Low Stress Handling – Sunday 9:00am – Kathryn Eland and Danielle Berger

Prerequisites: Dog is comfortable around other dogs and people (familiar and unfamiliar)

From routine grooming care to vet visits, from post-run body checks to medical emergencies, our high-drive, high-energy sport dogs experience frequent and often invasive handling. Whether your dog is training in agility, nose work, obedience, or other canine sports, helping them feel safe and confident during this handling is essential for both performance and well-being. By using positive reinforcement and understanding of canine body language we can help our dogs learn to tolerate being handled invasively while staying safe, calm, and (hardest of all!) still. With a decade of experience teaching these skills to handlers across working disciplines, we have an approach to bring more cooperation and less stress to dogs of all types and ages.

This 3.5-hour hands-on workshop introduces the principles of low-stress handling and cooperative care, adapted for dogs of all ages and experience levels. We’ll begin with a lecture covering key concepts including canine body language, the 4 quadrants of operant conditioning, and the use of positive reinforcement to build trust and reduce stress during routine husbandry and emergency situations. You'll learn how to prepare your dog to willingly participate in activities like nail trims, body checks, ear cleaning, and more. Following the lecture, we will demo with an experienced dog so you can visualize what the skills look like. Then we will start the hands-on work with our working participants. Each dog and handler pair will get to practice multiple skills over the course of several rounds. Whether you're dealing with a dog who already dislikes nail trims or simply want to set your young sport pup up for success, this workshop will give you practical tools to make handling safer, calmer, and more enjoyable for everyone.

Cost: $125 for members, $150 for non-members. Limited to 10 working spots. Auditors are welcome and unlimited. $30 to audit. Please email the registrar if you would like to audit.

Registrar: Mary Grace Buckwalter

Email Mary Grace with questions about registration.