CANIS 2026

CANIS 2026 was the best canine behavior conference I have ever attended, full stop. Don’t just take it from me, I heard that over and over again from dozens of attendees. The quality of presentations was first rate, (I can’t emphasize that enough), but what made my heart sing the most was the professionalism and knowledge of the attendees. There was an atmosphere of curiosity, kindness, and joy that pervaded the rooms, as if someone had sprayed oxytocin (just the right amount) into the air ducts. I am so very very lucky to have been there.

Am I completely objective about it? No, how could I be when so many kind and gracious people came up to me and thanked me for my work, not to mention being presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Michael Shikashio at the end of the last day? (Which I almost missed, along with Sy Montgomery’s inspiring barn burner of a closing Keynote, because I went up to my room beforehand to “rest” and ended up falling asleep. Fact: I am old. ) I remain grateful beyond words for the award and for the standing ovation–I’ll never forget it. Thank you.

And then, of course, there was this: 

If you weren’t there or haven’t heard, I got the insane idea to recruit Michael and Sy to start out the Disco dance at the end of the conference by dressing up and replicating–well, sort of–part of John Travolta’s solo dance in Saturday Night Fever. I don’t watch it much because my vision of what I would look like and what actually occurred were so far apart it’s painful, but I was amused enough about the whole thing to try to include it here BUT argh, I can’t get it to load into Youtube, [probably cuz of the BeeGee’s music) but you can find it on my Facebook page, Oct 10th.

Our foolishness did what it intended to do, which was get the party started! That’s Sy on the far left, Michael and his amazing wife Moira in the front middle and me and Kim Brophy getting it on on the right.

I had two jobs at the conference, one was to join a panel about canine welfare with Michael, Kim Brophy, Dr. Emma Gaalaas, Dr. Lisa Gunter, Dr. Abbie Atteberry, me, and Dr. Daniel Mills. Again, I’m not objective, but I found it fascinating.

Earlier that day Kim Brophy had participated in a thought-provoking comparison of welfare in three dogs–a street dog in India, a family dog in the UK, and a family dog in the U.S. The American dog came out with the lowest score, because so many of our dogs have no time off leash outside of the house or a fenced yard. Much of that is cultural and is baked into public policy, and the consensus was that our industry needs to address that, along with the fact that the lives of our dogs have radically changed in the last few decades. If you are as old as I am, you no doubt remember letting the family dog outside, free to wander, for much of the day. Was it dangerous? Yes, of course, to some extent–my own sister’s dog got killed by the school bus after she was married. But most dogs were able to act like dogs–exploring, meeting others, using their noses, and napping under the bushes, while so many of our dogs live lives eons away from what is natural for a dog. The most compelling difference to me is the contrast between the US and the UK: Dogs across the pond almost always get off leash walks every day, often in areas with other off leash dogs, and are allowed in places that no American dog ever is. Is it perfect? No, but the consensus is that our dogs, so often walked in the neighborhood on leash, are often stressed and reactive because of it. Obviously this is a huge topic that I can’t do justice to here, but it is indeed something we all need to be thinking about and working on. More on this in future posts.

My other job (besides a book signing for Away To Me and my newly revised The Puppy Primer), was to talk about the importance of stories in our professional and personal lives. It was a great opportunity to have a conversation with a small group (50 people who got CANIS + tickets) about how stories are powerful things that we can all utilize more in our work as professional trainers and behaviorists.

One of the things I learned while working on my talk was that children introduced to fiction turn out to be more empathetic adults. It makes sense when you think about it; fiction allows people to see into to the worlds, lives, and emotions of others–and can be just as powerful in helping us help guardians understand their dogs. But it’s also valuable to look at the stories we tell ourselves, about who we are and what we can accomplish. It was a special time, we all made some heartfelt connections. I even got to meet this beautiful woman in the photo below, Janhavi Kamani, who came from India, just because she wanted to meet me in person. (You might think I ended up with an inflated ego after that, but then, I refer you to the video of the dance.) THANK YOU for coming, Janhavi, I am so honored!

You might wonder what’s going on in the photo below?

Simple, I am replicating the behavior (trained) of Jenn Michaelis’s dog Freddy below, which won her a free ticket to the conference based on a Facebook post. Jenn is a kick ass trainer in her own right, and apparently she’s not bad at training people.

I had this fantasy that I’d write today extensively about all the talks I attended but alas, my energy is fading, so I’ll leave you with more photos and a teaser about the amazing talks I heard: from Daniel Mills, who has got to be the smartest person in the room, any room, and Nathaniel Hall about smell and dogs and how they are NOT better at detecting a single odor than we are but are astoundingly better at sorting out one scent amongst others, and Amy Herot showing great videos of dogs using their noses. And some truly great and important panel discussions.

A huge thanks to Erika Austin from Dogwise for being the best author support ever:

And to Kelly Elvin and all at TipTopTails Dog Training for reviewing my new version of The Puppy Primer and providing such a fabulous blurb [that’s Kelly on the bottom right]:

Here’s to my fellow attending A/CAABs (Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists): we managed a lunch together which was awesomely rare and wonderful. From left top row, Dr. Julie Hecht, [just got her PhD! Yay!], Dr. Monique Udell, me, MS Jody Epstein, and bottom row, Dr. Lisa Gunter, Alyssa Carey, and Dr. Sheryl Walker. Some of us will be in Tucson for the Interdisciplinary Forum on Applied Animal Behavior. Join us!

And finally, I save my deepest thanks to Michael Shikashio and Kathryn Staron. Michael (and Karen P and Liz!) created a truly magical experience, and Kathryn, who is my website assistant, Puppy Primer reviewer and SO MUCH MORE, who took care of me for three and a half intensive days and took many of these photographs.

One last note: I mentioned some controversy. There are some who criticized CANIS for making a point to welcome people who have different backgrounds and training philosophies. Here’s from its web page:

CANIS is a coalition of leading organizations rooted in science, welfare conscious training, behavioral and veterinary expertise, and deep respect for the role of dogs in our lives. From researchers and trainers to veterinarians, shelter professionals, and sport competitors, we are building bridges across practice areas to create a unified, compassionate, and forward-thinking field. Together, we will tear down silos, amplify innovation, and craft a more humane and effective ecosystem of care. The future demands it. [My emphasis in bold.] 

That is exactly what I saw, minute after minute, hour after hour at the conference. People asking: “How can we make dog’s lives better?” Some of the criticism has been harsh; I will say one thing about it: Positive reinforcement is powerful stuff, and it works on people as well as dogs. Harsh positive punishment can sometimes be effective, but it also carries the risk of forcing individuals into increasingly defensive postures, increasing the potential of defensive aggression, and destroying trust and future communication. All of us on the R+ side know this, right? That’s why we are such advocates of it.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Yay fall! Never has it gone on so long so beautifully:

Here’s my dear friend Catherine Price and the young dog, Jed, who is learning about driving on a trial course. This was at Shannon Wolfe’s Stocktober Fest, a small trial full of good cheer and support. Thank you Shannon and Catherine (trial secretary) and so many others for doing all the work to put it on.

I’ll end with Mr. Skip, doing his movie star impersonation at a Patrick Shannahan clinic:

May all our dogs feel like movie stars, in the best possible ways. 

See you in a few weeks, more about CANIS talks to come.