With Special Guest: John Peaveler

What measures can professionals take to ensure that dog handling is safe and low stress?

Handling animals in the shelter, especially in the field, requires more than skill. It requires intention, awareness, and an understanding of how fear and stress show up in real time.

Join us for the next Lawless Off Leash webinar, “Implementing Low Stress Handling in the Field and Shelter,” featuring John Peaveler of Humane Innovations and hosted by Laurie Lawless of Shelter Behavior Integrations.

📅 Monday, January 19, 2026 at 6:00 PM EST via Zoom

In this session, John and Laurie will explore what low-stress handling actually looks like across different environments from shelter settings, to field work, and emergency response. This conversation will focus on practical approaches that keep both animals and people safer, while improving welfare and outcomes.

Topics include:
🐾 Principles of low-stress handling in shelters and in the field
🐾 Understanding the difference between fractious and fearful behavior (they’ll also explore why it matters)
🐾 How stress impacts handling decisions, safety, and animal outcomes
🐾 Adapting handling techniques to real-world constraints and high-pressure situations
🐾 Building consistency across teams using modern tools and techniques

Whether you’re working intake, animal control, emergency response, or shelter operations, this webinar will help you better assess what an animal needs in the moment and how to respond with clarity and compassion.

If you can’t make it or just want to listen to your favorite insight again - replays will be available for purchase. 🐶
👉 https://laurielawless.com/sbi-lawless-off-leash-replays

About John Peaveler:
John Peaveler is an animal services professional with more than 21 years of global experience specializing in professional animal rescue, emergency response, and population management. He is the owner of Humane Innovations, where he provides animal handling and capture training, equipment development, and consultation services to organizations around the world.

A military veteran, John began his animal welfare career in 2004 developing and leading the first progressive animal shelter and animal population management program in Kuwait, where he served as Managing Director for 11 years. He has since built disaster response, animal control, and population management programs internationally, including creating one of the largest and most technically competent animal rescue teams in the U.S. at the San Diego Humane Society.

John is an instructor for the National Animal Care and Control Association and a technical expert for the World Organization for Animal Health. He has responded to disasters globally, including in the U.S., Haiti, Japan, the Philippines, Ukraine, as well as Turkey, and frequently educates on animal handling, capture, population management, and emergency response.

When not working, John enjoys the outdoors, long-distance running, canoeing in northern Canada, and time with his family and many animals.