How can we better engage community members in the lost pet reunification process, and get more pets home to their families instead of sitting in shelters? This is one of the most important and urgent challenges shelters face. Our panel of experts will help you develop ways to work hand-in-hand with your community, and reunite more pets with their owners. Join Gina Knepp, National Shelter Engagement Director for Michelson Found Animals; Heather Friedman, Chief Marketing Officer for LifeLine Animal Project; and Alex Eley, Pet Reunification Specialist for Memphis Animal Services. Vincent Medley, Maddie’s® Director of Human Animal Support Services will moderate. Bring your questions—this is a real-time Q&A!

Register below and join us live on Thursday, August 31 at 5 p.m. CT. After the live event, a recording will be distributed to everyone who registers within 3 business days.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://zoom.us/webinar/register/6016782060176/WN_gDLRG_WTQT2B3DuSJ41-KQ

At Dogs Playing for Life’s Stranger Danger webinar, hosted by Aimee Sadler, CEO and Founder of DPFL, you will learn how to work with dogs that are wary of strangers by building their confidence and helping them develop new skills which will enable them to meet new people (and potential adopters) happily and successfully! Even for the private dog trainer or dog owner, the skills taught in this webinar will help support your stranger danger dog to expand their comfort level when meeting new people at home!

This webinar will demonstrate:
— DPFL’s Assess and Progress approach: fluttering between assessing and influencing behavior to determine how a dog might respond WITHOUT proper human support to determine what training is necessary for successful placement
— Comprehensive Tool Selection: determining what tool will best support the dog while keeping the handler and others safe during the learning process
— Principles vs. Methods: determining what approach will teach the dog as efficiently and effectively as possible
— Creative Proofing: conducting training with the goal of solid generalization of new skills so that dogs are able to work for multiple handlers with clarity and confidence

Come learn how to safely and effectively reach this segment of the canine population through in-depth behavior analysis, dynamic video examples, and practical approaches designed for anyone who is trying to find solutions for the dogs who need this extra human support.

This is a 1.5-hour presentation followed by a Q&A session. This webinar will NOT be recorded and is scheduled on EASTERN TIME.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aWzso2CZR2SGE3cCPiDxdA

We will review how to be successful in a prosecution of a pet store in your locality.  We will hit the highlights of investigations and the pitfalls which can be avoided.  We will also illustrate how to get a jury or judge to take cruelty to pocket pets seriously and how to frame your case and arguments in a way to be successful in a cruelty case against a reptile or parrot.

This webinar has been certified by the National Animal Care & Control Association and is approved for 1 Continuing Education Unit. Please refer to your NACA membership portal for current CEU submission process. Current NACA Members who attend the live presentation or watch the recording will be able to download a jointly issued attendance certificate that includes the National Animal Care & Control Association logo. Visit the NACA training page for a complete list of future trainings.

About the Presenter:

Michelle Welch is a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the Director of the Animal Law Unit at the Attorney General’s Office.  She is charged with taking all animal law questions in Virginia.  She is called on by agencies all over the Commonwealth to act as a special prosecutor in animal cruelty and animal fighting cases.  She frequently gives advice to local law enforcement authorities and prosecutors all over Virginia, across the nation, and internationally.  She also trains prosecutors, animal control, and law enforcement officers on the state of Virginia animal law.  She is a board member of the Virginia Animal Fighting Taskforce.  Ms. Welch serves as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia to aid in animal fighting and animal crime prosecutions.

She is a senior faculty member for the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA).  She is the Chair of the Animal Law Curriculum Advisory Committee for the APA.  She serves as adjunct faculty for Animal Law at the University of Richmond Law School and William & Mary Law School.  She has testified before a Congressional Caucus examining the enforcement of animal laws and the cooperation between state and federal partners. She has trained other countries on animal crime, including Greece, the United Kingdom, and Spain and she has advised on animal criminal cases in Columbia and Belgium.

She has received many honors for her work on behalf of animals.  In 2022, she received the Ellen Glasgow Award for Humane Service from the Richmond SPCA for her work on behalf of abused animals.  In 2020, she received the Humane Law Enforcement Award from HSUS for the seizure of zoo animals from a neglectful zoo (one of the first times in twenty years that law enforcement has intervened on behalf of zoo animals).  In 2019, HSUS gave her and her Unit the Humane Law Enforcement Award for bringing to justice wildlife trafficker, resulting in the closing of 5 fox pens.  In 2018, the Norfolk SPCA honored her with The Thomas M. Ammons III Animal Welfare Award.  In 2014, she was named Prosecutor of the Year by the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.   In 2013, she was named one of the Top 10 Animal Defenders in the Nation by Animal Legal Defense Fund.  She was presented with the Albert Schweitzer Medal for her work on behalf of the animals in 2012 by the Animal Welfare Institute.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://www.justiceclearinghouse.com/webinar/pocket-pets-and-beyond-investigation-and-prosecution-of-pet-stores/

Challenging behaviour in animals can range from inconvenient to embarrassing to exasperating – to the people who have to live with them.

To the animals involved, those behaviours are often not problematic at all, but rather their solution to a problem that they’re experiencing – and our task is often to help the animal find another solution that’s less annoying to us – or to remove the animal’s problem altogether.

This webinar will provide a framework for how to approach behavioural challenges. Using a holistic perspective involving ethological, affective and behaviour analytical approaches, we will discuss the following:

• how mood states influence perception, decision making and behaviour, and how we can help change the animal’s mood.
• how emotional reactions to triggers in the environment affect behaviour, and how we through carefully addressing those triggers can change emotions.
• how understanding the function of the behaviour can help explain what’s going on – and how we can change that function.
• by changing mood states, emotional reactions to potential triggers and the function of the behaviour in the challenging context, the animal will in turn change his behaviour.

The different techniques and perspectives used at each of these three levels of approach will be outlined in the presentation.

CEUS Pending – IAABC; CEUs – PPAB 1, CCPDT 1, KPA 1, and PMCT 1

About the Presenter

Karolina Westlund helps pet lovers and animal professionals get happier animals that thrive in the care of humans. She grew up pining for a kitten for several years, and pestering her parents until they gave up. The green-eyed black half-siamese cat that she got for her seventh birthday became a true friend who lived to be 21 years old, but an easily startled cat who often went into hiding when there were visitors.

Karolina had grand ideas about becoming a field biologist, but that never came about – the closest she got was working as a trekking travel guide in France and Madeira. Instead she majored in Ethology and developed a passionate interest in animal welfare seen through a multidisciplinary lens, including Behaviour Analysis and Affective Neuroscience. She is now an Associate Professor of Ethology at the University of Stockholm, mostly teaching how behaviour management can be used to improve animal welfare.

She offers live seminars, free online webinars and masterclasses in addition to more extensive online courses, as well as the occasional blog post or scientific publication on the topic of enrichment, animal training and wellbeing. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with her husband, two kids, and, hopefully soon, another cat.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://petprofessionalguild.com/event-5367938