Holly and Hugo: Full Review

Holly and Hugo is an online academy for those interested in studying pets. They offer a variety of topics including nutrition, training, well-being, caring, grooming, and DIY projects. 

These courses are catered to anyone who loves animals, pet parents, or people who are already working with animals. You do not need any prior experience as the courses are created to help you learn new skills, start a new career, or upgrade your resume.

The courses are created by qualified instructors who are experts in veterinary medicine, certified trainers, and experienced groomers.

Content and Topics:

They have 30+ courses grouped into 4 categories: animal behavior, animal careers, dog training, and pet care. 

Here is an overview of them and descriptions for the best-sellers: 

1. Animal Behavior:

• Animal Psychology: This course delves into your pet’s psychology to help you understand what is normal or undesirable behavior. Also offers strategies to improve unwanted behavior based on animal psychology.
• Animal Training & Pet Sitting: Teaches you the essential skills as a pet caregiver including first aid, health, hygiene, dog walking, basic training, and safety tips. Also includes information to run your business. 
• Dog Commands for Beginners
• Accredited Dog Walking Course 

2. Animal Careers:

• Accredited Veterinary Assistant: A veterinary assistant is part of the staff at the clinic, and is the person in charge of sterilizing and cleaning, handling animals, dealing with clients, etc. This course provides a firm ground to perform this job, covering topics such as recognizing pain, understanding technical terms, anatomy and physiology, first aid, etc. Caters to people working with animals in pet clinics and shelters.
• Start Your Business
• Career with Animals
• Market your Business
• A Vet in the Making
• Make Animal Care your Business

3. Dog training:

• Puppy and New Dog Training 
• Reward-Based Dog Training
• Moderating Dog Behavior
• Dog Socialization and Obedience MasterClass
• Dog Commands for Beginners
• Dog Walking Basics
• Accredited Dog Walking Course
• Dog Training Essentials 

4. Pet Care:

• Pet nutrition: This course covers essential knowledge of nutrition including topics such as type of food and diets, how to read labels, balanced nutrition, weight management, adjusting the food for health problems, etc. 
• Pet First Aid & CPR
• Ultimate Guide To Dog Grooming
• Care of the Senior Pet: This course helps you understand the aging process, common health problems and treatments, healthy aging, and how to prepare to say goodbye. 
• Animal Physical Therapy
• Become a Doggy Dessert Chef
• Pet Adoption
• Essential Cat & Kitten Care
• Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation
• Animal Care Masterclass
• Clothes & Crafts for Your Pets

Instructor Expertise:

The courses are designed by different instructors according to their field of expertise. Some of the instructors are:

• Dr. Pippa Elliott, BVMS MRCVS, is a veterinarian with 27 years of experience, who graduated from the University of Glasgow, UK. She has been involved with animal care since a very young age when she volunteered at her local clinic. Due to her expertise in Animal Health and Wellness, she has designed many of the courses from animal careers and pet care. 
• Ian Stone is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA). He is the owner and head instructor at Simpawtico Dog Training, LLC, and is the Canine Behavior and Training Manager for his local shelter in New York. 
• Tolo Vicens is a professional dog groomer with over 20 years of experience in the industry. He has international recognition and obtained many awards from the top grooming competitions in Europe. 
• Deborah Shores, DVM, is an American Veterinarian and a 2008 graduate of Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science, minor in Chemistry, from Berry College in Rome, Georgia, USA.

User Experience:

The course materials are presented in modules. The written information is easy to follow and organized using subheadings, short paragraphs, bullet points, and lots of images. The writing style is friendly and uses simple language that anyone without an animal background can understand.

There are not many videos along the modules. It will also vary from course to course, and some courses don’t include any videos at all. I can give you an example from one of the courses I took, Care of Senior Pet, they included one video per module, in a short clip format of 2 minutes approx. and the content would be like a summary of the written materials. 

Having more or less videos is a personal preference. In my case, it did not impact my experience. I would say, I even prefer written materials because it is easier to take notes. However, I read reviews from the Grooming course where customers would have preferred to see videos with the step-by-step, instead, they have short videos showing the bathing and trimming process. I think in this case, it makes a lot of sense, and they potentially can include more audiovisual materials in the future. 

The platform is very friendly, it contains navigation bars to help you follow your progress. At the end of each module, there is an option to take an exam. The platform allows you to validate the answers but you can’t change them. Not all the courses have exams, but the ones with the option to get an accreditation do. We will see more about accreditations in the following section. 

Accreditation and Certification:

This is an interesting feature, especially for those who want to start a career in the pet industry or are already in the industry and want to improve their credentials. 

The certificates are issued by The International Council for Online Educational Standards (ICOES), which is an independent body that provides quality accreditation and ensures that the highest standards for online education are being achieved.

Additionally, many of their courses are Continuing Professional Development (CPD) certified, meaning you will earn CPD points and can also order a CPD certificate when you complete the course. This certification is required by some professional body memberships. 

You are eligible to get the accreditations once you complete the course at a satisfactory rate, meaning that you need to get 55% or more on all of the exams at the end of each module. 

All of these accreditations are offered for an additional cost, which we will review in detail in the Pricing section. 

Community and Support:

They have a section with FAQs, or you can get in touch with the customer support team through their Contact Us Page. 

Learning Outcomes:

In this article, I will describe the skills I gained after spending one month on the platform with full access to all the courses. I am also planning to do individual reviews for each of the courses I completed, but that will come in the following months. For now, I just wanted to give you an overview. 

For the sake of this review, and out of my curiosity, I wanted to see how many courses I could cover in one month. So I reserved a day per week for this and organized it with learning sprints. The skills I prioritized for my dog sitting and pet blogging business were animal behaviorist, training, senior dog care, nutrition, and first aid. 

After one month, I managed to complete 4 courses and these were my scores: 

• Pet nutrition: 94.55%
• Pet first aid & CPR: 98.11%
• Dog Behavior & Training: 94.29%
• Care of the Senior Pet: 98.85%

The most important lessons I got from these courses

• I got a better understanding of how dogs think and behave, which is crucial for effective dog training. I understood the importance of consistency and structure to prevent confusion, insecurity, and frustration and ultimately create a stronger bond between me and them.
• I learned to effectively assess and respond to medical emergencies. This information is vital because it can save the lives of the animals.
• I learned about the importance of different types of food and nutrition for pets, the essential role of water, how to judge the quality of pet food by reading labels, and the importance of feeding the right amount of food based on the pet’s needs.
• I learned about exercises and physiotherapy techniques to improve my older pet’s mobility.

In the process of learning at this speed, of course, I felt fatigued and my attention span shortened after the second week. I ended up making adjustments to my system because I didn’t want to sacrifice quality over quantity. I recommend you get the one-year access and take your time to learn the courses; don’t rush like I did. 

Pricing and Value

They have a package called Access to All Courses, which gives you access to 30+ courses and costs $99.00 for one year of access or $149.00 for lifetime access. Alternatively, they offer individual courses at $49 each. 

They also upsell other products such as

• ICOES Digital Certificate for $21.99
• ICOES Hard Copy Certificate for $29.99
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for $39.99
• Certificate of Achievement for $14.99
• Proof of Enrollment for $12.99
• Proof of Completion for $12.99
• Result Breakdown for $12.99 

Conclusion

Holly and Hugo is an online platform that provides information on animal care and pet education. They stand out for their range of courses designed by industry leaders. They solve problems for pet owners who want to better understand their pets and take proper care of them; and entrepreneurs who want to provide exceptional services to their pet clients. 

Where you can get it

Full Gallery

Disclosure: Independent review by Katherine Ortega from Furryaging.com. We participate in affiliate programs, and we may earn income when you use our links. We hope you think that is fair, based on the amount of work that goes into our reviews.

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