We met up with Top Dog Richard and found out what our roles were here at the conference. I bet it was the most service dogs any hotel have ever had at one time.
The conferences included workshops, panels, information sessions, the conference foyer looked like a doggy market with tables dressed like market stalls selling and introducing their doggy business for all the canine corporates to drool over.
During morning tea time we got the pleasure of meeting some of the different canine helpers and understand just how clever our fury friends can be. There were service dogs in various variety like Great Danes trained as Balance dogs (I may need one of these as my balance is quite questionable), Collies, Golden Retrievers, Labradors, Samoyeds, Poodles and even a Boxer. These clever creatures were trained for different reasons like, balance, hearing, epilepsy, autism, mobility issues, visually impaired, diabetes, emotional or mood issues.
Tim was part of a panel with ladies from International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP) foundation. The topic of the panel was 'How to cope with Successor Dogs'. On this panel were two visually impaired ladies and two mobility impaired people (one being Tim). For me being part of the succession process with Tim, Buster and Roxy it was really interesting to hear Tim's view on how the process went as well as to hear others. It was really beneficial to hear the other's journeys and the emotional roller-coaster they experienced as well. I think it was great that the canine foundations were able to hear their effect from the other side. Such great openness and collaboration to further enhance the company/recipient relationship.
We met some great people from all over the world. I met this Chilean lady Cecelia who works in the same line I do (with children who have suffered trauma) and her company has dogs trained to work with trauma based behaviours in children. She gave me a lot of great information about how the dogs work with the children and the psychologist. I was wondering how they were able to achieve this. Cecelia told me they have a centre that the traumatised children attend for sessions and the dogs are kept their with the trainers. Depending on the need of the child the dog and trainer may come in with the psychologist or sometimes it may just be the c hild with the dog and trainer and the psychologist watching the child's behaviour through a two way mirror. Cecelia was saying that they have had great results. An area that my field have just started looking into and I suspect will explore further now that there is positive outcome evidence.
There was a dinner on the second last night of the conference and Tim was the entertainment. Also at this dinner there were a lot of presentations for companies that obtained accreditation into ADI. As usual Tim sang the house down and did a great job, Roxy laid right next to Tim looking adoringly and making the whole audience fall in love with her. She is a great partner for Tim as she loves the lime light just as much as Tim. The dinner ended with Tim singing 'Time to Say Goodbye' and a standing ovation from the audience followed. It was great to be able to show off Aussie talent at a North American ADI conference.
It was a great confe rence and it was really nice to represent Australia and be there with Richard and Jenny.
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