CEUs: PPAB 1, IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Did you know that it can take anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks for you and your new dog to adjust to each other?

Although you have chosen this individual to join your family, the dog does not know that what is happening is something good, that he has a new family home. The dog is likely to be fearful, anxious, or stressed. This might manifest itself as lethargy or over-excitement. The dog might engage in distance-increasing behaviors. Triggers might stack up, making it difficult for the dog to cope.

In this presentation we are going to cover DogNostics’ recommendations for successfully introducing a new dog into your family, helping ensure that the transition into your home is as stress-free as possible for both you and your new family member.

Although the presentation is aimed at pet dog owners, it will also help pet professionals provide guidance to their clients, and shelters provide guidance to new adoptees

About Your Presenter    

Louise Stapleton-Frappell - B.A. Hons, PCT- A, PCBC-A, CAP3, CTDI, DN-FSG2, DN-CPCT2, CWRI

Louise Stapleton-Frappell, Partner and Faculty Member of DogNostics Career Center and Board Member of The Pet Professional Guild, is a Professional Canine Trainer and Behavior Consultant – Accredited by The Pet Professional Accreditation Board. Louise has constantly built on her knowledge and furthered her education in the field of force-free, rewards based, science-based pet training. The creator of the DogNostics’ Dog Trainer Certification Program, Louise has presented at conferences internationally and has gained a reputation for expertly teaching and training humans and canines at her own establishment, The DogSmith of Estepona, in Southern Spain, where she offers a wide range of both group and private classes and pet dog services.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

This webinar is for the dog trainer, shelter worker, rescue worker, groomer, or animal control officer. When someone calls with a "my dog is aggressive/ has bitten etc" call and that isn't your "lane" how do we ethically and effectively get those owners seeking help to proper professionals in a quick, informative, and safe way?

Learn to address this without leaving an owner trying to handle the abyss of our unregulated industry only to end up with the wrong person and an all-around bad experience we hear and see all too often.

Learning Objectives

• The learning objectives are as follows:
• Identify ways this person can manage their situation in the immediate.
• Get them to quickly understand why a vet visit for this is necessary.
• Get them to understand that they are being referred out.
• Know how to find someone you can refer to and what evidence-based resources the owner has access to learn from in the meantime

About Your Presenter

      

Tabitha Davies CPDT-KA, ACDBC, FF-C, CTDI

Tabitha was born and raised in a small town in Ontario, Canada and moved to Southern California in the 90's. She always dreamed of being a veterinarian, during high school she  started an internship program that provided her the opportunity to work as a veterinary technician in a clinic located in Palm Desert.

Shortly after starting the internship, she quickly realized how many dogs were being euthanized for behavior issues and how little access there was to trainers in the area. Tabitha discussed her concerns with the veterinarians and with their encouragment started to pursue her education in canine behavior.

Tabitha spent the next year raiding local libraries and reading every book on training, behavior and the evolution of canids. She eventually graduated highschool and continued working as a veterinary technician while training her own dogs and horses.

Tabitha has been training professionally for over 17 years and handling behavior cases for the past 9 years. She is currently certified with CPDT-KA, ACDBC, FF-C, CTDI, and is working towards PCBC-A. She has a farm which includes goats, horses, chickens, tortoises, turtles, pig, cat, and dogs and all of them are rescued or adopted. Tabitha also has three wonderful children and my best friend, the man who keeps us all together.

CEUs: PPAB 1.5, IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Find out why your dog whines, barks or lunges at other animals or people and learn ways to help him or her become less reactive. Is your dog really aggressive or scared? This webinar discusses the underlying issues that cause our dogs to act out and how we can identify them. This webinar focuses on what we can do to make life easier for our dogs and ourselves when dealing with these issues. This 1.5 hour webinar was designed for anyone who has a dog that barks, lunges or acts out when taking them to new places or when meeting new people or dogs.

Learning Objectives

• Identify underlying behavioral issues.

• Discuss how to help your dog become less reactive.

• Helpful tips.

About Your Presenter

      

Shannon Riley-Coyner

Shannon has been a pet lover all her life and a dog trainer for over 20 years. She has spent her life observing, caring for and training animals of all kinds. She has worked in the Bird Department at Marine World Africa USA, and worked as an handler and trainer for an African Serval Cat at Safari West, a private zoo in Santa Rosa, California. She has participated in behavior studies including observations of bald eagles and addax antelope through the San Francisco Zoo and Safari West.

Her education includes a Biology Degree, specializing in Zoology from Sonoma State. She is a Registered Veterinary Technician, a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, a Karen Pryor Academy Certified TrainingPartner, a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and a member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

Shannon’s dog training philosophy revolves around force free, positive reinforcement, however, her ultimate goal is for healthy happy relationships between pets and their people. Diet, exercise, environment and training all play a significant role in achieving this goal.

Shannon spent many years as the head dog trainer for PAWS for Healing, a pet assisted therapy organization. She performed temperament testing and assisted in the training of therapy dogs who visited hospitals, veteran groups, special educational facilities and convalescent homes. She believes strongly in the benefits of developing the human animal bond and can assist in coaching for pets and their human companions to develop that connection.

Shannon is a past President for the Society of Veterinary Behavior Technicians.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Puppy Essentials - Your Virtual and In-Person Guide to Early Socialization and Development - is a fun, interactive, training resource from DogNostics Education that can be used virtually to guide puppy owners through the first essential lessons. The focus of Puppy Essentials is socialization to situations, people, objects and other puppies; developing bite inhibition; preventing resource guarding; preventing separation anxiety; learning about canine communication and working with collaborative care skills.

Learning Objectives: 

• Help educate your clients about the importance of socialization. 

• Help your clients prevent resource-guarding issues. 

• Help take the fear out of being alone. 

• Teach clients to 'speak dog.' 

• Provide a guideline and suggested curriculum for virtual and in-person puppy socialization classes. 

About Your Presenter

      

Louise Stapleton-Frappell - B.A. Hons, PCT- A, PCBC-A, CAP3, CTDI, DN-FSG2, DN-CPCT2, CWRI

Louise Stapleton-Frappell, Partner and Faculty Member of DogNostics Career Center and Board Member of The Pet Professional Guild, is a Professional Canine Trainer and Behavior Consultant – Accredited by The Pet Professional Accreditation Board.  Louise has constantly built on her knowledge and furthered her education in the field of force-free, rewards based, science-based pet training. The creator of the DogNostics’ Dog Trainer Certification Program, Louise has presented at conferences internationally and has gained a reputation for expertly teaching and training humans and canines at her own establishment, The DogSmith of Estepona, in Southern Spain, where she offers a wide range of both group and private classes and pet dog services.

CEUs: PPAB 1.5, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

In order we can make small yet fundamental changes to our dog training we must, at times, be prepared to change some of our plans and our techniques. For this webinar I would like you to open you mind, and remember something that Admiral Grace Hooper once said ‘The most damaging phrase in the language is … ‘It’s always been done this way’

Why not be a little more human with your dog training?

The objectives for this webinar will encourage the candidates to think about and address the following:

• How can we create the ‘ideal’ learning environment?
• How can our attitude affect our training?
• Would Humanistic learning theories work with dogs?

About Your Presenter

Dr. Robert Hewings

Author of the award winning ’Scent Training for every dog’ (First Stone Publishers) and head of learning and development for the UK College of Scent Detection, Dr Robert Hewings is a highly experienced Canine Trainer.

Rob retired from London’s Metropolitan Police after 30 years’ exemplary service, 25 of which was as an operational police dog handler. The final nine years as a full-time police instructor with the world-famous Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment. He has successfully underpinned his valuable operational experience with the highest academic qualifications, his Doctoral study is entitled ‘Is there a better way? Can humanistic education improve operant conditioning in canine scent detection training?'

During his time at the prestigious Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment (2007-2016) Rob headed the training for SWAT dogs, and was active in the instruction and development in all aspects of Police Search Dog Training. He played an active role in the instruction and development of the ‘Canine Training Instructor’ authoring two training manuals, and designing coaching programmes that have enhanced the effective performance of operational dog handlers.

After his retirement in 2016 Rob, took on new challenges to complete his desire to learn, lecturing at university (BSc Canine Behaviour and Training) where he specialised in ‘Assistance Dog Training’, writing his book, and practical assistance dog training using scent-work within epilepsy alert, diabetes alert and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder alert. He also attended Bergin University of Canine Studies where he gained a valuable insight into assistance dog training, particularly for PTSD sufferers.

Rob is now head of learning and development with the UK College of Scent Detection where he has been invited to share his knowledge world-wide, lecturing in USA, Australia and Europe. He is presently engaged in writing two academic papers for enhancing scent detection within the assistance dog community and emotional learning in our dogs.

However, prior to joining the Police Service Rob was a member of the British Army, and as a veteran himself, he has now combined his dog training and academic knowledge becoming a training advisor and consultant for the UK Charity Bravehound (www.Bravehound.co.uk). Here he has pioneered an assistance dog training methodology to incorporate scent alerts for PTSD. Realising the potential of ‘Scent Alert’ for PTSD assistance dogs, where the dog will alert to the onset of a nightmare, or day time anxiety attack. Rob is coaching a Phd student who is writing her thesis supporting and researching Robs hypothesis that dogs can detect these disturbing events, giving our veterans life changing assistance from the dogs.

Finally, Rob truly understands the importance of a positive training schedule with the dogs he trains and the people he coaches. He wishes to share his love and experience of search training with you and your dog. Witnessing the enjoyment, enthusiasm and excitement the dogs get from being engaged in the natural process of ‘nose-work’ has been his guilty pleasure for the last 25 years, long may this continue!!

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Stress, Recuperation Rates and Elizabethan Collars - Let's Smash the 'Cone of Shame' and Replace it with the 'Sunflower Shield'

After surgery, a pet is often sent home wearing an Elizabethan collar - also referred to as an E collar, Buster collar, or plastic cone - to prevent licking and chewing of the incision which could cause irritation, infection, and delayed healing.  Could non-compliance lead to delayed healing?  Could the cone itself lead to extended recovery time if the pet experiences fear, anxiety, or stress while wearing the cone? And, if so, what can we do to about?

Join the presenter as she delves into scientific, observational, and anecdotal evidence regarding the impact of owner-compliance and stress on recovery rates and provides a solution to help make wearing of the Elizabethan collar less stressful for the dog, pet guardians and veterinarians.

Learning objectives:

• Understand how fear, anxiety, and stress may directly or indirectly affect wound healing.
• Understand the potential negative impact of Elizabethan collars on animal welfare.
• Learn how non-compliance of Elizabethan collar wearing may lead to delayed recuperation rates.
• Understand the potential for delayed healing which may be experienced by some dogs wearing Elizabethan collars.
• Learn what trainers, guardians, vets, and pet care providers can do to help take the fear, anxiety, and stress, out of the Elizabethan collar, setting the scene for a happier pet and the potential for a speedier recovery rate.

About Your Presenter    

Louise Stapleton-Frappell - B.A. Hons, PCT- A, PCBC-A, CAP3, CTDI, DN-FSG2, DN-CPCT2, CWRI

Louise Stapleton-Frappell, Partner and Faculty Member of DogNostics Career Center and Board Member of The Pet Professional Guild, is a Professional Canine Trainer and Behavior Consultant – Accredited by The Pet Professional Accreditation Board. Louise has constantly built on her knowledge and furthered her education in the field of force-free, rewards based, science-based pet training. The creator of the DogNostics’ Dog Trainer Certification Program, Louise has presented at conferences internationally and has gained a reputation for expertly teaching and training humans and canines at her own establishment, The DogSmith of Estepona, in Southern Spain, where she offers a wide range of both group and private classes and pet dog services.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

This session will discuss the team approach to treating emotional disorders in dogs.

What is the role of a veterinary behaviorist in the successful treatment of emotional disorders in dogs? What is the role of the dog training professional? How should a dog training professional approach a veterinarian about medications?

Veterinary behaviorists and dog training professionals are partners, not adversaries. By working together, we can improve the lives of pets exponentially. Learn how the presenter and her colleagues have learned to work as a team with our dog training partners to build long-term successes.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the options for referral of a pet with a behavior disorder.
• Learn how dog training professionals, behavior technicians and veterinary behaviorists can work together to provide the best outcome for the patients that we share.
• Learn how to approach the topic of medical treatment of a behavior disorder. 

About Your Presenter

      

Dr. Lisa Radosta DVM DACVB

Lisa Radosta DVM DACVB graduated from the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2000. During her residency in behavioral medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, she was presented with the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists Resident research award two years in a row.

Dr. Radosta lectures nationally and internationally for veterinarians, their staff and lay people. She has written chapters for a number of textbooks including Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat, Blackwell’s Five Minute Veterinary Consult, Decoding Your Cat and Canine and Feline and Small Animal Pediatrics and is co-author of From Fearful to Fear Free. She has also published scientific research articles in Journal of Applied Animal Behavior Science and The Veterinary Journal and written review articles for Advances in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, Compendium, NAVC, Veterinary Team Brief, Clinician’s Brief and AAHA Newstat. She is the section editor for Advances in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery and serves on the Fear Free Executive Council and the AAHA Behavior Management Task Force.

She has been interviewed for many publications including Cat Fancy, Dog Fancy, Palm Beach Post, NAVC Clinician’s Brief, Sun Sentinel, WebMD, AAHA trends, Real Simple, Good News for Pets and AAHA News Stat. She has appeared on Lifetime television, Laurie Live, News Channel 25 (West Palm Beach, WPBF), Mitch Wilder's Amazing Pet Discoveries, Nat Geo Wild, Animal Planet, News Channel 10 (Miami, ABC), and Steve Dale's Pet Talk.  She also podcasts for VetGirl.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

How can we help dogs that compete over resources, and the resource is the owner? This presentation will focus on restoring harmony between dogs who have a history of conflicts over their owner’s attention. The presenter will review the setups for safety when working these cases, discuss the behavior change strategies that are most effective, and feature videos of these techniques in action.

He will also highlight how stationing behaviors can be incredibly helpful in these scenarios, as well as discuss when to incorporate operant vs. classical conditioning, and vice versa.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the safety setups to have in place for these cases.

• Review how stationing behaviors can be used for successful outcomes.

• Understand when we would choose to focus on operant behaviors vs. incorporating classical conditioning strategies.

About Your Presenter    

Michael Shikashio CDBC

Michael Shikashio CDBC is the past president of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), and provides private consultations working exclusively with dog aggression cases through his business AggressiveDog.com. He is fully certified through the IAABC and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). He also hosts the popular podcast show, The Bitey End of the Dog.

He is sought after for his expert opinion by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Post, Baltimore Sun, WebMD, Women’s Health Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, SiriusXM Radio, The Chronicle of the Dog, and Steve Dale’s Pet World.

He is also a featured speaker at conferences, universities, and seminars around the world, and offers a variety of workshops, webinars, and online courses on the topic of canine aggression, including the Aggression in Dogs Master Course.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Through a case series, this session will explore how the partnership between veterinary behaviorist, dog training professional and pet parent improves the lives of the dogs they collectively treat.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn through case-based learning how dog training professionals, behavior technicians and veterinary behaviorists can work together to provide the best outcome for the patients that we share.
• Learn through case-based learning how to approach the topic of medical treatment for a behavior disorder.
• Learn through case-based learning what roles the veterinarian, veterinary technician, veterinary behaviorist, and dog training professional play in the outcome of cases.

About Your Presenter

      

Dr. Lisa Radosta DVM DACVB

Lisa Radosta DVM DACVB graduated from the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2000. During her residency in behavioral medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, she was presented with the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists Resident research award two years in a row.

Dr. Radosta lectures nationally and internationally for veterinarians, their staff and lay people. She has written chapters for a number of textbooks including Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat, Blackwell’s Five Minute Veterinary Consult, Decoding Your Cat and Canine and Feline and Small Animal Pediatrics and is co-author of From Fearful to Fear Free. She has also published scientific research articles in Journal of Applied Animal Behavior Science and The Veterinary Journal and written review articles for Advances in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, Compendium, NAVC, Veterinary Team Brief, Clinician’s Brief and AAHA Newstat. She is the section editor for Advances in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery and serves on the Fear Free Executive Council and the AAHA Behavior Management Task Force.

She has been interviewed for many publications including Cat Fancy, Dog Fancy, Palm Beach Post, NAVC Clinician’s Brief, Sun Sentinel, WebMD, AAHA trends, Real Simple, Good News for Pets and AAHA News Stat. She has appeared on Lifetime television, Laurie Live, News Channel 25 (West Palm Beach, WPBF), Mitch Wilder's Amazing Pet Discoveries, Nat Geo Wild, Animal Planet, News Channel 10 (Miami, ABC), and Steve Dale's Pet Talk.  She also podcasts for VetGirl.

CEUs: PPAB 1.5, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Consider this; do you know a person that thinks outside the box? Has novel ideas, achievements, sometimes failures, is a problem solver, and demonstrates persistence and resilience? Are these people creative people? Could we as dog trainers assist our dogs in becoming creative in their work, in their problem solving?

The objectives for this webinar will encourage the candidates to think about and address the following:

• How can we avoid frustration in our training?
• How can we empower our dogs to commence problem solving?
• How can we ‘spice up our training’ keeping our students and their dogs wanting more?

About Your Presenter

Dr. Robert Hewings

Author of the award winning ’Scent Training for every dog’ (First Stone Publishers) and head of learning and development for the UK College of Scent Detection, Dr Robert Hewings is a highly experienced Canine Trainer.

Rob retired from London’s Metropolitan Police after 30 years’ exemplary service, 25 of which was as an operational police dog handler. The final nine years as a full-time police instructor with the world-famous Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment. He has successfully underpinned his valuable operational experience with the highest academic qualifications, his Doctoral study is entitled ‘Is there a better way? Can humanistic education improve operant conditioning in canine scent detection training?'

During his time at the prestigious Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment (2007-2016) Rob headed the training for SWAT dogs, and was active in the instruction and development in all aspects of Police Search Dog Training. He played an active role in the instruction and development of the ‘Canine Training Instructor’ authoring two training manuals, and designing coaching programmes that have enhanced the effective performance of operational dog handlers.

After his retirement in 2016 Rob, took on new challenges to complete his desire to learn, lecturing at university (BSc Canine Behaviour and Training) where he specialised in ‘Assistance Dog Training’, writing his book, and practical assistance dog training using scent-work within epilepsy alert, diabetes alert and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder alert. He also attended Bergin University of Canine Studies where he gained a valuable insight into assistance dog training, particularly for PTSD sufferers.

Rob is now head of learning and development with the UK College of Scent Detection where he has been invited to share his knowledge world-wide, lecturing in USA, Australia and Europe. He is presently engaged in writing two academic papers for enhancing scent detection within the assistance dog community and emotional learning in our dogs.

However, prior to joining the Police Service Rob was a member of the British Army, and as a veteran himself, he has now combined his dog training and academic knowledge becoming a training advisor and consultant for the UK Charity Bravehound (www.Bravehound.co.uk). Here he has pioneered an assistance dog training methodology to incorporate scent alerts for PTSD. Realising the potential of ‘Scent Alert’ for PTSD assistance dogs, where the dog will alert to the onset of a nightmare, or day time anxiety attack. Rob is coaching a Phd student who is writing her thesis supporting and researching Robs hypothesis that dogs can detect these disturbing events, giving our veterans life changing assistance from the dogs.

Finally, Rob truly understands the importance of a positive training schedule with the dogs he trains and the people he coaches. He wishes to share his love and experience of search training with you and your dog. Witnessing the enjoyment, enthusiasm and excitement the dogs get from being engaged in the natural process of ‘nose-work’ has been his guilty pleasure for the last 25 years, long may this continue!!

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Many animal trainers, veterinarians and pet owners highlight the importance of controlling animals. Controlling them, as in restricting the animals’ movement, their choices and their opportunities to control their environment through their behavior.

Sometimes you have to, for safety reasons. But often you don’t – and more often than you might think. Actually, the trend in modern animal training is to deliberately and strategically shift control from the handler to the animal, while still staying safe. Giving control to animals enables us to better understand their quirks and preferences, not to mention reducing fear and improving welfare. In this session, the presenter will walk through a formal training session and discuss all the possible ways of handing control to the animal during training. For instance:

• Does the animal have control when, where and with whom a training session starts?
• When ending it?
• When individual trials within a session start (so called start buttons).
• Which behavior to work on?
• Can he say, “No, actually, I changed my mind?”
• Can he choose his reinforcer?

These questions and more will be discussed. Some might say it’s preposterous to allow the animal to dictate the training session. But that’s not what the presenter is saying you should do. After all, you have options, too, and one of them is to choose when to hand over control to the animal – and when not to.

About Your Presenter

      

Dr. Karolina Westlund

Prof. Karolina Westlund helps pet parents and animal professionals attain happier animals that thrive in the care of humans. She grew up pining for a kitten and pestered her parents until they finally gave in. The resulting black, green-eyed, half-Siamese cat she got for her seventh birthday became a true friend who lived to be 21 years old but was an easily startled cat who often went into hiding when there were visitors. She had grand ideas about becoming a field biologist, but instead she majored in ethology and developed a passionate interest in animal welfare as seen through a multidisciplinary lens, including behaviour analysis and affective neuroscience. She is now an associate professor of ethology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden where she mainly teaches about how behavior management can be used to improve animal welfare. She also conducts live seminars, free online webinars and masterclasses in addition to more extensive courses, as well as the occasional scientific publication on the topic of enrichment, animal training and well-being.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

This session will present an understanding the influence of thyroid disease on canine emotional disorders.

Enjoy an evidenced-based journey through the research on thyroid disease and its effect on canine behavior. Emerge from your journey enlightened and ready to educate your pet parents!

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the current research exploring thyroid disease in dogs as it relates to behavioral signs.
• Understand the potential influence of thyroid disease in dogs on behavior.
• Understand which tests are necessary for evaluation of the thyroid.
• Understand the pros and cons of supplementation.

About Your Presenter

      

Dr. Lisa Radosta DVM DACVB

Lisa Radosta DVM DACVB graduated from the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2000. During her residency in behavioral medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, she was presented with the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists Resident research award two years in a row.

Dr. Radosta lectures nationally and internationally for veterinarians, their staff and lay people. She has written chapters for a number of textbooks including Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat, Blackwell’s Five Minute Veterinary Consult, Decoding Your Cat and Canine and Feline and Small Animal Pediatrics and is co-author of From Fearful to Fear Free. She has also published scientific research articles in Journal of Applied Animal Behavior Science and The Veterinary Journal and written review articles for Advances in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, Compendium, NAVC, Veterinary Team Brief, Clinician’s Brief and AAHA Newstat. She is the section editor for Advances in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery and serves on the Fear Free Executive Council and the AAHA Behavior Management Task Force.

She has been interviewed for many publications including Cat Fancy, Dog Fancy, Palm Beach Post, NAVC Clinician’s Brief, Sun Sentinel, WebMD, AAHA trends, Real Simple, Good News for Pets and AAHA News Stat. She has appeared on Lifetime television, Laurie Live, News Channel 25 (West Palm Beach, WPBF), Mitch Wilder's Amazing Pet Discoveries, Nat Geo Wild, Animal Planet, News Channel 10 (Miami, ABC), and Steve Dale's Pet Talk.  She also podcasts for VetGirl.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Given how behaviorists, ethologists, neuroscientists and veterinarians often get into conflict, this talk discusses how our cognitive biases impact knowledge acquisition. Cognitive biases makes us reject information that we should accept, and accept information that we should reject. In this talk, the presenter will discuss a handful of them:

• The curse of knowledge.

• Authority bias.

• The illusory truth effect.

• The availability cascade.

• Tribal epistemology.

• Confirmation bias.

• The Semmelweiss effect.

• The backfire effect.

• Reactance.

• The Dunning-Kruger effect.

The aim of this session is to open attendees’ minds more to how biases come about and how problematic this is – and facilitate those difficult discussions with people who have other backgrounds.

Level of difficulty: Beginner - Intermediate (not difficult concepts but to many people a lot of new terms, maybe)

About Your Presenter

      

Dr. Karolina Westlund

Prof. Karolina Westlund helps pet parents and animal professionals attain happier animals that thrive in the care of humans. She grew up pining for a kitten and pestered her parents until they finally gave in. The resulting black, green-eyed, half-Siamese cat she got for her seventh birthday became a true friend who lived to be 21 years old but was an easily startled cat who often went into hiding when there were visitors. She had grand ideas about becoming a field biologist, but instead she majored in ethology and developed a passionate interest in animal welfare as seen through a multidisciplinary lens, including behaviour analysis and affective neuroscience. She is now an associate professor of ethology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden where she mainly teaches about how behavior management can be used to improve animal welfare. She also conducts live seminars, free online webinars and masterclasses in addition to more extensive courses, as well as the occasional scientific publication on the topic of enrichment, animal training and well-being.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Classical conditioning is important to understand for anyone interacting with animals. This session will examine and discuss practical examples of:

• The matter of order.
• Blocking.
• Overshadowing.
• Respondent extinction.
• Spontaneous recovery.
• Pre-exposure.
• Learned irrelevance.
• Latent inhibition.

In the session, the presenter will discuss how these learning mechanisms impacts animals’ emotional states, decision making and behavior – and how we can best harness them.

Level of difficulty: Advanced

About Your Presenter

      

Dr. Karolina Westlund

Prof. Karolina Westlund helps pet parents and animal professionals attain happier animals that thrive in the care of humans. She grew up pining for a kitten and pestered her parents until they finally gave in. The resulting black, green-eyed, half-Siamese cat she got for her seventh birthday became a true friend who lived to be 21 years old but was an easily startled cat who often went into hiding when there were visitors. She had grand ideas about becoming a field biologist, but instead she majored in ethology and developed a passionate interest in animal welfare as seen through a multidisciplinary lens, including behaviour analysis and affective neuroscience. She is now an associate professor of ethology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden where she mainly teaches about how behavior management can be used to improve animal welfare. She also conducts live seminars, free online webinars and masterclasses in addition to more extensive courses, as well as the occasional scientific publication on the topic of enrichment, animal training and well-being.

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

In this session, the presenter will go over some of the ways she sees good trainers tweak their shaping sessions using completely different strategies depending on context. She will discuss:

• Why the 80% rule is problematic.

• Bold shaping.

• Cautious shaping – pingponging.

• How the 10 Laws of Shaping evolved into the Modern Principles of Shaping.

• Some common shaping mistakes – and how to address them.

Shaping is the sharpest tool in the animal trainer’s box…theoretically. Practically, it can be hard to execute, and many trainers get stuck. Hopefully, this lecture will provide you with some ideas of how to get unstuck.

Level of difficulty: Intermediate

About Your Presenter

      

Dr. Karolina Westlund

Prof. Karolina Westlund helps pet parents and animal professionals attain happier animals that thrive in the care of humans. She grew up pining for a kitten and pestered her parents until they finally gave in. The resulting black, green-eyed, half-Siamese cat she got for her seventh birthday became a true friend who lived to be 21 years old but was an easily startled cat who often went into hiding when there were visitors. She had grand ideas about becoming a field biologist, but instead she majored in ethology and developed a passionate interest in animal welfare as seen through a multidisciplinary lens, including behaviour analysis and affective neuroscience. She is now an associate professor of ethology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden where she mainly teaches about how behavior management can be used to improve animal welfare. She also conducts live seminars, free online webinars and masterclasses in addition to more extensive courses, as well as the occasional scientific publication on the topic of enrichment, animal training and well-being.

CEUs: PPAB 1.5, CCPDT (pending), IAABC (pending), KPA (pending)

Scent and the assistance dog sent an assistance dog has truly been a giant step forward it has revolutionised assistance dog training throughout the world. From diabetes alert through to the recently more discovered epileptic alert. I will discuss simple methods that could be used and developed in many aspects of scent-work

The objectives for this webinar will encourage the candidates to think about and address the following:

• How can we introduce this to trained assistance dogs?
• An insight into, an ‘open method’ of training using PTSD Nightmare alert as an example
• Could nose-work be used as ‘release’ for the working assistance dog?

About Your Presenter

Dr. Robert Hewings

Author of the award winning ’Scent Training for every dog’ (First Stone Publishers) and head of learning and development for the UK College of Scent Detection, Dr Robert Hewings is a highly experienced Canine Trainer.

Rob retired from London’s Metropolitan Police after 30 years’ exemplary service, 25 of which was as an operational police dog handler. The final nine years as a full-time police instructor with the world-famous Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment. He has successfully underpinned his valuable operational experience with the highest academic qualifications, his Doctoral study is entitled ‘Is there a better way? Can humanistic education improve operant conditioning in canine scent detection training?'

During his time at the prestigious Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment (2007-2016) Rob headed the training for SWAT dogs, and was active in the instruction and development in all aspects of Police Search Dog Training. He played an active role in the instruction and development of the ‘Canine Training Instructor’ authoring two training manuals, and designing coaching programmes that have enhanced the effective performance of operational dog handlers.

After his retirement in 2016 Rob, took on new challenges to complete his desire to learn, lecturing at university (BSc Canine Behaviour and Training) where he specialised in ‘Assistance Dog Training’, writing his book, and practical assistance dog training using scent-work within epilepsy alert, diabetes alert and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder alert. He also attended Bergin University of Canine Studies where he gained a valuable insight into assistance dog training, particularly for PTSD sufferers.

Rob is now head of learning and development with the UK College of Scent Detection where he has been invited to share his knowledge world-wide, lecturing in USA, Australia and Europe. He is presently engaged in writing two academic papers for enhancing scent detection within the assistance dog community and emotional learning in our dogs.

However, prior to joining the Police Service Rob was a member of the British Army, and as a veteran himself, he has now combined his dog training and academic knowledge becoming a training advisor and consultant for the UK Charity Bravehound (www.Bravehound.co.uk). Here he has pioneered an assistance dog training methodology to incorporate scent alerts for PTSD. Realising the potential of ‘Scent Alert’ for PTSD assistance dogs, where the dog will alert to the onset of a nightmare, or day time anxiety attack. Rob is coaching a Phd student who is writing her thesis supporting and researching Robs hypothesis that dogs can detect these disturbing events, giving our veterans life changing assistance from the dogs.

Finally, Rob truly understands the importance of a positive training schedule with the dogs he trains and the people he coaches. He wishes to share his love and experience of search training with you and your dog. Witnessing the enjoyment, enthusiasm and excitement the dogs get from being engaged in the natural process of ‘nose-work’ has been his guilty pleasure for the last 25 years, long may this continue!!