State Before Behaviour: Rebuilding Your Sessions Around Co-Regulation – with Nina Fotara
The Regulation First Model and The Shift That Changes What You Do In The First Two Minutes of a Session
Your Webinar Description:
Most sessions look successful long before they actually are. A dog can complete an exercise perfectly while their nervous system is anywhere but settled, and from the outside, that reads as a win. This webinar introduces state before behaviour: reading what’s happening underneath a dog’s response, not just the response itself, and why the two can diverge in a session that otherwise goes to plan. Drawing on current neuroscience showing that feeling precedes cognition and behaviour rather than following it, this talk makes the case that regulation, not compliance, is the real marker of progress.
Nina Fotara (KCAI (WG), holistic gundog specialist at Confident Canine® will break down her Regulation First Model™ and show how its components apply directly to working sessions. The second half turns to co-regulation: how a guardian’s, and a trainer’s own nervous system state actively shapes a dog’s ability to settle, and why this runs in both directions rather than being a one-time fix. Attendees will leave with at least one concrete shift they can apply to the opening minutes of their very next session, based on reading state rather than behaviour alone.
Learning Objectives:
- Distinguish surface behaviour from nervous system state, and explain why the two can diverge.
- Identify the basis for a “state before behaviour” approach to training.
- Introduce the Regulation First Model™ and Identify the components of the Regulation First Model™ and how they fit together.
- Explain the two-directional process of co-regulation, including how a guardian’s &/or trainer’s own nervous system state affects a dog’s ability to regulate.
- Apply at least one concrete shift to the opening minutes of a session based on state rather than behaviour alone.
Your Presenter: Ms Nina Fotara KCAI (WG)
Nina Fotara KCAI (WG) is the holistic gundog specialist at Confident Canine® in Essex, with 15+ years working with gundogs and their guardians.
Nina has been a Reiki Master Teacher since 2006, an early influence behind why energetics have always mattered to her professionally. She created the Regulation First Model™, a nervous-system-informed approach to training that distinguishes state from surface behaviour, and hosts the Holistic Dog® podcast. Nina is a member of NICE, IICE, PPG and the UK Dog Behaviour and Training Charter.
In her personal life, Nina’s chosen breed is Longhaired Weimaraners, whom she has kept since 2008, with individual dogs successfully competing across working tests, agility, showing and obedience. They have also been worked in the field on rough shooting and regular beating days, and have been filmed and photographed for major brands. It’s this breadth across disciplines, not gundog work alone, that shapes the wider lens she brings to her training and behaviour work.
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