At the PDTE we have members doing interesting work all over the globe. Take a look at some highlights from this special event in Australia! Thanks to Jenny and Bono for this article.
This year the second Health and Harmony Dog Symposium was organised by PDTE Member Jenny Golsby and her team from The Complete Pet Company and Complete Canine Communication. The event was held in Brisbane, Australia from 22-23 June 2019.
Jenny opened the symposium by welcoming all participants and speakers followed by a presentation on the importance of businesses and dog guardians to have a Code of Ethics to follow.
Jenny delved into the subject of developmental stages of the dog from puppyhood to the young dog, adolescence and adulthood, explaining the ethics in refraining from taking puppies too early from their mother and littermates, the importance of fear periods, puppy licences and understanding that young dogs are constantly under construction.
Jenny pointed out how important it is for guardians and businesses to understand these stages to be able to keep our upbringing, socialising and relationship forming on a profoundly ethical level.
Julia Robertson, UK
The International speaker this year was Julia Robertson, Canine Myotherapist from the Galen Centre UK. Julia spoke throughout the 2 days on the dogs’ musculature system, the principles of Myotherapy, how to recognise and treat muscle pain, the subtle behaviours to observe that may indicate muscular pain and the incredible function the muscular system has on the entire body from digestion, circulation, immunity, urinary, skeletal, adrenal, skin, coat, endocrine through to the respiratory system. Julia underlined how compromised conformation will have a negative effect on the functional anatomy and how limb stability is more important than core stability to develop stabilised muscles.
What impressed the organisers most is that Galen’s treatment is choice based; meaning treatment is ceased if the dog chooses to remove themselves from the practitioner and only restarts when they choose to return.
Dr Rowan Kilmartin, Australia
Our very own Australian based Dr Rowan Kilmartin presented “Structure Governs Function” and explained the similarity between human and dog skeletal physiques and how imbalance will have a negative effect on the muscular-skeletal system.
Dr Kilmartin gave examples of how vertebral disfunction, resulting in compensated fascial patterning may lead to increased vertebral restriction. The symptoms may include; a drop in the dog's performance and behavioural changes.
Dr Kilmartin explained how complementary modalities such as Acupuncture, Auriculotherapy and Laser treatments work; followed by an in-depth look at structure, disfunction and neck pain including the Occipito-Atlantal Joint and how it influences problems and behaviours such as car sickness, aggression, anti-social behaviour, unpredictable behaviour, phobias, destructiveness, light and sound phobias, urination and defecation problems.
Dr Kilmartin left us with a powerful message about healing.
“All life forms on earth have the ability to heal themselves, you become the catalyst to help kick start that process……that’s all."
Bono Beeler, New Zealand
Bono Beeler from Speaking Dog in New Zealand presented to us “Emotions and Hounds” from the theories of emotion, their differences and how perception influences our feelings, emotions, moods and decision making:
"We perceive our dogs behaving, feeling (Core Affect) and emoting through our human ideologies, and to understand how the dogs feel (Core Affect) and emote we have to (as much as we possibly can, using proven scientific methods) watch, observe and learn to try and understand how the dogs may perceive the world with their senses and the brain machinery they have been given."
Bono gave great examples of how we should take the perception of the dogs’ world into account when co-existing or working with dogs, from raising a puppy to bringing home a rescue dog through to training vs learning to think about natural behaviours.
Bono’s message was loud and clear that sadly still today, we label dogs behaviour as problem behaviours and continue to try and train them away instead of learning more about the dog’s emotions. We should all be more aware of the dog’s emotions.
Julia Robertson (UK) continued...
The Symposium ended with an extra day on Monday. Julia Robertson assessed 6 dogs over the course of the day. Each dog was brought in at its given time and then taken home once its session had finished. This ensured all dogs were not put under any stress by having to stay for the entire day.
Each dog had the pleasure of a scent trail that led them into the hall to begin their assessment. The scent trail ensured they were calm and relaxed before they began. What a beautiful way to start their treatment.
The Health and Harmony Dog Symposium was an incredible success with great vegan/gluten-free food throughout the weekend prepared by Nikki and Michelle, appropriately nicknamed the ‘Yummy Ladies’.
There are more events happening in the Southern Hemisphere being hosted by PDTE Members. Bono Beeler will be welcoming amazing Norwegian scent expert Anne Lill-Kvam to New Zealand in April 2020, and Jenny Golsby will be running another Health and Harmony Dog Symposium in 2020 in Australia.