real world training 

real world training 

Real World Training with NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines prepares us for real world responses. We’ll learn what to do when crisis strikes our family, our neighborhood, our workplace colleagues, schoolmates, those who share our faith, and people we’ve never met.   

We’ll learn what to do to help them be safe, and to help them discover their own path to recovery and the future. Just as importantly, we’ll learn what not to do. We’ll learn to avoid common, well-intentioned actions and biases that actually create obstacles to their safety and recovery. 

Train with us, with or without a canine partner, to develop the skills and gain the real world experience that make a difference for someone in crisis. 

Local   All crisis response is local, and crisis response begins in our own communities well in advance of a critical incident.

When we train with NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines, we're actually making a commitment to helping people in our own community prepare for, respond to, and recover from crisis, trauma and disasters. 

We're also making a promise to strengthen our community with new capacity and resilience for the future.

When we train with NATIONAL, we’ll be working with community-based coalitions, faith-based organizations, federal, tribal, state & territorial partners, nonprofits and other groups through all phases of the crisis response cycle.

Get Started   If you’ve read this far, you’ve likely given serious thought to becoming a force for good in your community.

Join NATIONAL's Get Started course for a deeper understanding of the work of crisis response, and to explore for yourself how your experience and skills can be used to help someone who's hurting.

curriculum 

Focus The NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines curriculum includes trauma-informed training in areas specifically focused on the real world challenges handlers and canines will face in responding to critical incidents and people in crisis.

Some of the topic areas include FEMA Incident Command System, psychological first aid, suicide prevention and intervention, confidentiality and ethics, conflict resolution, public access laws, communication technologies, peer support for responders, and the canine partnership. 

Beyond the Standards  For 25 years NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines has exceeded the requirements set forth in The National Standards for Animal Assisted Crisis Response (rev2010). 

 The Standards document the criteria for curriculum, certification, continuing education, and the ethical care of crisis response canines. The Standards also establish the operational requirements for organizations that train, certify and deploy crisis response canines. 

This framework of national standards allows us to respond safely, work collaboratively and communicate effectively across a diverse national network of agencies responding to critical incidents. 

Hybrid Nature  The power of NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines’ distance learning springs from its hybrid nature. Each topic area includes a blend of online courses; real world practicums for us and our canine partner in our local community; and live virtual Q+A’s with experienced responders and subject matter experts. 

At NATIONAL, hybrid distance learning is easily accessible online even by someone in the most remote of areas. It fits your schedule so you decide the day, time and duration of each session. And yes, it’s self-paced so you can spend more time with the concepts that challenge you, or move quickly through topics that are already well known to you.

a pathway

When you’re looking for the knowledge, skills and real world experience it takes to make a difference for someone who’s hurting, your can find your pathway with NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines distance learning.

1. Get Started  NATIONAL’s Get Started course is our first step. As a preview to the Canis Major+Canis Minor mentorship, Get Started provides an introduction to the fundamentals of working as a crisis response canine team.

The Get Started course is open enrollment, on line, self-paced and allows us to begin exploring whether crisis response is right for us. Completing the Get Started course provides us with a better understanding of (1) the level of effort we’ll be making a commitment to, and (2) how we’ll experience and adapt to the hybrid learning experience.

● Successful completion of the Get Started course is a pre-requisite for applying to the Canis Major+Canis Minor Mentorship.

2. Canis Major+Canis Minor Mentorship  The Canis Major+Canis Minor Mentorship is our next step. It’s a 6 month course, presented over two quarters, Q1 and Q2. The Canis Minor Mentorship continues to build upon the foundation of knowledge, skills and real world experiences we gained in the Get Started course. As we progress through Q1 and Q2, we’ll develop the capacity to access, adapt to, and respond to increasingly more complex incidents. 

The Canis Minor Mentorship uses the same hybrid learning approach as Get Started. It’s a blend of online courses; real world practicums for us and our canine partner in our local community; and live virtual Q+A’s with experienced responders and subject matter experts. 

The Canis Minor Mentorship is a cohort-based learning environment. This is especially important for developing the skills, experience and understanding needed to work in the extraordinarily collaborative field of crisis response.  

● Successful completion of the Canis Major+Canis Minor Mentorship Q1 and Q2 are pre-requisites for applying for the Crisis Response Team-Knowledge Assessed certification.

3. Crisis Response Team-Knowledge Assessed Certification (CCRT-KA)  The Crisis Response Team-Knowledge Assessed certification (CCRT-KA) is our third step. It’s a 3 month course, presented in one quarter, and uses the hybrid learning approach in a cohort-based learning environment. This course prepares us for the comprehensive knowledge-based exam and our public access test for crisis response canines.

This one year CCRT-KA certification allows us, the crisis response handler and our canine, to be deployed to crises, trauma and disasters. The CCRT-KA certification is earned upon successful completion of the comprehensive CCRT-KA exam, the public access test for crisis response canines, and all pre-requisites.

● Successful completion of the Crisis Response Team-Knowledge Assessed certification is a pre-requisite for applying for the Crisis Response Team-Competency Assessed certification (CCRT-CA).

4. Crisis Response Team-Competency Assessed Certification (CCRT-CA)  The Crisis Response Team-Competency Assessed certification (CCRT-CA) is our fourth step. 

This three-year CCRT-CA certification is earned upon the recommendation of the NATIONAL Evaluators and our successful completion of the competency assessment, the public access test for crisis response canines, and all pre-requisites.

After earning our CCRT-KA certification, we’ll use the next 12 months to build additional capabilities and a deeper understanding of responding to crisis, trauma and disasters. We’ll expand our outreach and support to our community partners. We’ll continue our education around the topics of grief and loss, and suicide prevention/intervention. 

Before our CCRT-KA certification expires, we’ll apply for the CCRT-CA assessment by NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines’ Evaluators. The competency assessment is a comprehensive assessment for all key criteria of crisis response, and is conducted while we’re deployed to a critical incident. 

5. What’s Next  The pathway to making a difference for someone who’s hurting continues well after we’ve earned our certification. It’s true the knowledge, skills and response experience we gained during our Canis Minor mentorship are important. 

Yet it’s all the lessons we’ll continue to learn as certified crisis response canine teams that become invaluable when we’re present alongside someone who’s hurting.