Events

Professional Animal Behavior Associates

presents

"A SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION AND STUDY OF WORKING DOGS"

A Three-Day Symposium

May 4-6, 2012

Thornborough Hall

University of Guelph

Guelph, Ontario

Dear Canine Enthusiasts:

We appreciate so much the feed back that you have given us and the confidence you have placed in us to continue holding our conferences. We are humbled and due to your support will hold our 22^nd annual conference on May 4, 5, and 6, 2012 at the University of Guelph entitled A SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION AND STUDY OF WORKING DOGS.

It is always challenging to arrive at a suitable theme and then to locate the experts that are able and willing to participate in supporting the chosen theme. It was our good fortune to discover an absolutely fascinating book edited by William S. Helton titled “CANINE ERGONOMICS: The Science of Working Dogs”. It is a compilation of the “cutting edge data about working dogs”. PABA has never devoted totally a conference about working dogs, yet the working dog is a major contributor to our society. It is impossible to conceive a world without these magnificent and reliable animals. We are terribly indebted to them.

We contacted Dr. Helton in New Zealand to see if he would be willing to endure the sixteen or seventeen hours of traveling time to participate in our conference. It is our good fortune that he accepted our invitation! We are delighted. We have asked Dr. Helton to speak on each of the three days so that we could benefit from the absolute wealth of information that he has and is willing to share with us. He will discuss the current skills and expertise of working dogs and the need for us to study the operational performance of working dogs. For example: How long is a dog capable of working? Much of our working dogs expertise is connected with its remarkable ability to scent. Dr. Helton will provide us with the cutting edge data that is available and provide us with areas of expertise in this area that should be further explored. Dr. Helton will conclude our conference by discussing the future of working dogs. “With proper training, for example, dogs not only match the breast cancer detection accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of mammography performed by trained radiologists, but dogs may actually exceed them.” What a goldmine of information we will receive from the efforts of one man!

Dr. Andrew Luescher, our good friend, mentor, and canine behavior expert will travel from Switzerland to join us. He will speak on the welfare of working dogs and will again shoulder the duties of master of ceremonies. Andrew always imparts new knowledge. We are looking forward to his being with us again.

We do not often associate working dogs being used to assist in the world of conservation, but Dr. Megan Parker will shed light on a relatively new venue for the working dog. She and her colleagues work with trainers as they strive to enhance conservation work through the olfactory abilities of the dog in non-intrusive ways. Dr. Parker has a background in training obedience, search and rescue and detection dogs. She will discuss living with and training high play drive dogs for challenging field conditions. Border Collies and Jack Russell Terriers take note!

Karen Lasker will come from Florida to speak on animal assisted therapy. She is the Executive Director of The Brody Project for Animal Assisted Therapy in Naples, Florida under which there are nineteen AAT teams working with social, medical and recreational therapists in a 1,000 bed retirement community. A fascinating and highly dedicated individual Ms. Lasker will address the steps necessary to develop a successful AAT program.

Dr. Alan Beck is recognized world wide as the leading authority on the understanding of the relationship between people and their companion animals. Dr. Beck holds the prestigious title, the “Dorothy N. McAllister Professor of Animal Behavior” and is the Director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond in the school of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University. It is indeed an honor and privilege for us to have Dr. Beck kindly accept our invitation to speak at this conference. He will discuss the merits of Animal-assisted therapy, but also will discuss the importance of establishing a foundation to predict and assess those health benefits associated with pet ownership. Dr. Beck will also discuss the role nature may play in this unique relationship.

Dr. Alexander Ferworn has degrees in engineering and computer science and currently is a professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. Of importance to us is his special interest Urban Search and Rescue (USAR). He has worked extensively with USAR canine teams in Canada and the United States. His Canine Augmentation Technology received Awards of Excellence for Project Achievement. In 2010 he was nominated as one of the “Best Lecturers” by TV Ontario’s “Big Ideas” program. We look forward to an exciting speaker with an exciting presentation.

Steve White is a 36 year law enforcement veteran and has been accredited as a Master Trainer by the Washington State Police Canine Association. He is a recognized speaker and trainer world wide and we are grateful and pleased that he has accepted our invitation to attend and speak at this conference. Steve will share with us training methods and approaches in taking your skills in training your dog to the next level. He will also focus on reinforcements in training and why in many cases they don’t appear to work. Steve is great presenter and we will all benefit from the knowledge he will pass on to us.

That is our 2012 lineup!! Again we have been fortunate to have obtained presenters that are unsurpassed in their fields. It would be difficult to ever be able to gather the same group of presenters at one conference. We encourage you to attend A SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION AND STUDY OF WORKING DOGS. You will not be disappointed!

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