by Denise Fenzi | Jul 2, 2018 | Brito, Generic training advice
Heeling games are things that we do to increase our dog’s drive and enthusiasm for heeling. Dogs can learn heeling games even if they have no heeling at all; indeed, probably the best time to teach heeling games is roughly when you are teaching precision...
by Denise Fenzi | May 28, 2018 | Generic training advice
Sue Yanoff, a student at FDSA and a longtime obedience competitor, wrote the following description of her journey to her CDX with her Beagle Ivy. I asked Sue if I could share it here because in my experience, ring stress is the most common problem trainers run into...
by Denise Fenzi | May 2, 2018 | Brito
Today I wanted to see what I had with Brito’s heeling. Here’s an unedited video: After you teach the pieces of lovely heeling, You have to string them together. At that point, I use my choice of reinforcement (food or toys) and the positioning of those...
by Denise Fenzi | Apr 14, 2018 | Brito, facebook live
If you’d like to learn more about the topic of Cue Discrimination and Getting off Props, take a look:
by Denise Fenzi | Mar 28, 2018 | Generic training advice, Training Videos - not my dogs
Take a look at this 10 second video: Do you see how the puppy is paying attention to the handler in a playful fashion for several seconds before moving on? Not following out of a need for security, but genuinely trying to engage? Now watch this short video: This is...
by Denise Fenzi | Feb 16, 2018 | Brito
For the new AKC Cue Discrimination Exercise, your goal will be to teach your dog to listen to a specific position cue like sit, down or stand without creeping towards you. How might you accomplish that? First I would suggest separating out the challenges. 1, Listening...
by Denise Fenzi | Jan 2, 2018 | Generic training advice
Recently, I wrote a blog on the meaning of silence. I discussed how we risk inadvertently communicating to our dogs that they are wrong if we create an association between silence/no cookies and errors. So what can you do when your dog makes an error, or when you...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 14, 2017 | Brito
Even a relative beginner to dog training can start creating behavior chains and there are some real advantages to doing so early in your training career. Chains are endlessly more interesting to dogs than single behaviors. As a rule, single behaviors rely on external...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 2, 2017 | Generic training advice, Musings
When I talk about personal play or interaction, I’m talking about the process of interacting with your dog without food or toys in a manner that is enjoyable for both of you, but rarely do I consider personal play a reinforcer. So what does that mean? A...
by Denise Fenzi | Jan 22, 2014 | Musings
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...
by Denise Fenzi | Jan 2, 2014 | Musings
After I posted Brito’s video several days ago, a Facebook friend asked if I was concerned about the quantity of “chatter” in our training session. When and how would I wean off of that? It’s a good question. A great question! Because many...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 29, 2013 | Brito
Go ahead and admit it; you’ve never seen such a cute little dog in your entire life:). Here we are working on some heeling, fronts, and the very beginnings of sit in heel position. He is just beginning to hand me the metal scent article; separately he has...
by Denise Fenzi | Dec 22, 2013 | Brito, Lyra
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...
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 7, 2013 | Musings
I started Brito’s scent work a few days ago. I chose not to use the Altoids Tin method that I used with Lyra (you can see that method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj8ownH511o). Brito doesn’t like to make mistakes so I wanted to avoid having him...
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 26, 2013 | Brito
Brito is learning to “find” fronts – first on his own and then with a dumbbell. He’s wearing a leash to prevent him from running off to pee on the bushes. He is very fond of peeing on things lately. Note that I no longer click for retrieving...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 20, 2013 | Brito
I had intended to record every few sessions of Brito’s retrieve so that someone might be able to follow along and possibly progress with their own dog. Unfortunately, Brito did what many dogs do…he just figured it out and skipped some of the intermediate...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 17, 2013 | Brito
Ring prep class is what I call the process of acclimating a dog to the competition ring. From my perspective, this can never start too early. Here is a video of Brito’s very first ring preparation training day. He really doesn’t have to “do”...
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 | Nov 9, 2013 | Lyra
Today I took Lyra for her first run through in many months. It is rare that I do a “run-through”. To me, that means I have pre-decided which exercises I will do, and mostly I ignore errors. I’m checking to see what needs work. I use no classic...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 5, 2013 | Brito
I’m working on Brito’s retrieve. Until now, criteria has included interacting with the dumbbell without stepping on it (I extinguished that), any nose or mouth touching, front teeth, front teeth and nibbling, and slightly more than front teeth. Most of the...
by Denise Fenzi | Nov 1, 2013 | Brito
Here is an eleven minute training session of Brito from this morning. You can see a variety of things. Shaping with a dumbbell. I normally hold it because he tends to put his feet on objects sitting on the floor. That is not a habit that I want to encourage. (...
by Denise Fenzi | Oct 27, 2013 | Brito
For those who are worried that Lyra may have disappeared…no worries. She’s doing very well and, if anything, has been rather brilliant this week. But…she’s getting to be a “trained” dog, which means there is less and less that I...
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)...
