Reframing Resilience with Dr Kathy Murphy

This one-day, in-person workshop explores resilience as a dynamic, biologically grounded process that shapes how dogs cope, adapt, and learn in the real world. Drawing on neuroscience, behaviour science, and applied practice, the day examines the key elements contributing to resilience and how they interact within the individual dog and their environment.

Through guided discussion, case examples, and practical application, participants will explore how resilience influences behaviour, training outcomes, and wellbeing—and how it can be actively built, protected, and repaired. Designed as a collaborative and thought-provoking day rather than a lecture, this workshop invites critical thinking, shared experience, and meaningful dialogue for those committed to evidence-informed, compassionate training and care.

DR KATHY MURPHY
Dr Kathy Murphy BVetMed, DPhil, CVA, CLAS, MRCVS is a clinical-academic veterinary surgeon and neuroscientist with a special interest in canine behaviour health. She holds postgraduate clinical qualifications and is residency trained in veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia and laboratory animal science and has a PhD in behavioural neuroscience from the University of Oxford.

From her base in the UK, where she is Founder and Director of Barking Brains Ltd, she provides clinical, educational and business consultancy services Internationally. She is faculty at Agility University, where her focus is on providing accessible neuroscientific information in a practical and easily applicable format for handlers to take their dog-sport performance to the next level and enhance the wellbeing of their dogs.

She is co-founder of EthicsFirst.org with an interest in clinical ethics, holds teaching and examiner positions in the UK and abroad and is past Trustee and veterinary advisor of 16 years for the Rottweiler Welfare Association.

She lives in Scotland with her husband who is a scent detection and trailing instructor, and their three dogs.