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Sign Up for the Virtual Summit! PPG and PPGBI are to join forces and host an international online event next month to celebrate the launch of the Pet Rescue Resource Behavior and Welfare Toolkit, a brand new product designed by PPG’s Shelter and Rescue Committee
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PG has announced an educational Virtual Summit taking place on Thursday, April 2 Friday, April 3, 2020 to mark the launch of its new program, the PPG Pet Rescue Resource – A Behavior and Welfare Toolkit. The Pet Rescue Resource Behavior and Welfare Toolkit is a compre hensive educational product, designed by PPG’s Shelter and Rescue Com mittee, that features a broad range of programs and modules aimed at helping improve the prospects of pets in a shelter or rescue environment by increasing adoption and retention rates. It consists of articles, training plans and videos that cover a broad range of essential topics pertinent to the world of shelter and rescue (e.g. dogs that jump up and canine play groups), as well as individual modules that focus on topics of a smaller scope. Each resource fulfills a specific need that has been identified by PPG’s Shelter and Rescue Committee as an issue that commonly occurs and needs to be addressed to aid in the management, behavior modifi cation, training, and enrichment of animals in shelters and foster homes.
Webinar Sessions In support of the rollout of the Toolkit, the Virtual Summit, jointly hosted by PPG in North America and Pet Professional Guild British Isles (PPGBI), will feature two full days of educational webinar sessions, fo cusing on collaborative care and enrichment, that can be implemented by animal rescue and/or shelter organizations to help better assimilate rescue pets into homes. The 1hour sessions, followed by an interactive question and answer session lasting up to 30 minutes, will run from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. (EST)/3 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. (GMT) on consecutive days. Presenters include neuroscientist Dr. Kathy Murphy, Dr. Karolina Westlund of Illis Animal Behavior Consulting in Sweden, veterinarian Dr. Nick Thompson, Dr. Zazie Todd of popular blog Companion Animal Psy‐ chology, Dr. Morag Heirs of Well Connected Canine Ltd. in York, U.K., renowned canine separation anxiety expert Malena DeMartini, Dr. Robert Hewings of the UK College of Scent Detection, and Dr. Juliane
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BARKS from the Guild/March 2020
Kaminski, director of the Dog Cognition Centre at the University of Portsmouth, U.K. Registration for the Virtual Summit is already open for business and you can sign up either through PPG (petprofessionalguild.com /PetRescueResource) or PPGBI (ppgbi.com/PetRescueResources). Registrants will gain access not only to the live event, but also to audio session recordings for their own personal use for 12 months. "As a PPG developed concept, the Pet Rescue Resource Toolkit re flects our organization’s mission to provide the greatest value, highest quality, stateoftheart, forcefree, sciencebased education on the training, behavior consulting, and care of companion animals," said PPG president, Niki Tudge. "Each program and module within the Toolkit has been constructed so it functions with the greatest possible efficiency in order to minimize additional work by shelter and rescue staff and volun teers in what are, often, underresourced circumstances. On a second ary level, it has also been constructed to support adopters, foster home networks and professional pet trainers and care providers and designed specifically so it can be implemented by a cross section of pet profes sionals, volunteers, pet parents and pet hobbyists. The Virtual Summit is the perfect way to launch this exciting new resource, by starting as we mean to go on: providing quality education by some of the leading names in the field of pet training and behavior.” A standalone website for the Pet Rescue Resource will go live in the first week of April, with full details to be announced at that time. n
Registration for the Virtual Summit is already open for business and you can sign up either through the PPG or PPGBI website. Registrants will gain access not only to the live event, but also to audio session recordings for their own personal use for 12 months.
