Animal Welfare & Well-Being Course

Animal Welfare & Well-Being Course Details

A woman in a group therapy session petting a golden retriever, illustrating animal-assisted intervention.

Prepare yourself to be an advocate for any animal that assists you in your work, which ultimately supports client safety. The Animal Welfare & Well-Being Course will focus on the well-being of the animal, help you as the professional determine animal and client suitability, allow you to practice for difficult situations that may arise, and explore considerations for how to end the intervention when necessary for the animal’s welfare.

Module 1 – Protecting Therapy Animals and Ensuring Participant Safety

  • Mitigate risks by acting as your animal’s best advocate.
  • Determine if a therapy animal team is ready for work in AAI.
  • Identify the importance of communication through therapy animal body language.
  • Screen clients for their readiness to work with therapy animals.
  • Determine the most appropriate activity to meet your treatment goals.

Module 2 – Balancing Therapy Animal and Client Needs

Apply best practices that preserve animal welfare and well-being in difficult situations that are sometimes encountered when balancing the needs of therapy animals and clients.

Module 3 – Discontinuing AAI

You will be able to plan for when you may need to discontinue AAI services. This may be temporary or more permanent due to issues of animal loss or retirement.

Assessment in Best Practices in Therapy Animal Handling

  • This 30-question quiz covers all content for Best Practices in Therapy Animal Handling.
  • A passing score of 80% is required. You must complete Modules 1-3 before accessing this assessment.
A woman in a group therapy session petting a golden retriever, illustrating animal-assisted intervention.

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Get the best rate for the Animal Welfare and Well-Being Course, plus all other animal-assisted intervention coursework, by becoming a member of AAAIP.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Our courses are fully self-paced and easy to follow. They are designed for busy professionals like you—those new to working with therapy animals, or those already working with them and looking to do it even better. You’ll hear the lessons read aloud, and you’ll answer real-world, scenario-based questions (think: multiple choice and drag-and-drop). At the end, there’s a quick knowledge check and you’ll get a certificate you can show your administrators. The content is based on trusted national guidelines, so you’ll know you’re doing things the right way from the start.

You can go at your own pace—seriously. Courses are self-paced and usually take people 2–4 hours to complete, depending on how deeply you engage with the content. You can start, stop, and return whenever your schedule allows—no pressure, just progress.

Yes, they’re designed to be as inclusive as possible. Every course has accurate closed captions, can be used with screen readers, and includes features like keyboard shortcuts, playback speed controls, and zoom-in options. Whether you’re using a laptop or assistive tech, you’ll be able to access everything you need.

Our courses are built by and for professionals in animal-assisted interventions. Each one was developed with input from AAI experts and grounded in national Competencies to make to make sure what you’re learning is meaningful, ethical, and relevant to your work.

You will see a Buy Course section at the bottom of each course page. Simply enter your email address and click “Next”. You will receive a login code via email, which you can use to log in to the LMS. Follow the instructions on the screen to proceed.

The email address you used to log in to the Learning Management System (LMS) might not match the email address used for your AAAIP Membership. The same email must be used to have your membership discount applied to your course purchase. If you were charged the wrong amount, please Contact Us.

Good question! AAAIP’s online courses are interactive learning experiences with activities, knowledge checks, and a certificate at the end. Recordings are replays of past events and webinars.

All the AAAIP courses are built to match the key skills and knowledge areas used in certification. We even label which topics connect with which domain on the Specialist Certification exam, so you can choose what’s most helpful. Whether you’re pursuing certification now or planning ahead, these courses will move you closer to professional recognition in AAI.

Courses Other AAI Professionals Took

See the other AAAIP courses that AAI professionals took to prepare themselves for the Animal-Assisted Intervention Specialist Certification (C-AAIS) exam.