Hi everyone and welcome to the freshman course! I am so excited to have all of you joining us! I want to make sure to go over how the course works so you have an idea of what’s going to happen and what benefits with your level you will want to make sure to utilize. 

First off, know which level you have signed up for. If you are watching this without having signed up yet, decided what level of instructor involvement you want. 

If you are a Level 1 student, the course to you is entirely online. You have access to it for 1 full year. The benefit is it is entirely self-paced so you can work at whatever pace you want and when you can without falling behind. However, with self-paced classes you need to make sure you do them! If you sign up, but then never keep up with the class or get through all the material, it won’t help you learn anything. So you need to make sure you actually do the exercises, watch the lectures, fill out the worksheets, and prioritize time to make sure you are successful. 

If you are a Level 2 student, everything is online, but you do get more support. You have access to the lectures for 1 year so you can still self-pace the 6 week course. The big difference is you get 1 year access to the private Facebook group for the freshman course. In that group, you get to interact with other students, share ideas, ask questions to other students or the instructors, and submit video for feedback. This really fleshes out the course for you and will build the community like you would get in an in-person class. It will also give ideas for how to troubleshoot through common problem areas and you can see how other students are handling a particular situation. It also gives you the ability to interact with the instructor for clarification, help when you get stuck or just to make sure you are on the right track. While it is self-paced, during a “live” in-person class, I will be checking in each week to see how everyone is doing to help keep you on track. Make sure to utilize the Facebook group! If you don’t utilize the benefit, you could be missing out on the piece that you wanted. 

If you are a Level 3 student, you get access to the online course, the online private Facebook group, and you will attend an in-person class for 6 weeks. As a Level 3 student, everything is at your fingertips to help you. While your in-person class is only 6 weeks long, you still get access to the course online and the Facebook group for a full year. With the 6-week in-person class, it is expected that you are working and practicing the skills you learned throughout the week so you will need to make sure you stay on top of everything, so you don’t fall behind. Each week builds off of the previous week, so it is a little bit less self-paced with the in-person aspect.

Again, as a Level 1 student, you only get access to the online course for 1 full year. You can work at whatever pace is best for you and your dog, but you need to make sure you work through everything. Try not to jump around lectures. A lot of the skills build off of each other and have a connection to each other, so if you jump around, you may end up missing a piece. The order in which everything is released and added is intentional so trust the process and try not to jump around. 

This material is 6 full weeks’ worth of material, so if you work through it, you should be able to finish it within a year. The worksheets and handouts are meant to help you, so make sure to do them. There are also checklist sheets at the beginning of each week, so make sure to fill them out and use them to keep track of your training sessions. 

As a Level 1 student, you don’t get access to the Facebook group and don’t have the ability to reach out to the instructor for feedback. The course is designed to be very thorough, so as long as you watch carefully, take notes, and practice, you should still be able to get great results. 

As a Level 2 student, you get access to the online course through the platform for 1 full year, but you also get access to the private Facebook group for 1 full year. This still allows you to be self-paced for the 6-week class for a year, but you have the ability to interact with the instructor and other students through the Facebook group. The Facebook group will allow you to be active and help keep you more accountable while you work through the program. 

As a Level 3 student, you get access to the online course, Facebook group, and attend an in-person 6-week class. This class is not as self-paced. You have access to the course for a full year, but it is expected that you are working with your dog each week. You get access for a year to the program, but you should be sticking with the program while attending in-person. It is strongly encouraged to utilize the Facebook group so you can get help and connect with other students during the week before you meet in-person so you can get quick feedback on your work.

One of the features of the course is there an app you can download on your phone either through Android or for an iPhone. Just search for the “Teachable” app and download for free. Then when you login, your courses should show up in the app. This will allow you to get easy access to your lectures while you are out working with your dog without having to get onto your computer. This will especially be beneficial if you are working with your dog out in public and need to get a quick reminder of how to do the exercise. 

Again, as a Level 1 student, you will want to make sure that you keep up with the class. Develop the habit of working through the course. You will need to be the one holding yourself accountable so you will want to make sure to stay on top of the materials. But again, you do have access for a year, so you have a little bit more time to work through the 6 weeks of material. 

There are handouts and worksheets throughout the course. Make sure you do these. It will help you to fill in the gaps and help you in working with your dog. 

The biggest tip I can give is to video your training sessions. It will help you to critique your sessions and see the areas that need some improvement as well as catch the areas you both are doing well in. Treat it as if you were a Level 2 or 3 student sharing video to get some feedback. It will make a big difference for you to see from that outside perspective. 

Again, if you are a Level 2 student, the biggest benefit you get is the Facebook group and interacting with the instructor and fellow students. Make sure you utilize this benefit! If you have any questions, you will need to post them in the Facebook group to get them answered. Video is very powerful. If it is specific to your dog, post a video so I can see specifically what you are wanting feedback on. Make sure you state when posting the video what specifically you are wanting feedback on. If you want to post a video just to keep yourself accountable and share your progress with other classmates, also make sure to state that you are just wanting to show progress. Then we can cheer you on and you won’t get any unsolicited advice. 

When posting video, keep it short. No one wants to sit and watch a long 10 minute video. Keep your video under 3 minutes so we can focus just on the important aspect you want feedback on or want to show off. If the video is too long, you will be asked to edit it down and submit again. 

The Facebook group is to help you work through the freshman course. This means that questions and video should only pertain to what we are going over in the curriculum. If we are not going over that, please do not post about it. If you post about an issue that is off-topic, it will get removed. 

To join the Facebook group if you are a Level 2 or 3 student, you need to request to join. The Facebook group is Elite Pet University Freshman Course. There will be some questions you will need to answer before you will be permitted to join. If you don’t fill out the questions, you will not be added. 

If you are a Level 3 student, you get to attend a 6-week in-person course to go along with the online material. When signing up at Level 3, you chose what class you were going to be attending, so make sure you have that on your calendar so you know when to attend. You have to attend the 6 weeks concurrently, so there won’t be any skipping around. There are no make-ups if you miss a class. For the in-person class, the class that occurs will be practicing the material released the week before, so make sure you have practiced at home before coming to class; the night of class is not the night to be learning it for the first time.

You have access to the Facebook group and make sure to utilize that benefit. This will allow you to ask questions and get feedback in between our in-person meetings. You can certainly ask questions during the in-person class, but once class has ended, any questions need to be on the Facebook page if you want them answered. It really helps to post there because your question may apply to another student’s situation as well. As with Level 2, you do need to request to join the Facebook group and answer the questions to be admitted in. 

Even if you are on the shy side and don’t want to post in the group as much, still video your sessions. You will find great benefit in doing so. 

If you are already signed up for a class at Level 3, when you login to where you registered, any class that hasn’t started yet will be listed in “My Upcoming Classes”. Once the class starts, it gets moved to “My Current Classes”. This will tell you which dog you had signed up, when the class starts and what time the class is. 

If you want to see any upcoming classes at Level 3, if you click on the three blue lines in the left hand corner and click the “Classes” button, you will see all upcoming classes that are open for registration. Then hit the “Sign Up” button and go all the way to the end through payment to get registered. If you ever want to double check your registration, just login and you should see it listed under “My Upcoming Classes”. If it isn’t there within 24 hours, the registration likely didn’t go through. 

The cost for a course at Level 3 is per dog since we can only accept so many dogs in a class at one time. If you have multiple dogs, you will not be able to alternate dogs each week; you are purchasing for just one dog to attend in-person unless you purchase multiple Level 3 openings. If you started at a Level 1 or 2 and want to take it at Level 3 later on, the fee is the same, but your access to the Facebook group and online course will get extended out from when your Level 3 course starts. 

If you need the link to register at Level 3 or see upcoming in-person courses, the link is https://elitepettraining.dogbizpro.com.

If you are a Level 3 student, the in-person course is meant for you to practice the skills you learned online the previous week. For example, if your in-person class starts January 13 at 6:30 p.m., then you should start working on the online Week 1 material on January 6. Then the following Monday, January 20, we will be practicing the Week 2 material that you should have started after class on January 13, and so on. 

Learning something new is more difficult when you are in a new environment around lots of distractions. This is why the class is structured so that you have the ability to learn something in the comfort of your own home where you can control the distractions when initially learning something. Then as you start to get confident in it, you can practice in a new environment with real-time feedback from the instructor. The private Facebook group will allow you to get help if you have questions or get stuck before your in-person course meets. 

As with the other levels, make sure you video your sessions. It really does make a difference and can help you while you work the program.

When you attend your in-person class, bring more treats than you think you will need, and then double that. You will be working with your dog for a full hour and owners are shocked how many treats that may end up being. When you arrive, bring all of your stuff in and get your training area situated before bringing the dog in. If you try to carry all your supplies and get your area set up while also trying to manage your dog, you already are starting out the class a little overwhelmed. Your dog is learning whether you are ready or not, and we want the dog to learn good habits. So get your area set up first, then bring in the dog and start working with your dog from the moment it is out of the car. 

It is very important that you keep your dog close; do NOT let your dog approach other dogs to “say hi” or jump on other students. If you are out in the field taking your dog potty before coming in, sure give space from the other students, but they can have more leash length. While you are coming in, keep the leash short; they don’t need the full 6 ft to cause chaos.