Enhance your knowledge and skills with Pet Partners’ online coursework for future and current volunteers, as well as facility staff and volunteer coordinators.
Our Handler Course prepares you to certify your pet as a therapy animal. After you finish the course, pass your evaluation, and submit all the required documents, you and your pet will be registered with Pet Partners! Online course fee: $80
Do you have a current therapy dog or one who aspires to be? It’s just as important that you are able to read your dog’s body language, as it is that you have a dog who is well-suited for therapy animal work. Increase your awareness of what your animal is saying and learn strategies to support your animal. Online course fee: $49.
Once you’ve been a Pet Partners team for 6 months, you’re eligible to pursue your crisis response credential and deploy to support your local community in the wake of a disaster. In this interactive training, you’ll role play a team reporting to different disasters ranging from school shootings to natural disasters. Build advanced skills to help your neighbors in need. Online course fee: $115.
Interested in taking more than one course? Discounted value packs are available. Are you a facility interested in preparing your volunteers? Contact us for bulk purchases.
Create a login for the Pet Partners Volunteer Center.
Log in and click Courses and Events. This button will bring you to the Training Center.
Click Sign Up in the menu bar near the top of the page. Select Handler, then Online Courses.
Choose your course, add it to your cart, and check out to complete the transaction.
Interested in taking more than one course? Discounted value packs are available.
Are you a facility interested in preparing your volunteers? Contact us for bulk purchases.
After purchase, courses have a 3–6-month completion period. Please check individual courses for specific timeframes. When you complete your course, you will receive a Certificate of Completion to display your achievement.
Pet Partners is the only therapy animal organization to have courses endorsed by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). When completed together, the courses “Canine Body Language: Reading Signals from Therapy Dogs” and “Infection Prevention and Control: Therapy Animal Visitation in Healthcare Settings” meet the requirements outlined in “Animals in Healthcare Facilities: Recommendations to Minimize Potential Risks” published in 2015.
Pet Partners offers several free videos and resources to help you better understand therapy animal volunteerism. Volunteering With Your Pet is an introduction to program requirements and registration steps, or access our more detailed Volunteer Orientation Series. Our glossary of terms is also helpful as you navigate learning about Pet Partners and Animal-Assisted Interactions.
If you are a professional partnering with therapy animals in schools, clinics, or offices, visit our sister organization, Association of Animal-Assisted Intervention Professionals (AAAIP) is the play or you. AAAIP serves professionals partnering with therapy animals in schools, clinics, or offices. This field is called animal-assisted interventions (AAI). Whether you’re just getting started or growing your existing program, we have all the tools you need to do it safely and ethically.
