The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Summer 2020 | Page 3

�Contact me at [email protected] EDITORS LETTER Better Late Than Never COTD print deadline delayed to accommodate board decision about annual conference Boy, what a difference a few short months makes! When the Chronicle of the Dog’s SPRING issue was produced, we were in the thick of promoting our Oct. 21-24 conference in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky. Then the coronavirus that was percolating in China in December 2019 went global. As I’m typing this message, more than 9 million people have been confirmed having COVID-19 with almost 500,000 deaths, of which nearly 125,000 have been Americans. That’s just in six months after we first heard about the virus. State and federal governments ordered the shut down of non-essential business and told people to work from home. That hit the dog training industry particularly hard, with clients canceling classes. For those whose sole income comes from boarding or training, that was devastating. As the death toll mounted and concern about the virus spiking again in the fall, the APDT board began meeting almost daily to determine the fate of its 27th conference scheduled Oct. 21-24 in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky. Other conferences were either cancelling or going virtual. In order to provide the most current information in the SUMMER COTD, which was to be printed in late May for a mid-June arrival, we chose to delay the print date. After negotiating new terms to the contracts between APDT and two hotels and the conference center, the difficult decision was made June 1 to switch from an in-person to virtual conference. The next step is to assure the conference’s scheduled keynote speakers, Alexandra Horowitz, Ph.D., and Bob Bailey, Sci.D., are able to provide keynote speeches in a virtual conference. As your APDT staff worked from home and Zoom meetings became ubiquitous, the APDT board began to ponder which virtual conferencing program to use. So more on that will be there for the FALL issue, as well as a confirmed program of sessions having pared the conference down from four days to two, Oct. 21-22. Please keep checking our website for more information. So, yes, this issue has been delayed by about four weeks. But the information within its pages remains relevant. Many of our features address the effects COVID-19 have had on our industry, and how to adapt to the possibility of a spike in the fall or another pandemic in the future. Former APDT chair Robin Bennett offers insights, beginning on page 30, on how to position your business to handle such an epidemic. Jamie Gregory’s article on page 32, “After the Quarantine,” discusses how our companion animals might have some separation issues following several months of having doggie parents being home 24/7. On page 36, Cindy Ludwig breaks down all of the pertinent information – and dispels myths – about COVID-19. As a registered nurse, she has been on the frontlines fighting this disease. Melissa Hatfield writes about how she took the downtime forced by COVID-19 to take some aggression webinars. Her story, “The New Normal,” which begins on page 34, details her concerns about training dogs with dangerous aggression issues. In more non-COVID-19 related stories, Jennifer Berg discusses a study, beginning on page 42, on how to assure a safer visit to a dog park, and that in many instances, bouts of aggression between dogs were caused because pet owners failed to recognize canine stress behavior. And on page 48, Tori Canino explained why she is more interested in being her dog’s caregiver, and not the alpha. “The times, they are a-changing,” it’s been sung. APDT and Chronicle of the Dog are adapting to those changes. Stay tuned for the FALL issue for more updates about the virtual conference and in the meantime, be safe and healthy! Devon Hubbard Sorlie, Editor The APDT Chronicle of the Dog | Summer 2020 1