Archives: Courses

Canine Scent Detection, localization of a target scent, is the ultimate display of the cooperation between Homo sapiens sapiens and Canis lupus familiaris. Scent detection stimulates your dog without turning it hyperactive, teaches you and your dog what teamwork genuinely means, and is great fun for both of you. To succeed in canine scent detection, you and your dog need to apply your different skills in conjunction and toward a common, practical goal. One of you alone cannot make it. You create and develop a meaningful relationship with your dog by working together in resolving searching tasks.

This course will enable you to pursue further goals, such as becoming a substance detection team or a SAR unit. You complete the course by passing the double-blind test locating a hidden scent.

This course is a mixed one where theory and practice walk hand in hand. You take the theory online, and once you feel you can do it, you practice with your chosen animal. Read the theory first. Join the course forum on Daybook to pose questions or see posted answers to previous inquiries. While you take the practical part of this course, we will assign you a qualified tutor to guide you, one-on-one, either on-site or by video conferencing.

If you have the possibility, we strongly recommend you enlist in one of the practical workshops Professor Abrantes occasionally gives worldwide. As an EI student registered for this course, you’ll get a 75% discount on any fee asked by the event organizer.

If you’re training Guinea Pigs, follow the same procedures described in this course. Study Guinea pig behavior before beginning your training and readjust your behavior. Pay special attention to the reinforcement and inhibiting techniques required by the species. In lesson four, we give you additional information for the particular case of Guinea pig training.

Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced. This course is for everyone. However, your results will depend on the level at which you and your dog are at the beginning of the course. You need not know anything about scent detection—preferably, you don’t—but you and your dog need to know the signals, ‘Name,’ ‘Come,’ ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ and you must have an efficient semi-conditioned positive reinforcer as ‘dygtig.’* Your dog must be able to accept the presence of other dogs without getting affected—and you need to be able to work with other people, and give and accept critique without falling out.

* If you don’t know what we’re talking about, please take (or retake) one of the following courses before Canine Scent Detection:

• Ethology and Behaviorism.
• The 20 Principles All Animals Trainers Must Know
• Animal Learning

This video was shot during a workshop for dog owners. No owners or dogs had any previous experience in scent detection. The results depend on the owner, the dog, and the level at which they are when beginning the course. On average, 70-80% of the teams pass the final double-blind test after only three days of training. Independently of that, all owners and dogs show significant progress at the end of the course.

“Canine Scent Detection—The Practical Manual”

(Updated and enlarged 2022 edition including the quantum olfaction model)

by Roger Abrantes, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ethology (instructor of the trainers of the famous “Hero Rats,” detecting landmines and tuberculosis, CNCA instructor for law enforcement officers, GNR special advisor).

Book contents

Introduction
STEP 1 – Acquisition of indication behavior.
STEP 2 – Acquisition of target scent.
STEP 3 – Discrimination of target scent.
STEP 4 – Double-blind discrimination of target scent.
STEP 5 – Double-blind detection of hidden target scent.
STEP 6 – Double-blind detection of hidden and masked target scent.
Case Story – Ariel.
Understanding Olfaction
Quantum Olfaction
References and further recommended reading.

Although not mandatory, we recommend that you supplement your readings with:

• Abrantes, R. (2016). Animal Training My Way—The Merging of Ethology and Behaviorism. WT Publishers (Ethology Institute online book).
• Chance, P. (2008). Learning and Behavior: Active Learning Edition. Cengage Learning; 6 edition.
• Furton, K. G. et al (2002) Identification of Odor Signature Chemicals in Cocaine Using Solid-Phase Microextraction–Gas Chromatography and Detector-Dog Response to Isolated Compounds Spiked on U.S. Paper Currency in Journal of Chromatographic Science, Vol. 40, March 2002. 
• Fält, L., Gustavsson, T., Karlsson, J. and Åberg, J. (2015). Tracking Dogs – Scent and Skills. Scandinavian Working Dog Institute 

Watch the movie(s) and read the book(s). Join the course forum where you can read our tutors’ answers to questions previously posed by your colleagues. If you have a new question, do not hesitate in posting it.

The course forum is solely for academic questions. For administrative matters or difficulties accessing the functionality of the site, please submit a ticket.

Once you’re ready for it, take the quizzes. You may take a quiz as many times as you like. We recommend you re-take quizzes once a year as a self-imposed quality control.

Measuring Behavior—Stop “guessing” and start “knowing.” Discover how to predict behavior accurately. Learn how to sample behavior, create and use ethograms, evaluate your results, and present your findings. Study how to measure changes in behavior such as frequency, intensity, duration, number of errors, speed, latency, and fluency.

Intermediate/Advanced. Parts of this course are at an advanced level. A mandatory course in the CACE and CAAE curricula.

“Measuring Behavior”

by Roger Abrantes, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ethology.

Book contents

Chapter 1 Measuring learning.
Chapter 2 Designing a research project.
Chapter 3 Collecting data.
Chapter 4 Questionnaires.
Chapter 5 Analyzing data.
Chapter 6 The chi-squared test.
Chapter 7 Presenting data.

Although not mandatory, we recommend that you supplement your readings with:

• Martin, P. and Bateson P. (2007). Measuring Behaviour: An Introductory Guide. Cambridge University Press; 3 edition.

Watch the movie(s) and read the book(s). Join the course forum where you can read our tutors’ answers to questions previously posed by your colleagues. If you have a new question, do not hesitate in posting it.

The course forum is solely for academic questions. For administrative matters or difficulties accessing the functionality of the site, please submit a ticket.

Once you’re ready for it, take the quizzes. You may take a quiz as many times as you like. We recommend you re-take quizzes once a year as a self-imposed quality control.

Agonistic Behavior is all forms of aggression, threat, fear, pacifying behavior, fight or flight, arising from confrontations between individuals of the same species. This course gives you the scientific definitions and facts. More than that, it also gives you a critical review of popular interpretations and misinterpretations of these terms, helping you to evaluate information and develop your scientific views.

Agonistic Behavior is one of our most challenging courses addressed to the genuine student of behavioral sciences. Its subject-matter is essential to understand behavior and behavior modification techniques.

Intermediate to Advanced. It is a challenging course which requires an active effort from the student. However, you will feel handsomely rewarded by the knowledge and insight, you will have acquired upon completion.

“Agonistic Behavior—On Aggressive, Fearful, Dominant, Submissive, and Pacifying Behavior”

by Roger Abrantes, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ethology.

In this course, you won’t get the book. Instead, you’ll read texts especially prepared for each lesson.

Course content

Lesson One:

1. The Conundrum of the Behavioral Sciences
2. Evolutionarily Stable Strategies and Behavior
3. Ethogram—Social and Agonistic Behavior

Lesson Two

1. Maternal Behavior
2. The Origin of Pacifying Behavior
3. Pacifying Behaviors

Lesson Three

1. Fearful Behavior
2. Aggressive Behavior

Lesson Four

1. Dominant and Submissive Behavior
2. A Critical Analysis of the Concepts of Dominance and Aggression

Lesson Five

1. Let Reason Prevail Over Force

All lessons contain numerous references for your further studying.

Although not mandatory, we recommend that you supplement your readings with:

• Darwin, C. (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 1st ed.
• Dawkins, R. (2006) The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, USA.
• McFarland, D. (1982) The Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• McFarland, D. (1998) Animal Behaviour. Benjamin Cummings. 3rd ed.

Read the texts. Join the course forum where you can read our tutors’ answers to questions previously posed by your colleagues. If you have a new question, do not hesitate in posting it.

The course forum is solely for academic questions. For administrative matters or difficulties accessing the functionality of the site, please submit a ticket.

Once you’re ready for it, take the quizzes. You may take a quiz as many times as you like. We recommend you re-take quizzes once a year as a self-imposed quality control.

SMAF is a tool to help us in applying learning theory to practical behavior modification.  SMAF is a language to describe learning with all its components. Its objective is to enable us to plan our action with the highest possible degree of precision and to analyze the expected and observed results. Some parts of this course are just above beginner level, supplementing animal learning theory—others are for the advanced student of behavioral sciences. The SMAF part in itself will require more effort from you. You should, preferably, have taken Animal Learning before you take SMAF.

In the first two lessons, we give you an introduction to SMAF. In the second lesson, you’ll watch movies showing all the necessary steps to teach a dog the skills “Sit” and “Down” with the highest possible precision. Professor Abrantes shows and explains how to describe all the learning tools we need, one at the time. In the third lesson, you’ll read the SMAF manual with detailed descriptions and examples.

Join the course forum. We have moved the SMAF Team group from Facebook to the forum in our website. It is now the place to meet your peers interested in SMAF, exchanging ideas and POAs (Plans of Action).

Advanced. This course is for the advanced student of behavioral sciences and for the animal trainer who wants to achieve maximum precision.

“Mission SMAF—Bringing Scientific Precision Into Animal Training”

by Roger Abrantes, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ethology.

SMAF is a revolutionary approach to describe learning processes with the same high precision you write musical notation or a computer program. We dare say it is much ahead of its time. This book, which we call, “The SMAF Manual,” gives you all the rules to enable you to go ahead right away writing your own training plans of action.

Book contents

Foreword.
Chapter 1 Introduction.
Chapter 2 The Morphology and Syntax of SMAF.
Chapter 3 Examples of POA.
Chapter 4 Quick Guide to designing a POA in SMAF.

Watch the movie(s) and read the book(s). Join the course forum where you can read our tutors’ answers to questions previously posed by your colleagues. If you have a new question, do not hesitate in posting it.

The course forum is solely for academic questions. For administrative matters or difficulties accessing the functionality of the site, please submit a ticket.

Once you’re ready for it, take the quizzes. You may take a quiz as many times as you like. We recommend you re-take quizzes once a year as a self-imposed quality control.

Animal learning is the science that studies how animals learn the various behaviors they display. We review all the fundamental principles of learning that you need to master for training animals or to implement behavior modification. Animal Learning is a course based on scientific evidence and research and independent of political agendas or trends. It is indispensable for animal trainers and instructors.

In lesson one, we deal with motivation; lesson two reviews classical and operant conditioning; lesson three goes into detail with learning, signals, discrimination, generalization, stimulus control, and much more.

Intermediate to advanced. It is an essential course for an animal trainer. Some of the content is at an advanced level and may require an extra effort on your part. Join the course forum and pose any question you may have. Your tutors will answer you. You should, preferably, have taken Evolution and Anatomy and Physiology before you take Animal Learning.

“Animal Learning”

by Roger Abrantes, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ethology.

Book contents

Chapter 1 Learning.
Chapter 2 Signals.
Chapter 3 Discrimination, generalization, and stimulus control.
Chapter 4 Increasing and decreasing behavior.
Chapter 5 Reinforcement schedules.
Chapter 6 Advanced operant procedures.
Chapter 7 Plan of action.

Although not mandatory, we recommend that you supplement your readings with:

• Abrantes, R. (1997) Dog Language – An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior. Wakan Tanka Publishers.
• Abrantes, R. (1997). Dog Language – An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior. (eBook edition).
• Abrantes, R. (2016). Animal Training My Way—The Merging of Ethology and Behaviorism. WT Publishers (Ethology Institute online book).
• Case, L. P. (2005) The Dog: Its Behavior, Nutrition and Health. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Chance, P. (2008). Learning and Behavior: Active Learning Edition. Cengage Learning; 6 edition.
• McFarland, D. (1982) The Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• McFarland, D. (1998) Animal Behaviour. Benjamin Cummings. 3rd ed.

Watch the movie(s) and read the book(s). Join the course forum where you can read our tutors’ answers to questions previously posed by your colleagues. If you have a new question, do not hesitate in posting it.

The course forum is solely for academic questions. For administrative matters or difficulties accessing the functionality of the site, please submit a ticket.

Once you’re ready for it, take the quizzes. You may take a quiz as many times as you like. We recommend you re-take quizzes once a year as a self-imposed quality control.

Although not mandatory, we recommend that you supplement your readings with:

• Abrantes, R. (1997) Dog Language – An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior. Wakan Tanka Publishers.
• Abrantes, R. (1997). Dog Language – An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior. (eBook edition).
• Abrantes, R. (2016). Animal Training My Way—The Merging of Ethology and Behaviorism. WT Publishers (Ethology Institute online book).
• Case, L. P. (2005) The Dog: Its Behavior, Nutrition and Health. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Chance, P. (2008). Learning and Behavior: Active Learning Edition. Cengage Learning; 6 edition.
• Darwin, C. (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 1st ed.
• Dawkins, R. (2006) The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, USA.
• McFarland, D. (1982) The Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• McFarland, D. (1998) Animal Behaviour. Benjamin Cummings. 3rd ed.

Ethology is the study of animal behavior in its natural environment. This is one of the most important and fundamental courses in your curriculum. Without a reliable knowledge about animal behavior, we can’t expect to create a gratifying relationship with our pets or the animals we train. Some of this course’s content is at an advanced level and requires increased dedication on your part. The course’s final test focuses on the most important points—so don’t worry if a few questions seem harder to understand. You will appreciate them better once you continue your studies. You should, preferably, have taken Evolution before you enroll in ethology.

This course has ten lessons. They follow the chapters in the textbook (see below).

Watch the movie “Animal Behavior Crash Course” by Hank Green. The movie is an appetizer and an introduction to the current course, to give you a general idea of animal behavior. We will review the terms, concepts, and much more in detail in this course’s ten lessons.

For the present purpose, watch the movie and enjoy embarking on this journey into the discovery of animal behavior.

Intermediate to advanced.

“Ethology—the study of animal behavior in the natural environment”

by Roger Abrantes, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology and Ethology.

Roger Abrantes wrote “Ethology—the study of animal behavior in the natural environment” for his students as their primary textbook on this all-important topic. The book is a must for everyone seriously interested in understanding animal behavior—and the best possible introduction to this fascinating subject matter. You can take this course as part of a program granting a diploma or as a single course.

“Ethology” is an appealing and beautifully illustrated book. It addresses its questions to the point with sound, scientific explanations. It is not cluttered with footnotes. The author chose to keep all references to an extensive list at the end of the book. You read it as fluently as a novel—its narrative is compelling. The online version, which you get when you enroll in this course, has the advantage of giving you all updates at no extra course. Once you enroll in this course, you can return anytime you like, re-read the book or check the updates. If you like, you can also attempt to achieve a better test score.

Book contents (the lessons in this course correspond to the chapters in the book)

Chapter 1 Ethology—history and principles.
Chapter 2 Genetics and behavior.
Chapter 3 Evolutionary strategies.
Chapter 4 Sexual behavior.
Chapter 5 Instinct and learning.
Chapter 6 Communication.
Chapter 7 Social behavior.
Chapter 8 Agonistic behavior.
Chapter 9 Animal economics and intelligence.
Chapter 10 Evolutionary perspectives.

Although not mandatory, we recommend that you supplement your readings with:

• Darwin, C. (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 1st ed.
• Dawkins, R. (2006) The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, USA.
• McFarland, D. (1982) The Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• McFarland, D. (1998) Animal Behaviour. Benjamin Cummings. 3rd ed.

Watch the movie(s) and read the book(s). Join the course forum where you can read our tutors’ answers to questions previously posed by your colleagues. If you have a new question, do not hesitate in posting it.

The course forum is solely for academic questions. For administrative matters or difficulties accessing the functionality of the site, please submit a ticket.

Once you’re ready for it, take the quizzes. You may take a quiz as many times as you like. We recommend you re-take quizzes once a year as a self-imposed quality control.