Animal enrichment, and specifically enrichment for dogs, is a growing field. As dogs become more family members than pets, many pet parents are looking for ways to enrich their dog’s life. As a certified canine enrichment specialist you could be the right person to help them do that!

A certification in canine enrichment isn’t just about adding a new credential to your resume. It’s about learning information, activities and skills that can help pets and their people live a great life together.

I know because I am a Certified Canine Enrichment Technician. In this blog post, I’ll share how I earned my certification, which pet pros should consider doing this, and extra resources to help you learn about dog enrichment.

How I Became Certified in Canine Enrichment

Let me start by telling you why I got certified in canine enrichment. It’s all about my two senior dogs, Burt and Lucy. In 2019 I got into trick training with Lucy and I saw how smart she is. She was able to learn so many things that I never thought possible… and she loved doing it!

Part of our trick training involved some scent work. That inspired me to get my other dog Burt involved in Barn Hunt in 2021. He has such a powerful nose – which he usually uses to steal my snacks – so I thought it would be fun to encourage him to use his sense of smell in a more directed way.

Between trick training and scent work, I quickly fell into all kinds of canine enrichment activities. 

I did snuffle mats, encouraged them to sniff on sniffari walks and let my dogs eat their dinner from DIY busy boxes.

I was hooked on enrichment and wanted to learn more!

I did some online searching, asked around a group of women pet pros I’m close with, and decided to enroll in the Dognostics Canine Enrichment Technician certification program.

Why I Choose the DogNostics Canine Enrichment Technician Program

DogNostics Career Center is a company founded by Niki Tudge, an accomplished dog trainer. They provide a wide range of online courses to educate pet professionals and some resources for pet parents, too.

Their programs are “developed and presented using reinforcement-based training and behavior protocols, procedures, and methodologies.” You can view all of

For me, it was great that this certification course is done online. That way I could complete it at my own pace (more on that below!) and didn’t have to go anywhere in person. This type of certification training is not widely available in person, so online education is a good option.

I also appreciate that DogNostics puts an emphasis on making dog training education affordable and accessible. They are passionate about the future of the dog behavior industry and supporting those who are part of it.

What’s Does This Course Cover?

The Canine Enrichment Technician program is currently $100 and includes:

• More than 10 hours of educational videos, webinars and resources
• Split across 7 modules
• Permission to add the credentials DN-CET to your title
• Add the program logo to your website or marketing materials.

Something that surprised me about this course is that it starts with very basic principles such as how to properly mark and reinforce a desired behavior from your dog and good leash management skills. While that seems pretty basic to anyone who works with dogs, I like that it’s such an important part of this course because it ensures that all the other skills and activities that you learn will go more smoothly.

Beyond the basics, this course goes into great detail about the science behind enrichment. I loved that because it’s way more in-depth than what you would learn from googling canine enrichment ideas. That made me feel like I was really getting an education and learning things that I’d be able to use to help people and their dogs.

How Long Did It Take To Get This Certification?

I enrolled in DogNostics’ Canine Enrichment Technician Certification program on January 15, 2022 – it was my birthday present to myself!

I earned my certification on May 31, 2023. In total, it took me 1 year and 4 months to earn this certification. Is that the norm for this program? I’m not really sure!

You could definitely complete this canine enrichment certification faster if you had more time to dedicate to watching the videos and completing the assessment tasks. I’m always doing a lot of things – running this blog, hosting a podcast, teaching my own online courses – so it took me longer than I anticipated to finish.

To be perfectly honest, some of the videos were very long and repetitive and that’s part of why it took me so long to get through the course. But don’t let that discourage you. I believe they’re repetivie for a reason, and everyone has different learning styles. I liked that there are text transcripts for most of the videos so I was able to read and take notes in addition to watching.

Which Pet Pros Should Get Certified in Canine Enrichment?

Are you a pet professional who wants to add a new skill to your toolbox? Or are you a content creator that could benefit from the credibility of a pet-related certification?

Module 6 of this program is all about how to implement canine enrichment into your pet business. It’s definitely geared to dog trainers, pet behaviorists, dog daycares and dog walkers or pet sitters. If you’re a pet service provider who interacts with people’s dogs in person, there are a lot of ways you could put this certification to use.

You can do canine enrichment assessments. You can include canine enrichment activities as an add-on to your services. You could even consult with your clients on what types of enrichment toys and tools they should purchase.

But I don’t think this is limited to just service providers. As a content creator I love the added credibility this certification gives me. It can open doors for more opportunities such as being quoted as an expert source in articles. I’ve even appeared on TV to demonstrate enrichment with my dog Lucy!

I’m also using what I learned in my certification to share dog enrichment ideas in an online course I created for pet parents. The Mental Enrichment for Dogs Activity Pack is a bite-sized online course I created with beginner and intermediate canine enrichment activities that any pet parent can do with their dog.

I love that I’m able to share what I learned in this certification program with pet parents all over the world. I believe that when more people are aware of dog enrichment and it’s benefits, the world will become a kinder place.

Get Certified in Canine Enrichement:

Here’s the DogNostics Program that I did (this is open to anyone and has no pre-requisites)
FearFree Pets has a Canine Enrichment Course for Veterinarians
If you are a CCPDT certified dog trainer, there’s many continuing education courses on enrichment
*Also, through CCPDT, you can enroll in Niki’s Program that I did

As you can see, a lot of the professional programs for canine enrichment available have pre-requisies. The DogNostics program does not. Another reason why it was a great choice for me and why I recommend it to others in the pet industry.