State legislative sessions have ended (or are ending soon!) across the United States and it’s critical to understand how these sessions will impact people, pets, shelters, and rescues. Join us for an overview of 2023’s animal-related bills, led by Katie Jarl, Director of Government Affairs and Policy for Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) and HASS, and Executive Director for Texas Pets Alive! (TPA!); and Lauren Loney, Staff Attorney and Policy Specialist for APA!, HASS, and TPA!. This dynamic duo will discuss hot topics including laws affecting access to veterinary care, HASS’s legislative activities, and what’s on the horizon for 2024. Vincent Medley, Maddie’s® Director of Human Animal Support Services, will moderate. Register below and join us live on Thursday, July 6 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_rPfGIRiDRIeh_VYHLx2qag#/registration

As many shelters face overcrowding and slow adoptions, this webinar is intended to help you get the animals home. This is a check in on best practices, what is working, and what isn’t with respect to returning pets to their families or placing them with new families. If your adoption or RTO programs need a boost, you won’t want to miss this!

Presenters: Dr. Kate Hurley, UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program Director; Nadia Oseguera, California for All Animals Program Manager; Ivy Ruiz, UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program Outreach Specialist

WEBSITE LINK:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mje1aRkkR_mL_Qi-QLFoIw#/registration

Good training often looks like toast turning brown. No huge drama, just gradually better and better in easy steps – “thin slices” – that gradually add up to something beautiful. Thin slices help build the confidence that comes with repeated success, a wonderful gift for any dog – and for any handler.

Thin slices are important in humane training, helping us to work with animals in a way that avoids pressuring them, respects their individual timetable and capacities, and builds success. Underlying this approach is deep trust in the dog’s ability to do their best when we make sense to the dog in a way that suits their individual temperament, when the slice is right.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding how the individual dog defines the right slice
• Recognizing when the slice is right, and when it is not
• How lumping and fuzzy criteria block success
• Why repetitions & reinforcement are not the whole picture

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT 1, KPA 1, & PMCT 1 IAABC pending

About the Presenter:

Suzanne Clothier has been working with animals professionally since 1977. Her positive and humane approach, Relationship Centered Training™ (RCT) promotes promote healthy, respectful and joyful dog/human connections.

The author of Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships With Dogs (2002), her innovative programs include Treat/Retreat, the Enriched Puppy Protocol, CARAT™, RAT™, FAT™, as well as many RCT techniques, online courses and webinars. A trainer of trainers, she has taught on a broad range of topics throughout the US and internationally, and served as a consultant to major service dog schools.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://petprofessionalguild.com/event-5205841

Is your cat hunting your feet when you try to cross the room? Does he jump on your head just as you’re falling asleep? Or maybe she barely moves off the couch and could lose a couple of pounds.

In this webinar we will discuss what is enrichment, why it’s important and how to incorporate it into your daily life or behavior modification plan. I will discuss case studies and share my tips and tricks for satisfying our feline overlords and ladies.

Learning Objectives

• Understand environmental enrichment needs for domestic felines
• Understand various ways these needs can be fulfilled appropriately in various settings
• Enrichment as behavior modification tool
• Resources, tips and ideas

CEUs: PPAB 1, CCPDT 1, KPA 1, PMCT 1, & IAABC pending

Registered for the live event, get busy and cannot make it! No worries you will automatically receive a recording!

Presenter:  Joanna Wachowiak-Finlaison – CCBC, CPDT-KA

Joanna Wachowiak-Finlaison is the owner of High Five Animal Training. She is a dog and cat trainer and behavior consultant with specialized expertise in reactivity and aggression in dogs, and inappropriate elimination in cats. Creating harmony in mixed-pet households is one of her favorite problems to tackle.

When Joanna began working in shelters nearly a decade ago, cats were her first passion. Her volunteer work inspired her to take animal behavior classes, and she soon was working toward certifications. She learned training techniques with all kinds of species including chickens, goats, donkeys, horses and, of course, dogs and cats.

In 2020, she opened her own business with a mission to show pet parents just how easy it can be to solve behavior issues with the right combination of environmental modification, a detailed training plan and guidance from a trained and certified professional.

Joanna continuously hones her skill set with seminars and improves her knowledge base by reading the latest science on dog behavior. She is dedicated to providing dog and cat parents with the most up-to-date, effective, scientifically valid and compassionate behavior modification and training techniques available.

Joanna currently lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and her Malaysian-born dog, Fuji.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://petprofessionalguild.com/event-5271717

Duration comes in many forms in dog training. Down stays, calm holds, or a sustained sit pretty are what we normally think of when adding duration to behaviors. However, performing motion behaviors such as heeling or leg weaves are duration behaviors too.

For some dogs duration comes naturally. However, for others, every fraction of a second of duration is fought for over time. Some dogs are content waiting for the next cue, while others want to jump ahead and do the next behavior as quickly as possible. These dogs need different approaches, however the concept of duration remains the same: do the thing until I ask for another thing.

The other aspect of duration is the emotion and energy level that the dog is in while performing the behavior. Down stays require a different energy level than that of a heads up heel. Both are duration behaviors, however, the desired state of mind of our dog is vastly different. Sara will discuss how to create the optimal emotion in your behavior through the strategic use of reinforcement delivery.

Sara will also provide different methods of adding duration to your calm stationary behaviors and stays, including the Multiple Reward Stay and Reverse Luring. She will also talk about how to create duration in your motion behaviors as well through gradual fading of helper cues and decreasing rate of reinforcement.

So sit and stay! You’ll want to settle in for this presentation.

Presenter: Sara Brueske

WEBSITE LINK:  https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/self-study/webinars

Are you ready to be part of the solution for feral and stray cats in your neighborhood? Our expert instructors will teach you best practices for Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and colony management. Learn what TNR is and why it works. We’ll cover getting along with neighbors, preparations for trapping, trapping itself (including entire colonies at once), feeding, providing winter shelter, and more. Take advantage of the interactive format, extensive handouts, and video footage of actual projects. Attendees will receive a certificate of attendance and gain access to an ongoing Facebook group for networking with other TNR activists. Instructed by Susan Richmond, executive director, and Bryan Kortis, national programs director.

Session duration is 2.5 hours, followed by an optional 15-minute Q&A session.

Proudly sponsored by Tomahawk Live Trap

WEBSITE LINK:  https://www.communitycatspodcast.com/events/the-neighborhood-cats-tnr-certification-workshop-july-2023/

According to Dr. Gabor Mate, “Trauma is not what happens to you, it’s what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you”. Considering this explanation and the pervasive nature of trauma in veterinary medicine, this session will explore how we as veterinary professionals, teams and practices can adopt trauma-informed principles to create more psychologically healthy and safe workplaces. More specifically, we will explore the application of safety, trust, peer support, collaboration, empowerment and inclusion to address primary, secondary and systemic trauma.

Presenter: Angie Arora, MSW, RSW

Angie specializes in veterinary wellbeing, end-of-life and pet loss support, and equity issues within veterinary and shelter medicine. Angie is deeply committed to supporting veterinary medicine as an allied professional. She has worked directly in veterinary hospitals as a Social Worker and is actively involved with many veterinary organizations and initiatives. As a Professor with Seneca College’s School of Community Services, Angie has developed and taught a micro-credential aimed at improving the stress response for those working within veterinary and shelter medicine. Angie holds a Master of Social Work from York University. She is certified in Emotional CPR and is a certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist.

WEBSITE LINK:  https://www.nomv.org/2023/06/06/trauma-informed-care-in-vet-med/

Like many industries, animal sheltering was significantly impacted by COVID, and the last three years of data reflect that. Your organization is likely aware of its own data, but how does it compare to other organizations in your community or across the country? How can we use this data to better plan for the future of animal welfare?

Join us from 3 to 4 p.m. EST Tuesday, June 20, for a panel discussion on national animal sheltering data from 2020 through 2022. The event will be hosted by the Best Friends Network and moderated by Whitney Bollinger, director of strategy and network operations.

Panelists will include:

• Steve Zeidman, senior vice president of software solutions at Pethealth, Inc.
• Brent Toellner, senior director of lifesaving programs at Best Friends
• Dr. Julie Levy, Fran Marino endowed distinguished professor of shelter medicine education at the University of Florida Shelter Medicine program
• Kristen Hassen, principal of Outcomes Consulting

WEBSITE LINK:  https://bestfriends-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/9716861612046/WN_k3tr3YOmQtKC8Ztnd6UvDg#/registration