Webinar I

'Fearful Fido: a multimodal approach to helping dogs with fear issues' by Amber Batson (in English)

• Part 1: What is fear? What is the difference between fear, anxiety and phobia? What goes on inside body and brain when a dog experiences fear.
• Part 2: How are fear based memories stored and how does this affect future learning? What are the common causes of fear issues developing in dogs. The session includes a look at how disease and pain may contribute to the development of some fears based on the most up to date science and will briefly consider how neutering may affect fear responses.
• Part 3: Which aspects of activities and environment might help a fearful dog, as well as looking at the concept of agency and how we can use this to build self confidence in dogs and stress resilience. This will include discussion on practical examples of human to dog relationship building, enrichment and activity types in fearful dogs.
• Part 4: Three recent real life case studies of Amber's to work through how this information is applied practically to effect a positive outcome for both human and dog using a multimodal approach.

Webinar II

'Home Alone' by Amber Batson (in English), only i.c.w. webinar 'Fearful Fido' (see 'Exception!')

• Part 1: What are separation related problems? What do they look like and what do we know about the different underlying causes of these issues. What is the social nature of the dog and how is it impacted by human relationships and pet dog management? This includes what is attachment versus human-animal bonds and what that means both internally and behaviourally for the dog. What concepts covered in fearful Fido need specific consideration to meet a dog's emotional safety needs and how can we do that practically in cases of separation distress?
• Part 2: What are noise phobias and how might they impact on separation issues? How and why do dogs feel frustration and how does that impact on separation issues? We will revisit some concepts from Fearful Fido to practically consider how to start addressing separation issues. There will be a short section on fear reducing medications that can assist in some separation cases.
• Part 3: we will look at applying a multi-modal approach when addressing separation issues in the pet dog from a practical perspective to ensure the dog's body and brain are in the best possible state to create new memories about being left alone. We will revisit learning theory as discussed in Fearful Fido from the perspective of actual cases and consider how a thorough understanding of how memories have been made and continue to be stored for recall, will affect any retraining component.
• Part 4: Prevention is better than cure: how can we set puppies up for Home Alone success. What elements of their developmental stages leave them at their most vulnerable for developing separation issues and how can these be avoided. There will be a detailed description of working with a young dog to resolve separation issues including panic attacks and destructive behavior.

Add ons

3 optional Add ons, only i.c.w. 'Fearful Fido'

• Part 1: 'Fear, I feel it in my gut', how might gut health impact on fearful behaviour in dogs
• Part 2: 'Neutering', the impact of hormone loss in fear development in dogs
• Part 3: 'A Chill Pill', the use of medications and supplements for fearful dogs