by Denise Fenzi | Jul 19, 2022 | Uncategorized
If you struggle with getting a release off of toys or bite objects, or if you just want a sophisticated look at a dog‘s motivation around toys via fight, possession, prey (chase) behavior, and getting cooperation (release or toy return), watch this video. Obviously,...
by Denise Fenzi | Jul 10, 2022 | Uncategorized
I know, I said I’d do a better job keeping up my blog. What can I say? I suck. Anyway, Xen is coming up on his one-year birthday! He’s making really nice progress in his training. The following video shows training for “object guard”. His...
by Denise Fenzi | Apr 4, 2022 | Uncategorized
I haven’t written on my blog in many months. What happened?! All is well! I stopped running day-to-day operations at FDSA, and that freed up time to do what I am seriously passionate about – education. Free education, for the most part, because I spend a...
by Denise Fenzi | Sep 2, 2021 | Uncategorized
There are at least three ways I use my hands around my dog’s head for positioning – Chin rest (dog places their head in my hand), Pocket hand (dog places the side of their head/muzzle against my hand) and Nose bridge (dog pushes their muzzle up into my...
by Denise Fenzi | Aug 2, 2021 | Uncategorized
I love playing with dogs – all dogs! How much do you know about playing with dogs? Take this short learning quiz if that interests you. Here’s a video to give you inspiration if you’d like to add play to your dog-focused activities. Here I’m...
by Denise Fenzi | Jul 20, 2021 | Uncategorized
I am adding platforms to Dice’s position changes. The long platform in front ensures that he move his body straight back and forth. The back platform is perpendicular and has a different texture – that platform gives him a rear foot target, which...
by Denise Fenzi | Jun 15, 2021 | Uncategorized
Today I worked a little heeling (not shown), and putting some pieces of the moving stand together, along with adding a bit of endurance to our contact heeling. Steps for moving stand. This will set up for for the AKC stand out of motion where a hand signal is allowed...
by Denise Fenzi | Jun 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
Today is all about the video! I did a Facebook live yesterday on teaching with both classical and operant conditioning – both are valuable! Trainers tend to think in terms of operant conditioning – an “if/then” statement where the dog...
by Denise Fenzi | May 24, 2021 | Uncategorized
Come visit my new business: www.thehighdrivedog.com! The High Drive Dog subscription service is all about your driven dogs – the ones you love for their intensity and enthusiasm! And, sometimes you wish they would just… Calm down. Slow down. Gve...
by Denise Fenzi | May 14, 2021 | Uncategorized
I do the majority of my precision heeling training at a very slow pace. The reason is precision – I want to see exactly what my dog is doing and speed masks errors. Competition is another matter; move fast and keep the judge busy controlling you rather than...
by Denise Fenzi | May 10, 2021 | Uncategorized
Straight and close fronts for dog sports competitions can be a challenge for a variety of reasons. Some dogs sit too far back; they feel the pressure of our bodies and they want to avoid it, so they hang out just a bit further away than we want them. Or maybe they...
by Denise Fenzi | May 5, 2021 | Uncategorized
There are many ways to start a puppy or young dog on the early skills required for dog sports. This video demonstrates two useful things – ‘choosing’ to work and the start of heel work. In this video, puppy Kismet (11 week old Dutch Shepherd) and...
by Denise Fenzi | Mar 30, 2021 | Uncategorized
I’ll be teaching two webinars for Fenzi Dog Sports Academy (FDSA) on Thursday evening. Consider these webinars if: Your dog struggles to engage with your training plans the second you step out of the house. Your dog struggles to maintain engagement if there is...
by Denise Fenzi | Mar 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
One of the exercises in Ringsport is food refusal. This was fun to teach! We’re not done yet, but here’s our current progress with small slices of hot dog – next up will be bigger chunks: Here are the steps: 1. A solid down stay. 2. Cue...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 28, 2021 | Uncategorized
This video shows my young dog Dice in a field with active gophers. I want to work. He wants to dig them up. Here you’ll see a combination of distraction training with my Stages of Engagement. I want him to choose to opt-in but that’s not easy under these...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 21, 2021 | Uncategorized
The majority of behaviors that I teach are accomplished via reinforcing specific criteria. I know exactly how I want the dog to look at each step of the process as they move towards the final behavior. This is a process-driven approach. Other things I teach as...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
A few years ago I had a student in a class who had spent a fair amount of time trying to teach her dog to pick up an object by shaping it. For various reasons she had not succeeded. Since the purpose of the class was not to teach the retrieve, nor was it to discuss...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 9, 2021 | Uncategorized
Here’s an entire video of my dog making errors finding front, mostly due to loss of attention. I am primarily demonstrating the technique of making the dog “more wrong”. The basic sequence is that he returns to me, drops his toy for...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 1, 2021 | Uncategorized
What you see here in this video is the basis of all of my training; engagement, requesting work, and operating within a few very basic rules. First THE DOG starts the training session – this ensures that the dog recognizes that work is a privilege and neither a...
by Denise Fenzi | Jan 17, 2021 | Uncategorized
Here is another one-minute compilation of skills – I call these “Drills” because I probably did each of them a few times before moving on, they are super quick and fluid, and I am likely to reinforce close to every effort. This was pulled from a...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 30, 2020 | Uncategorized
This video is a one-minute compilation pulled from a 15-minute training session. The entire session looked pretty much like this. There’s a little bit of verbal processing (see my recent blog) but mostly this session is following obvious body cues to build...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
This is the doggy version of Simon Says – on speed. We are working on position changes. This exercise will help with cue discrimination for AKC open obedience, the out of motion exercises for IPO, position changes for Mondio or French ring, etc. Games are my...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 28, 2020 | Uncategorized
I’m working on Dice’s position changes and have been for a few months now. Getting consistent position changes without forward motion can be a challenge, especially in Mondio ring where the dog will be placed quite far away from me and distractions will be...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 15, 2020 | Uncategorized
The secret to teaching a dog to back up straight is… reward placement. Throw the food to where the dog is supposed to back up to – where they happen to be is irrelevant. Check the angle of your feet – that sets the line of travel and also determines...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 10, 2020 | Uncategorized
I have good intentions to write regularly about Dice’s progress and then life happens. Anyway, here’s an unedited clip of Dice working at nine months of age. If you’re working cue discrimination or drop on recall you’ll get some ideas here to...
