We’re a multi-species conference

You’ll have the chance to learn from experts from all over the animal behavior world, who you may never have had the opportunity to see if you stay in your bubble of expertise. Thinking about a different species can help you break out of old habits, which is proven to make absorbing material easier for your brain. That means new takes on concepts, completely new ideas, and more a-ha moments.

Something for everyone

This year, we have a more diverse lineup of presenters than ever, covering dogs, cats, horses, and parrots, as well as the nuts and bolts of behavior consulting in practice. If you work with shelters and rescues, we’ll have information you can really use, from preparing parrots for multiple homes to using desensitization and counter-conditioning to help fearful dogs and cats. No matter whether you’re just starting out of you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll find plenty to take home and put into practice.

Focusing on case studies

The science of animal behavior is at the core of everything we do as animal behavior professionals, and we have some of the best people presenting in the field. We know that sometimes the amount of “book-learning” out there can feel overwhelming, however, so most of our speakers will be building case studies and real-life examples into their presentations.

Learning from real-life experiences is the best way to get insight into how you can use these concepts in your work with animals. We believe in sharing information about every part of animal behavior consulting, including how to move forward when something doesn’t work so well!

A unique way to build your business skills

What does success mean to you? On Sunday, we’ll be running an all-day special session focused entirely on how you can build your business and marketing skills to get more clients, streamline your process, and make more money! Our presenters will take you through how you can lean into your strengths to set yourself up for business success, and the best ways of making your presence felt on the Internet.

Being part of this track comes with a personalized workbook for you to fill out and take home as a template for future growth.

A great location

It’s easy to get to the Hilton DoubleTree in Culver City. We’re just a few minutes from the freeway and only three miles from LAX airport. You’ll get a discount on parking for the whole weekend, too.

The hotel itself has lots of amenities (yes, Wi-Fi is included!), and they have rooms available at a special conference rate. If you have a conference ticket, they’ll also match any room rate you find online for the 8th and 9th of April.

Genetics! And cocktails!

Join Dr. Elinor Karlsson, head of the Vertebrate Genomics group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard , for an informal discussion of what the latest developments in genetics could mean for the future of how we understand animal behavior.

Dr. Karlsson is part of the Darwin’s Dogs project, a citizen science initiative gathering DNA from pet dogs and using it to learn about how genes influence behavior traits. She’ll be chatting over cocktails on Saturday from 5.30pm; bring your questions and your little paper umbrellas!

All the CEUs

We know IAABC 2017 is a great educational opportunity for behavior consultant, veterinarians, vet techs and volunteers, but don’t just take our word for it: we have CEUs available from CCPDT, KPA, NADOI, PPG, IACP, and credits from RACE.

Join us on the 8th and 9th of April for IAABC 2017, learn from experts, make new friends, and experience everything IAABC has to offer.

Our conference is for people who work with every species of companion animal: we have presenters who will focus on dogs, cats, parrots, and horses, as well as multi-species talks from Professor Susan Friedman. In your professional or volunteer role, you probably focus on just one or two species. To get the most out of your conference experience, however, we encourage you to attend the talks that sound the most interesting to you. You’ll find that there are unique benefits to stepping outside your box.

As any zookeeper will tell you, working with many different species means both understanding what makes them unique, and what they all share. Learning theory, for example, has been shown to work with just about every species you could imagine, from bears to bees. But some elements of learning theory are more important when you’re working with large, predatory animals, whereas others come into the forefront when training tiny social insects.

If you want a really deep understanding of learning theory, you should expose yourself to how it’s applied to as many different species as possible so that you can draw on this knowledge the next time you’re faced with a challenging problem to solve.

When we’re used to hearing information, we unconsciously start to finish people’s thoughts for them. Our brains are really good at learning patterns and predicting what’s going to happen next. In fact, we’re so finely tuned for this that sometimes when we’re listening to someone talk or reading something, our brains fixate on what we already know at the expense of being on the alert for things we haven’t heard before.

Studies have shown that it gets harder to pay attention as we become more familiar with a task, so getting out of our comfort zone by listening to new people talk about a species we’re not familiar with can mean it is easier for us to keep focused and take in the information.

Learning literally changes the brain, forging connections that become stronger the more we practice those habits of thought. Getting out of those channels and beginning to expand our knowledge creates new synaptic connections. We’re not thinking along habitual lines, so we’re better able to make leaps in understanding and see things in a new way.

A really good speaker is informative, inspirational, and a joy to hear. Different experts approach the same concepts in new and exciting ways, and sometimes all it takes is someone to rephrase an idea and you get that long-awaited lightbulb moment. You’ll also be able to meet a different set of people in the audience, with different questions and interpretations of the content.

Broadening your horizons at a conference can lead to all kinds of new doors opening in your professional and personal life. You might end up inspired to diversify your behavior consulting practice and start learning more about working with cats, or, you might start a fulfilling new volunteer job with rabbits in a shelter! Whatever you take away from the conference, it’s always beneficial to take in as many new perspectives as you can. That’s why we believe IAABC 2017 is a unique opportunity for people working with every species to learn from each other and grow together.