Precision Heeling

This is probably the hottest topic in obedience – how to get beautiful heeling. If you’re interested in learning this skill on-line, I’m teaching a class on just this topic starting Feburary 1st, 2014, at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy.  Registration...

Proofing Scent Discrimination

This blog isn’t about teaching scent discrimination.  There are plenty of ways to teach scent work that are kind and effective; pick one or blend a few and find a plan that works for you.  Here is how I taught Lyra if you want some...

Impulse Control

Unlike my prior dogs, Lyra has had almost no impulse control training.  That’s because she rarely wants anything badly enough to experience the conflict between cooperating with me or taking what she wants directly.    The things that Lyra wants badly enough to...

Heeling Games – “Fly”

“Fly” is what I call it when a dog is sent out of one behavior, out around an object, and then called back into another behavior.  In this blog example, we’ll use heeling for both behaviors with a fly in the middle. There are many reasons I teach a...

Lyra 7 months – Jumping

Lyra is becoming relatively fluent on her current skills, so it’s time to add something new to her repertoire.  This week I introduced some basic jumping skills. There are a thousand ways you can start this.  My goals for the next couple of weeks are threefold....

Raika – Verbal Discrimination

Raika is contemplating a return to the sport of Schutzhund (now IPO).  We never earned her schutzhund three title; mostly because I got distracted with AKC obedience and that became my focus.  When I returned a couple of years ago, I found that I didn’t have...

Lyra – 7 months – “mark” vs. “attention”

Lyra is now seven months old. In addition to close in attention, I’d like to have an explosive send away as well.  This is useful for retrieves, go outs/send out, articles and any work that requires the dog to look out ahead. There are two components to a good...