about Denise

Denise Fenzi is a prolific writer, story teller, dog trainer, problem solver, philosopher, business owner, and advocate for people and animals – in no particular order.

As a competitor, Denise is best known for her flashy and precise obedience work, as demonstrated by two AKC OTCH dogs and perfect scores in both schutzhund and Mondio Ringsport obedience.

She has titled dogs in obedience, tracking, schutzhund, mondioring, herding, conformation, and agility.

Scroll down to learn more about Denise.

While a successful competitor, Denise’s real passion lies in training dogs and solving the problems that her own dogs and her students’ dogs present.

She is a recognized expert in developing play, motivation, and engagement in competition dogs, and is known internationally as an engaging speaker and an expert in no-force training for sport dogs.

Denise has consistently demonstrated the ability to train and compete with dogs using motivational methods in sports where compulsion is the norm.

Denise and OTCH Raika SchH2, MR1 in Mondioring
Photo credit: Jason Roberts.

Denise and Lyra TEAM3 play during a training session.

Denise is highly active on Facebook; follow her there to engage in lively well moderated discussion, watch Facebook live presentations on various topics, and learn more about training dogs!

Click here for all of Denise's books (with links to buy!)

Denise and Deb Jones have recently finished a four-book series, “Dog Sports Skills,” which has received widespread acclaim in the dog sports community. Several of these titles have won Maxwell awards for Best Training and Behavior book from the Dog Writers of America

Denise has written several additional books on her own..

Denise works tirelessly to break down barriers that prevent people from obtaining a truly interactive and enjoyable sport relationship with their dogs. As a result, she created both the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy (FDSA) and the Training Excellence Assessment Modules (TEAM) program.

Denise with her dog, OTCH Cisu SchH3 FH

Latest Blog Posts

Car Socialization

As a result of COVID, most of us with new puppies are finding creative ways to get our puppies out and about - seeing the world and having positive experiences - without actually seeing the world. Tricky, no? Anyway, I found an approach that is so superior to what I...

Dice is now 14 weeks old

Yesterday I did another FaceBook live with Dice. I've been doing about five or more a week since I got him six weeks ago. That is going to start wrapping up now. Going forwards it's mostly "more of the same", plus more work away from home, plus behavior work that...

Want a fantastic recall?

This is a video of Dice at 12 weeks of age - That's a recall! Here is how I got it: I started at 9 weeks of age. At that age, most puppies are well aware that they need you and come back quickly and easily. Start at 8 weeks if you can! I only whistled when he was...