08/08/2025
The "Relationship" Theme for the 2025 Dog Symposium Taiwan, was inspired by the insights of several key speakers.
The idea first emerged from a course on canine aggression with veterinary behaviorist Dr. Amber Batson, which highlighted the importance of building a secure attachment. This was followed by a profound realization from Dr. McMillan's 2021 PDTE conference talk, "Social Pain in Dogs." He explained that psychological trauma from social deprivation, conflict, or separation can trigger the same neural pathways as physical pain and is often more difficult to heal.
In 2024, the theme was further developed with the publication of new books from several speakers. Jessica Pierce's book explores how human-centric worldviews often control dogs and the impact this has on their well-being. Dr. Risë VanFleet's work on animal-assisted play therapy also resonated, emphasizing a shift from "control" to "collaboration" to improve animal emotional states and strengthen the human-dog bond.
Another key influence was Dr. Erin Jones's book, Constructing Canine Consent, shared by Dr. VanFleet. Based on her psychological research, the book highlights how giving dogs choice and autonomy—the freedom to participate or opt out of interactions without pressure—is crucial for building a reciprocal relationship and boosting their confidence.
To bridge theory and practice, PDTE President AnneLill was invited to share her extensive experience. She will discuss how training impacts the human-dog relationship and integrate the core ideas from all the speakers. Her session will encourage participants to critically re-evaluate if their training methods truly bring happiness to dogs or if they instead confine them to a human-defined world.
The convergence of these experts' unique perspectives and shared philosophies on human-dog interaction ultimately led to the creation of this forum's central theme.
The forum speakers will present in English. Online participants can choose to watch on either the original English channel or the Chinese simultaneous interpretation channel with WEBEX.
Welcome to join us! The registration link is in the comments.
台灣狗兒論壇(Dog Symposium)是由正向思維藝術狗兒行為諮商/訓練師Joeson(Polo拔)所策劃籌備,邀請來自世界各地的專家講師,帶給台灣及亞洲地區關於狗兒最新的資訊與研究。除了讓台灣可以與世界同步接軌,也給予從事與狗兒相.....