The San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers
COURSES OF STUDY IN DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR COUNSELING
USING POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT-BASED METHODS
The SF/SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers was founded in 1999 with the aim of providing comprehensive and leading edge education to dog trainers, behavior counselors and other companion dog professionals. It is rapidly gaining a reputation as the "Harvard for Dog Trainers."
The Academy's main instructors are Jean Donaldson, author of The Culture Clash and Dogs are from Neptune and Janis Bradley, a clicker trainer and educator with 20 years in curriculum design and counseling. Our guest lecturers to date have included Ian Dunbar, Steve White, Morgan Spector, Rita Martinez and Pamela Reid. All techniques taught at the Academy are both dog and people-friendly.
SF/SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers Frequently Asked Questions [PDF format]
Meet Our Faculty
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Jean Donaldson
Academy Director
Jean Donaldson, who joined the San Francisco SPCA in 1999, is the Director of the Academy for Dog Trainers. Ms. Donaldson established the Academy with the intent of improving public education about a dog's quality of life, and prevention of relinquishments to animal shelters for behavior reasons. Until Ms. Donaldson spearheaded the creation of the Academy for Dog Trainers, there was no similar comprehensive program that educated people on how to become dog trainers and behavior counselors. The SF/SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers has gained a reputation as the Harvard of dog training schools.
"What we want to do is to improve the dog quality of life," says Donaldson. "Most people who own dogs have an extraordinary limited notion of what dogs need; they have no idea of their emotional and mental needs. This failure in education is almost an epidemic; and it's a large factor in the relinquishment of dogs to shelters. Until The SF/SPCA opened its Academy, there was no really good school in the country where people can learn how to become dog trainers. Our courses are in huge demand, and we're usually booked 6 to 8 months in advance."
Ms. Donaldson has over thirty years of experience in dog behavior and training. Prior to working with the SF/SPCA, Ms. Donaldson founded the first positive reinforcement school and counseling service in Montreal, Canada called Renaissance Dog Training.
 Ms. Donaldson is the author of several books on dog behavior. Her first book, The Culture Clash, won the Best Behavior Book of 1997 from the Dog Writers Association of America and is the #1 book recommendation for dog owners from the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. MINE! A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs also won the Best Behavior Book from the Dog Writers Association for the year 2002. Her latest book, published this past October, is FIGHT! A Guide to Dog-Dog Aggression. Ms. Donaldson has given lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences on animal learning, behavior and aggression since 1993 in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Japan.
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Janis Bradley
Janis Bradley is a clicker trainer and educator. She has spent 20 years designing and teaching college courses in several disciplines and counseling adult students in the process of career change. At the SFSPCA, she has been one of the main architects of a uniquely student centered curriculum for public dog training classes and has developed a new model for counseling clients who need help resolving their dogs' behavior issues. |
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John Buginas
John Buginas is an Academy instructor and coordinates the SPCA internship program. John's interest in training and dog psychology came when he adopted Juno, a reactive and fearful dog; he began studying positive reinforcement training after other methods failed. The methods taught at the Academy fit with his lifetime love of science and scientific method and dogs. After graduating from the Academy with honors, John interned at the SF SPCA. He is a certified pet dog trainer (CPDT) and has taught dog obedience classes in the bay area where he is a dog behavior consultant. He lives in the east bay with his wife Betty, an elementary school teacher, and his dogs, Karley, Juno and Preston. His daughter, Kristen, lives in New York where she is studying literature. |
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