it. I will absolutely be back at some point for further training for myself, as I mentioned before it is my dream to integrate AAT into my work, so undoubtedly I will do that at some point and wouldn't want to take that training through anyone but you all."
-Ashley and Lainee

~kristi and gator

"Danielle was very engaging and energetic. The course contained many practical and easy to implement techniques that had a large impact on our dog, Daisy, in a short period of time. Through the course we deepened our understanding of how Daisy communicates and how we can engaged her in a way she can understand. Danielle supported us with strategies for both working with our dog in the community and in our home. The setting at Dreamcatchers provided a background that challenged our skills and Daisy’s ability to remain on task. There is little more challenging than trying to encouraged our German Shepard mix to loose leash walk past a chicken coop or that the guinea pigs are not there for her entertainment.  Our relationship with Daisy has greatly improved thanks to our time with the prepare your dog for AAT course. We are looking forward to taking more courses in the future." 
-Dean, Cheryl and Daisy J

~Trina and thor

Check out this review from one of our students who drove over 14 hours round trip for our canine training!

“We came home and got straight to work!
Since taking the training, I’ve been watching the behaviours at home.
Last week, I took Thor to a new daycare/kennel just to practice and desensitize. We didn’t even make it in the facility. We spent 10 min in the parking lot and another 20 min just in the hallway and entry way. But!! The good news is he got anxious and overwhelmed but stayed in my control and responded to my cues!
The old me would have just gone right in and then been frustrated when he didn’t listen. Instead, I understood his behaviour and met him where he was at.  We worked through it and left on a positive note!

Today we went back over to the daycare/kennel.  The owner is also a dog trainer and very supportive and happy with the active training and gracious with using her facility for training. Thor responded much faster and with some patience we were able to enter the building, work through reactivity of the dogs barking, reactivity of new human and met a human and then another dog!!  She complimented his focus on me!  So proud of him!

So, thank you thank you for everything you have taught me so far! I’m feeling more confident and able to meet my dogs where they are at… and check my expectations!!
What I have learned so far:
·      Clear communication – I am using way less words than I used to! When Thor knows what I want and don’t want, he does well! And so do I!
·      Calm, calm, calm!
·      Thor’s calming signals – I notice them more now!
·      Confidence in him and in me! I feel so much more confident! Thank you again for everything!”