Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - Course Schedule

December 1, 2023

Agility

AG190: The Glue for Future Agility Stars

This course is different than most agility foundation classes. Rather than introducing obstacle and flatwork skills needed to run an agility course, this class lays out the critical skills (the glue) your dog nee...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Behavior

BH110: Dealing with the Bogeyman: Helping Reactive and Fearful Dogs - The Play Way!

This is Amy's signature Play Way class! Is your dog brilliant at home but shuts down at the show? Or does he bark and lunge at people or dogs on walks? Does she seem generally stressed, whether frantic about it ...

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

BH160: Sound Advice: Conquering Noise Sensitivity

Is your dog worried about the noises around her? This class is for you! Whether the issue is in your house with your dog barking at the sounds outside, or you have a dog that can't go out because buildi...

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

BH265: Strategies for Training and Competing the Sensitive Dog

This class provides information for those working with dogs that perform the following behaviors in training, in competition, or in specific situations: slowing, hesitating, freezing, losing focus, appearin...

Sharon Carroll(Faculty)

BH285: Control Unleashed Pattern Games for Sports and Life Skills

This class is for dogs who have trouble with the environmental conditions they meet in their life with you. Is your dog aroused by other dogs, afraid of new people, stimulated by motion, or anxious ab...

Julie Daniels(Faculty)

Body, Health & Fitness

CC140: Aged to Perfection: Keeping Your Senior Fit in Mind and Body

As the owner of multiple dogs in their double digit years, each at various stages of ‘aged to perfection’, I understand the challenges that can come with having an older dog (or several!) This class i...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

CC180: Powerful Performance: Fitness to Optimize All Sports

Many people don’t understand the importance of conditioning until their dog has suffe an injury. They feel that participating in dog sports IS conditioning. That couldn’t be further from the...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

CC220: Massage for Canine Athletes

Learn how to care for your canine athlete while training, resting, or on the day of a big event. This class will focus on teaching you the skill of using your hands to work soft tissue to increase circulation, uc...

Aleks Woodroffe(Guest Instructors)

Electives

FE565: Finding Five - Training for a Busy World

Too much work, and too little time? Too exhausted to train your dog at the end of a busy day? Feeling guilty for not having exercised them enough? Come join us in Finding Five! We’ll be looking at 5 comm...

Chrissi Schranz(Faculty)

FE585: Modifier Cues

WHAT IS A MODIFIER CUE?It's a cue that gives additional information to your dog to further differentiate the exact behaviour that will earn them a reward. Some examples of Modifier cues might includ...

Heather Lawson(Faculty)

FE640: Compose the Dog - Photographic Composition

Compose the Dog is the class where you learn how to arrange all the things in your photo to make the strongest image possible. Proper exposure is just the beginning. Composition is where you start learnin...

Amy Johnson(Faculty)

RA590: Tricked into Freestyle: From Foundation to Fantastic!

Are you ready to add some paw-zazz to your trick training? Ti of the same old tricks of spins and weaves? Let’s kick it up a notch! We’ll take the basics and transform them into an array of awesome tricks and beh...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Foundations

FE155: Crucial Concepts of Competition - Shaping/Luring/Capturing and More!

Got a new puppy? A new sport prospect for the sport of your choice? Got future plans but no idea how to start? Which behavior DO you start with? Got a pet dog and discove how fun teaching is? Interested i...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FE370: ALL THE SPORTS: Foundation for the Cross-training Canine

This course outlines the foundation training program developed by the instructor, Sara Brueske. This program was developed with experience training many different breeds and ages of dog to successful career...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

FE460: Training Levels -- Level 2

If Level 1 was kindergarten, Level 2 is all of elementary school. Everything you and the dog learned in Level 1 now becomes more solid and more useful. You'll both be introduced to many new behaviours, w...

Sue Ailsby(Faculty)Heather Lawson(Faculty)

FF140: Connect and Engage with Games: Build Focus for Sport Dogs

Having a dog that’s focused on you is essential not only in dog sports, but in life. Sometimes it's hard to keep our dogs' attention, though! In this class, you’ll find out why that happens and what t...

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

Obedience

OB115: TEAM Sports Foundations - Level One

Interested in dog sports? Come teach your dog the foundations needed to be successul in obedience and rally! This isn't a class full of heeling around in circles. Learn about using foot targets, fan...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

OB160: Ring Confidence for Obedience, Rally, and Agility

This course is officially expanded to include agility as well as obedience and rally! Most handlers spend months or even years teaching their dogs the specific exercises and obstacle performa...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

OB215: Competition Heeling Part One - Fundamentals

Great heeling is a pleasure to watch. Dog and handler moving together as one. The dog is happy, animated, joyful and confident. Heeling is a dance that should express joy and teamwork. How do you accomplish...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB340: Strike a Pose: Fabulous Positions!

You enter your sport ring/field, dog heeling by your side. When the exercise comes, you leave them on a specific position and walk away. You cue each position change, and your dog executes them perfectly with paw...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

OB370: Reliable Retrieves

This class will cover all of the pieces needed to train a reliable obedience retrieve. We will begin by teaching each piece of the behavior chain including the hold and front position. Then we will work to put th...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Rally & Freestyle

RA330: Movin' On Up: Skills and Signs for Master Rally

Are you a little intimidated by the master signs, with all those spins, sends, and signals? Don’t be! The rally master class is a blast for you and your dog. If you’ve both been enjoying rally t...

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101J: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Nosework is easily the hottest new sport around, and it’s easy to see why! It’s fun for humans, dogs love to participate, and it’s good for building confidence and focus in dogs that have issues like shy...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

N120M: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

Nosework / Scent Work is the popular new dog sport that is sweeping the nation, and you can get in on the fun! Our classes are taught with the method used to produce the nation's top drug and bomb dete...

Melissa Chandler(Faculty)

NW170: Building Blocks of Nosework - Before Odor

You, your dog, an inquiring mind and the start of a whole new world of opportunity. In this course you will learn the foundations of nosework even before you ever introduce odor. This course has been desi...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW175: Fun with FUNdamentals: Progress Games for Success

Every team is on a trajectory, and that trajectory either takes them down a path of success or down a path fraught with challenges. The difference along this path is rarely related to the problems that th...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW440: Spectacular Sourcing Skills Soup to Nuts

The ultimate skill in sport detection is Sourcing. When a dog understand true sourcing, skills like working pooling, trapped, lofting odor or most any other challenging advanced skill becomes easy. Im...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW720: Find It! - Lost Item Recovery

Want to learn about a new scent organization and play more scent games with your dog? Teaching scent detection is one of my specialties and an area I'm truly passionate about. Lost Item Recovery is one of the tr...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

TR101: Foundation Tracking 1

This class covers everything the handler needs to know to get organized and get started in tracking. We will discuss topics such as equipment preferences, other equipment needed, how to develop a start rout...

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

February 1, 2024

Agility

AG140: Building and Maintaining A Start Line

Many dogs start out their agility career with a good start line. But, over time that start line behavior deteriorates. Why do good start lines break down for some dogs and not others? How can some dogs have great...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

AG225: LOVE’EM From the Start: Foundation Weaves

Teach your dog to love the weaves right from the beginning. This course will not only create the drive and love for the weave poles but to nail those entries and hang on to their poles even at speed. ...

Barbara Currier(Faculty)

AG350: Agility In Da House! Small space skills!!

Are you trapped inside with your pup during the extreme heat or cold? Do you only have a very small space to work with your dog and want to perfect your agility skills? Do you need to go back to basics with you...

Loretta Mueller(Faculty)

Behavior

BH150: Management for Reactive Dogs

https://youtu.be/tNKvwjofJ8U Management for reactive dogs... and excited dogs, fearful dogs, worried dogs, reluctant dogs, anxious dogs, and any dog having trouble with environmental challenges both inside and o...

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

BH240: Working with Reactive and Hyper-aroused Dogs

This class is best suited to dogs that respond in an active way to an increase in arousal. When leashed or behind a barrier, these dogs typically lunge and/or bark at stimulus such as unknown people, dogs, bicyc...

Sharon Carroll(Faculty)

Body, Health & Fitness

CC280: Preventing and Addressing the Iliopsoas

Iliopsoas injuries are unfortunately becoming a fact in many performance dogs' lives, as well as the lives of active dogs. This course will review the reasons why so many dogs are suffering from ili...

Debbie (Gross) Torraca(Faculty)

Electives

FE650: Adjust the Dog - Introduction to Lightroom

This course is designed to introduce the basics of post-processing. The software we will use is Adobe Lightroom Classic, but it is also possible to use Adobe Photoshop Bridge instead. Post-pro...

Amy Johnson(Faculty)

FF240: Tricks for Titles

Did you know that you can now title your dog in Tricks?! Tricks aren’t just for fun anymore and this isn’t just another tricks class! Tricks have so many purposes including teaching your dog to enjoy training, sh...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

FF410: Cognitive Challenges: The Key to How Your Dog Thinks

A creative class developed by Barbara Lloyd to test your dog’s ability problem solve. This class is suile for puppies and dogs all the way up to adulthood. For puppies in particular, this class wo...

Barbara Lloyd(Guest Instructors)

Foundations

FE115: Baby Genius

Raising a puppy is the lucky job we get to enjoy only once in a while! The time goes so quickly, and when the time is up the opportunity to play the baby games with the clean slate is gone! The class is de...

Julie Daniels(Faculty)

FE130: Toys - Developing Cooperation and Play

Do you have a dog that chases the ball, yet won’t bring it back? Plays keep away with toys? Tugs but won’t let go? Bites you instead of the tug? Obsesses over toys, yet won’t listen to a single thing you say? Is ...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FE280: Cutting Out the Cookies (or Toys!) - Reducing Reinforcement for R+ Trainers

Ever feel envy when you watch a obedience/rally/Schutzhund/etc… trial performance and the dog executes perfect skills for the WHOLE routine? No treats in the handler’s pocket, no toy in their hand, but the dog is...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FE415: Zen Logic - Making Sense of Self Control

What is Zen Logic? The title Zen Logic has two meanings. First, Zen Logic is a training approach based on the concept that giving up what you want can lead to an even better outcome than directly goin...

Deborah Jones(Faculty)Judy Keller(Faculty)

FF110: Pay to Play: Using Food to Get Great Toy Play

Do you have a dog that plays great at home but ignores the toy in public? Is your dog lacking confidence in tug or gets distracted in fetch? Or a dog that gets too excited about toys and struggles to focus on wor...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

RA560: Shape Up - Improving and Maintaining Your and Your Dog's Shaping Skills

Both dog and handler’s shaping skills can deteriorate when not used regularly. In training, many of us focus on specific sports. Each sport has its own set of skills that we work to train to fluency in ou...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Obedience

OB205: Creating Optimal Drive State for Learning and Competition

Understanding and managing your dog’s drive state/arousal level is a critical component of training and trialing successfully. It is very difficult and uncomforle for a dog to learn and compete in a state o...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB225: Competition Heeling Part Two - Skills & Engagement

Heeling requires significant concentration and sustained focus to maintain position, focal point and engagement. Heeling is easily the most difficult obedience exercise. When trained properly, it is a ...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB285: From TEAM to Trials: Building Chains for the Novice Ring

This class will teach you how to take your TEAM foundations skills in levels 1 & 2 and use those to create the formal chains used in trials. We will be looking specifically at the exercises at the novic...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

Rally & Freestyle

RA500: Foundation Skills for Rally-FrEe and Musical Freestyle

Rally-FrEe is a unique sport with the structure of a Rally course and the creativity of Musical Freestyle. To learn more about Rally-FrEe, please visit www.rallyfree.com Each sport has its own set of foundation ...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101S: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

N120J: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

This course picks up where NW101 left off! This course also can be used as a refresher for introducing the search elements. Our method is effective on almost all dogs, from insecure and unfocused dogs t...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

N130M: NW130 - Developing Advanced Nosework Skills

Want to continue the Nosework fun? Then this class is for you! This is the third skills level course in our nosework program and will build on the skills ...

Melissa Chandler(Faculty)

NW150: Scent Theory and Dynamics

There are a wide variety of sports and tasks that require the dog to use his nose and sense of smell to be successful: Tracking. Nosework. Truffle hunting. Barn hunt. Scent Discrimination. In all these venues, as...

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

NW415: Nosework Handler's Choice

During this 6 week course, the handler can decide on WHATEVER it is that they want to work on for the duration of the course. Yes, that's right! Absolutely anything related to your dog's scent work journey can b...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

NW420: Honing Your NW Handling

Do you wish you were a better handler? Handling is 80% dog / 20 % handler. How you handle makes a huge difference in your performance and in your pass rate.... it drives those "P's" and "Q's"! ...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW475: Challenges to Enhance Problem Solving: Another 6 Weeks of Setups

Nosework isn't REALLY all about the nose... it's about the dog using all of their senses and problem solving the location of the hidden source material. When we train, it's so important to support the devel...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

TR102: Foundation Tracking 2

This course will continue to develop both drive and accuracy on foundation tracks. Our priority for this class will be to further develop the skills that the dog acqui in TR101. We will work towards incre...

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

April 1, 2024

Agility

AG110: Intro to Agility - Handling Basics

Are you familiar with dog sports but new to agility? Feel out of place in a beginner’s class but not sure where to learn the basics for this sport? Been in agility for awhile but feel like your founda...

Loretta Mueller(Faculty)

AG200: Foundation Jumping for All Sports

If you want to do dog sports then you’ll want a variety of foundation skills. One of the most critical of these skills is teaching your dog to jump! If you hold your breath while your dog throws themselves at ob...

Loretta Mueller(Faculty)

AG220: Building and Maintaining Stopped Contacts

Many dogs start their agility career with good stopped contact performance. But over time, the behavior or the criteria changes and morphs into something undesirable. What causes that to happen? This cla...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Behavior

BH110: Dealing with the Bogeyman: Helping Reactive and Fearful Dogs - The Play Way!

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

BH190: Adolescent Minds and Manners

In dogs, adolescence starts anywhere between 6 and 12 months and typically ends somewhere between 18 months and 24 months, but can extend until much later in some dogs. Adolescence is accompanied by physical chan...

Julie Daniels(Faculty)Sharon Carroll(Faculty)

Body, Health & Fitness

CC110: K9 Conditioning

This course will give you an understanding of basic dog anatomy, basic conditioning for dogs, and general exercises. We'll work on conditioning exercises, endurance exercises, and strengthening exercises. In addi...

Debbie (Gross) Torraca(Faculty)

CC160: Canine Sports Medicine for the Performance Dog Handler

There are many musculoskeletal injuries that can occur to performance dogs. Some are subtle and come on gradually. We are not really sure if there is something wrong. Some are acute and come on ...

Sue Yanoff, DVM(Guest Instructors)

FF180: Yes Please! Cooperative Canine Care

Can you draw blood from a whale without force? Yes, you can. What about put eye drops into a sea lion's eyes with no fuss? Again, yes you can. But you have to train for it. Captive ...

Deborah Jones(Faculty)Judy Keller(Faculty)

Electives

FE600: Shoot the Dog!

Did you get a new camera and aren’t sure how to take photos of your dog that aren’t one big blur? Do you want to get out of Auto mode on your expensive camera and learn to use its fancy features? ...

Amy Johnson(Faculty)

FE660: Chase the Dog - Photographing Dogs in Motion

Are you ti of blurry or poorly lit photos of your energetic pup? Photographing dogs in action can be a challenging task, but with the right techniques and tools, it can also be incibly rewarding. In this cou...

Amy Johnson(Faculty)

Foundations

FE175: School of Fish - Raising a Performance Puppy

This course will cover everything I teach my performance dogs when they come home at 8 weeks until around 6 months of age. The order in which I teach things build on each other. This is also the same ...

Barbara Currier(Faculty)

FE335: Spaces In Between

This is a class about preparing our dogs for the competition or seminar environment. Over and over I see dogs that are unprepa or rehearsing behavior we don't want at seminars, classes and trials. Over time this ...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FE420: Bye, Bye Cookie: Hello Delayed Reinforcement!

Do you struggle to get your dog's attention without a cookie in your hand? Are you tried of your dog only responding to a cue until you reach into your pocket? Or ...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

FF115: Control Games for All the Sports

Instructor: Sara Brueske Registration courselist sessions FF115 /s

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Obedience

OB120: TEAM Sports Foundation - Level Three

Team 3!! This is where the real fun begins as you start to chain together the little pieces you learned in levels 1-2. Now the dog gets to really move and you can start to see real glimpses of the f...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

OB355: Open Foundation Fun!

Open Obedience Foundation Fun! It’s time to move away from thinking of obedience as serious. An open run is really just a long chain of pet tricks! Breaking the exercises into small pieces and teaching eac...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB460: Shaping a Flashy and Confident Heel - Foundations

Do you have “heeling envy”? Do you see all those prancing dogs in perfect position looking up at their handlers and wish you could teach your dog THAT? Does your dog love the pivot platform, but how DO you get fr...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

OB480: Train to Trial

How do I get the same performance in training and in the ring? That is one of the most common challenges in competitive sports. It is something everyone struggles with. “My dog ONLY does that in...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB600: Healing Your Heeling Handling

This course is designed for experienced handlers as well as new obedience handlers that know nothing about the finer points of handling during heeling in obedience. Dogs make mistakes in heeling when they are no...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Other Dog Sports

DS110: Dryland Dock Diving Training- Foundation, Fitness and Fixes!

Are you interested in dock diving and want to give your dog a great foundation before you even hit the pool? Or perhaps you’ve been to the pool with your dog and things didn’t go as well as you expected. OR...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

DS340: Disc Dog - Handler's Choice

Disc dog is an amazing sport that has a variety of elements suile for any toy-driven dog. This hybrid “handler’s choice” course will allow each team to work on the aspects of disc dog that suit them best but will...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Rally & Freestyle

RA550: Transitions and Flow - Creating Effective Sequences for Musical Freestyle Routines

Have you ever watched a freestyle performance that mesmerized you? Not because the dog was performing a lot of difficult or fancy tricks or because the handler had a great costume and danced well, b...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101M: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Melissa Chandler(Faculty)

N120S: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

Did you know that the MOST important time in a dog's early career in Nosework happens AFTER they learn target odor (as in NW101) and BEFORE they start their general searching? Making mistakes now are costly. &nbs...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW180: Developing Scent-sational Skills for Competition

You’ve learned the basics, even dabbled in some advanced skills but are you ready for competition? With so many scent detection organizations out there now (up to 11 and counting!) teams are entering competition ...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

NW345: Container Wizardry: Fixes, Proofs, and Results

This class is about creating the AMAZING Container Dog... Containers are tough in that they really are NOT a searching exericse... they are a Selection exercise. That means that we can get all sorts...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW525: Achievement Unlocked: Success at the Upper Levels

You've found yourself at the upper levels and now it gets complicated! Search areas get bigger and more challenigng. Times get tighter. Maybe you have more hides but maybe the area is blank? &nb...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

TR101: Foundation Tracking 1

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

TR203: Tracking - Skill Building

This class will be a continuation of TR102. We will be focusing primarily on building upon the skills introduced in TR101 and 102 - increasing spacing of targets/articles, more fully developing turns and working ...

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

June 1, 2024

Agility

AG190: The Glue for Future Agility Stars

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Electives

FE620: Photographer's Choice

This is the photography version of "Agility Problem Solving" or any of the "Handler's Choice" classes offe here at FDSA. You choose the topic and we'll work on improving your photography in that area for th...

Amy Johnson(Faculty)

FE670: Expose the Dog

What Settings Should I Use? Of all the questions I get asked as a photographer, this one is the most common. Knowing how to pick your settings to use on your DSLR or mirrorless camera can mak...

Amy Johnson(Faculty)

Foundations

FE595: Bombproof Behaviors

You've trained the behaviors down to the tiniest of detail and are now ready to show them off to the world. This class will help you prepare for the distractions that await you in any environment you can ...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Obedience

OB160: Ring Confidence for Obedience, Rally, and Agility

This course is officially expanded to include agility as well as obedience and rally! Most handlers spend months or even years teaching their dogs the specific exercises and obstacle performa...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

OB800: Mondioring OB: All-Breed Obedience

Mondioring Obedience is a fun new obedience venue cate to all breeds! Based on real-life challenges and working under distraction, Mondioring takes familiar obedience exercises to a new level. With the devel...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101J: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Julie Symons(Faculty)

N120M: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

Melissa Chandler(Faculty)

N130S: NW130 - Developing Advanced Nosework Skills

Want to continue the Nosework fun? Then this class is for you! This is the third skills level course in our nosework program and will build on the skills acqui ...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW215: Air Flow Superpowers for the Developing Dog

Did you know that where and how you place your hides are some of the biggest pictors for well your dog will search? Did you also know that you need to be able to pict air flow to set an effective hide? &nbs...

Course Schedule

SCHEDULE

December 1, 2023

December 1, 2023

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

Sharon Carroll(Faculty)

Julie Daniels(Faculty)

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

Petra Ford(Faculty)

Aleks Woodroffe(Guest Instructors)

Chrissi Schranz(Faculty)

Heather Lawson(Faculty)

Amy Johnson(Faculty)

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Sue Ailsby(Faculty)Heather Lawson(Faculty)

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

Petra Ford(Faculty)

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

Julie Symons(Faculty)

Melissa Chandler(Faculty)

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

Julie Symons(Faculty)

Lucy Newton(Faculty)