ADI is very excited to announce that the 2021 ADI Conference is going VIRTUAL for this year - September 12-15, 2021.
ADI is very excited to announce that the 2021 ADI Conference is going VIRTUAL for this year - September 12-15, 2021. This year’s theme will be “The Power of Positivity!” Despite the challenges we are all facing, we are looking forward to a new way of learning, growing and connecting.
Presenting Sponsor
Diamond Sponsor
Emerald Sponsor
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsor
Silver Sponsor
Registration is now OPEN!
Click on the conference registration information for the link to the Members Area of the website.
Registration Fees:
Our Registration site will be going live the first week in May. We will notify our members when registration is LIVE and send a link to register. The fee to attend our past LIVE event was $450.00/per person. Due to this year’s event taking place virtually, we have adjusted the conference registration fees:
Early-Bird Rate: $199/per person - June 1st - June 30th
Group Early-Bird Registration (5 people or more): $169/per person
Non-Member Early Rate: $299/per person
Standard Rate: $249/per person - July 1st - August 15th
Group Standard Rate Registration (5 people or more): $219/per person)
Non-Member Standard Rate: $349/per person
Late Registration Rate: $349/per person - after August 15th until the start of the event
NO GROUP RESERVATION DISCOUNT
Non-Member Late Registration Rate: $449/per person
In addition to making this year more accessible and affordable to our members and candidate programs, the reduced registration will also offer more value:
- All sessions will be recorded and posted on the virtual event platform for on-demand viewing for up to one year. No content will be missed!
- Due to no travel costs, we hope to have increased attendance and multiple members join from each member organization.
- We will include an amazing line-up of speakers as they will be able to join us remotely.
- Fun networking opportunities will make this more than a Zoom meeting!
THE CONFERENCE PROGRAM SCHEDULE IS AVAILABLE! (Subject to Change) All conference times are listed in the Eastern Time Zone. Please note the time zone differences to your area. Updated 8-27-2021.
Keynote Speakers
Amy Dixon and Fidelco Woodstock
Biography:
Amy Dixon is a member of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Team in the sport of Paratriathlon. She competed this year in the PTVI (Visually Impaired division) as a member of Team USA. Amy is a Aquathlon World Champion, 2x Triathlon National Champion, National Cycling Champion and ranked in the top 10 in the World in her sport for the past 6 years running.
Amy lost 98% of her vision to a rare form of Uveitis due to JRA (juvenile Rheumatic Arthritis) and later complications due to Glaucoma. She lives in San Diego with her Fidelco German Shepherd Guide Dog, Woodstock and wears a number of hats. A former sommelier (wine expert) and professional equestrian, she now focuses on her professional triathlon career and as the President of Glaucoma Eyes International, Spokesperson for various Glaucoma Pharma and Research institutions, and the Coach and Founder of Camp No Sight No Limits to teach newly blind athletes the sport of swim bike and run.
Michele Pouliot
Monday Keynote Session:
Title: Positive Reinforcement Training - Who Needs It!
Description: The service dog and guide dog worlds have changed dramatically over the past 15 years. Historical training methods formally taught during World War I were adopted by the first guide dog training programs. The successful methods, based on teaching via punishment and negative reinforcement, were circulated around the world. This resulted in thousands of professional dog trainers, including guide and service trainers, becoming skilled traditional method dog trainers. Karen Pryor introduced positive reinforcement marker techniques to the dog training world in the mid 1990’s. These seemingly opposite methods created a quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) war between traditional and positive reinforcement trainers. Experienced and proficient traditional trainers commonly perceived no reasons to change their techniques, defending their methods while being critical of positive reinforcement training. Individuals new to dog training were intrigued by the positive reinforcement methods, eager to put them into practice. Positive reinforcement based Clicker Training quickly expanded and within 10 years many successful trainers were established. Traditional trainers as a whole, gradually begin to “crossover” and learn how effective positive reinforcement techniques can be.
What was the catalyst, the motivation that caused so many traditional programs to relearn and flip-flop their applied techniques?
**NEW WORKSHOP REQUEST**
Is Positive Reinforcement Training worth all the learning and skill building necessary to effectively apply the methods? What do YOU think?
Ponder these thoughts with Michele.
Michele is offering two interactive workshops. To submit email questions and/or video submissions, please review the instructions. The deadline to submit the videos and written questions is August 22, 2021!
Ian Dunbar PhD, BVetMed, MRCVS
Tuesday Keynote Session:
Title: The Power of Positive Training — Ian Dunbar PhD, BVetMed, MRCVS
Description: ‘Positive’ is an emotionally charged word that has many meanings in dog training, most of them loosely defined:
- In the vernacular, we think of positive vs. negative in terms of humane vs. inhumane, kind vs. cruel, good vs. bad and non-aversive vs. aversive.
- In learning theory terminology, we think of positive vs. negative in terms of start vs. stop, give vs. take away, posit vs. negate, for example, positive punishment and negative reinforcement, which is beyond ambiguous and confusing terminology.
- In training lingo, we think about positive vs. negative in terms of reward vs. punishment to change behavior via reinforcement or inhibition.
Today I am going to talk about Reward-Based Dog Training and why it is all-powerful from an objective viewpoint, rather than from a subjective and emotional viewpoint. Whereas it is difficult to know, understand, or influence other people’s beliefs and opinions about the unseen, e.g., a dog’s feelings and emotions, behavior is observable and quantifiable and may be objectively evaluated. Dog behavior doesn’t lie.
First, we’ll compare Reward-Based Training vs. Punishment-Based Training for cueing and increasing the frequency of desirable behaviors in terms of Efficiency, Ease and Effectiveness. This of course is no contest; Reward-Based Training wins paws down. Essentially Reward-Based training is quick, easy and effective whereas Punishment-Based Training time consuming, relatively ineffective and involved.
Second, we’ll similarly compare Reward-Based Training, Aversive Punishment-Based Training and Non-Aversive Punishment-Based Training for decreasing the frequency and eliminating undesirable behavior — in terms of Ease, Efficiency and Effectiveness. This may surprise you. Aversive Punishment is not the ‘quick fix’ it is made out to be; often punishment is neither quick, not a fix and most of the time, by definition, aversive punishment is not punishment!
Third, once we have calculated progressive Response Reliability Percentages, Response:Reward and Response:Punishment Ratios and so demonstrated Proof of Training and Speed of Training to an established criterion, we may then make value judgements about the nature of the training techniques in terms of dog-friendliness and owner-friendliness.
Biography: Veterinarian, animal behaviorist and dog trainer, Dr. Ian Dunbar is the Founder of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) and the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT). Now retired from the seminar trail, he writes, Zooms and films for DunbarAcademy.com and volunteers, mainly as a dog chauffeur, for Next Step Service Dogs.
Martyn Drake
Wednesday Keynote Session:
Title: Strategy in a post-pandemic world
Description: We have learned a vast amount over the last eighteen months, about ourselves, our colleagues and our organisations; about our potential to act quickly and decisively; to work flexibly and with agility; to collaborate, empower and move mountains together when the pressure is really on. We have glimpsed an enormous untapped potential that has actually always been there, dormant under the weight of traditional plans and bureaucracies, but essential in a future of increasing uncertainty and change. To fully unlock this potential, to nurture and build upon it, we will need to fundamentally re-imagine the way we execute, design, and think about strategy.
Senior Leader workshop:
Title: The commercial opportunity for charities
Description: In this workshop, Martyn Drake, author of The Commercial Charity, will walk you through how to take a more structured and sophisticated approach to developing on-mission earned income, to generate unlimited unrestricted funds, to enable your work to quickly become self-sustaining, and ultimately to create a market that permanently locks-in the change that you want to see.
Biography:
Martyn Drake founded Binley Drake Consulting in 2009, to help ambitious leaders dramatically improve the performance of their organisations.
Since then, he has advised organisations ranging from entrepreneurial businesses like Joules and King of Shaves; to iconic non-profits like the Red Cross, Dogs Trust, Sense, Mencap and Scouts; to some of the world's most recognised brands, including Weight Watchers and Walgreens Boots Alliance.
He is recognised as one of the leading experts on strategy and commerce for mission-driven organisations. His latest book, The Commercial Charity: How business thinking can help non-profits grow impact and income, was published by Kogan Page in April 2020.
Kent Noble
Administrative Track Session
Title: What Do You Stand For?
Description: Ken will lead participants through a process where each person creates a personal code of ethics based on what matters most in their lives and careers.
Biography:
Kent Noble is the Bill Daniels Chair of Business Ethics at the University of Wyoming. In 2018, Kent received the Professor of the Year distinction at the UW College of Business. Also in 2018, Kent earned the Campus Being a Difference Award from the NASBA Center for the Public Trust. In 2019 and 2020, UW’s Mortar Board Honor Society recognized him as a "Top Prof", and in 2021, it presented him with UW's Outstanding Service and Dedication Award. Kent was appointed by former Governor Matt Mead to the Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics in 2018, and he was reappointed in 2021 by Governor Mark Gordon. He also serves on the board of directors of the John P. Ellbogen Foundation and the Better Business Bureau Foundation Board of Advisors for Northern Colorado and Wyoming. For his outreach efforts, Kent has developed engaging ethics-based presentations which he delivers to diverse audiences. Since 2013, he has conducted hundreds of sessions for business, government, and community leaders. In total, participants representing all 50 states have enjoyed his talks.
Martin Atkin
Administrative Track Session:
Title: Don't Panic
Description: In a relentless 24 hour news and social media environment, non-profits are under the spotlight like never before. Criticisms and allegations from rivals, disaffected employees or regulatory authorities can easily snowball into a full scale media crisis. This session will provide you with some strategies and tips to prepare for the worst whilst aiming for the best outcome.
Martin Atkin is Director of Funnelweb Media, an integrated communications, media and production agency he founded in 2013. Funnelweb Media works mainly in the sustainability, development and environmental sectors, providing strategic communications advice and content for non-profits, aid agencies, governments and international organisations.
Vladimir Stevanovic is an Assistant professor at the Department of microbiology and infectious diseases with the clinic at the Faculty of veterinary medicine in Zagreb, Croatia. Since 2009 he has been working as a senior clinician at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases with isolation unit in Zagreb. He is currently Deputy Head of Virology unit and Croatian National reference laboratory for West Nile disease and COVID-19. Scientific teams, under his leadership, have a leading role in the introduction of the new diagnostic methods for the viral infections of companion animals.
He has received additional education and training in the field of virology at Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Della Lombardia E Dell'Emilia-Romagna, Brescia Italy. Vladimir was the French government fellow for his PhD studies at Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort, Maisons Alfort, France.
Grisha Stewart, M.A., CPDT-KA, KPACTP
Administrative Track Session:
Title: How To Be Human Workshop
Description:
Do you want to be in love with your life?
Do you do any of these things that get in the way of that?
* Feel stressed or burned out?
* Feel pressured to be "happy" or get upset when others aren't thinking "positively"?
* Need more energy or time in the day?
* Have habits you want to quit or build?
* Wonder whether there's more to life than simply surviving?
* Want authentic connections?
In the "How to Human" workshop, Grisha teaches some important skills to help animal lovers live more wholehearted lives.
The activities, analogies, and information Grisha presents in this workshop fit nicely with what dog professionals and hobbyists already know, making them easy to apply. They also help our canine companions, particularly training our own "glimmers" (safety signals). Other skills covered include how to change habits, nonviolent communication, and other strategies to find joy with integrity. The practical workshop will include breakout sessions in small groups to begin putting these skills to work.
Biography:
Grisha Stewart is an award-winning dog trainer, author, international speaker, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She has been training dogs and their humans professionally since 2003.
Her seminal book, "Behavior Adjustment Training: BAT for Aggression, Reactivity, and Fear in Dogs," was published by Dogwise in late 2011. Grisha's popular second book, "The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving & Manners," was published in 2012 and updated in 2014. She also has over a dozen DVDs, with 6 currently in print. Her third book, BAT 2.0 was released in early 2016.
Grisha is an enthusiastic and entertaining presenter who creates her seminars to accommodate a variety of learning styles. She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. There are over 70 different courses in her innovative online dog training school, GrishaStewart.com, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors.
Arash Bayatmakou