#8 Blackburn Drive W SW, Edmonton, AB T6W 2K5

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Educational
Seminars

At Companion Veterinary Clinic, our mission is to inspire, educate, and empower people with the tools they need to build healthy relationships and safe environments for the animals in their care.

Contact us

Educational
Seminars

Jessica Benoit presenting about Fear Free veterinary care in a clinic in Edmonton
Contact us

At Companion Veterinary Clinic, our mission is to inspire, educate, and empower people with the tools they need to build healthy relationships and safe environments for the animals in their care. Whether you’re looking to teach young children about safe interactions with animals, you’re an organization that works with animals and is seeking a greater understanding of canine and feline behaviour, or you’re part of a veterinary clinic looking to reduce fear, anxiety and stress in your patients, we’re happy to present on these or any topics that will promote compassionate care and handling of all animals.

Canine and Feline Educational Workshops

Meet the Presenter

Jessica Benoit is a Registered Veterinary Technologist, Veterinary Technician Specialist in Behaviour, Certified Professional Dog Trainer and Karen Pryor Certified Training partner. In addition, she is also Fear Free Certified as a veterinary professional, trainer and speaker. She provides continuing education opportunities for veterinary professionals, animal-related organizations and clients.

Jessica has delivered presentations and workshops for the University of Alberta, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Grande Prairie Regional College, Alberta Veterinary Technologist Association, Vetoquinol Continuing Education Event, the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Humane Society, Edmonton Association of Small Animal Veterinarians, Calgary Academy of Veterinary Medicine, and various veterinary clinics in Canada. She has also presented lectures at the Canadian Virtual Veterinary Symposium, The Fear Free Pet Behavior Symposium, and EveryCat Health Foundation. 

She is proud to have participated in a Fear Free Town Hall virtual event and a special presentation for the Edmonton Police Service, “Animal Investigations Training for Frontline Officers”. Most recently, she was a guest speaker for the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior at their Clinical Animal Behavior Conference in Chicago. She is also an ongoing presenter of the course “Mobilizing RVTs” for BS Communication Strategies.  

If you are interested in giving your veterinary team more continuing education in animal behaviour, want to begin implementing Fear Free into your practice or have a rescue or animal related organization that wants to ensure you are able to provide the best animal welfare please contact jessica@companionvet.ca for more details. Fear Free™ presentations can be booked privately with Jessica, or you can visit Fear Free Pets to book a speaker in your area.

Animal Behaviour Basics for Animal Trainers, Animal Rescues, and Veterinary Professionals

  • Feline body language
  • Environmental enrichment
  • Learning theory
  • Positive reinforcement training techniques
  • Prevention and management for common behaviour concerns
  • Canine body language
  • What motivates dogs
  • Myths about dominance theory
  • Environmental enrichment
  • Learning theory
  • Positive reinforcement training techniques
  • Prevention and management for common behaviour concerns

This presentation will give trainers the confidence to train clients and their pets to participate in their veterinary care.

  • Learn what cooperative care means
  • How we can train consent
  • Different aspects of a veterinary exam that can be positively conditioned
  • Transferring your cooperative care training to the veterinary team

Taking your pet to the vet shouldn’t be stressful! In this one-hour session, you will learn how to set your pet up to succeed for veterinary visits.

  • A brief overview of canine and feline body language
  • Preparing your pets for travel to the vet
  • How to teach your pet to be comfortable with veterinary handling
  • Tips and tricks for husbandry procedures and medication administration that can be done at home

Animal Behaviour and Safety Education for Children

Doggone Safe promotes education initiatives for the purpose of dog bite prevention and increased child safety around dogs. This seminar is ideal for preschool and elementary aged children. (30-45 mins)

Recognize Canine and Feline body language in your pets and how to stay safe around cats and dogs. This seminar is appropriate for Elementary and Junior High aged students. (1 hour)

Fear Free and Animal Behaviour Education for Veterinary Practices and Veterinary Schools

These presentations can be submitted for continuing education credits to the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association. Presentation duration can be modified upon request.

  • What is Fear Free?
  • What is fear, anxiety and stress?
  • Canine and feline body language
  • Tools to set your clients and patients up for a successful visit prior to their appointments
  • The importance of emotional medical records
  • Fear Free reception, exam room and treatment room considerations to decrease patient stress.

Teaching patients to cooperate in their care doesn’t always mean training consent behaviours. Animals can learn to make positive associations with veterinary procedures and care using food and non-food distraction. In this presentation attendees will learn the importance of observing body language, use our own body language in a manner that prevents and alleviates fear, anxiety, and stress and how to practically apply distraction techniques.

Learning Objectives:

  • What is Fear Free?
  • Handling techniques: Considerate approach, gentle control and touch gradient
  • What are food and non-food distractions?
  • Recognizing patients that can benefit from distraction techniques
  • How to utilize both food and non-food distraction
  • Puppy development
  • Setting our puppy patients up for success
  • Identifying “Red Flag” puppies
  • Prevention and management for common puppy behaviour concerns
  • Kitten development
  • Setting our kitten patients up for success
  • Identifying “Red Flag” kittens
  • Prevention and management for common kitten behaviour concerns
Part One (1.5 hr):
 
  • Canine and feline body language
  • Setting patients up for success
  • Client communication 

Part Two (1.5 hrs):

  • Considerations for handling and restraint
  • Towel wrap techniques (hands-on lab)

We know cats are taken to the vet much less frequently than dogs. What can we do to change that? This session will highlight how to set up the veterinary clinic environment through the eyes of our feline patients and how to perform an optimal Fear Free examination using Fear Free techniques that are both effective and gentle. Learn how to prevent stress during travel to the veterinary practice and how to communicate this information to clients, as travel is often the tipping point of the fear cascade for our feline patients. Attendees will also learn how to utilize food and non-food distraction techniques to promote successful feline veterinary visits.

  • Body language
  • Considerate approach
  • Gentle control and touch gradient
  • Feline friendly environment
  • Distraction techniques
  • Needs vs. wants
  • When to stop
Aggression in dogs during veterinary procedures poses not only a safety risk to the veterinary team but a physical and emotional risk to the patient. This presentation will focus on how to set up the clinic environment to reduce stress and will include:
 
  • Setting up the physical environment
  • Tools for safety and handling such as treats, basket muzzles, towels and cone collars
  • Considerate approach and gentle control
  • When to stop
  • When medication is warranted

Learn to incorporate Fear Free techniques and animal behaviour into your veterinary practice. This presentation is geared toward Veterinary Technology students or Registered Veterinary Technologists.

The veterinary team plays an integral role in client education and guidance for understanding and setting up clients and puppies up for success.

Proper socialization is critical to a puppy’s emotional wellbeing and development. Puppy classes help create more cooperative patients, confident puppies, will bond clients to your practice, provide an added revenue stream, and more!

In this presentation attendees will:

  • Learn about different class styles, including the benefits and disadvantages of each
  • Explore the business side of running puppy classes
  • Learn how to set up a puppy class for puppies 8-16 weeks of age based on Companion Veterinary Clinic’s puppy class curriculum
  • Get additional recommendations to set up your clients and their puppies for success

Nail trims can be stressful for patients, clients and the veterinary team. In this webinar we will discuss why nails trims can be challenging and how we can improve this experience through prevention, distraction techniques and behaviour modification.

Outcomes for participants of this session include:
 
  • Factors that contribute to fear during nail trims
  • Distraction and handling techniques
  • When to stop: the importance of reading body language
  • Implementing prevention for long-term success
  • How to desensitize and counter-condition patients to nail trims
  • Learning Theory
  • Tips for exam room consultations
  • Solutions for common behaviour concerns
General Practice veterinarians and veterinary technologists are hopefully one of the first places that clients will go to for advice on their pets’ concerning behaviour, so it’s important to be ready with easily digestible, quick tips that can help alleviate some of the stress and safety concerns in your client’s home, all within the constraints of a short GP appointment! Learn how to triage behaviour cases, how to implement safety and management recommendations immediately and provide resources to further support your clients.
Learning objectives:
-Taking a behavioural history and why it is necessary
-Triaging behaviour concerns and referrals
-Resources and support both for veterinary teams and clients

Testimonials

We recently had Jessica Benoit speak to veterinary professionals on behaviour prevention for canine and feline patients. From the very beginning, Jessica was wonderful to collaborate with, accommodating, hardworking and her seminar went beyond our expectations. Her passion for the wellbeing of animals is very evident and inspiring! The content she presented was relevant, relatable and practical for the audience. Jessica kept the audience engaged throughout the session and was able to deliver a lot of information in a positive and motivating manner. The anonymous feedback from seminar attendees was overwhelmingly positive with phrases such as “Amazing speaker”, “Entertaining and very knowledgeable”, “Topic very relevant”. We would use Jessica again for a speaking engagement if the opportunity arose and would certainly recommend her.
Alana Gomez, RVT
Alana Gomez, RVTTerritory Manager, Companion Animals - Alberta
I have watched many of Jessica’s webinars and have also taken part in a workshop at Companion Veterinary Clinic. I look forward to Jessica’s content as she is a very engaging speaker and her information is always current. I always learn new tips and tricks to help with training and making patients comfortable in hospital. In person, Jessica is very approachable and honest. I highly recommend her webinars and workshops.
Amy Tarrant RVTKPA CTP, Elite Fear Free Certified
I’ve gained so much from Jessica Benoit’s workshops and seminars! Most recently, I attended the Cooperative Care Unleashed workshop, which was packed with practical information I could use right away in supporting my clients and caring for my own pets. Jessica presents material in a way that is both accessible and easy to apply, offering a variety of strategies for integrating techniques into everyday care. Her passion for behaviour and animal welfare shines through, and her depth of knowledge is impressive! I especially appreciate the case studies she shares, showing how these techniques are applied with her patients and the real outcomes she has seen. They highlight just how impactful these methods can be, and it is inspiring to see the progress made. I always look forward to Jessica's educational offerings and could happily spend hours learning from her. Alberta is fortunate to have such a dedicated behaviour professional! I highly recommend Jessica’s seminars, workshops, and coaching to any animal care professional looking to elevate their skills and the quality of care they provide.
Alecia Muirhead, CDBCMUTTLIFE Dog Training and Behaviour
This is the best course. It fascinates me how cooperative care makes the exam process so much faster and smoother. When I would do exams in rescue it was traumatic and time consuming for all participants. This is a niche in behavior I will pursue as a specialty. Thank you for educating! Love this!!!!
Hillary DuncanCPDT-KA, Pet Behavior Counselor
Such a good presentation! I received lots of positive feedback from both our medical department and my team in behaviour. The RVTs really appreciated having a tech’s perspective, someone who has done the procedures and can attest to their success. Behaviour felt quite validated and that they learned a couple new techniques (we actually used the drive by sedation on a medically touch-sensitive dog this week, went very smooth). I personally appreciated how you adapted your recommendations to our environment (e.g. financial constraints, saloon doors). We have a good list of areas for improvement that we have already started working on.
Andy Brûlé WildMSc, CBCC-KA
Fun, educational, informative. These lassies were absolutely brilliant in teaching Cooperative Care.
Nikki McLeod RVN
Becky Taylor, Vintage RVT! This was a great workshop filled with relevant and current information and techniques for cooperative care. What stood out most was Jessica's passion AND knowledge combined with her desire to make things better for veterinary visits. I wish every veterinary professional could approach their patients with this mindset, these skills and this idea of cooperative care. HIGHLY reccommend!
Becky TaylorRVT
This event was incredibly from the topics to the speakers. Amazing animal behavior tools, tips and learning principles. It was presented in a way that it was easy to access and to enjoy it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with the world. It was fantastic and I want more!!!

Speaking Engagements and Collaboration Highlights

ABVTA 45th Anniversary Conference 2024

CAVM: A Collaborative Approach to Veterinary Behaviour for General Practitioners 2024

“Mobilizing RVTs” on behalf of BS Communications Strategies

University of Alberta

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

Grande Prairie Regional College

Alberta Veterinary Technologist Association

Vetoquinol Continuing Education Event

City of Edmonton

San Diego Humane Society

Fear Free Pet Behavior Symposium

Fear Free Town Hall virtual event

Edmonton Police Service, “Animal Investigations Training for Frontline Officers”

Association of Pet Dog Trainers (New Zealand)

Society of Veterinary Behaviour Technicians

Canadian Virtual Veterinary Symposium 2021/2022

Students of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association Symposium January 2022

EveryCat Health Foundation May 2023

Edmonton Humane Society 

Edmonton Association of Small Animal Veterinarians

Calgary Academy of Veterinary Medicine

American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior: Clinical Animal Behavior Conference