logo

  • Log In
  • Lectures
  • About Us
  • Calendar
  • Faculty & Staff
  • instagram-icon
  • facebook-icon
  • twitter-icon
  • Courses
    • Schedule
    • By Discipline
    • By Instructor
    • Prerequisites
    • Self-Study
    • Scholarships
    • Gift Certificates
  • Webinars
    • Schedule
    • FAQ
  • Workshops
    • Schedule
    • FAQ
    • Gift Certificates
  • On Demand
    • Pet Dog Presentations
    • Pet Professionals Presentations
    • Self-Study Courses
  • Special Links
    • Podcast
    • Blog
    • Fenzi TEAM Titles
    • Trainer Certificates
    • Private Lessons
    • Other Free Stuff!
    • Swag
  • Events
    • Matters of Motivation - May 10, 2025
    • FDSA Training Camp - Maryland Sept 26-28, 2025
  • Contact
    • Course FAQ
    • Webinar FAQ
    • Workshop FAQ
    • Testimonials
    • Contact Help
  • Courses
    • Schedule
    • By Discipline
    • By Instructor
    • Prerequisites
    • Self-Study
    • Scholarships
    • Gift Certificates
  • Webinars
    • Schedule
    • FAQ
  • Workshops
    • Schedule
    • FAQ
    • Gift Certificates
  • On Demand
    • Pet Dog Presentations
    • Pet Professionals Presentations
    • Self-Study Courses
  • Special Links
    • Podcast
    • Blog
    • Fenzi TEAM Titles
    • Trainer Certificates
    • Private Lessons
    • Other Free Stuff!
    • Swag
  • Events
    • Matters of Motivation - May 10, 2025
    • FDSA Training Camp - Maryland Sept 26-28, 2025
  • Contact
    • Course FAQ
    • Webinar FAQ
    • Workshop FAQ
    • Testimonials
    • Contact Help

RA540: Joy of Heeling - Rock it like a Freestyler!

Course Details

What is your ideal picture of beautiful heelwork? It likely includes words like precision and accuracy. Does it go beyond that to include enthusiasm, energy, lift, spark and joy?  These are the attributes that make heelwork beautiful to behold, exciting to train and yes! Fun for both dog and handler!  By building animation, energy and enthusiasm as a separate piece from precision we can increase the rate of reward for each, creating value and joy in our heelwork training and performance.

This course will help you identify and build the components of joyful heeling: position, head carriage, drive, lift, focus, enthusiasm and confidence. These all help to create that pretty picture of heelwork we all strive for.  

While this course will include training for precision and accuracy, the primary focus will be games and exercises that bring joy to your heelwork training and performance. 

 

Teaching Approach

Lectures are released weekly and include written and video descriptions of each exercise in a step-by-step approach. Lectures and exercises (both specific weekly exercises and the entire course) start at a foundation level and take you through the process to the more advanced skills. The skills in the first couple of weeks benefit the team’s success in the last few weeks. Supplemental lectures may be provided depending on need.

Homework is listed at the end of each lecture for easy reference.

Video demonstrations of the exercises include the instructors training sessions as well as actual students working the exercises. There are a variety of breeds and sizes represented in the demo vids. Demonstration video length varies between 1-2 minutes.  Many of the demo videos are also captioned.

Each team works at their own pace and at a level where their dog is showing understanding and confidence for the exercises for that week.  Each week contains several exercises depending on dog and handler skill level and need.

Students will be provided with both general and specific written feedback, often including timestamps for clarity.  Students will be able to show their work for any previous weeks as well as the current week’s exercises for continued feedback.

Some exercises can be completed in a small space. For other exercises you will want an amount of space that you and your dog can heel comfortably for approximately 10 steps. Some of the class exercises require the handler to move briskly depending on the needs of their dog.

 The equipment list is very specific to the class exercises so you will want to be sure to have them ahead of time to get the most benefit from the class.

This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the Bronze and Silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.

Julie FlaneryInstructor: Julie Flanery

 Julie Flanery (she/her), CPDT-KA has been working professionally with dogs and their handlers since 1993. She focuses on the needs of the dog and helping people form a strong relationship, through clear communication, and positive reinforcement. She has placed Obedience...(Click here for full bio and to view Julie's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

View Full Syllabus

The below syllabus may be adjusted or added to.

Week 1

What have you got!  Baseline and Assessment

What do you want? Picturing your goal criteria

Two Pieces of the Puzzle: Separating Precision from Dynamism

Physicality of heeling

Structure and Conditioning

Demands on the body

Assessing reinforcement value

Hand touches - Mechanics and Value

Week 2

Lift and driving from the rear

          Weight shifts  

          Jump for Joy  

Reinforcement strategies

Food bowling practice

Attention/Eye contact games

Standing platforms and gates for position

         Components of position

Week 3

Pivot platforms

 V-target

Momentum and Collection

Combining Food bowling/Jump for Joy

Out and around/Food bowling

Slide to side

Week 4

Removing platforms and maintaining criteria

One-step Heel

Seeking Reinforcement - Chews to Heel based on Dawn Jec's Choose to Heel

Heel with me Play with me

Catch me if you Cone!

Week 5

Shape for Position

Quarter turn Spins

Turn n Touch Turn n Toss

Out and Around Fig 8s

Putting the pieces together!

Week 6:

Get up and Go!

Laterals

Rock-a-bye backs

Baseline review: How’s it looking? 

Assessing what you’ve got

Problem solving, where to focus and what’s the plan moving forward

Prerequisites & Supplies

View all Prerequisites & Supplies

Pre-reqs:

For Gold and Silver spots: Teams should have some experience with heelwork.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or pretty! Only that your dog has an understanding that staying next to you moving forward is a good thing.

Teams should have experience with marker/clicker training and the dog should understand the relationship between marker and reinforcement.  Experience with shaping a plus as several exercises will require that the dog offer behavior.

Some experience with platform training, including standing platforms and pivot platforms will be helpful though not required.

That the dog have an enjoyment of and the handler has the ability to use food and toys as reinforcement.

A large enough space to move out a bit (depending on size of dog) and engage in games such as a short distance of chase.

A strong desire to have fun with your dog!

Equipment: Please contact me if you have questions on equipment

High value food/toy rewards

clicker or strong marker

2 colors of yoga mat that can be cut up

Cavalettis or something that can be used as cavalettis (broomsticks, dowels or jump bars on approximately elbow height and lower surface).  

A standing platform: link for making your own from foam mats or foam board insulation or can be purchased at platformsplus.org/index.html. Your standing platforms should be no larger than the footprint of your dog, with about an inch of space from the edge on the sides.  The platform can be longer than your dogs foot print.  Please be sure your dog can stand comfortable on the platform without additional space on either side. 

A pivot platform:  upside down feed bowls work well. small enough for just your dog's front feet. Height should be about 4 inches.

One strip of training gates or other low barrier. Can be home made or contact me on how to purchase.

RFE Gates resize

2 Cones or posts

Sample Lecture

More

 “Joy of Heeling” – Sounds like an oxymoron…on the one side you have an emotion and expression of enjoyment and on the other you have the physically and mentally demanding requirement of precision and accuracy. And yet we know it’s attainable. We see it in those electrifying teams that inspire us, that motivate us and give us the picture, the vision of what heeling could be.

When I’ve taught my dogs to heel, I never really thought about “how” I was doing it. Sure, I knew what the physical criteria was that I wanted, I knew how to work toward getting it whether, using a lure or now more often platforms or other props to help create that criteria. I knew to reinforce when I saw that criteria. But that other part, the part where we want our dog to find joy in the act of heeling was always a little experimental, a little in flux. And it changed depending on what dog I was working. This course is a compilation of all of the games, activities and precision exercises I use to create joyful heeling.

As with any activity, there is an emotional component that dictates whether we, or our dogs want to engage in that activity again. I’ve heard more handlers tell me how stressed they get about heeling than how much fun it is! I’m sure many dogs feel the same way. That can change! Through our approach at training and the type and manner of reinforcement we provide.

As with all reinforcement, the dog sets the value. It’s our job to observe and try to replicate what brings our dog joy and apply it to our training. In doing so, we are providing rewards that are both reinforcing (create an increase in the quality or frequency of the behavior) and creating a conditioned emotional response to our heelwork criteria.

Heeling is physically demanding. Structure matters. Your dog’s physicality and condition matters.

It’s possible your dog’s structure is not suited to the picture that you have in your head of pretty heelwork! That doesn’t mean your dog can’t put out some rockin’ heelwork! Only that you may have to adjust your picture to the most his structure is able to offer.

Your dog may have great structure but could still need some conditioning, stretching or muscle build up to give you what you want. So we’ll be including some of this in this course.

In this week’s homework you’ll do some exercises to assess and increase your dog’s physical ability to give you what you want.

Heeling is mentally demanding. Reinforcement matters. Your ability to motivate your dog matters.

Be generous. Your rate and the value your dog finds in the rewards you provide have a direct impact on your dogs’ desire to work at heeling. More is better. If you feel like you are rewarding too much you are doing just fine.

What’s Love Got to do With it? Everything!

We’ll be using a variety of reinforcement in this class: food, toys, personal play, secondary reinforcers such as hand touches, that you will build value, and activities your dog finds joy in to create a love of heeling.

Love of tangible rewards + Love of interaction and activities = Love of behavior

Do you have a list of those things or activities that you observe your dog truly “loves” and seeks out? While I will provide you with exercises that spark joy and energy for most dogs, it will be up to you to create games that are unique to you and your dog. That may sound difficult now, but as you work through the course, as you become more in tune to what your dog finds joy in, you will be able to use your own unique games (or those you learn from other students!) to build value and joy in your heelwork training.

While some rewards can be of too low of value to keep the dog motivated, There can be “too much value” in the rewards you are providing as well. Your dog can become overly aroused, hard-mouthed, thinking too much about the physical act of getting to the reward rather than being thoughtful about why it will be provided.

Just as you have that picture in your head of beautiful heeling, you’ll want that picture of beautiful focus, where your dog is attentive, engaged, willing and ready (can you picture it?), but not over the top. We can manipulate that through our choices of rewards and making sure we are at that “goldilocks” value. But! If you have to err one way or the other, err on the side of too much value. It’s easier to adjust downward than upward. Both in value of reward and in the demeanor of the dog.

What we provide as rewards not only needs to create a happy emotional state but also needs to act as reinforcement for the more technical aspects of heelwork. To ensure that what you re providing is reinforcing your technical criteria, you’ll want to “keep a record” of your progress, even if that record is just the video’s you’ve taken (name and date each one so that you can review your progression). If you aren’t seeing improvement in a particular aspect of your heelwork, Bob Bailey (yes, chicken camp fame) tells us to look to timing, criteria or reinforcement. Adjusting one or all of these can quickly provide information on what your dog needs.

Ready to get started?  I am!

Testimonials & Reviews

Read All Testimonials

A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...

This class leaps to the top as my favorite course taken through FDSA!!! It was fabulous! Whether you are novice or professional, freestyler or not, this class will help you bring fun and joy to your heeling! The material was not overwhelming - it was clear and concise with helpful videos, and just made perfect sense. Julie gave excellent and detailed feedback - love her! The study group was wonderful and the TA’s so helpful and responsive! I took this class at Bronze level and I think it was every bit as valuable as it would have been taken at Gold. Thank you Julie!


Julie is an extraordinary instructor who serves up a delicious blend of clean mechanics, growing a heartfelt relationship and joy for performance. Plus (my opinion), no one has a better understanding of how to get precision movement than Freestylers--it's all about beautiful movement, and it can transfer like a dream to any movement-based sport like Obedience, TEAM or Agility. My advice to any FDSA fan, regardless of sport--do NOT miss Julie Flanery!


Julie is always amazing, but with this class, she really out did herself. This has been the biggest change I have seen in my dogs in the shortest time, ever!!! 


I had so many ah-ha moments while doing Joy of Heeling, even at Bronze. I’ll be saving my pennies to try to get in at Gold next time, though I know you have to be REALLY fast I’m the trigger:) 


This class was incredible. It has made me think of heeling and teaching heeling in a brand new new way. The exercises were clear and easy to follow. The instructor gave great feedback and it was fun and inspiring to see the progress of the gold students.


I am new to heelwork, and have been struggling with how to achieve a bouncy heel with a high head. Julie performs this so beautifully, and I took the class to learn how she teaches that lovely heel... I LOVED this class, love Julie and her happy little dog, and loved following the other students on the forum and on the FB page. I met great people, had fun, and am close to the bouncy heel I dreamed of! Class exceeded my expectations! Thanks Julie and the wonderful TAs!


Julie brings with her a wealth of knowledge and information. Her ability to watch your video and pinpoint those areas you need to focus your energy is fabulous. She also does a great job thinking outside the box if her lecture was not working for yoyuo. Her replies to your video were well though out and she supplies a weath of extra support. I have completed many Fenzi classes, this was my first iwth Julie and she made me a better trainer. Thank you for the fun joyful heeling games combined with games for precision!


I have been having focus issues with my dog and have tried many different avenues to try to get the desired focus needed for dog sports. Although not expected,The Joy of Heeling class gave us so many fun exercises that I am finding my dog is much more focused on me and she remains focused during training. She loves this class! Her heeling is much, much better and will continue to improve but just seeing her desire to engage and train with me is priceless. Thank you Julie for showing us how to have fun while learning! 

Registration

Next session starts: October 1, 2025
Registration starts: September 22, 2025
Registration ends: October 15, 2025

Available for the October 2024 session as a prerequisite purchase with lectures only. 

RA540 Subscriptions


Bronze
Tuition $ 65.00
Enrollment Limits Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials ✔ ✔

Find more details, refund policies and answers to common questions in the Help center.

The below syllabus may be adjusted or added to.

Week 1

What have you got!  Baseline and Assessment

What do you want? Picturing your goal criteria

Two Pieces of the Puzzle: Precision from Dynamism

Physicality of heeling

Structure and Conditioning

Demands on the body

Assessing reinforcement value

Hand touches and V target

                Mechanics and Value

Week 2

Lift and driving from the rear

Weight shifts   - V

Jump for Joy (weight shift to rear) (hand touch jump to food or toy,  pop ups,)

Reinforcement strategies

Food bowling practice

Seeking Reinforcement - Dawn Jec’s Choose to Heel

Where’s your hot spot?

Platforms, Perches and other training aids

                Components of position

                Where’s your sweet spot?

Week 3

Attention/Eye contact games

Momentum and Collection

Out and Around/ Food bowling

Slide to side

 

Week 4

Removing platforms and maintaining criteria

Shape for position

Out and Around Fig 8s

Heel with me play with me

Get up and Go!

Quarter turn Spins

Week 5

Turn n Toss

Catch me if you can

Putting the pieces together!

Week 6:

Baseline review: How’s it looking? 

Assessing what you’ve got

Problem solving, where to focus and what’s the plan moving forward

 

  • Prev
  • Next
  • FDSA
    • About Us
    • What Do We Teach?
    • Faculty & Staff
    • Testimonials
    • Privacy Policy
  • Student Resources
    • Calendar
    • Scholarships
    • Gift Certificates
    • Swag
    • Trainer Certificates
  • Courses
    • Class Schedules
    • By Instructor
    • By Discipline
    • Prerequisites
    • Self Study
  • Webinars
    • Schedule
    • Webinar Courses
    • Register
  • More Learning
    • Podcast
    • Blog
    • Puppy Book
    • Private Lessons
    • Team
  • Help!
    • Getting Started
    • Enrolled Students
    • Video & Images
    • Webinars

Copyright © Fenzi Dog Sports Academy and individual instructors.

Technical support - send email to help@fenziacademy.com

Connect with us! facebook-icon email-icon instagram-icon