Pet Professional Guild – A Message From Niki Tudge
BARKS January 2015 Presidents Message
Dear Fellow Force-Free Advocates,
Another year has gone by and I ponder whether to review all of the great things we have achieved together over the past year or to focus on what we are planning for 2015. Since I am writing this in early December and it will only be read for the first time in this, our January issue of BARKS, I guess the decision is made. Let’s talk about the coming year…
As always the New Year brings about much excitement for all of us here at our Force-Free HQ. We have so many things planned that will, hopefully, not only start 2015 with a huge bang but take it out on a giant wave of accomplishments and growth.
Firstly, I want to highlight our second International Day of Celebration for Force-Free Training and Pet Care (ICFF 2015) to be held on February 17. Last year’s event was a great success and we hope to make it even better this year. The monies collected from this event go to our Leah Roberts Advocacy Foundation fund and will be used by our Advocacy Committee in 2015 to help spread our force-free message. It’s a great cause and a whole lot of fun so sign up now – or after you finish reading BARKS! The registration fee this year is only $20 and for that you receive our highly sought-after and collectible commemorative ICFF brass badge, a certificate of attendance and the opportunity to win some fantastic prizes (for more details, see Pages 12-13).
This year our generous sponsors have really outdone themselves. To name just a few, Dr. Susan Friedman is awarding a scholarship to her esteemed Living and Learning with Animals program while Dogwise and Tawzer are providing packages of books and videos respectively. Our TOP Prize is, wait for it… meals, lodging and credit toward your travel to our inaugural PPG Summit – worth over $2000. So put your running/walking/training shoes on, get warmed up and get out there and do something fantastically force-free with your critter. These prizes are just too good to pass up. Visit our website to find out more and to read all the rules and, of course, to register.
To continue, the PPG Steering Committee met in early December and approved all our goals and projects for 2015. Of the many projects scheduled for the coming year, I would like to especially announce our inaugural PPG educational summit.
Titled PPG Force-Free Summit 2015, our first convention will be organized around the theme Reaching for a Higher Standard. In keeping with this theme, all presenters have agreed to, and approve of, our educational message and Guiding Principles. We already have a fantastic line-up of presenters with PPG Special Counsel, Dr. Karen Overall, leading the way as our keynote speaker.
To make our convention available to the greatest number of PPG members we have also developed payment terms for members within a choice of attendance packages. We have put together three money-saving options, including The Pug Package, The Aussie Package and The Mastiff Package. You can find more information on these packages, as well as payment terms, our speaker schedule, the summit location and how to register on Pages 14-15. You can also visit our website to find out more.
In case you missed it at the end of last year, PPG launched a new Become an Advocate tri-fold (left) designed to help members educate veterinary professionals in their communities about the benefits of force-free training. With references to expert testimony to back up our message, the tri-fold is available as a full-print version and as an editable pdf in both US and A4 sizes, so members will be able to add their own business logo and contact details. More details are available here.
Finally, I would like to thank Jan Casey, Caryn Liles and Heidi Steinbeck for all their hard work on the Steering Committee and wish them all the very best in their future endeavors.
That’s it from me until next time. I wish each of you and your families a wonderful, force-free New Year and hope to see all of you at Summit 2015. Enjoy this issue of BARKS and, if you are reading this message in our new printed version, be sure to let us know what you think.
Niki Tudge
