Last year I was lucky to participate in a number of professional development and further education workshops, seminars and conferences, both in Australia and overseas. I'm a huge proponent of ongoing education because we never stop learning in life and so I'm committed to continually broadening my knowledge and acquiring more experience as a behaviourist. This ensures I'm able to bring the most up-to-date, scientific and ethical training techniques to my clients.
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| Clicker training Carolyn to peck the black disk at Chicken Camp |
Here's some of the ongoing education I did last year (click on the links for more information):
- Science Based Training (with Feeling) Seminar in Melbourne - Dr Ian Dunbar
- Chicken Camp workshop in Perth, Australia - Terry Ryan , Legacy Canine
- Professional Animal Training workshop - Ken Ramirez, Shedd Aquarium, Chicago.
- Living and Learning with Animals online course - Dr Susan Friedman, Behaviour Works
- Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) Conference 2012
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| Me with Dr Sophia Yin at the APDT 2012 conference |
So far, 2013 has been a busy year for my consulting business Pets Behaving Badly. I've had lots of behaviour consultations, helping pets and their people to resolve a range of different behaviour problems. Most of my clients are dogs and cats, but I also see quite a few pet parrots, especially since recently partnering with Bird Vet Melbourne to deliver in-clinic behaviour consultations. Most of the behaviour problems I help with are fear and/or anxiety based and include various forms of aggression, escaping (dogs), destructive behaviour and general disobedience. Other common behaviour problems include inappropriate toileting, jumping up (dogs), poor recall (dogs) and screaming (parrots). I really love doing behaviour consultations. It's so rewarding! I've also been writing lots of articles on animal behaviour for various print and online publications including Pet Pages.
In a couple of weeks I'll be realising a life-long dream; I'm off to South Africa to do volunteer work, mainly with lion cubs. I'm so excited to have this amazing opportunity and I'll definitely be blogging about my experiences there. So, until then, I'll leave you with a gratuitous photo of a lion cub....
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| Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!! |
Happy training! :)
