Animal Assisted Wellness, 1-year Certificate

The Animal Assisted Wellness program prepares students within their professional role to partner with animals in a variety of settings. The program includes courses on the animal human bond, ethics of integrating animals into settings and animal health and wellness. Hands-on experience is gained through clinical experience and students will demonstrate animal handling techniques. Graduates are employed in a variety of settings such as long term care, schools, libraries, correctional institutes, rehabilitation programs and crisis response programs.

Admission Requirements:

• Completion of a minimum 30 post-secondary credits from a public, accredited institution. Only credits from Canadian public post-secondary institutions will be accepted.
• Direct Entry: credits are in human services or wellness of people related field, including any previous animal wellness credits. 
• Indirect Entry: post-secondary credits plus 3 years full time human services work experience. Assessed on a case by case basis.

All applicants, regardless of citizenship of country of origin, must meet our English Language Proficiency requirement. Out-of-province applicants or those not meeting the admission and/or program requirements should refer to the Admissions section of the website.

Program / Clinical Experience Requirements:

• Students must be in good standing with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 to be eligible for their clinical experience placement.
• Students must be in good health, highly motivated, emotionally mature and stable. A high degree of tolerance and respect for the rights of others is required.
• Students are responsible for meeting all requirements set out by the agencies. This includes immunization, criminal record checks, or vulnerable sector checks before the clinical experience starts. 

Graduation Requirements:

Students completing the requirements with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.00 will be awarded an Animal Assisted Wellness certificate.