Why KCAI?

The KCAI and me...

So, why would a volunteer club instructor like me be interested in going for KCAI accreditation? 

The scheme was recognised this year by the by City and Guilds NPTC, so that the Kennel Club can now award instructors who complete the KCAI qualification the ‘Kennel Club National Quality Award for Instructors in Dog Training and Canine Behaviour’. (Try fitting that onto your keytag!)

It’s the first time that instructors in the UK involved in teaching dog training and advising on canine behaviour will have the opportunity to gain a nationally recognised, credible and externally verified qualification.

Which, it seems to me, is great news for full-time instructors and professional trainers.

Volunteer Instructors
The attraction for club-level, volunteer instructors may be less obvious, though. I have had to give a bit of thought to this, particularly once I came face to face with the reality that some of the accreditation process is, to be honest, going to be HARD work! But at root, I think it’s quite easy to explain.

• First, I suppose I want to gain ‘street cred’. I have been lucky enough to pick up a lot of knowledge, experience and wisdom from the many instructors who have guided me and my dogs (two Standard Poodles – OK, get used to it!) from puppy training through to competitive agility. For some years I have been building on that knowledge gained as a ‘trainee’ by adding experience of the skills and challenges of being an instructor and dealing with the people who train the dogs. In the end I’m proud of what I have learned. I want my classes to have confidence in me and the training I give them. I think accreditation will help with that.

• Second, and probably more importantly to me, I want to learn. Don’t misunderstand me. The KCAI scheme teaches you nothing – not directly at least. It doesn’t work like that – it isn’t a course that you sit through where kindly but persistent teachers fill you with the information you need to pass the exam. What it does do, and does rather well, is guide you and direct you to specific areas of knowledge and experience where you need to learn more. The learning is down to you – although the help and information available from the scheme’s mentors (more about this in a later bulletin) can be enormously useful in making sure you are heading in the right direction and spending time on the issues that matter.

I hope the scheme will help me to identify areas of knowledge and experience I need to build on, indirectly help me to acquire that knowledge and experience efficiently, and eventually verify that I have become a fully-rounded instructor.

Also, I am very much in tune with a long-term objective of the scheme – to help dog owners to know where they can find decent trainers and how to recognise them when they do. I find my toes curling when (in a different role, more later) I find myself occasionally being asked “I want to set up some agility training but I haven’t done any agility myself yet – how can I find out more about it?”. There is a long answer and a short answer to that question, but I won’t bore you with either…