JULIA ROBERTSON,

Remedial myotherapy and canine rehabilitation specialist

Myofascial Development and Maintenance – the importance from puppies to seniors

A dog’s physical development is as important as their psychological development  for their continued health and well being living in our environment. With all the new studies being presented to both the human and animal world, finally the contiguous and fully connecting nature of the body through fascia has now been demonstrated,  answering so many questions about not just the effect on physical health but also how these physical and cellular connections link directly to so many other parts of the body’s mechanisms,  further demonstrating how physical ‘balance’ is critical for total well-being. 
This talk and discussion will be centred on physical puppy development and how this has a limited window, as well as how to support our wonderful seniors, also enhancing total health through enabling better myofascial connections through the body.

KATJA SÖHNEL,

Scientific Researcher at Friedrich-Schiller Universität in Jena, Germany, Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research 

Katja will speak about 2 topics. First, she will present the findings of their long-term study on how the puppies develop in body proportions and gait when they become digitigrade. Next, she will focus on biomechanics of jumping of experienced and inexperienced agility sport dogs.

SHARON FERRER:

Fascia in Motion: from connective tissue to the emotional well-being of the dog

Fascia, beyond being a supportive tissue, acts as a sensory network that links physical and emotional states. As a continuous perceptual organ integrating all systems, not just the musculoskeletal, it influences the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems.
This talk delves into the relationship between fascia and behavior, exploring how movement, both active and passive, is key to fascial health and the dog’s overall well-being. It’s an opportunity to discover an integrative approach to the physical and emotional care of dogs.

UTE BÜHNER: Forest agility

Forest agility is one of my concepts to help people and dogs do more fun things together. Dogs and humans love the forest and agility as a dog sport is well-known and popular. Why not combine them, take advantage of them and incorporate them into everyday life? Walking together can be so much more fun if we respect the forest as a habitat and at the same time adapt the dogs’ needs a little. We can achieve this if we work out an active strategy together with our dogs that we can
incorporate into the daily walk. This strengthens the bond and keeps dogs busy and happy – which can also have a great effect in terms of anti-hunting training. The forest also contributes to relaxation and reduces stress.

LYUBOV MISHCHENKO:

Available for everybody: how to find, read and use scientific researches if you are not a scientist

The main items:

1. Why it is useful to read researches.
2. It is available for everybody: how and where we can find and choose researches, how to assess them with any professional background, even if we are not scientists.
3. How we can use information from research in our work or even daily life with dogs.
4. Why we should be careful using data from research and how to do it safely.

BEATE BJORNHOM: Pain and behaviour

My talk for the year will be “Pain and behaviour”, a talk made from a dogtrainers view.
How does one effect the other? How do we identify signs of pain? What can we do? How do I treat dogs with behavior issues and pain, that won’t be touched?

EVA TASIČ: When four legs are not enough

This lecture will focus on impact of chronic pain on canine quality of life, mobility solutions and use of special equipment, especially wheelchair use in dogs. We will explore the various ways in which chronic pain affects a dog’s ability to move and engage with their environment, emphasizing the importance of early recognition and intervention and also what independency means for our senior dog companions and what does it mean in assessing their quality of life.

ELS VIDTS: Sensory integration

In dog training and behavioural therapy we understand the importance of conditioning, coupling a positive emotion to increase the likeliness of a behaviour being repeated. Or re-conditioning, coupling a positive emotion to a stimulus which was coupled to the emotion of fear. Let’s say that in behavioral therapy we generally look at WHAT stimulus triggers a certain behaviour.

In sensory integration we look at HOW a stimulus is being received and integrated with other stimuli to come to a correct representation of reality.

ANNE LILL KVAM: Nosewise workshop for dogs of all ages and all stages

In this workshop, I would like to offer a menu of sniffer games to play with and to demonstrate. We will learn about the games that are also suitable for older dogs or dogs that have for whatever reason difficulties with their movement. We will look at the games like Teddy search, Naming toys, Scent discrimination and at the end we will have fun making Mystery bags, where everyone can join and take the bag home to their dog. 

We will work with 1-3 dogs at the time and one dog can join in one or maximum two different games. The participants don’t need to have any prior knowledge.