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Helping New Pet Owners Create a Fear-Free & Happy Life for Their Pet

New pet owners can be overwhelmed with all the information we want to provide them regarding the health and wellbeing of their pet. However, if a strong human-animal relationship built on trust and empathy is not established, the pet very well may not remain in the home. In this webinar, Kenneth M. Martin, DVM, DACVB, and Debbie Martin, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, LVT, VTS (Behavior), will provide you with 5 tips to give new pet owners so they can start the relationship off on the right paw, facilitate a strong bond, and keep pets in the home and coming back to your veterinary clinic.

Brought to you by Vetoquinol

Boarding and daycare environments are often fraught with potential stressors for dogs and cats. Pets are away from home, their family is gone, unfamiliar people and animals surround them, and their daily sleep/wake schedule is thrown off. But there are several steps you can take, from setting up the environment itself to adjusting the way in which you interact with dogs and cats, that can help reduce stress and increase calm and safety for both pets and staff.

The Fear Free Boarding and Daycare Individual Certification Program will help you ensure you are thoughtful in every interaction with boarding and daycare pets—from greetings to kennel introductions to overexuberance or shyness. You’ll learn what a Fear Free boarding and daycare environment looks like, feels like, sounds like, and smells like. And you’ll get practical advice on what to do in the moment if a dog or cat struggles when you try to give them needed medications or care, drags you into the play yard, or refuses to enter or leave their kennel.

The purchase of the Fear Free Boarding and Daycare Individual Certification Program provides you with a Fear Free membership, which requires an annual renewal fee and completion of additional annual CE to maintain your membership.

The Fear Free Boarding & Daycare Individual Certification Program is a wonderful educational addition to the pet care service industry. Boarding & daycare facilities will immediately see value in this certification program as staff learns to identify and mitigate fear, anxiety, and stress in pets. The pet owner will be assured that their pets are in the care of professionals who are knowledgeable about the physical and emotional needs of each individual pet. Boarding & daycare facilities will be proud to be considered as “best in care” providers as they promote the wellbeing of their staff and the pets in their care. IBPSA is proud to be part of the Fear Free programs. —Carmen Rustenbeck, CEO and Founder, International Boarding & Pet Services Association

This course was reviewed by the IBPSA (International Boarding & Pet Services Association) and PACCC (Professional Animal Care Certification Council).

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Caring for Caregivers: The Three Areas Crucial to Mental Wellbeing

In this webinar presented by Natalie Marks, DVM, CVJ, you will learn about the variables that place veterinarians at high risk for mental health challenges and how to assess your own wellbeing. Dr. Marks will identify concerning signs in our own health and others as well as the three areas crucial to mental wellbeing: compassion satisfaction, compassion stress, and compassion fatigue. She will also provide realistic strategies to help veterinarians take care of themselves physically and mentally.

Brought to you by Virox Animal Health, Makers of Rescue

Course Overview

Bath time is scary for many animalswhether it’s the sound of the water, the feel of it on their skin, being restrained, or the tub itself. This one-hour module will teach you how to break down the bathing process into individual components that can be worked on separately to allow for calmer, safer bathing experiences. We will provide step-by-step desensitization and counterconditioning plans for every componentintroducing the shampoo bottle, entering the tub, introducing water, and introducing the sound and feel of the dryer. You’ll also learn what you can do to modify the bathing environment to make it more inviting and less stressful for animals.

There are three lessons in this course:

Lesson 1: Overview of Fear Free Bathing and Positive Reinforcement
Lesson 2: Introduction to the Tub
Lesson 3: Modifying the Environment for Success

This one-hour course was designed for Fear Free groomers but is also open to our veterinary professional and trainer members. It was written by Terrie Hayward, M.Ed., KPA Faculty Member, CPDT-KA, CSAT, co-author of the book Grooming Without Stress, and is approved for one hour of RACE CE.

How to Get a Written Offer In Hand Before Interviewing

Finding a new job can be a high-stress and time-consuming process. If you stop to think about it, it’s not all that transparent either. When you ask about compensation, you’ll get vague answers like, “Our RANGE is this.” They may even initiate the conversation with the all-too-common trick question, “So what are you looking to make in your next role?”

After they succeed in making you comfortable with their non-answer, you’ll start the screening process. Phone calls upon phone calls followed by interviews upon interviews. This can take days, weeks, possibly months depending on your class schedule and availability. Then, at the very end, they make you the offer, which is the point which will determine if all the personal time you just gave them was worth it. If that offer is lower than you expected and you decline it, all that time is wasted and you’ll have to do it over again with another employer.

The last thing you want to waste during veterinary school is time. You have chosen to become a part of one of the most admirable professions in the world. You deserve a transparent process that values your time. Join Paul Diaz, founder of Hire Power Consulting, to learn how his company is working to help veterinarians level the job search playing field by empowering you to decide who you give your time to AFTER they provide you with a detailed offer first.

Watch an Artist Draw Your Pet!

In this fun webinar, John LaFree of Canine Caricature Pet Portraits gives away two pet caricature portraits. One was done prior to the webinar, and the other is drawn during the webinar, where John will be telling us how he got into this business as well as the off-the-wall requests he’s gotten for pet portraits.

Check out Canine Caricature Pet Portraits here: https://caninecaricatures.com/

Course Overview

True enrichment goes way beyond simply providing dogs with food puzzles each day. For instance, a comprehensive enrichment strategy incorporates all types of enrichment: social, occupational, physical, nutritional, and sensory. This course will show you how to engage all the senses, as well as how to thoughtfully determine which enrichment activities are most appropriate for individual dogs, how to enrich the lives of dogs in a veterinary clinic, and those who are recovering from an injury and on restricted exercise.

This course, approved for 1 RACE-approved CE hour, was written by Laura Ryder, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, IMDT.

This course consists of four lessons:

  • Lesson 1: Exploring enrichment using all the senses
  • Lesson 2: Identifying the right balance
  • Lesson 3: Enrichment for dogs in the vet clinic
  • Lesson 4: Enrichment for dogs on restricted exercise or cage rest

Boxing Down: The Wrong Choice for Animals… and People

Most of us who have been practicing for longer than a decade have used inhalant chambers to “box down” feline patients. It seemed to work, and the patient was able to be treated. Why throw away a potentially useful sedation protocol? Because the use of inhalant chambers or masks (also called “boxing” or “masking”) for sedation or induction to anesthesia is not considered standard of care.

Join Clinical Behavioral Medicine Resident Alison Gerken, DVM, and Washington State University Adjunct Professor Tamara Grubb, DVM, PhD, DACVAA, as they discuss the science of why these techniques are no longer recommended and what you can do instead.

Pheromones to Help Pets Cope with Holiday Stress

The holidays are often overlooked as a major time for stress in our patients’ lives. In this webinar, Valarie V. Tynes, DVM, DACVB, DACAW, will review the common triggers occurring from October through the end of December and how to equip your clients with the best information to make it a happy holiday season for everyone.

Brought to you by our friends at Ceva Animal Health