Melissa McCue-McGrath spent nearly two decades in Boston, USA which framed the way she sees behavior more than any other aspect of her work. She served as the co-training director of the New England Dog Training Club, the oldest AKC obedience club in the United States, from 2012 – 2023, during a time where the club shifted from accepting traditional training methods to positive reinforcement in both the competition obedience and pet dog training arms of the club.

Melissa is a faculty advisor for Victoria Stilwell’s Dog Training Academy (2015-present), and is a behavior consultant at the Animal Welfare Society in Kennebunk, Maine.

She has spoken at many conferences including PACT DOGX at the University of Winchester, UK (2023), the Boston Museum of Science (2020), the Association of Pet Behavior Counsellors (APBC, 2024), the New England Federation of Humane Societies (2021), Tufts University, MIT, The Pet Professional Guild, and Raising Canine.

She published her first book, Considerations for the City Dog, in 2015, and is currently contracted with 5M Publishing to write a book for dog trainers about all the things “they” don’t tell people who want to work with animals.

During the pandemic, Melissa put her ADHD to good use and created BewilderBeasts – a 100 episode, non-fiction podcast that examines how animals and humans intersect, taking every left turn imaginable, exploring history, science, racism, feminism, all the isms! Stories include landmine detection bees in Croatia, a cat who solved a murder, a Newfoundland who saved over 180 Irish immigrants, and the researchers who told Canadians to strip for polar bears to survive attacks (but not frostbite).

After the pandemic, Melissa and her family moved to a rural part of Maine, where she has most recently taught six pet dogs how to detect the invasive Spotted Lantern Fly in an effort to protect her state from environmental devastation.

Melissa has also been peed on and professionally humped in public more times than she’d like to admit.

Tom Candy is a Senior Training and Behaviour Advisor for one of the largest dog rehoming organisations in the United Kingdom and is also a behaviour and welfare Trustee for Hope Rescue Wales. His duties include assessment, management and behaviour modification.

A passion for animal welfare and training led Tom to undertake a BSc (Hons) in bio-veterinary science, and an MSc in clinical animal behaviour from the University of Lincoln, UK.

Having started volunteering in rescue at the age of 15, Tom has been involved in a variety of aspects of rescue, including fundraising, home checks, transporting, and general day-to-day activities.

An international speaker, Tom is Clinical Animal Behaviourist with the Animal Behaviour and Training Council, and a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, a Certified Shelter behaviour specialist with the IAABC, a Certified Behavior Adjustment Training Instructor - Knowledge Assessed (CBATI-KA), and a full member of the APBC. He is the host of Simplifying Shelter Behaviour Podcast available on Spotify.