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• Learn About The Genetics of Canine Aggression with Dr. Jessica Hekman

  • Start
    Wednesday, May 20, 2015
  •  
    7:00 PM (CDT)
  • End
    Monday, May 20, 2019
  •  
    8:00 PM (CDT)
  • Location
    Recorded Webinar
  • Registered
    18 registrants

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  presented by Dr. Jessica Hekman
  

  CEUs: IAABC 1, CPDT 1, KPA 1, PPAB 1

  
  

  

  
  

  Why haven't we found a genetic test yet that will predict aggression in dogs? In this presentation Dr. Jessica will  summarize then current approaches that have been taken to answering this problem and explain the pitfalls that researchers have encountered. Dr.  Jessica will  describe some specific findings in dogs and humans and put them in context to explain their relevance to our understanding of canine aggression in the real world. The webinar will also discuss the  future directions of research in this area and give some hope for future results.

  
  

  Webinar Objectives

  • List some approaches to finding a genetic test for aggression
    
  • Explain why finding a genetic test for aggression is difficult and unlikely to happen soon
    
  • Describe some specific mechanisms for the interaction of genetics and environment to influence aggression in dogs
    

  About The Presenter

  

  
  

  Jessica is a veterinarian currently pursuing a PhD in genetics. After eleven years working as a computer programmer, she decided to go back to school to research the causes of behavior problems in dogs. She received her veterinary degree from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Massachusetts, where she also received a Master's degree for her work on stress behaviors in hospitalized dogs. After graduation, she completed a year-long internship specializing in shelter medicine at the University of Florida Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program. She is now enrolled in a PhD program in genetics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her lab studies a group of foxes (often known as the "Siberian silver foxes") which have been bred over many generations to be friendly to humans. Her ultimate goal is to find genetic causes of fearfulness in dogs, to work with behaviorally challenged shelter dogs, and to help people better understand the science behind dog behavior.
  
  Jessica is a New Englander at heart, but currently lives in Urbana, Illinois with her husband and two dogs (an elderly golden retriever and a fearful collie-retriever mix). You can learn more about her at www.dogzombie.com.
  

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• Learn How to Work With the Fearful Dog with Susan Claire

  • Start
    Monday, March 28, 2016
  •  
    1:00 PM (EDT)
  • End
    Saturday, March 28, 2020
  •  
    2:30 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    Recorded Webinar
  • Registered
    8 registrants

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  presented by Susan Claire
  

  CEUs PPAB, 1.5 IAABC, 1.5 CCPDT, 1.5

  
  

  This presentation is designed to help trainers work with clients, fosters, rescues, and shelters who find themselves with dogs that are extremely fearful. Fearful dogs are often difficult to handle as well as difficult to find a forever home for. These caretakers often do not have access to or a budget for a Veterinary Behaviorist, and need some immediate hands-on help.
  
  This presentation will aid in learning how to make enough progress with these dogs to prepare them for adoption (if in foster care). Susan will discuss how to prepare the clients, fosters, rescues and shelters for realistic expectations for these dogs and how to make a possible difficult situation better for all parties. She will cover what tools to use, management and behavior modification techniques for making progress with extremely fearful dogs.

  
  

  Webinar Objectives

  • Identifying fearful body language
  • Keeping these dogs under threshold
  • Tools, equipment, for management and enrichment
  • Counter conditioning techniques for presence of humans, being touched, walking on a leash and hand targeting
  • How to identify progress, move to next level
  • How to identify appropriate homes
  • Includes a case study of my own foster flunky dog

  About The Presenter

  
  

  
  

  Susan Claire, CPDT-KA
  
  

  Susan started her career in marketing, advertising, and video production. Back in 1993, she got hooked on competition obedience with her first dog. In those days, harsh training methods were the norm, she started to realize that while some of people were achieving training goals, some were also ruining their dogs’ temperaments, eroding the bond and causing the dogs unnecessary pain.  In 2000, she began volunteering at the Humane Society of Broward County and was introduced to positive reinforcement (R+) training.  The dogs learned quicker and were happy and willing to perform the behaviors. She has used only reward-based training since and have made it her mission to spread the word: harsh punishment is NOT necessary to train your dog!
  
  Susan's specialty is training pet dogs: working with individuals and families that want a well-behaved pet dog with a friendly, sound temperament. She loves helping people start raising their puppy right from the start, but also work with families who want to modify behavior problems in an adult dog.  Susan serves as Behavior Consultant and trainer for the Adoption Ambassador Program at The Humane Society of Broward County, which places at risk dogs into foster families who are empowered to care for and train the dogs and choose the new adoptive family. She trains and counsels the Adoption Ambassadors (fosters) and develops individual behavior modification plans for the dogs in the program. She has also done rescue work with semi-feral dogs in Puerto Rico.
  

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• You Deserve Some Help with Veronica Boutelle

  • Start
    Thursday, September 22, 2016
  •  
    3:00 PM (EDT)
  • End
    Tuesday, September 22, 2020
  •  
    4:00 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    Recorded Webinar
  • Registered
    1 registrant

  Register

  Presented by Veronica Boutelle
  

  CEUs: PPAB, 1 CCPDT, 1 IAABC, 1

  
  

  If you’ve already grown beyond a one-trainer band, or have reached the point where you just can’t do it all yourself anymore, you’ll want to take advantage of this web seminar. From finding and hiring the right people to training and reviews, Veronica Boutelle of dog*tec shares practical, hands-on tips for building a productive team culture for your business. She’ll discuss how to know when it’s time to hire, how to find the right people for the job, the hiring process itself, and whether you should bring on independent contractors or employees.

  Once you’ve got help, you want to get the most from your growing business. So Veronica looks at strategies for creating a positive staff culture (or fixing one that’s gotten off on the wrong foot), including staff training do’s and don’ts, reviews that actually work, and ways to reduce chaos-inducing turnover. Whether you’re ready for some help, or would like to get more from the help you already have, don’t miss this web seminar.

  
  

  Learning Objectives

  • Understand the process for finding and hiring strong employees
    
  • Understand the difference between independent contractors and employees, and the legal and tax implications of each
    
  • Understand the importance of, and techniques behind, effective staff training and review processes for building a strong, positive staff culture

  
  

  About The Presenter

  
  

  
  

  Veronica is the founder of dog*tec, the dog pro industry’s leading business consultancy, through which she has been helping dog trainers help dogs since 2003. She is the author of How to Run a Dog Business: Putting Your Career Where Your Heart Is and the co-author of Minding Your Dog Business: A Practical Guide to Business Success for Dog Professionals, and writes on business topics for many dog training industry journals. Veronica is a sought-after speaker at conferences and dog training schools across the country and internationally. She has recently spoken to positive reinforcement trainers at conferences and seminars in countries as diverse as Chile, Australia, Spain, New Zealand, and the UK.

  As former Director of Behavior & Training at the San Francisco SPCA, and as a dog training business owner before that, Veronica understands what it means to be a dog trainer first hand—the daily worries about everything from client compliance to financial security, the unique challenges of a “flexible” schedule that requires evenings and weekends, and the struggle to balance clients and training with the minutiae of running a business—and to balance all of that with a rich non-work life. Her background as a trainer, her business expertise, and her work as an educator put Veronica in a unique position to help professional dog trainers learn to become as skilled in business as they are as trainers—and that means more dogs’ lives touched by positive training.

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• The Power of Choice Presented by Irith Bloom

  • Start
    Monday, September 11, 2017
  •  
    1:00 PM (EDT)
  • End
    Friday, September 11, 2020
  •  
    3:00 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    Recorded Webinar
  • Registered
    10 registrants

  Register

  Presented by Irith Bloom
  

  CEUs: PPAB 2, CCPDT 2, IAABC 2

  
  

  Scientific research indicates that control over one’s environment is a strong reinforcer. Unfortunately, many of our pets have almost no control over their environment, and can make few, if any, significant choices. Humans select what animals eat, specify which objects are appropriate toys, decide when and where an animal can go outside, and essentially control every aspect of the animal’s life. This pervasive lack of choice can result in increased stress, which often leads to a variety of undesired behaviors.

  Fortunately, there is a better way. This presentation will highlight tools you can use to increase choice in an animal’s life, ranging from training techniques that give animals more control, to practical ways to create choice-rich environments, to tips on empowering animals to make choices that work both for them and for their humans. The presentation will also address why choice is especially critical when dealing with aggressive, fearful, and reactive behavior, and provide specific examples for how to increase choice in those types of situations.

  
  

  Learning Objectives

  • Attendees will learn how lack of choice can relate to increased stress (and stress-related undesirable behaviors). They will understand why it is important to empower animals to make their own choices, and be able to explain the value of increased choice to others.

  • Attendees will be able to view training techniques through the lens of choice. They will be able to identify how choice-rich or choice-limiting different training options are, as well as to evaluate the pros and cons (in terms of choice) of a variety of training techniques.

  • Attendees will be able to select among and apply a variety of choice-based training techniques in a wide range of settings, including everything from ordinary obedience training contexts to situations involving aggressive, fearful, reactive, and anxious behavior.

  • Attendees will have a better grasp of how to create choice-rich environments for animals. They will know how to increase the choices available to animals both in specific training contexts and in daily life tips.

  About The Presenter

  
  

  Irith Bloom has been training animals since the 1980s, and has worked with everything from chickens, rabbits, parrots, and cats to dogs and horses – not to mention humans. A biologist by training, Irith is fascinated by the science of learning, and loves taking part in conferences and seminars.

  Irith is faculty at the Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy. She is also a Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge & Skills Assessed (CPDT-KSA), a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC), a Victoria Stilwell Positively Dog Trainer (VSPDT), a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP), and a Certified Behavior Adjustment Training Instructor (CBATI), as well as being certified in TAGteach, a positive reinforcement method for coaching humans.

  Irith regularly presents at conferences, and has given seminars as far away as Japan. She has written numerous articles for online outlets. She has also been published in print in Everydog magazine, as well as The Association of Professional Dog Trainer’s Chronicle of the Dog and the recently released book “Better Together: The Collected Wisdom of Dog Trainers.”

  Irith volunteers with National English Shepherd Rescue, and is on the Steering Committee of the Los Angeles County 2020 Healthy Pets Healthy Families Coalition, a One Health initiative aimed at improving the health and well-being of people and their pets throughout Los Angeles County.

  Irith is the owner of The Sophisticated Dog, LLC, a pet training company based in Los Angeles. She shares her home with a rescued English Shepherd named Franklin and her husband Aaron (not a rescue).

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• How Do You Know If A Dog Has Developed A Positive Association? TEST! Presented by Yvette Van Veen

  • Start
    Wednesday, October 18, 2017
  •  
    6:00 PM (EDT)
  • End
    Friday, October 18, 2019
  •  
    7:00 PM (EDT)
  • Location
    Recorded Webinar
  • Registered
    2 registrants

  Register

  Presented by Yvette Van Veen
  

  CEUs: PPAB 1, IAABC 1

  
  

  Many strategies in dog training involve creating a positive association.  The absence of reacting or fleeing does not mean that a dog likes something.  Knowing if you have successfully created a positive association is a critical question. There are ways in which we can ask an animal “do you like this?"  Failing to do so risks putting people and trainers in situations where the dog is pushed too early, triggering a fearful or aggressive response that could have been avoided.

  Classical conditioning may be a simple process but there are many variations and combinations of factors that impact what a positive association looks like.

  • Learn what a positive association is
    
  • Learn what a positive association look like and how to recognize one
    
  • Understand how different pairings lead to different physical manifestations
    
  • Learn how to test so you are not interfering with results
    
  • Understand the difference between “non-reactive” and “positive association”
    
  • Learn how to use the process of elimination to remove extraneous factors, thus ensuring the dog makes an association with the relevant stimulus.
    

  
  

  About The Presenter

  
  

  
  Yvette Van Veen is a member of the Pet Professional Guild and a professional canine trainer - accredited through the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She is a multiple Dog Writers Association of America award nominee, pet columnist for the Toronto Star and owner and operator of Awesome Dogs in Dorchester, Ontario, Canada. Her business specializes in training and problem solving for the companion dog.  She has worked with various Humane Societies and rescue organizations including Animal Rescue Foundation Ontario. Van Veen shares her life with two dogs, Kip the rescue dog who serves as her primary decoy dog, and Karma the border collie. Karma is Van Veen’s community canine and visits schools for dog bite prevention education and student stress relief programs.

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