Practical Life Skills
For Dogs
Pre-requisite: C.A.R.E courses
Course information
In this practical course, you will learn essential life skills that will help you and your dog communicate more effectively and calmly in everyday situations. Through hands-on exercises and real-life applications, you’ll gain the skills to help your dog navigate a variety of scenarios with confidence and ease.You will also receive feedback on your progress through practical assignments, ensuring that you understand each concept and can apply it successfully.
The emphasis will be on understanding and implementing practical skills in real-world situations—no theory overload, just tools that can be applied immediately.
Learning Goals of the Course
By the end of this course, you will have the practical skills and confidence to handle a wide range of everyday situations with your dog, using non-coercive, communication-based methods. The focus is on using hand signals, attention sounds, splitting, and body language to communicate with your dog more naturally and effectively. You will learn to teach your dog essential life skills to ensure they can navigate the world around them with ease, confidence, and good manners.
Course Learning Goals
Better Understanding Dog Communication:
Develop the ability to recognize when your dog is anxious, stressed, excited, or happy, and respond appropriately to those emotional states.
Customizing Training for Your Dog’s Needs: Understandhow to tailoractivities and training to yourdog’sindividual temperament, breed, energylevel, and behavior.
Impulse Control and Self-Regulation:
Teach your dog to control their impulses, such as not jumping on guests, stealing food, leave it anddrop it, or chasing objects.
Leash Walking and Reactivity Management:
Develop loose leash walking skills, ensuring your dog remains calm and when passing others or navigating busy environments.
Learn strategies to manage reactivity on the leash, preventing unwanted behaviors like barking, lunging, or pulling toward distractions.
Reliable Recall and Come When Called:
Train your dog to come when called by using body language, rewards, and positive reinforcement, ensuring safety and communication in off-leash situations.
Calmness in Distracting Environments:
Teach your dog to remain calm and focused, even in exciting or distracting environments, such as parks, busy streets, or when visitors arrive.
Managing Unwanted Behaviors:
Learn how to address typical behaviors like barking, jumping, chasing, and begging for food using attention sounds, hand signals, and splitting techniques.
Using Your Body Language:
Practical guiding on how to use your body language in training and how it affects your dog’s beahviour.
Developing a Attention Sound:
Learn how to use an attention sound to redirect your dog’s focus when needed, whether it’s to regain their attention or stop unwanted behavior.
Stress-Reducing Activities and Calmness Training:
Incorporate stress-reducing activities like treat searches, exploring, and creating an enriched environment to help your dog stay calm and relaxed.
Course Benefits:
• Practical, hands-on learning with immediate application
• Focus on real-life situations, making training relevant and effective
• Use of non-coercive, communication-based methods
• Guidance and feedback from experienced trainers
By the end of the course, you’ll have the tools to handle a wide range of everyday situations with confidence and ease, creating a more relaxed and balanced life for both you and your dog.
Through the practical application and training of hand signals, attention sounds, splitting, and using your body language, you will learn to handle typical every day situations such as: stop jumping, stop chasing, stop barking, leave it/drop it and reactivity on leach and teach a good recall, to be calm, stop begging food, and walk next to you when passing others.
Key Takeaways
By the end of this course, you will:
Understand your dog’s emotional needs and how to respond appropriately.
Customize your training approach to your dog’s unique personality and needs.
Implement impulse control techniques to help your dog remain calm in various situations.
Enhance your communication with your dog through body language, hand signals, and attention sounds.
Create calm and focused behavior during walks, social interactions, and other real-life situations.
Build a trusting, respectful relationship with your dog, based on clear communication and mutual understanding.
This course is designed to provide you with the practical tools and confidence needed to manage your dog’s behavior in everyday life while fostering a deep, trusting relationship built on communication and respect.
How The Course Works
Over the next 12 months, you’ll gain in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience with:
Pre-recorded Lectures:
These are available on the course platform on the Friday, and you need to watch these short lectures before the live session.
Live Q&A Session:
We will have a live Q&A session on Zoom to discuss the lectures on the Sunday on the same weekend. This gives you the weekend to watch the lectures and prepare your questions.
Practical Assignments:
After the Q&A session, you will have 1 week to complete practical assignments.
Live Feedback Session:
The following Sunday we will have a live feedback session on Zoom to review your assignments.
During this session, we will split into groups to share your work and receive feedback from teachers and each other.
Key Features
1. 100% Practical Focus: centered on real-life application. There’s no theoretical overload—only hands-on training that dog owners can use immediately in their daily lives.
2. Video-Based Learning: Every practical assignment involves recording a video to show how the dog responds in various situations, allowing for direct feedback from instructors and peer learning in group discussions.
3. Live Q&A Sessions: students will have access to live Zoom Q&A sessions where they can ask questions, discuss challenges, and share their successes with both instructors and fellow dog owners.
4. Interactive Learning: A private online community where participants can share videos, get feedback, and interact with each other, creating a supportive learning environment.
5. Ongoing Feedback: Teachers will provide personalized feedback on each video submission to ensure that dog owners are on the right track and progressing with their dog’s training.
By teaching life skills in this way, Nordic Dog Trainer empowers dog owners to form strong, respectful relationships with their dogs, based on communication and understanding, rather than control and obedience. This approach creates a more balanced, confident dog and a more fulfilling, harmonious relationship between owner and dog.
Why This Structure Works
Focus on Immediate Implementation: Dog owners will learn skills they can apply immediately in their homes, on walks, and during other daily activities.
Clear Progression: Each module builds upon the previous one, ensuring dog owners feel confident and capable as they move through the training.
Interactive and Engaging: The combination of practical assignments, video submissions, live feedback, and peer interaction ensures that dog owners are supported throughout their learning journey.
Real-World Relevance: The focus on real-life situations makes the training relevant and useful for dog owners who are looking to solve practical issues with their dogs in their everyday environments.
Summary of Key Differences:
Holistic Approach: We focus on the whole dog (mind, body, behavior), not just obedience.
Empathy and Understanding: We prioritize connection and empathy over control and corrections.
Non-Coercive Methods: Training is based on positive reinforcement, never force or punishment.
Emotional Well-Being: We emphasize the dog’s emotional health alongside behavioral training.
Real-Life Application: Training is designed to help dogs thrive in real-world situations, not just in controlled environments.
Time Zones
We’ve scheduled the times to accommodate as many time zones as possible:
• Pre-recorded Lectures: Available on Fridays at 15:00 CET.
• Live Q&A Session: Sundays from 15:00 to 17:00 CEST.
• Live Feedback Session: Sundays from 15:00 to 18:00 CET.
Course Dates
Fall 2025
Unit 1:
Friday 5th September: pre-recorded lectures available
Sunday the 14th September: live zoom Q&A session 3PM – 5PM CET
Sunday the 21th September: live zoom feedback session to your films 3PM – 6PM CET
Unit 2:
Friday 3rd October: pre-recorded lectures available
Sunday the 12th October: live zoom Q&A session 3PM – 5PM CET
Sunday the 19th October: live zoom feedback session to your films 3PM – 6PM CET
Unit 3:
Friday 31st October: pre-recorded lectures available
Sunday the 9th November: live zoom Q&A session 3PM – 5PM CET
Sunday the 16th November: live zoom feedback session to your films 3PM – 6PM CET
Unit 4:
Friday 28th November: pre-recorded lectures available
Sunday the 7th December: live zoom Q&A session 3PM – 5PM CET
Sunday the 14th December: live zoom feedback session to your films 3PM – 6 PM CET