Titling with TEAM CCC

The Cooperative Care Certificate is designed with 10 exercises across 3 levels of increasing complexity and difficulty. The overall goal of the Cooperative Care Certificate is to provide your dog with a comprehensive foundation of experience and comfort with grooming and veterinary procedures. The 10 exercises have been chosen to cover the most common and necessary husbandry skills. The 3 levels have been developed to encourage a thoughtful and smooth training progression from one step to the next.

Level 1

At Level 1 the exercises are designed to highlight the very beginning stages of understanding the cooperative work between the dog and the trainer. At this level we want to see that the dog can happily participate in these fundamental training steps for each exercise. We start small and build up each tiny step in the process. To achieve Level 1 proficiency you and your dog should be able to demonstrate the early steps necessary to build fluency for each exercise.

Level 2

At Level 2 the exercises are designed to increase your dog’s tolerance for more duration and/or intensity within the exercises. We are still working towards developing your dog’s feelings of comfort and increasing his desire to participate in the process. The exercises at this level are designed to demonstrate you and your dog’s ability to move beyond the initial training stages, where teams often get stuck, and continue building strong husbandry skills.

Level 3

At Level 3 the exercises will allow you to demonstrate your consistent effort and commitment to husbandry work. To show proficiency at Level 3 the exercises require mastery of the basic skills and clear cooperative effort between you and your dog throughout the process. Challenges in the form of duration and intensity are added to the exercises. The exercises are now more closely resembling their real world applications, and ready for generalization and continued maintenance.

Titles and Certificates

At each level you can earn a Cooperative Care Certificate. The titles will be written as CCC1, CCC2, and CCC3.

These certificates are a recognition of your ability to train your dog to meet externally judged standards.  Feel free to add these titles after your dog’s name! They indicate that you have trained to a level of competency that many have not yet reached.  Earning these certificates is a sign that you have completed a significant training achievement and you should be very proud of yourself and your dog!

Here’s a fun sneak preview of what it looks like – three levels in about three minutes!