Behaviour at the Beach

---

4.5 days of lectures, discussions, cases, demos, Q & A! 36 HOURS OF RACE CE CREDIT! Come build your community of veterinarians passionate about evidence-based, humane, forward thinking behavioural medicine and caring for the mental health of your patients in veterinary medicine!

Do you want to practice the best preventative behavioural medicine possible?  This course is for you!  Do you want to give the best, evidence-based advice to stop and treat the most common behavioural problems?  This course is for you!  Do you want to go further and make behavioural medicine a core part of your practice?  This course is for you! Our goal is to give you the tools to help care for your patients’ mental health as well as you do their physical health, throughout their lifetimes.  Behavioural complaints and problems remain the biggest cause of pet death and relinquishment.  Early intervention at both the general practice and specialty practice level is essential, but you have to know what to do. 

This course is geared to both practitioners with no-to-little experience in the field and those with a lot, some of whom are working towards becoming specialists.  Because of the unique team and immersive teaching style the course use – everyone is comfortable is asking to have their needs met and with discussion participation during or after the first day.  We have a syllabus and provide notes, but we also encourage targeted questions that may alter schedules.  No other course offers access to specialists and integrated knowledge and viewpoints as does this one.

We expect ~half of the participants to have taken an earlier version of this course so book early because we can accommodate ONLY 40 participants.

Dates

Course: Monday 10 June 2024 through 14 June 2024 (Arrival Sunday 9 June 2024; Drinks and food reception Sunday 9 June 2024, 6-9PM; Departure – Friday night 14 June 2024; optional later departures at discounted price).

Faculty

Three internationally recognized experts in the field:

• Karen L. Overall, MA, VMD, PhD, DACB, Professor, AVC, UPEI, Charlottetown, PEI Canada (Course Leader)
• Goncalo da Graça Pereira, DVM, MsC, PhD, Dip ECAWBM (BM), Instituto Universitário Egas Moniz, Charneca da Caparica, Portugal, Escola Superior Agrária de Elvas, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Elvas, Portugal, Departamento de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Évora, Portugal
• Kersti Seksel BVSc (Hons), MRCVS, MA (Hons), FANZCVS, DACVB, DECAWBM FAVA, Registered Veterinary Specialist in Behavioural Medicine; Adjunct Associate Professor Charles Sturt University, Adjunct Professor University of Queensland, Australia

Location

Holman Grand Hotel – Charlottetown, PEI, Canada (https://www.theholmangrand.com/en/ ).

• Luxury, eco-conscious, boutique hotel with a wonderful restaurant and a fabulous bar.
• Pet friendly and at no additional charge.
• Pool, hot tub, fitness centre, spa (services listed online) on premises.
• Hotel-wide complimentary broadband WiFi access.
• Walking distance to everything in town, across the street from the Confederation Centre art gallery, theatre, et cetera (https://confederationcentre.com/ ) , and connected to Confederation Court Mall for shopping( https://confedcourtmall.com/ ). Bridges and tunnels available for very wet days.
• Valet parking @~ $20 per day.
• Minutes to City Cinema (https://www.cinemaclock.com/theatres/city-cinema ), the Trailside Music Hall (https://trailside.ca/ ) and dozens of fabulous and varied restaurants and bars.
• Minutes to major city parks, the harbor, the yacht club and similar facilities.

Rooms

All rooms are deeply discounted for this meeting. A hotel room for 5 nights (Sunday check-in; Friday check-out) is included in the cost of the meeting.  The hotel will extend the same deep discount for additional rooms or dates on either side of the meeting for people who wish to vacation with their families. Please note on the registration form if you need any of these add-ons.    

Airport

Charlottetown International Airport (YYG), 15 minutes by taxi or car from the Holman Grand Hotel. Most flights and almost all international flights, will connect through Montreal or Toronto. 

Cars

If you are bringing family, extending your stay, or planning to travel on your afternoon off, it is almost mandatory that you rent a car.  There are numerous car rental facilities at the airport.  If you even *think* you might take this course and need a car – book it NOW.  This is a small island, rental cars sell out, and you can always cancel later for free, but you cannot book what they do not have. 

Costs

The cost for the 2024 course is $4,700 CAD (~$ 3,430 USD).  The Holman Grand Hotel made every effort to minimize cost increases and this one is far below the average conference increase for PEI in 2024. Hyper-local people – please note – there is a separate rate that includes in-course meals, but excludes hotel rooms. Reach out to me if this is you.  Breakfast starts at 7AM and the lectures start at 8AM.

What’s included in the cost?

• 5 nights, standard luxury hotel room at the Holman Grand Hotel with option to extend at discounted conference rate
• 5 breakfasts
• 5 morning breaks
• 4 lunches
• 4 afternoon breaks
• All lectures
• 36 hours RACE CE credit
• All notes – which will be sent to you electronically before the course
• One of the most amazing educational and networking experiences you will ever have!

What’s not included in the cost?

• You will be responsible for the cost of your own travel and any additional days, rooms, or upgrades. We can facilitate the additional days, rooms, and upgrades but you will pay the hotel directly for those, only. Book early for best access and fares, especially if you are traveling internationally.
• Dinners.  We did not include dinners so that, if people wished, they could bring family and be a tourist or just have a night off.  This way people can order exactly what they want, experience some of Charlottetown’s excellent restaurants, and budget their own time and finances.

HOWEVER, in 2023 we had a Professors’ Table dinner on 3 course nights where we chose 3 different restaurants.  All attendees paid for their own meal and drinks, which allowed people to budget their own money, but the restaurants accommodated the big group and conversation.  It was great! We are doing it again!

*All dinners are on your own, but Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10-12 attendees can sign up to join the 3 faculty members for dinner at a Professors’ Table.  We will choose 3 different restaurants.  Attendees pay their own costs.  Sign-up sheets will be posted during the meeting. If there is space, partners are welcome to attend, also!

Planned timeline

Program Schedule (click for pdf)

• It’s here!!! Full schedule and announcement with costs sent out by mid-November
• 10 December 2023 Registration opens for payment – Registration will close when we have 40 registrations.  Registration and payment will be via EventBrite, e-transfer or bank transfer.  Detailed instructions will follow.
• NOW – If you know that you or think that you might take this course – please complete and return the registration form NOW.  Once we hit 40 people, we are at the capacity of the course room.  I will keep people updated about how the course is filling and people can then pay, but if you are serious, please hold your spot.  We turned away a dozen people last year.

Starting 10 December we will begin accepting payment.  Please share this announcement and let me know if you have any questions. 

---

Looking forward! 

QUESTIONS?

Dr. Karen Overall:  koverall@upei.ca