This past Saturday, March 29, I attended a seminar at Happy Tails in Portland. The speaker was Dr. Nicholas Dodman, the director of the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine's Behavior Clinic. The seminar covered aggression in dogs.
First, the facility. There was plenty of parking, plenty of seats, and the food served at lunch was good. The one drawback to the facility was that the heater was very loud, so it made hearing Dr. Dodman difficult at times.
Second, the seminar. The presentation was very professional - slides were on PowerPoint and a large screen was used so that everyone in the room could see. Dr. Dodman was hooked up to a microphone so that everyone could hear. He was a very easy speaker to listen to, repeated questions so that everyone could hear and stayed on topic extremely well (he was very polished).
Dr. Dodman covered owner-directed (dominance) aggression, fear aggression, separation anxiety and OCD behaviors in dogs. Each section was thoroughly covered and he even had example videos of each behavior. Parts of his lecture covered studies that he and others had performed.
A great seminar and worth every penny spent. Happily, happy Tails will be having Jean Donaldson and Ray Coppinger come speak also, plus other noteworthy trainers.
