Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - OB380: Unstick the Stuck Heeling: What's Keeping you from Trialing?

Course Details

Are you and your dog struggling with heeling? Do you and your dog have nice heeling when you train, but the performance falls apart when you leave the comfort of home? Have you been stuck with the same problem for a while and have no idea how to move forward?

Look no further; Nancy can help you find the path to confident heeling with your dog. First, we will examine individual goals for both you and your dog and then evaluate where you are in this process. Your performance goals don't have to look like anyone else's. The emphasis will be on finding the proper communication between you and your dog and developing a plan that builds a confident heeling performance.

This class is not designed to teach your dog how to heel. Likewise, it's not intended to help new dogs learn heeling skills. Instead, it's meant for trainers struggling with progress in their heeling training with their dog. Numerous heeling classes work on teaching heeling from the ground up. But there are no classes for people who get stuck and feel paralyzed in their decision-making. There are a lot of teams that quit because they are stuck.

Nancy will help you shift your emotional state from anxiety, frustration, shame, or any other problematic feelings in a positive direction. Confidence comes from clarity, a plan, support, and understanding. This class can help both you and your dog make that shift.

If you are considering this class as a Bronze student and are concerned about the value when you are not a Gold student, the systematic approach laid out in this course should help you without Nancy's input. In addition, the course is organized so that whenever an issue comes up during heeling training, you will have a plan to address it.

Nancy has developed flow charts and a framework for you to follow to make heeling enjoyable for both you and your dog.

Teaching Approach

The initial three weeks of this course are of utmost importance as they lay the foundation for a communication framework, a key element in devising a plan for you and your dog. Subsequently, you will learn to incorporate reinforcement procedures tailored to your dog and evaluate the necessary skills to overcome any obstacles.

Most of the lectures in the class are published during Week 3. Releasing all the lectures at this time can be overwhelming for some students. However, only some of lectures will apply to you and your dog's stuck issue. There will be different starting points since students each have different issues they want to focus on. Many published lectures won't apply to what you want to work on with your dog. But they will be there if you ever need the resource.

During the last four weeks of this class, you will apply the previously learned skills to a training plan specifically for you and your dog. The training plan will be a step-by-step approach to building the heeling skills to get you and your dog unstuck.

You will receive written feedback and occasionally a voiceover video analysis. Most of the homework will involve evaluating the dog's performance and developing a plan to continue the process based on the previously released lectures.

This class is heavy on information; there is much to read in the first two weeks. However, a lot of background and introductory information sets the dog up for future success during the remainder of the course.

Most heeling issues fall into a few common categories. Therefore, it would best serve the Bronze or Silver students to monitor Gold students similar to you and your dog's situation during the last few weeks. Content and assignments will be based on the team's progress and goals.

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.

Podcast

Here's an FDSA podcast where I talk about heeling and a lot about this class:

https://fenzidogsports.libsyn.com/e239-nancy-gagliardi-little-unstick-your-heeling

Instructor: Nancy Gagliardi Little

Nancy Gagliardi Little (she/her) has been training dogs since the early 1980s, when she put an OTCH on her Novice A dog, a Labrador retriever. Since then she has put many advanced obedience titles on her dogs, including 4 AKC OTCH titles, 6 UD titles, 3 UDX titles, and multiple...(Click here for full bio and to view Nancy's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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Week 1

How Do We Get Stuck?
Student Assessment
Common Areas Where Stuck Heeling Occurs
Clean Mechanics
Event Markers
Ready To Work, Beginning of Work, End of Work

Week 2

Training Goals
Eliminate Unwanted Behaviors - Clean Loop Training
Transport Procedures
Reinforcement Procedures
Remote Reinforcement - Initial Steps
Remote Reinforcement - Take it on the road

Week 3

Remote Reinforcement - Move Away From Rewards - Add an Entrance
Building a Heeling Training Framework
Training Framework for Common Areas Where Stuck Heeling Occurs
- Building Duration-Reduce Reinforcement
- Maintain Consistent Heel Position
- Maintain Attention or Focus in Heel Position
- Maintain Performance Everywhere
- Maintain Performance Off Leash
Training Framework for specific heeling skills
- Left pivots/left turns
- Right turns
- About turns
- Halts
- Fast pace
- Slow pace

Week 4

Move Away from Reinforcement – Add Work
Execute the heeling training plan
Evaluate
Develop another plan

Week 5

Continue from Week 4
Heeling Patterns

Week 6

Continue from Week 5
Develop a plan to continue.

Prerequisites & Supplies

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Prerequisites:

Your dog should have heeling knowledge. This class will not teach heeling from the ground up. The focus of this class is to help students that are struggling with progress in any area of heeling training.

OB600 - Healing Your Heeling Handling will help clear up many of the issues related to handling. If you think you might need some help with parts of handling, OB600 will be available for purchase until October 15th. We can work on the handling and the dog training pieces if you have this class in your library.

Equipment:

Depending on what issues have you and your dog stuck, there might be a recommended prop to help move your training forward.

Ring entrance or gate - you will need a simple ring entrance. Nothing fancy is required! If you don't have something handy, there are many creative ways of doing this.

Training Space:

You will need enough space to work the heeling concepts that have you, and your dog stuck.

Sample Lecture

How Do We Get Stuck?

There are common issues that cause dog trainers to get stuck without progress while training dog sports skills. Social media can create feelings of lack because success is gauged by comparison to littermates or other dogs of a similar age. In addition, the little voice inside of your head can introduce negative self-talk and feelings of inadequacy when you don't know how to proceed.

Other issues are caused because the trainer moved through steps too quickly for that particular dog. Reasons for that might be that that same procedure worked for a previous dog. Or, else, it could be that you did not recognize the signs that the dog was confused at the time. Or perhaps you don't know how your dog got to this point, but here you are. And that's probably the most common cause of being stuck.

Another frequent way you might have gotten stuck is that your dog started to make mistakes when things were going well previously. Then, you decided to return to how you handled your dog before the errors started to occur. And of course, then your dog was perfect again. That perfect performance or perfect skill is your reinforcement. It's what we all aim for when we train our dogs. We wouldn't continue training if our dogs didn't make progress. But now that your dog's performance is perfect, you don't want to move forward again - the risk is that your dog might start making mistakes again. What a dilemma that becomes!

Other possibilities might be that you don't feel comfortable trying something different. You are following the guidelines or instructions from the same person or group of people. You sense that your dog needs something else. Dog training can be very creative, and there are times when trying something completely novel and different might work. I had heard of some crazy ideas (they seemed unlikely to help) that trainers thought of and tried when their dog struggled with a skill. And low and behold, it worked for that dog and handler. Unfortunately, most dog trainers lack the confidence to experiment and change things up. Having the confidence as a trainer to try something unconventional or unusual takes a lot of courage.

And if you feel stuck because you lack confidence with your dog training, you are normal. Confidence comes with a training plan. Confidence comes from little successes that build into significant improvements. The key is to take small steps. Then, with success and support, both you and your dog's confidence will improve.

Do you see your situation in any of these examples? If you feel like it, let's talk about it. If you have other reasons you feel stuck, let's talk about them.

Testimonials & Reviews

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

Nancy is an exceptional instructor. She works with each student at the level they are at so they can progress in their own unique areas. She gives encouraging and invaluable feedback. The approach to becoming “unstuck” was clear and easy to follow. Nancy has an exceptional eye for details and the needed insights for each team to progress beyond their weaknesses so they can become the best team possible. Thank you, Nancy for such an awesome class! I loved the video feedback you did for the gold students. I wish the class had a “part two” so that we could continue working on the details while seeing your insights for ways to keep moving forward as a team.

This class should be the bible of teaching heeling! It contains lectures on everything you might ever need to teach. In addition, the introductory background material contained things I've never run across before. I was constantly thinking "Why didn't I know this before?". Nancy's voice over comments were amazing and so instructive. If you even think you want to teach heeling take this class!

This is an amazing class. While it specifically relates to heeling issues, the core concepts are applicable to anyone doing any sport with any dog. I was blown away by the lecture content, and Nancy’s feedback is always so detailed and on point. Her voice over video comment were priceless. I wish there was some way those could be made part of her lectures so they would be available going forward. I highly, highly recommend this class, for a very experienced competitor/trainer, or someone just getting involved in sports.

This course has changed my dog from being actively disinterested in heeling to demanding we go out and work. And her heeling has gone from dismal to almost perfect

Not only the lectures but also your feedback to each student was full of information. I read all the gold students' threads and they helped me unstick my stuck heeling. Seeing how more advanced students handle their issues taught me how I should plan my everyday training. I learned that heeling is quite difficult for dogs and training should be clear and how I should proceed step by step. Thank you Nancy and also Heather Sather, who helped me in the FB group.

Nancy is a super instructor. She was conscientious, detailed, patient and supportive. Her videos, and homework analyses (even including voice-overs) made her techniques easy to understand (with some practice:)). No detail was to small to be ignored or too insignificant not to be discussed and re-discussed if necessary. She is a patient person:). I'd grab another Gold with Nancy in a heartbeat!

This was an amazing course! It provides a true framework to develop heeling skills and ensures that the foundation is strong to build on. Nancy gave detailed, constructive feedback. Loved her analysis videos on the Golds. It helped us see what she saw. She was so quick to respond to posts, even multiple times in 1 day when an important discussion and understanding of a topic was needed. I started off very overwhelmed, but once the structure of the class was shown in week 3, it all made sense. Even though we are pretty green with our heeling, I feel that with the framework that Nancy has provided, I know how to proceed after the class is done although I very well might take the class again at Gold if offered as there was so much content.

Registration

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

Registration opens at 11:30am Pacific Time.

OB380 Subscriptions

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Tuition	$ 260.00	$ 130.00	$ 65.00
Enrollment Limits	12	25	Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials	✔	✔	✔
Access to discussion and homework forums	✔	✔	✔
Read all posted questions and answers	✔	✔	✔
Watch all posted videos	✔	✔	✔
Post general questions to Discussion forum	✔	✔	✖
Submit written assignments	✔	✖	✖
Post dog specific questions	✔	With video only	✖
Post videos	✔	Up to 2	✖
Receive instructor feedback on	Questions All videos	Questions All videos	✖

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