Tinsel and Kimba's Blog: June 19, 2009: Dog Talk in Manila.

Never have thought that I would be giving a talk on Dog Behaviour, and never could have imagined doing it overseas either, but, it just happened.

My first Dog talk, and to an audience of practicing veterinarians in Manila, at the 37th Annual Conference of the Veterinary Practitioner's Association of the Philippines, with all expenses paid.

Unbelieveable? Tell me about it.

It was Pete who was originally being invited to present the talk, but he couldn't attend because of a family matter, and I was asked to substitute him. I've never been to the Philippines, and it sounded quite challenging, so I thought, maybe... as long as I can prep myself well and don't do a shitty job, that is.

And so, Pete spent two long evenings to drill me for the talk, reviewing what he has taught me previously, and asking all the possible questions he could think of. I had to say, those were some of the longest nights I've had, as my brain was just over loaded and my hands were sore from taking pages and pages of notes. It wasn't that I didn't know any of the stuff that we went through, but it was more of not knowing how to organize them and present them in a manner that would be interesting and captivating. As Pete said, I have the information, but I just didn't know how to put them together in a smooth and concise manner. And there's always a bit of underlying stress of knowing that the audience are all practicing veterinarians, who, supposedly, should know more about animals than I do.

Much thanks to Pete's patience and persistence, I was able to give a kick-ass talk and wowed the audience big time.

Couldn't have achieved that without all that drilling and prep work with my teacher. Seriously.

If I had to do it all by myself, I would probably got by with a satisfactory talk, but I would never have gotten such a great response. I started the talk sensing the hesitation from the audience, who were all veterinarians, probably from not knowing what to expect from a stranger and from a topic that is so new to them. I wouldn't blame them as I was the only person at the conference that wasn't a veterinarian, not to mention that all the speakers were distinguished members of the vet community and I was actually, really a "nobody" to them.

But I didn't really care. I've prepped well and I have nothing to lose, so I just dived in and gave my best speech. People were still hesitant at first, but I sensed the atmosphere shifting shortly after the first 5 minutes. Subtle changes in body language, from leaning back on the chairs to sitting propped close to the table. Head nodding and shaking in response to my questions, and slowly, getting relaxed laughs and chuckles to my jokes and funny movements. And the load of questions afterwards! I could totally feel the change in attitude, from hesitant / skeptical, to awe and amazement. Then suddenly, people were handing me drinks, heaping foods on my plate, and asking questions even while I was lining up for the buffet.

Wow. Another wow, thanks to Pete, my long-winded, demanding, bootcamp teacher. ;P

From dodging around with my fear aggressive Tinsel to handling wild stray dogs in a shelter, to Dog Talk in front of an audience of Veterinarians in 6 months. Hmmm....if it's not bootcamp, I wouldn't know what to call it anymore.

-AM

June 18, 2009: Leaving for the airport, just me and Teddy