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Animal Studies Courses - Auckland

Anyone who loves working with animals will find the animal studies programme from Courses Direct irresistible. With a broad range of specialities and courses including both introductory and advanced levels, you are sure to find what you need.

Managing livestock and farm animals requires coursework in general animal anatomy, physiology, behaviour, and husbandry, as well as specific courses for the types of animals you will be working with. As a leader in distance education, Courses Direct provides courses, certificates, and programmes in various farm and livestock specialties, including pigs, horses, cattle, poultry, and sheep.

For the more adventurous, Courses Direct offers programmes in wildlife management or marine studies. These in-depth courses will provide a sound foundation for a career managing wild animals in parks, zoos, refuges, or the field of wilderness management.

We haven’t forgotten pet lovers! Whether you are a hobbyist, pet store owner, or veterinary assistant, with courses like pet care and ornithology, you will be well prepared to care for a variety of animals including dogs, cats, reptiles, birds, and fish. Courses Direct even covers companion animals – especially helpful for trainers and others working in that field.

The field of animal studies includes many choices, from veterinary assistants to pet store owners to ranchers to trainers. Keeping your education current is vital in many industries, and animal science is no exception. Let Courses Direct fulfil your animal studies educational needs. Our courses and programmes are completely adaptable to your lifestyle, and our affordable payment plans will help you get started today!

Course List


Statement of Attainment

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Courses Direct 

Animal Breeding For Beginners

  Family planning pays dividends Plan and implement animal breeding programs using genetic theory, practical applications to daily husbandry practice, and management of animal breeding programs. This course includes a sound introduction to genetics. Relevant to any type of animal. Personal guidance from highly qualified and experienced animal scientists and practitioners. Topics covered include: introduction to genetics; selection; pure breeding; introduction to cross breeding; cross breeding and livestock improvement. Animal breeding can be anything from a serious hobby or part time business (eg. breeding and selling pets), through to a very serious and possibly highly sophisticated profession.  This course provides an excellent starting point whatever level you plan to operate at.
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Animal Feed & Nutrition (Animal Husbandry III)

  EVALUATE AND SELECT FEEDS Learn the composition of a range of feeds, including pasture, fodder crops, grasses, cereals, seed, and other edible plants. This course also explains the role of proteins, vitamins and minerals in animal diets. It equips you with the skills required to evaluate feeding and select appropriate feeds - for digestibility and nutritional content - applicable to real life farming situations. What do Animals Eat? Learn to manage food and nutrition for pets, farm animals or wildlife in zoos. Learn the composition of a range of feeds, including pasture, fodder crops, grasses, cereals, seed, and other edible plants. This course also explains the role of proteins, vitamins and minerals in animal diets. It equips you with the skills required to evaluate feeding and select appropriate feeds - for digestibility and nutritional content - applicable to real life farming situations.
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Courses Direct 

Animal Health Care For Beginners

  Learn to care for the health of any type of animal and understand the scope of services offered by animal care services, including in veterinary practices. his course is appropriate for anyone interested in working with animals including on a farm, a wildlife park or a veterinary practice. It is a sound foundation course and  has been designed to help you understand animal health care and basic veterinarian practices. Scope of Animal Health Work People have domesticated animals for various reasons, in particular, as pets (to keep them company), and as farm animals (to either work or to provide a product such as meat, wool or dairy produce). Whatever the reason animals are being kept, it is now well accepted that the owners of any animal have a responsibility toward the animal they keep. That responsibility is both a matter of ethics, and increasingly is also a matter of law.
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Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 

Complete Canine Care

  Do you currently, or do you want to, care for other people’s dogs, perhaps as a walker, sitter, day care provider, groomer, kennel assistant or rescue dog handler? This is the course for you. The Complete Canine Care course offers a comprehensive study of all areas of working with and caring for dogs, including understanding canine communication and reading body language to avoid unpredictable behaviours, introducing dogs to each other and the basics of training and dog psychology. The course covers early days with mum through to differences in breed, how to meet dogs properly, basic health and nutrition, the importance of exercise and solutions to common issues. This course aims to equip anyone working with and caring for dogs on a regular basis with all of the information they’ll need to get it right from day one. Whatever your role within the dog care industry, this qualification will enhance your understanding and assure your customers that their dogs are in good, knowledgeable hands. On completion, the student will: Understand the various stages of canine development Understand the workings of the dog’s mind and how they learn Have a basic understanding of canine health and nutrition, including the importance of good quality foods Understand breed differences and the importance of matching the right dog with the right owner Know how to make introductions betweens dogs, and to humans, including young children and babies Understand the importance of exercise, and how much a dog needs in order to avoid certain unwanted behaviours Know the basics of dog training Have a good understanding of dog behaviour Be able to identify communications and body language which make sense of otherwise ‘unpredictable’ actions Understand their role, as the human, including the importance of boundaries, discipline and leadership Who is this course for? Anyone who currently works, or wishes to work, with dogs in a caring capacity such as walkers, sitters, day care providers.  This qualification will enable you to offer a more comprehensive service to your customers and will give you an advantage over unqualified competitors. Course Content: Unit One – Early Days with Mum Unit Two – Canine Mind and Senses Unit Three – Pairing Dogs and Owners Unit Four – Breed and Behaviour Unit Five – How Dogs Learn Unit Six – Getting Introductions Right Unit Seven – The Importance of Socialisation Unit Eight – The Importance of Boundaries and Rules Unit Nine – Basic Health & Nutrition Unit Ten – Why Dogs Need Exercise Unit Eleven – Communication and Reading Body Language Unit Twelve – Basic Training Unit Thirteen – Problems and Issues: Aggression Unit Fourteen – Problems and Issues: Fears and Phobias Unit Fifteen – The Role of the Human
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Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 

Fun Dog Agility Class Instructor

  Dog agility has become one of the most popular activities for dog owners. With many groups boasting waiting lists of up to six months to join, there is certainly a demand for classes. One of the best things about becoming a fun agility trainer is that you can fit your classes around other commitments, and chose exactly how many you wish to run. Agility is performed at both a fun level, and also at serious competition level. The aim of the course is to equip you, the student, with the knowledge and understanding required to enable you not only to participate at a fun level, but also set up and run your own potentially very profitable fun agility classes. The knowledge gained in this course will equip you to then progress to further studies to teach classes or participate at competition level if you so wish.
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Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 

Introduction to Dog Behaviour

  It doesn't matter if you're a fan of Victoria Stilwell or Cesar Millan, this Dog Behaviour course is written from a neutral standpoint, offering the latest info and studies, the newest understanding of social structure in dogs, and debating hot topics such as dominance in dogs. With thorough chapters on everything from Operant conditioning, including clicker training, to the principles and techniques of Cesar Millan, there is something for everyone. This course will get you thinking about dogs and dog behaviour like never before. Devised by a practicing Behaviourist for every day dog owners and anyone who works or has regular contact in a professional capacity with dogs i.e kennel assistants, dog sitters, groomers etc. This international best selling course is unique for many reasons.  It is the first of its kind to study and consider both Positive Reward Training and its application in the human-dog relationship, and the more physical world of dog behaviour between dogs. Find yourself immersed in the debate of topics such as pack structure, appeasement societies, the need for an authority figure, and the relevant scientific studies. Far from a course that exists to merely educate from one perspective, this course will challenge everything you thought you knew about dogs and dog psychology, calling on the work of Fisher, Scott and Fuller, Bruce Fogle, Cesar Millan, Ray and Lorna Coppinger, Stephen Budiansky, Ian Dunbar and many more leading experts
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Introduction to Dog Behaviour (Pack Leader)

  The world of dog behaviour can be said to be divided between those who are fans of Cesar Millan, and those who are not. Courses Direct offers behaviour courses for both schools of thought.  Our policy is that so long as animal welfare is at the top of the agenda, differing opinions, styles and techniques are perfectly acceptable. After all, trainers, behaviourists, owners and the dogs themselves are not all the same. Nobody will argue with Cesar over 'Exercise' or 'Affection'. So that only leaves the 'Discipline' part of Cesar's style causing concerns.  But is this desire for a more humane approach, void of all discipline, appreciated by our dogs? Do they have a concept of humanity? Or should we be trying harder to understand and communicate with dogs using dog psychology rather than forcing our own human psychology upon them? Who Is This Course For? Anyone interested in dog behaviour from the pack leader viewpoint. If you work with dogs and wish to have a better understanding of how they think and how best to approach working with them from a canine rather than a human point of view, then this is the course for you. If you would prefer to study from a more neutral standpoint please view our Introduction to Dog Behaviour course. Click here Being the pack leader is not about a bunch of rules that turn your house into a prison for your dog. It's not about ruling with an iron fist. It's about representing a certain energy which your dog instinctively respects and follows. It's about making the decisions. It's about reward AND consequence, not just reward reward reward. This is much more in line with how dogs behave naturally when you take the over emotional and humanising owner out of the equation. This applies to who can come and go near you or the house, and how we behave in the presence of other dogs or children for example. It's about the dog revolving around you, not you and your life revolving around your problem dog. Aims: Examine the extent of humanisation that can exist, from mild examples of owners referring to their dogs as their children, to more extreme examples of unhealthy and selfish relationships between owner and dog. Learn how to master the art of being calm but assertive. Consider what some dogs may see as weakness, not kindness, and why they think that way. Study the work of leading experts from Dr Bruce Fogle to Scott & Fuller, and consider why dogs are simply not wired up to have a concept of equality. Learn how to maintain the loving dog-owner relationship, treat them as one of the family, but also represent an authority figure. Learn how to get respect from your dog, not just love and trust. Learn about dog training and operant conditioning, its role and its limits. Study how dogs learn by association and the difference between how dogs learn and how dogs think. Understand why the positive reward approach is perfect for obedience training, teaching dogs new things, fears, phobias, anxiety and even fear based aggression. Master the art of discipline and what it actually means. Learn how timing is key and why the absence of rules, boundaries and limitations can lead to anxiety, insecurity and more serious behavioural issues. Most importantly, learn all about the most significant and influential element to a happy and balanced dog - yourself. In this course, there is as much on human psychology as there is on dog behaviour. Please note: this course and Courses Direct is in no way directly affiliated with Cesar Millan Lesson Structure: INTRODUCTION UNIT ONE - The History & Evolution of Dogs & the Wolf UNIT TWO - Genetics & the Dog's Mind UNIT THREE - Breed Difference UNIT FOUR - Hormones, Health & Diet – Their Influence on Behaviour UNIT FIVE - Communication, Body Language, 'Nose-Eyes-Ears' UNIT SIX - Early Learning, Mum and Pack’s Influence, Socialisation, Habituation UNIT SEVEN - How Dogs Learn, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Discipline. UNIT EIGHT - Pack Structure - What It Means To Be 'Pack Leader' UNIT NINE - Exercise, Discipline & Affection UNIT TEN - Common Behavioural Issues UNIT ELEVEN - The Owner Influence, Energy & Personality UNIT TWELVE - Getting It Right, Recommended Daily Routines, Feeding, Dogs & Children
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Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 

Puppy Care

  Everyone loves a puppy. With their cute little faces and adorable play behaviours, how could you not? What many people don’t take into account when buying a puppy is the amount of work that needs to go into caring for and raising a well balanced pup that can then grow into a well behaved and happy adult dog. There is little or no consideration made for the complexities of owning a pup, breed differences and how much it will all cost. Many people don’t consider the fact that puppies don’t stay that way forever, and soon they’ll have an adult dog whose behaviours, temperaments, fears and phobias are largely based on genetics and environment, i.e. how they, the owners, raised and cared for them. As is the case with raising a child, it is very easy to get things wrong when bringing up a puppy. You need to know the ropes before the pup becomes part of the family, or you may be on a downwards slide from moment one.   It is a sad and shocking fact that one in five people who bought a puppy have either re-homed it or taken it to a rescue centre by the age of two. The aim of this course is to equip the student with the knowledge needed to raise the perfect pup from day one, whether in a home environment, or if you want to work with puppies. With the right information, you can help that puppy grow into a balanced, confident adult, free of aggression, behavioural issues, fears, phobias and anxieties. It covers everything from choosing the right breed to housetraining and feeding right up to socialisation and stimulating his growing and developing mind. Learn about puppy health and nutrition, how a dog learns and how to address unwanted behaviours.
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Sheep Management

  Improve production by increasing your knowledge and skills.  This course examines: Selection and breeding of sheep Improving Nutrition Sheep health Management of the commercial flock Wool Lamb and much more. Wool is an export product so good prices can be obtained when conditions in the market are favourable. There are fewer marketing problems associated with wool of good-high quality. Pure mutton breeds require less management than pure wool breeds. The lamb market is strong in many countries. A dual purpose breed can provide the farmer with two products (meat and wool), and spreads the farmer's source of income should there be an overproduction one of the two products. Sheep can also be farmed for dairy (eg. sheep cheese can be as popular as cows cheese in some parts of the world.   Learn more by enrolling now.
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Zookeeping

  Study Zookeeping, and gain the foundation knowledge and skills you will need to start your career as a Zoo Keeper. There are 9 lessons in this course: The Nature and Scope of Zoos What is a Zoo? The Evolution of Zoos Change in Zoo Design Modern Zoos and Sanctuaries Legislation Codes of Practices Animal Welfare Enrichment Record Keeping Identification Tags Animal Taxonomy Phylums & Classes of the Animal Kingdom The Function of Zoos Research and Zoos Education in Zoos Occupational Health and Safety in Zoos Workplace Health & Safety Legislation Health & Safety Management in Zoos Zoonoses Legionnaires Disease Other Safety Issues Risk Management Captive Husbandry - Nutrition and Feeding Animal Nutrition The Effect of Poor Nutrition on Animal Behaviour Water Requirements Essential Dietary Components Vitamins & Minerals Food Storage & Preparation Presentation of Food Captive Husbandry - Health Monitoring Health Maintaining Health Diseases Quarantine Record Keeping/Animal Transfer Data Enrichment Data Transfer Form Captive Husbandry - Reproduction The Need for Captive Breeding Captive Breeding in Zoos Goals of Captive Breeding Issues with Captive Breeding Inbreeding Risks Captive Breeding Programs Monitoring the Reproductive Status of Zoo Animals Assisted Reproduction Stud Books Birth Control and Separation Captive Husbandry - Behaviour and Enrichment Ethology Behaviour Types of Behaviour Behaviours in Captive Animals Learned Behaviour The Flight or Fight Response Animal Behaviours Animal Welfare Indicators Environmental Influence on Behaviour Behaviour Management Environmental Enrichment Human-Animal Interactions Keeper-Animal Interactions Visitor Animal Interactions Dealing with Dangerous Animals Flight Distance of Animals Handling Animals Visitor Animal Interactions Stress Reduction Enclosure Design and Maintenance Optimum Enclosure Design The Perfect Enclosure? Replicating Nature Providing Stimulating Environments Physical Enrichment Feeding Enrichment Sensory Enrichment Social Enrichment Problem-based Learning Project - Environmental Enrichment Introduction and Definition of PBL Problem Definition Team Structure and Interaction Discussion Resources Guidelines Final Report Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading. Aims Describe the nature and scope of zoos as a source of education and conservation Develop appropriate procedures for managing occupational health and safety in a zoo, with a view to minimising risk to staff, animals and visitors Describe the nutritional requirements and feeding preferences of animals within zoos Determine health management measures required for a range of different captive zoo animals Describe the management of breeding in zoos Determine appropriate ways to manage a range of different wild animals in zoos Explain procedures and techniques used to manage human-animal interactions in zoos Identify and describe the qualities of good enclosure design. Develop maintenance programs for different enclosures
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Certificate

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Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 
Courses Direct 

Dog Behaviour Practitioner

  No other course better prepares you for the real world of being a Dog Behaviourist. Devised by a practicing Behaviourist, this course is specifically for those who wish to become a Dog Behaviourist themselves, and don’t know where to start. Again, this course is unique for the same reasons that make the Dog Behaviour Course unique.  It is the first of its kind to study and consider both Positive Reward Training and its application in the human-dog relationship, and the more physical world of dog behaviour between dogs. Find yourself immersed in the debate of topics such as pack structure, appeasement societies, the need for an authority figure, and the relevant scientific studies. Far from a course that exists to merely educate from one perspective, this course will challenge everything you thought you knew about dogs and dog psychology, calling on the work of Fisher, Scott and Fuller, Bruce Fogle, Cesar Millan, Ray and Lorna Coppinger, Stephen Budiansky, Ian Dunbar and many more leading experts. Additional units are designed to not only cover training and behaviour, but the practical aspects of setting up in business, conducting a consultation, follow up sessions, monitoring progress, the law, health & safety, and your role as Dog Behaviourist, Teacher, Trainer, Mentor and Coach.
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Feline Studies

  This course is aimed at improving the knowledge base of pet owners, breeders/exhibitors and those involved with cats professionally. It delivers a wide syllabus of topics to provide the student with an introduction to the width and breadth of the subject area. Students will expand their knowledge and understanding by studying a whole variety of topics, including historical, practical, legal and scientific aspects of the field of feline studies. These will vary from examinations of folklore, anatomy, genetics, cattery management and animal law. This Feline Studies will be awarded to those students who satisfactorily complete all 10 Units of this course and a final online examination. Entry Requirements All students must per 16 years of age and above. Assessment Method Tutor marked assignments and a final online multiple choice examination.
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Advanced Certificate

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Courses Direct 


Associate Diploma

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Diploma

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Advanced Diploma

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Animal Health Courses

Animal Husbandry Courses

Cattle courses

Companion Animal Courses

Horse Courses

Pet Courses

Poultry Courses

Pig Courses

Sheep Courses

  
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About Us

Courses Direct is a leading distance vocational education provider operating all over the world including Australia, New Zealand & United Kingdom.[ read more ]

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Our aim is to provide quality vocational education to students around the world at a time and place that is flexible and accessible for them. [ read more ]

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