by Denise Fenzi | Dec 19, 2013 | Brito
I took Brito to his weekly ring prep class today. A miracle happened. For two minutes and fifty three seconds, he stayed in the ring with me and focused on his job. He did not run off to visit dogs outside of the ring. He did not leave work to look for a promising...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 4, 2013 | Brito
The past few weeks I concentrated on a few things with Brito: Play with toys. That is coming along pretty well. Less good outside but hey, he’s a baby. Play with me. That also suffers outside, but still…we’ll get there. Retrieve. Super! Good boy...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 12, 2013 | Brito
I have introduced Brito to a few more retrieve concepts. I’m now (gently!) pushing him away before starting the retrieve – this encourages Brito to move in a forward direction after he puts his mouth on the bar. If you don’t do this step, many dogs...
by Denise Fenzi | Oct 21, 2013 | Brito
You can meet Brito in the following three videos. I chopped out the 80% where he sort of wandered about and behaved much like a puppy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0d9zZ7qnY (tug) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOn_w2lnxk (beginning of heeling)...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 13, 2012 | Lyra
I do not consider distraction training to be a unique stage of training; it is part of the overall process. Distraction training starts from the day I bring a puppy home, whether I wish to work on distractions or not. Regardless, there are periods in training where I...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 8, 2012 | Lyra
Lyra is six months old now; a lot has happened in the four months that I’ve had her. I’m delighted to see that she appears to be through her “wierd puppy” stage. She’s consistently social with people and confident in new situations...
by Denise Fenzi | Jan 13, 2012 | Lyra
Along with Lyra’s adult teeth came a brain. A very nice combination. Her worries disappeared – almost overnight. Everywhere I’ve taken her this week she’s been a rock. With people, she’s even more social than she was as a very small...
by Denise Fenzi | Jan 2, 2012 | Lyra
Today I took Lyra for training with a few other trainers, and she was brilliant. She wasn’t afraid of anything. She wasn’t hyper attracted to the other people and dogs present. She needed very little sightseeing time before asking to work. Her interest...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 22, 2011 | Lyra
Right now, Lyra has about one great session for every three mediocre ones. There seem to be several things going on. For starters, she’s teething. I think that makes her feel a little off. She is also in something of a fear period. I can’t work her in...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 18, 2011 | Lyra
Today I removed two of Lyra’s teeth playing tug. That second tooth forced me to admit that I need to put the toy away. Regretfully. What can I say; besides the fact that I have a very strong preference for training with toys, the other reality is that...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 13, 2011 | Lyra
Today’s blog post was supposed to be a video illustration on teaching a dog to “out” (let go) of a toy. Lyra had other ideas. She decided that my video assistant, Katie, was a potentially scary person, and playing with me and my silly toys was not as important as...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 2, 2011 | Lyra
Wow; almost four months old now! Lyra is losing her baby teeth and her soft, furry wool. I miss the wool. The baby teeth…not so much. When I brought Lyra home, I focused on her tug and retrieve skills. Playing tug was easy since Lyra was born with talent in...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 23, 2011 | Lyra
Lyra is pretty good at paying attention to me, especially if I’m holding food or toys. If I’m playing with her, I can usually get her to drive back to me with her toys for more interaction – she loves to tug and she understands that I’m a big...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 19, 2011 | Lyra
Lyra has worked away from home about ten times now. Finding the “toy on a stick” was excellent luck, because she loves that thing. For those who have five minutes to kill and an interest in puppy training, I’ll go through this video with you, step...
by Denise Fenzi | Oct 22, 2011 | Lyra
Today’s post was supposed to include a video of my brilliant puppy. It didn’t turn out quite as planned. For starters, I forgot to do something with the kids. So, predictably, they showed up within a few minutes. Since this is not unusual and I usually...
by Denise Fenzi | Oct 21, 2011 | Lyra
Lyra has reached some important milestones in her training. About three days ago she figured out that she could “work” me. She started climbing on her platform with the intent of getting me to start play. Until then, it appeared she was simply happy...
by Denise Fenzi | Oct 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
Sleep is improving by the hour! I still have to get up every few hours to let her potty, but the screaming is minimal now. Today she visited my son’s school. We went early in the morning, so there were very few kids around. After 10 minutes I took her home....
by Denise Fenzi | Oct 10, 2011 | Lyra
Her lungs won’t stop and her bladder wont’ start. Well, that’s not exactly true. But last night…that was a long night. As far as pee, she goes several hours between. I’ve never had a puppy like that, but it’s only day 2. She can...
by Denise Fenzi | Sep 14, 2011 | Training Videos - not my dogs
I’m jealous; here’s my student’s new puppy getting started. I still have to wait a few weeks before mine arrives. Here’s the kind of stuff I’ll do early on in the puppy’s career: This puppy’s lesson is split between tug,...
