Warsaw, Poland | 20^th November
IV International Online Conference on Animal Training

Jim Mackie has worked at The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) for over 20 years and became the first Animal Training and Behaviour Officer in 2012. He has overseen a shift in animal management whereby positive, science-based, training techniques have largely replaced traditional methods such as restraint during medical and husbandry procedures. In 2015 ZSL was a recipient of a British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria (BIAZA) gold award for establishing a coherent collection of wild animal training programmes for enhanced welfare. Jim has helped to form ZSL’s Behaviour Management Committees, with groups at both London and Whipsnade Zoos, and the BIAZA Animal Behaviour and Training Working Group, which he chairs. Jim is also a member of the EAZA Training Group and is an EAZA Academy instructor specialising in the use of trained behaviour to maximise welfare potential in zoos and aquaria. Jim regularly lectures, delivers presentations and runs workshops about Zoo animal behaviour both at home and abroad. When he not at work, he lives in Epping with wife Jacqueline, daughter Francesca and a very well-trained cat called Smudge.

I am a Reader in Comparative Psychology in the psychology department of the University of Portsmouth. Before that I was the group leader of the research group “Evolutionary Roots of Human Social Interaction” at the Max Planck Institute for evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig/ Germany where I also completed my PhD in 2005 (with Michael Tomasello & Josep Call). I received my Ph.D. in biological sciences from Leipzig University and helped to found and lead the Max Planck Institute’s Dog Cognition Study Center. There, I made a number of exciting discoveries about how dogs solve problems. I am now the director of the Dog Cognition Centre Portsmouth (www.port.ac.uk/dogcognition)
My research interests include social cognition, communication and cooperation in human infants, primates and dogs. Most famously I was the first to show that a dog named Rico learns words in a similar fashion as human infants. I am recognized as a leading expert on dog cognition and have been recognized in National Geographic, Discovery News and the NOVA special documentary film “Dogs Decoded” broadcast on American public television.

Retired Lieutenant James W. Crosby BS, MS, CBCC-KA (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, Jacksonville, FL, USA) has extensive canine behavioural training and expertise and served as Division Manager for Bay County (FL) Animal Control, and Management Consultant (acting chief) of Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services. Jim served on the Board of Directors of the Florida Animal Control Association and has worked with and assisted FACA, the Southeastern Animal Control Association, the Colorado Association of Animal Control Officers, the Alabama Animal Control Association, the Georgia Animal Control Association, and others across the US and Canada. Jim also assisted the Department of Animal Services for the Australian Capital Territory, leading a National Study on Dangerous Dog policy and procedure for the Australian Capital Territory Government. Jim assisted, on-site, the Australian Federal Police on a fatality case in Canberra, Australia. Jim is an internationally recognized authority and court accepted expert on canine attacks and aggression. Jim’s specialty is investigating dog bite related fatalities, especially evidentiary and behavioural factors involved in these deaths. Jim’s on-scene investigation of over 30 fatalities and post attack evaluation of over 50 subject dogs has been essential in numerous successful prosecutions. He assists prosecutors and agencies facing these cases and was recently on-scene for a homicide investigation in Central Georgia.

Jim assists in dogfighting investigations and was the expert on the Polk County, GA case wherein Devicio Rowland was sentenced to fifty years for dogfighting, the longest sentence for that crime in US history. Jim serves as an expert consultant regarding the use of deadly force by police officers against companion animals. Jim earned his Master’s Degree in Veterinary Forensics from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida and is completing his PhD studies there.

Annette Pedersen started working in Copenhagen Zoo in 1989 as a part of the Danish keepers’ education. After finishing her education in 1992, she was hired for the marine mammal section (harbor seals and California sea lions), which also housed other animals like penguins, Malayan tapirs, barbirusa, etc. Here she helped developing the marine mammal training program until 2008, where she moved to the elephant section working on transferring the elephants from free contact to protected contact (PC). Later that same year she was given the position as Animal Training Coordinator of Copenhagen Zoo. Since 2008 her job has been to develop/expand the training skills of the keepers at Copenhagen Zoo, as well as managing animal behavior and training within a variety of species and challenges. Since 2009 she has helped develop the Danish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (DAZA) animal training course, which is still held once a year in Denmark. She serves the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) as Chair for the Animal Training Working Group and as member of the Animal Welfare Working group. She is also an instructor for the EAZA animal training courses under the EAZA Academy. 2014-2016 she served on the board of the Animal Behavior Management Alliance (ABMA).

Scientist and academic lecturer at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin (Department of Animal Therapy and Animal Psychology). Additionally, Agata has completed a number of courses and trainings in canine and feline behaviour: a zoopsychologist course at Europejskie Studium Przygotowania Zawodowego i Wiedzy Praktycznej, dog training course at CANID school, a course for ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF COMPANION ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR AND TRAINING at Centre of Applied Pet Ethology (COAPE) to mention but a few.
Professionally, as an active scientist, Agata runs an ongoing research in biological mechanisms behind behaviour, animal psychology, welfare (with the emphasis on animal empowerment) and in zoosemiotics. She is particularly interested in the questions of animal temper and personality as well as emotional life of animals. She is a lecturer at the Faculty of Animal Science and at Open University at WULS. She has published a work titled Zootherapy with Elements of Ethology. As a practitioner, she is an animal trainer and behaviour consultant and shares her expertise at trainings for individuals and businesses alike. She is an author of such courses as Zoopsychology, Canine Behaviour, Zootherapy in a Nutshell, Pet-sitter- a Certified Carer for Dogs and Cats.  She  has been a speaker at 31 conferences, including 9 abroad (Czech Republic, Portugal, Italy, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan), at which she has delivered 12 lectures and presented 19 poster presentations. A Board member of Warsaw Division of Polish Society of Animal Production, she is also a regular member of Polish Ethological Society, Polish Laboratory Animal Science Association PolLASA and International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants IAABC. She likes to tirelessly update her skills attending courses and workshops and following new scientific publications.

She is currently conducting research into dog training methods to detect disease carriers and dogs that signal outbreaks of disease in humans. She cooperates with Polish services, giving lectures on dog behavior and olfactory work, and conducts behavioral therapies for service dogs.

The founder and project manager of the DDD Project – Disease Detecting Dog Project, whose main goal is to create a specialized training center that prepares dogs to detect samples from sick people (cancer, diabetes, and others), but also to signal disease attacks to make life easier for people struggling with diabetes and epilepsy, as well as other diseases. Properly trained dogs, in addition to signaling the arrival of an attack (alert dog), can also be taught to provide basic assistance during and immediately after an attack (reponse dog), and dogs seeking the smell of the disease – can be used, among others. in times of epidemic, in order to rapidly screen people who are a potential carrier of the disease (e.g. coronavirus causing COVID-19).

The founder and director of Ethoplanet.