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Compassionate Care: Reducing In-Home Treatment Stress for Fearful Felines

Helping cats at home can be challenging when fear and anxiety are involved. Pet sitters and mobile veterinary professionals provide vital care, but visits from unfamiliar people can make even routine treatments stressful.

Join Julie Liu, DVM, FFCP-V, for a one-hour RACE-approved webinar, and discover practical ways to make in-home feline care calmer and more effective. You’ll walk away with strategies to prepare before a visit, build trust with cats and their caregivers, and provide common treatments with minimal stress.

You’ll learn:

How to gather key information and create a pre-visit plan that sets every cat up for success

Positive handling techniques to make administering medications and treatments calmer

Tips for giving oral medications effectively while keeping stress low

60-Second Stress Resets for the Veterinary Professional

Veterinary professionals regularly face stressful and emotionally charged situations, which can contribute to burnout, compassion fatigue, and reduced quality of care. This course introduces five practical “60-second stress resets” that can be performed anytime, anywhere, without equipment. Learners will explore the science behind micro-resets, practice each technique, and identify opportunities to apply them in real clinical situations.

This micro-course supports individual well-being, enhances team resilience, and helps maintain patient-centered care by teaching veterinary professionals how to pause, reset, and sustain focus throughout their shifts.

Is There More to This Than Behavior? Underlying Medical Causes to Behavioral Problems

Helping animals with behavior challenges goes beyond addressing what’s obvious; it means understanding how their health and environment shape their actions.

Join us along with Claudia Richter, DVM, DACVB, FFCP-V, for a one-hour RACE-approved webinar, as she’ll guide you through evaluating behavioral cases, identifying potential medical contributors, and applying practical strategies that support both emotional and physical wellbeing.

You’ll learn:

  • How to recognize behavioral signs that may point to underlying medical issues
  • How to consider medical differential diagnoses for different behavioral signs
  • Diagnostic steps to take when a medical disorder is suspected
  • How to create treatment plans that address both behavioral and medical needs

Preventing and Addressing Inter-Cat Conflict

Multi-cat households can be rewarding but they can also present challenges when cats experience conflict. This webinar provides practical guidance for veterinary teams to support clients in creating peaceful, structured, and stress-free home environments for their cats.

Join Debbie Martin, LVT, VTS (Behavior), FFCP-Elite, KPA-CTP, as she walks through real-world cases, demonstrates practical strategies, and provides actionable guidance for preventing and managing inter-cat conflict.

Avian Enrichment: What, Why, and How

Caring for birds means more than meeting their basic needs; it requires understanding their natural behaviors and providing enrichment that supports both physical and mental wellbeing.

Join Cassie Malina, CPBT-KA, CPBC, FFCP-T, for a practical, case-based session where she’ll explore ways to create engaging, species-appropriate environments for birds and share practical strategies to support their natural behaviors every day.

Fear Free for Felines: An Introduction

This course introduces veterinary professionals to the Fear Free approach specifically tailored for feline patients. Through a series of focused lessons, learners will explore communication strategies, considerate handling techniques, touch gradients, appropriate use of rewards, and gentle control methods. Practical scenarios and case studies will help reinforce strategies for reducing fear, anxiety, and stress (FAS) in cats during veterinary visits. Learners will leave equipped with the knowledge and resources to integrate cooperative care into daily workflows, creating a better experience for cats, clients, and veterinary teams.

Using Distractions: Fear Free Do’s and Don’ts

Food or toy distractions can be an exceptionally useful tool in Fear Free. But they must be used appropriately, and in the correct situations, to ensure they actually decrease or prevent FAS, rather than inadvertently make things worse.

This one-hour course will empower you to know when to use distractions (and when not to use them), how to properly implement them, and what to do “in the moment.” Through several video examples and scenarios such as nail trims and vaccines, you will learn what to do “in the moment” as well.

This course, approved for 1 RACE CE hour, was written by Monique Feyrecilde, LVT, VTS (Behavior)

Lesson 1: Introduction to the distraction method
Lesson 2: Types of distractions
Lesson 3: Appropriate times to use distraction
Lesson 4: How to implement distractions
Lesson 5 & 6: When and why a distraction may not be appropriate
Lesson 7: Examples of appropriate use of distractions
Lesson 8: Alternatives to the use of distractions

1 RACE CE hour

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Fear Free Injections for Equine Patients

Course Overview

This course will build on the subjects discussed in the Fear Free Veterinary Certification Program for Equines, and delves into specific, proactive, learning-theory based techniques to help our equine patients experience Fear Free injection procedures. Multiple options for techniques will be discussed in detail, allowing you to thoughtfully match the horse’s FAS level and history to an appropriate technique.

This course contains four lessons:

  • Lesson 1: The role of injection in equine medicine
  • Lesson 2: Setting up successful injection training
  • Lesson 3: Training technique options
  • Lesson 4: Transferring skills to the vet visit & troubleshooting

This course was written by Manon (Nita) Hynes, DVM, Resident, American College of Veterinary Behaviorists.
It is approved for 1.5 hours of RACE CE.

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Stress, Health & Behavior: Why Physical Health and Behavior are Inextricably Linked

Course Overview

In many cases, focusing exclusively on physical health or on behavior limits our ability to foster overall well-being and achieve successful outcomes for animals. The goal of this course is to help you better understand these connections so that you can best serve animals and their people—whether you work in a veterinary or training environment.

In this course, we will discuss the intersections among physical health and behavior, the impacts of stress, and the connection among immune function, the microbiome, pain, and behavior. 

This course contains six lessons:

  • Lesson 1: Connections Between Physical Health and Behavior
  • Lesson 2: Stress Impacts, Cortisol, and Allostasis
  • Lesson 3: Immune Function and Behavior
  • Lesson 4: The Microbiome and Behavior
  • Lesson 5: How Pain Affects Behavior
  • Lesson 6: Collaboration Among Veterinary and Behavior Professionals

This course was written by Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB and Amy Learn, VMD, DACVB, IAABC-CABC and is approved for ONE hour of RACE CE and ONE hour of IAABC CE.

Helping Our Feline Friends Feel Fear Free with Dr. Tony Buffington

Course Overview

In this webinar course, Tony Buffington, DVM, PhD, Clinical Professor at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, will remind participants “who cats are” and why they are particularly prone to fear in confined situations (i.e., hospitals, shelters, homes, etc.) After defining fear and stress in cats, Dr. Buffington will explain what people can do to minimize their fear, particularly in caged contexts—including how to enrich the cat’s surroundings, both inside and outside of the cage, and how to recognize both red and green flags by “asking” the cat. Resources for training staff and where to learn more about effective environmental enrichment for cats will also be provided.

This course is approved for one hour of RACE CE. In order to obtain the CE and certificate, you must enroll in and complete the course quiz with a score of 80% or better.

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