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Pet Professionals Program and FDSA instructor Nicole Wiebusch joins me to chat about her upcoming PPP Workshop and Rally classes! 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 instructi

In part 1 of this blog post, I discussed management, training and the intersection of the two. Now let's turn our attention to the concept of maintenance.Behaviors that I am maintaining are well trained, well understood, and have moved into the realm of habit. Here's how that works:After I have called my puppy into the house hundreds of times, and

Chrissi Schranz, Chelsey Protulipac, and Tania Lanfer join me to talk about dealing with problem behaviors like resource guarding, jumping, counter surfing, and unwanted chasing! Links Mentioned  Sarah Stremming interview on 4 Steps to Behavioral Wellness Transcription  Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenz

 My dog can already trot through cavalettis, so what do I do now?The cavalettis can be a daunting piece of equipment to buy or make, especially when traditionally it is only used as a trotting exercise. However, cavalettis are actually one of the most versatile pieces of equipment you can use for canine conditioning. Cavalettis for Conditionin

Julie Flanery joins me to talk about her positions class, clean communication, the importance of good mechanics in getting trained behaviors more quickly, and more. TranscriptionMelissa 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 prov

This is an excerpt from one of Julie Symons' Obedience Games lectures along with a few other thoughts about dog training!When it comes to dog training, everything we need to train and prepare for trialing can be overwhelming. Skills, precision, ring confidence, OUR confidence, weaning off primary and secondary reinforcers, etc. We all have goals a

If you're prepping a dog for competition, there's a lot more to think about than just the skills of your chosen sport. Ann and I talk about what those 'things' are and her current class on preparing for the competition ring. TranscriptionMelissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the

International obedience competitor Janice Gunn joins me this week to talk about using positive training to reach the highest levels of competitive obedience. TranscriptionMelissa 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 h

My perspective on helping dogs behave in a calm fashion may be different than how others address it. That's because, in my opinion, the emotion of "calm" is not something you teach operantly (dog is aware that they are learning) as much as "acquire" through classical conditioning and specific environmental associations. "Calm" is an emotional stat

Today I'm joined by Sara Brueske to talk about the recent crazy in using multiple marker cues (and why they've become so popular!) plus her approach to using them as foundation for her training. TranscriptionMelissa 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 o

To look at ways to improve our accountability we have to make sure we understand the term. Accountability has become a buzz word, and we, in that way humans do, like to hide behind buzzwords. "If I had an accountability buddy," we might moan, "why, then I would train every day!" "If only I had some reason to be accountable I would do better at sho

Today Loretta comes on the podcast to talk about how she got started in agility, and what's changed in the sport.  TranscriptionMelissa 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 instruction for competitiv

Knees are a fact of life with dogs. Unfortunately, so are bum or dysfunctional knees. No one wants to hear their dog has a bum knee or an injury to their knee. But if you are 'in dogs', you will experience a bum knee at some point. It is just part of the deal! What is a bum knee? It can be anything from a torn cranial cruciate ligament ('cruciate'

Suzanne and I talk about how she got her start in dogs, what led her to positive training and one of the mistakes she sees positive trainers making today. 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 providi

Michael Badial joins me to talk about how he came to work with aggressive dogs and the strategies he employs to stay safe. 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 instruction for

My dog Dashiell and I are in the middle of learning a bunch of different sports - Nosework, treibball, fitness, and TEAM as a basis for rally - and keeping track of all the skills he's learning can be overwhelming! I want to:Keep track of where he is on each skillKeep all the information I've collected on different approaches to training that skill

Agility competitor and coach Megan Foster joins me to talk about handling errors in training and in the ring — and about the skills most handlers don't even realize they and their dog's need to actually achieve success. TranscriptionMelissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi

It's not easy to navigate a rally course while staying connected to your dog. Many dogs need a lot of connection from their handlers, and if we don't give it to them they will often disconnect and their attention will wander. When there are a whole bunch of distractions nearby, we don't want our dogs disconnecting!I've put together a few tips for s

I have been teaching an in person TEAM class for about a year and a half. When I decided I wanted to teach again, I wanted to do so to share all I had learned about good foundations. I wanted to share how fun training really is when we break skills down into tiny pieces that the dogs can understand and use props to help them be correct. With a hig

NY Times Best-selling author Cat Warren joins me to talk about her cadaver dog, Solo, and what she learned while writing a book about their life together. TranscriptionMelissa 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