Speaker and Clinician Profiles – 2023

Melinda is known for teaching strong foundational skills which give her dogs amazing success in the agility ring. She uses shaping behaviors, games and positive reinforcement to instill confidence and competence in both dogs and handlers, helping each team bring out their best to achieve their goals.  She truly enjoys the successes of her students, always encouraging them to do their best and try something new. Her training classes are fun, engaging and she often invents new ways to train or teach a new skill.

Melinda brings her love, patience and enthusiasm for training to all the dogs she works with.  Her lifelong training background gives her the advantage of innate ability to read and predict a dog’s body language and behavior thus easily adapting training techniques to suite any dog’s personality.

Melinda has developed M Squared Dog Training’s program to teach dogs and owners of any age/breed and/or level through fun games that anyone can play making dog training fun for both dog and handler.  Training games are taught with operant conditioning and science based training for real world results. Whether you have an experienced agility partner, want to grow your relationship with your dog, start a new puppy or have an amazingly well behaved family pet, M Squared’s training program has something for everyone.

Interactive Canine Area – MSquaredDogTraining – Daily Schedule – Click here

Best Friends Fur Ever is a state-of-the-art doggie daycare and overnight resort with locations in Joppa and Cockeysville, MD. The Best Friends Fur Ever family of dog care facilities provides resort-style daycare and vacations for dogs, by combining homelike amenities and loving attention with recreational activity. Our 20,000 square foot facility is custom-designed to meet and exceed all kennel industry standards. We care for special needs dogs that include puppies, post-surgical or medical care as well as geriatric dogs.

Find them at www.thecityranch.org

City Ranch will conduct educational interactive talks all weekend long in our Horse Edu area.

As a lifelong learner, she discovered early that she holds a passion for health and wellness. She educates and advocates for the responsible use and access to cannabis as medicine. She encourages and implements a healthy diet, exercise, relaxation/meditation, and educates her patients about the endocannabinoid system when making recommendations for patients seeking to use cannabis to enhance their wellbeing and health.

In her spare time, Renee can be found enjoying time with her family, working in her multiple flower gardens, and raising backyard chickens! She is a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, The American Cannabis Nurse Association, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Michael developed his own unique training methods, based on proven psychology methods such as classical conditioning. He especially enjoys working with working dogs and was honored to share a portion of his Police officer career with a very special partner, Canine Sam.

His own experiences and challenges as a Marine Corps Veteran, Police Officer, Police K9 Officer, Father and Husband has driven Michael to learn, apply and share his experiences with others. He has impacted the lives of thousands of individuals as well as their canine companions through both Blue Line K-9 and his police service to his community. Michael has partnered with Best Friends Fur Ever building a canine enrichment program, board “n” train programs allowing us help more families.

Steven Walman is an entrepreneur and cannabis expert. Utilizing his extensive background in building successful businesses in the enterprise computing space, Steven determined to turn his focus on something more personal when founding his current business, Walman’s Apothecary which produces the world highest quality cannabis products with a focus on non-intoxicating products to facilitate “healing without the high”.

After many years of dealing with chronic pain and the side effects of pharmaceuticals, Steven began a search for more natural ways to find relief. After much exploration, he finally embarked upon a solution while learning about the Endocannabinoid System (ECS). The ECS is something we are all born with, a master control panel of all our bodily functions, a system that makes and interacts with cannabinoids and yet few people know about it.

Steven is now on a mission to educate physicians, along with other health and wellness professionals and their patients about incorporating cannabis into their wellness plans.