Program
FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2026
Judith Bordt, CCUI, FDM
How would you like to CU this? - A spellcaster’s guide to leveling up your dog training game
Is it possible to use Spellcraft to keep your reactive dog from rolling for Initiative on every encounter? Did you know you could cast Calm Emotions to help your dog regain (behavioral) Health Points? What if a reliable recall was actually a level 9 Spell from the Disentanglement Domain? Drawing on the arcane knowledge of the legendary Control Unleashed spellbooks, this presentation will show you how to level up your dog’s stats and create a winning strategy to defeat your party’s real-life behavioral boss battles. Go from frantic button mashing to confidently choosing the right move for the situation. Find out how to customize your Wheel of Options. Learn map making skills to better prepare your next excursion into the realms. Grow your XP. And get ready to take your party from puny level 1 travelers to becoming the unlikely heroes of your own story.
Kim Palermo CPDT-KA, CCUI, ACE Practitioner
Combining Control Unleashed with the Magic of ACE Free Work
There really isn’t anything much better than Control Unleashed—until we combine the magic of CU with the power of ACE (Animal Centred Education) Free Work! ACE Free Work was founded by the late and brilliant Sarah Fisher to provide dogs with an activity that encourages curiosity and natural investigation while promoting a healthy body and mind. By providing Free Work to our CU dogs, we’re giving them an amazing enrichment activity that, over time, will allow them to practice regulating their own emotions. We’re also discovering their preferences—both emotionally and physically—which we can then incorporate into our CU skills and patterns. From this presentation, you’ll gain the skills that will allow you to uncover which foods and eating methods may calm your dog, the best height to feed them from, how to help them facilitate comfortable body holding patterns, and more. Undoubtedly, if you incorporate Free Work into your dog’s life and CU skills, you will be surprised in more ways than one by your dog’s preferences and capabilities!
Merissa Dubraque-Kreidler KPA CTP, CCUI, CCMT, Lorenzo JW Fox FDM, SAPT, PDT, Fear Free Trainer, & Adam Skandarani CCUI KPA-CTP
Taming the Dragon
In this session, Adam, Merissa, and Lorenzo walk you through emotional regulation, how to build it and support it in your dog with their Grounding Games - a set of newly developed pattern games. Come along as we delve into the world of arousal, valence, and co-regulation all while teaching your dog's to match your energy and rhythm.
Lab: Kim Palermo CPDT-KA, CCUI, ACE Practitioner
Creative Reinforcement Strategies to Apply to Your Patterns
ACE (Animal Centered Education) Freework was created by the amazing and magical Sarah Fisher, whom we all miss terribly. Sarah and Leslie were talking about working on a collaboration, since their methods go incredibly well together. We are so fortunate that Kim chose to become both a CCUI AND a certified Freework practitioner before Sarah passed away, so that she can represent both Leslie and Sarah and voice what their collaboration might have been. There are a number of different ways that you can reinforce your dog with food rewards that will help to lower arousal. This lab will allow you to experiment with these strategies to determine the best fits for your dog, while practicing (or learning) some of the most useful CU patterns. Kim will use concepts from ACE Free Work to create a reward system for your dog that is emotionally and physically comforting for both you and your dog!
Lab: Leslie McDevitt MLA
Take a Breath
Teaching your dog to take a deep breath and exhale on cue may sound like witchcraft, but it’s actually an evidence-based biofeedback practice pioneered by Dr. Karen Overall that helps dogs relax when they need it most. Join Leslie in exploring this amazing tool and learn a variety of ways to teach it and apply it.
Lab: Megan Wallace CCUI, CNWI
I CU Bridging the Gap
Do you want to learn how to harness your communication skills to connect with more folks who live with dogs, but aren’t “dog folk”? The Control Unleashed journey started with a focus on sport dogs and their companions. Throughout the years it has evolved into a valuable training system that can benefit all dogs and their companions. The ancient texts have not been officially translated for this wider audience, though the knowledge continues to be passed down. If you are one such interpreter, how do you translate these texts to friendly folk who prefer a simple life with their canine companions? Let’s build the bridge between us dog folk, and the fine folks who seek out our wisdom about how to live with dogs.
Social: Movie Night!
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Join us for a screening of the Dungeons & Dragons movie: Honor Among Thieves (2023)! Will be streamed online for virtual participants. Snacks provided!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 01, 2026
Hannah Branigan
Roll for Perception
You might wonder if Hannah Branigan is a sorceress because her talk on building clean and skillful handler mechanics is magic. DnD and CU are all about teamwork, and there’s no better way to make your team strong and successful than to establish clear communication and expectations via your mechanics.
Leslie McDevitt MLA
Many Monsters, Many Plans: A Variety of Strategies When Things Go Wrong Within a CU Framework
You may be armed with pattern games and your other trusty CU strategies, but what happens when so many monsters raid your village that you have to change strategies in the heat of battle? How do you know what to do, and when? Leslie will entertain you with recent CU group class videos of Things Going Wrong and give you a roadmap for working through mishaps.
Adrian Ray-Avalani
I CU Doing Well If You Can
Adrian explores the concept of accessibility, i.e., how to turn low-probability behaviors into high-probability ones, and introduces us to the phrase: “Dogs do well if they can.” In The Explosive Child, a book for parents of neurodivergent children, psychologist Dr. Ross Greene writes: “Kids do well if they *can* - not if they *want to.*” Starting from this lens, Adrian will take you through what accessibility can look like in different contexts - a ramp to enter a building, a Flexi lead, anxiety medication, a pattern game - and how it applies at both ends of the leash. Internalized ableism can insidiously manifest in our narratives about our dogs, each other, and ourselves as handlers, but Control Unleashed - not as a protocol but as an idea - provides us an inherently anti-ableist foundation. Adrian will show how the fundamental ideas of CU and of Dr. Greene’s parenting framework are one and the same, and how viewing training through the “Dogs do well if they can” lens allows for collaborative and proactive - rather than reactive - problem solving.
Lab: Kim Palermo CPDT-KA, CCUI, ACE Practitioner
Look at That
Look at That is one of the most famous training games out there for a reason. Learn from the originator of LAT herself how this wizardry works to empower dogs to have a conversation with YOU about the environment instead of being reactive to it. Kim will coach you and your dog through the process of teaching the wonderful skill called “Look at That” or LAT. She will take a two-pronged approach, beginning with teaching your dog the skill of “looking at something” in order to earn reinforcement. Once that skill is in place, you’ll use a training sequence with a helper that will demonstrate to your dog that they can use this new skill with stimuli in the environment. The goal will be that you’ll have a thorough understanding of the steps to teaching LAT to bring home and generalize to real world applications.
Lab: Leslie McDevitt MLA
Scatter Stations (previously known as the LATTE game for "Look at That, Then Enrichment!)
Learn all about Leslie's ongoing obsession with all the ways you can use enrichment stations in pattern games! Treat your dogs to a relaxing counterconditioning experience in an environment that encourages them to lick, sniff, chew, and decompress while learning it's safe and fun to work near Orcs and all manner of beasts. The perfect complement to Kim's lab on combining ACE Free Work and CU, the Scatter Stations game takes you farther into using operant behavior within the enrichment paradigm.
Lab: Merissa Dubraque-Kreidler KPA CTP, CCUI, CCMT & Lorenzo JW Fox FDM, SAPT, PDT, Fear Free Trainer
Coregulation
Merissa and Lorenzo will build on the Grounding Games talk to show you how to implement training games that help you Co-regulate with your team member so that you can get the most out of any quest you choose to embark on.
Social: S’mores and Snuffles - Enrichment for People
led by Leslie McDevitt
Join us for an evening of treats, laughter and adventure. Learn how to make your own snuffle mats!
SUNDAY, AUGUST 02, 2026
Inclusivity Panel
What does accessibility mean in the world of dog training?
In keeping with the tradition of having an inclusivity panel at her conferences, Leslie is excited for this year's offering, an Accessibility panel discussing the lived experiences of Disabled dog trainers. We'll talk about what accessibility means in an animal training context: how we can accommodate our dogs, create environments where they can thrive and use their strengths, and support them in feeling safe - and how to do these things for each other and for ourselves as well. Panelists will include Linzey Jo Zoccola of Phoenix Assistance Dogs, Amber Mahoney of Synergy Veterinary Behavior, Clarissa Black of Pets for Vets, and others from our amazing community of disabled trainers and handlers.
Danielle Beck, MSc Registered Clinical Animal Behaviourist
I’ll CU in the Dungeon
Join our resident Science Mage Danni in learning about the neuroscience at work behind Control Unleashed and positive training in general. Learn about Danni’s framework for teaching neuroscience in an engaging, fun and practical way. (Top Secret: Danni, Leslie and Adrian have been hard at work brewing up a collaborative project related to this very topic!!! )
Lab: Merissa Dubraque-Kreidler KPA CTP, CCUI, CCMT
Movement Patterns
Join Merissa in learning how to teach some of the popular movement pattern games from CU: up and down, ping-pong, and the 1 2 3 game. These games will give your dog a predictable, safe structure as well as the agency to ask to continue playing. Use them for counter conditioning to Orcs, Goblins, you name it, pattern games can help your dog feel more confident about the world.
Lab: Leslie McDevitt MLA
Give Me a Break
One of Leslie’s very favorite CU games! Join Leslie to learn all about how to teach the Give me a break pattern game, which puts the dog in control of choosing to pay attention and ask for more. This game will get your dog focused AND enthusiastically choosing to return to you no matter what is happening around them.
Lab: Hannah Branigan
Magic of Mechanics
Experience Hannah’s sorcery in action as you practice clean training loops and great handler mechanics.
Social: Speakers' D&D Game
DMed by CCUI Lorenzo Fox
Like your favorite D&D podcast, but live! Come watch Lorenzo DM a D&D game for our conference speakers. Chaos is guaranteed.
A LA CARTE
A la carte events are available at any time or happen regularly throughout the conference. These events are open to all dogs which meet the behavioral policies and are not limited specifically to working teams.
Daily Pack Walks
Mornings and evenings on Quicksilver trails
Barn Hunt Lessons
led by Deb Norman
Private Lessons with CCUIs
Book a lesson or behavior consult with any of our amazing CCUIs. Booking form link TBA
ACE Freework Play Area
led by Kim Palermo
Scentwork Play Area
led by Megan Wallace