Due to insurance regulations students must be 16 years of age or older to enroll in the Treetops’ program. Students enrolled in either the online or paper based programs can complete the entire program from their home base. That said Treetops is more than happy to provide students with one on one instruction if they are interested in travelling to our facility to spend a couple of days with us in order to hone their skills. Students need to prearrange this time with Treetops. We do not charge any additional fees for this personal session.
Students can begin the Treetops massage program at anytime. 
Students have up to two years to complete the program with most students finishing all the program requirements in about 9 months. Graduates of the Treetops program usually set up practice in one of two areas. Either providing their services through a veterinary clinic or establishing their own private practice. Many incorporate this practice within their existing area of training whether it be as trainers, grooms, equine professionals or human health care professionals. Regulated health care professionals should check with their governing bodies regarding continuing education credit for these courses offered at Treetops.
 The Treetops course is a very vigorous course of study. The textbooks used are the same as those used by students in first year veterinary medicine and in registered veterinarian technician courses. This ensures that as an animal health care provider you are working with the same level of knowledge and language as those animal health care providers you will be consulting with. Additionally, Treetops has the highest number of required case study completions of any animal massage program offered in the world. This ensures that the students learn about the importance of continuity of care – seeing a health issue from the acute stage through to resolution. Furthermore, students have the opportunity to work on a wide variety of issues while being students of Treetops and therefore being provided with superior educational support and advice as they work through these real world animal health care problems such as hip dysplasia, chronic arthritis, luxating patellas and post surgical concerns. Lastly, as students work through the course material they will always be asked to engage in contrast and compare from one case study to another again helping them to learn what normal healthy body states are vs. disease states and learning how to successfully impact a body with massage to move it from a disease state to a healthy state. Our videos are also the most comprehensive. The first equine video clearly demonstrates a safe working environment, correct case intake as it relates to passive and active physical assessment of the animal, the impact of negative environments when completing the assessment, a full and clear demonstration of all the Swedish massage strokes, a full body massage routine with explanations on when each stroke would be appropriate and the types of physical issues that could be resolved and finally a detailed demonstration and explanation of stretching. The second equine video clearly demonstrates each of the specialized massage techniques of lymph drainage massage, sports massage, acupressure techniques, and using colour effectively in a equine therapy session.
Worksheets can be sent in to Treetops via email, fax or regular mail. The worksheets are a graded and sent back to the students within one week of arriving at Treetops. This material can be sent back by email, fax or regular mail. If no preference is given then communications between Treetops and the student is done via email. Video demonstrations can be sent to Treetops via regular mail (on a dvd) or through the large file transfer internet portal DropBox.
Textbooks can usually be obtained through online bookstores such as Barnes and Noble, Dogwise, Amazon, Chapters, Veterinarywire.com or Alpine Publications.
Students and graduates are strongly encouraged to join a professional association that represents their area of training, geographic location and provides professional liability insurance at a reasonable rate. Canadian based students and graduates of Treetops join the Canadian Animal Massage and Bodyworkers Association (CAMBA established 2007) as this group has a made in Canada professional liability insurance policy that is comprehensive, inclusive of a number of other complementary therapies and well respected by other health care professionals. CAMBA also represents the interests and issues facing Canadian practitioners. For more information on CAMBA please go to
www.c-amba.org .
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