YOUR CART
- No products in the cart.
Subtotal:
R0.00
BEST SELLING PRODUCTS
R1,700.00
Sale!
MHERA™ Certified Trainer
Original price was: R7,900.00.R5,100.00Current price is: R5,100.00.
MHERA™ Certified Trainer Course
Understand the dog behind the behaviour.
Traditional training often focuses on what the dog is doing. MHERA™ takes a different starting point by looking at the dog’s emotional state, experiences, environment and access to rewarding activities.
MHERA™ stands for Mood, Hedonic Budget, Emotionality and Reinforcement Analysis. It is a structured assessment approach that helps trainers and behaviour professionals build a clearer picture of a dog’s emotional wellbeing and identify factors that may be influencing its behaviour and ability to learn.
Rather than looking at behaviour in isolation, MHERA™ helps you consider what may be contributing to the behaviour, what the dog is experiencing in its daily life, and how this information can be incorporated into training and behaviour plans.
What you will learn
You will learn how to assess and interpret aspects of a dog’s emotional wellbeing, including mood, emotionality, cognitive bias, hedonic budget and reinforcement.
You will learn how to apply the MHERA™ process to real training and behaviour cases and use the findings to inform practical training and behaviour modification plans.
You will also learn how to communicate your observations and recommendations to owners in a clear, practical way, and how to monitor changes in wellbeing over time rather than relying only on what you observe during a single training session.
The MHERA™ App
Your course includes a MHERA™ App Blue subscription for the duration of your course at no additional cost.
The app provides the tools you need to record observations, complete MHERA™ assessments and monitor changes over time. It includes six full MHERA™ assessments per month, assessment tools covering mood, cognitive bias, hedonic budget, emotionality and reinforcement, as well as graphs and wellbeing reports.
The app can also be used to create professional reports that can be discussed and shared with clients, helping you turn your assessments into something practical and understandable.
Who is this course for?
The MHERA™ Certified Trainer Course is designed for professionals who already work with dogs and want to incorporate structured emotional wellbeing assessment into their training and behaviour practice.
Module 1 Introduction to the MHERA™ Methodology
Explore the principles behind the MHERA™ methodology and understanding how emotional wellbeing influences behaviour, training and learning outcomes. This section introduces the four interconnected components of MHERA™ and explains how they work together to provide a science-based methodology for understanding, measuring and managing animal emotional wellbeing.
Topics include:
– What is MHERA™?
– Why emotional wellbeing matters.
– The relationship between welfare, wellbeing and behaviour.
– The five components of the MHERA™ methodology.
Practical: None
Assessment: LMS
Module 2 Mood State
Discover why mood is one of the most important influences on an animal’s responsiveness to training and learn how to assess it using the MHERA™ methodology.
Topics include:
– What mood is and how it differs from emotion.
– How mood is measured.
– How mood influences learning, motivation and decision-making.
– Conducting a MHERA™ Mood State Assessment.
– Cognitive bias.
– Conducting a MHERA™ Cognitive Bias test and how to use the results to adapt your training protocols for the individual dog.
Practical:
– Conduct a complete MHERA™ Mood State Assessment on a dog using the MHERA™ App.
– Observe the same dog across several short sessions to identify changes in mood.
– Conduct a MHERA™ Cognitive Bias Test.
– Compare Mood State and Cognitive Bias results and discuss how they would influence training choices.
Assignment: LMS
Module 3 Hedonic Budget
Learn how an animal’s daily emotional experiences shape overall emotional wellbeing. In this section, we discuss practical ways to create emotionally fulfilling lives that set animals up for success in training and everyday life scenarios.
Topics include:
– CORE Emotional States.
– The MHERA™ Hedonic Budget – what is measured and why.
– Conducting a MHERA™ Hedonic Budget Assessment.
– Identifying opportunities to improve emotional wellbeing.
Practical:
– Complete a MHERA™ Hedonic Budget Assessment for two dogs.
– Using the HB Form, identify emotional “income” within the dog’s daily routine.
– Develop a simple wellbeing improvement plan by increasing positive emotional opportunities.
– Reassess the Hedonic Budget after discussing and implementing proposed management changes over two weeks.
Assignment: LMS
Module 4 Emotionality and Reinforcement Assessment
Using the MHERA™ Emotionality Assessment, you’ll learn more about how animals respond to everyday situations by measuring both the emotional value and the intensity of their emotional experiences.
Understanding these moment-to-moment emotional responses allows trainers to identify what an animal finds rewarding, challenging or overwhelming, and to develop training strategies that support emotional regulation, build confidence and create more positive learning experiences.
You’ll then learn how the MHERA™ Reinforcement Assessment builds on this information by evaluating how the consequences of an emotional experience influence future behaviour and learning. Together, these assessments help identify what is motivating behaviour, how reinforcement shapes future choices, and how training can be adapted to promote successful learning.
Topics include:
– What is emotion and how does it differ from mood.
– Why should we measure emotions in animals?
– Tracking and interpreting emotions using the Emotionality Graph.
– Understanding reinforcement through the animal’s emotional experience.
– How reinforcement influences behaviour, motivation and learning.
– Using Emotionality and Reinforcement Assessments to guide training decisions.
Practical:
– Observe a dog during several training exercises and complete a MHERA™ Emotionality Assessment using the app.
– Track changes in valence and arousal throughout the exercise.
– Complete a Reinforcement Assessment by identifying the consequences maintaining the observed behaviours.
– Discuss how the dog’s emotional experience and reinforcement history would influence future training decisions.
– Produce a MHERA™ report summarising findings and recommending appropriate training and wellbeing interventions.
Assignment: Case Study on LMS, marked by Charmaine.
This course teaches you to train and advise with the dog’s emotions and daily life in mind — using a clear method and a practical app, not guesswork.
Certification:
Complete both the online modules and practical training to qualify as a MHERA™ Licensed Trainer.
Course Format & Dates:
Thursday evening live lectures – 18H30 TO 21H00.
Module 1 – 22 October
Module 2- 29 October
Module 3- 5 November
12 November – break (no class)
Module 4 and consolidation – 19 November
Assessment due – 10 December
Fees:
R5100 Full course or select instalment option.
R900 – non-refundable Booking fee
R1400 – Due 1 October 2026
R1400 – Due 1 November 2026
R1400 – Due 1 December 2026
If you want to elevate your training practice with science‑based emotional wellbeing assessment, this course is the next step in your professional journey.
To register for this course, download this Registration Form and email to cbti@petsensecollege.co.za
_________________________________________________________________________