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Kellie Snider helped develop the Constructional Aggression Treatment as part of her thesis in grad school — today, she joins me on the podcast to talk about what it is, how it works, and why negative reinforcement, in this case, gets an undeservedly bad rap.   Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the

The more ways we can incorporate fun moves into heeling, the more enjoyment our dogs get out of it! I love teaching the dog to spin in heel! I use the left spin all the time. Admittedly, I'm not nearly as fond of the right spin and only teach that one for the rally master class. To teach the spin, start with a lure for a few repetitions, then get t

Picture this. You step the line and survey several thousand square feet that you have to search. You only have a matter of a few minutes and you have no idea how many hides there are. There could be a bunch, or there could be absolutely none. You know your dog is amazing and you want so much for all of that great training to result in a confident,

Training and trialing with our dogs isn't always easy — Petra and I talk about how to handle it when errors happen, and what it's like to stick with one goal for 6.5 years.   Transcription Coming soon!   Credits Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this pod

As our dogs age their needs and preferences change; Erin and I talk about what it takes to keep senior dogs fit in mind and body, and how to decide when it may be time to retire them from the sports you both love.    Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by

The challenge of connection while sprinting on course is real. It is a very hard skill! And while there are physical requirements, and we are going to talk about them, there is also an aspect of using your peripherals and general awareness of where you are on the course. Here you'll find a roadmap to prepare your body for the asks that you make on

Lucy and I chat about the skills your dog needs to hone to learn to track, and she answers that frequently asked question: Can you dog do both nosework and tracking? Transcript Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to pro

There are a number of factors that we need to take into consideration when we're thinking about handling large dogs without compromising our own bodies. I am looking forward to sharing with you how I coach my large dog clients so they can interact safely, comfortably and effectively. The first is general safety and injury prevention because large h

​Many students take classes both online and in person — so how do you make the most of both options and integrate both into your training?  Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high quality

When your dog has big feelings it can often inspire big feelings in you, too. In this episode, Hélène Lawler and I talk about how handlers can bring their best selves to the training picture by diving into their own big feelings.  Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought

Heather Lawson, Julie Symons, and Ashley Escobar join me to talk about how they handle it when their dogs are stuck indoors for an extended time... and what they train when limited to a small(er) training space.   Transcript Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the F

Laura and I talk about how sniffing can help dogs heal from trauma and how it's critical for all of our dogs — because it's one of their key senses!  Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to provid

Whether we are providing advice in our role as a professional instructor, a volunteer instructor, or a supportive friend, knowing how to give training and competition advice in the most beneficial way is critically important.To be effective and well-received, training and competition advice needs to be delivered at a time when the handler is unemot

Denise Fenzi, Nancy Gagliardi Little and Megan Foster join me to talk about working with a dog sports coach — the differences between a coach and a trainer, the advantages to having a coach, and how to get some of the benefits even if you can't find one.   Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the

Many dogs struggle with the handler walking around the dog during a stay exercise. The key to success for stays is to break it down! Stay training consists of slowly and carefully increasing difficulty to ensure success. When you first start stays, you want to make sure you are really splitting, meaning you are breaking down the behavior into tiny

Have you heard of the 3 D's of dog training? It's a pretty popular term that many trainers use. The 3 D's refer to Distraction, Duration, and Distance. These are one way to categorize the difficulties or challenges in dog training.Distraction refers to both the environment and things in the environment that are distracting. Generalization (moving t

Julie Flanery and I talk about what shaping is, and how to use it effectively and efficiently... including putting behaviors under stimulus control! Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high qu

When I decided to begin truffle hunting, I never imagined how much our lives would change.I became fascinated with truffles after tasting them on a trip to Italy. I joked that I was going to teach our dogs to find truffles. One day, in a random internet search, I discovered that truffles grow where I live, here in the Pacific Northwest. I was certa

Nicole Wiebusch and Petra Ford joined me to talk about what goes into training fluency that will hold up under the pressures of competition.   Transcription Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated, providing high

Where do you start when the most basic core exercises you're exposed to are too tricky?Like dog training, revisit foundations!! Foundations are critical when people are looking to build strength. When the foundations aren't fluent, the more advanced exercises can remain inaccessible, and/ or can cause discomfort. What I'm going to share with you to