Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - FE425: Teenage Tyrants: Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence

Course Details

You had a really cute puppy. Now you have a tyrant! Leg-lifting, humping, newfound reactive behaviors, and just plain naughtiness abounds in the 6 month to 2 year range. In this class you'll learn to head off potential issues, determine what is normal development versus cause for alarm, and how to love your silly teenager through it all.

Teaching Approach

Part conceptual, part skills-based, Sarah teaches TT through conversation and skill review. Your dog training will get a tune-up and so will your relationship with your tyrant. Basic skills must be mastered before true mastery of concepts can begin, but Sarah makes it easy and accessible to teach all of the behaviors included in class. Each week you'll receive concepts, skills to work on, and a "SYS" (save your skin) behavior to train. Teams will be able to pick which things work best for them, rather than having to complete each set of behaviors before moving on to the next.

Instructor: Sarah Stremming

Sarah (she/her) has been working with dogs in the realms of performance training and behavior solutions for over a decade. She currently operates online through her business, The Cognitive Canine. Her special area of interest has long been helping dog owners address behavioral concerns...(Click here for full bio and to view Sarah's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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Preclass
How the Class Works
The Four Steps
Equipment
Marker Cues

Week One
The World of Reinforcement
Building "Reinforcer Events"
Being Cool
Save Your Skin (SYS): Yield to Leash Pressure

Week Two
Trickery, Lies, and Other Evils
Choice and No-Choice Moments
Saying Hi: Dog-Human Greetings
SYS: Collar Give

Week Three
Raging Hormones and What it All Means
Here, Not There for Urine Marking
Saying Hi: Dog to Dog Greetings
Household Conflict Prevention Games
SYS: Stationing

Week Four
The Oasis
Let's Be Adventurers
Resource Guarding Prevention
Enrichment Challenge
SYS: Recalls

Week Five
Outgrowing Behaviors
Waiting Your Turn
Me, Not Them
How to Ditch Corrections
"Needs" Behaviors
SYS: Muzzle training

Week Six
What is "Normal"?
Look and Learn
Asking Permission
Settling on the Go
Problem Assessment Tools
SYS: Leashing Up

Sample Lecture

This week’s SYS is the collar yield or collar give behavior. It can be really helpful in ALL no choice situations but must be trained thoroughly and reinforced frequently if it is intended to be used there. I do not teach my dogs collar restraint games where I want them to pull into their collar; pressure on the collar should always encourage my dog to yield to that pressure.

Start out with whatever amount of pressure you know your dog will yield to, and use placement of reinforcement intelligently too. If the food is out ahead, and you are pulling toward the food, you will have an easy time of it. Gradually do less and less luring, and more and more collar pressure, until you have a dog you can move forward or backward, away or toward, the food.

Here is a situation I found myself in with Teenage Tyrant Watson, where he would not gather with the group for a photo:

And in a similar scenario:

And here he is, after the behavior is trained, in a similar scenario:

Start by just touching the collar and reinforcing:

Then add your big hand cue, and move away so the dog puts his own collar into your grasp:

And eventually, ask the dog to move into the direction that you are pulling:

Testimonials & Reviews

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

Sarah made it easy to go at our own pace. She provided encouragement and excellent feedback. Teenagers are hard on humans and in dogs and Sarah gives you all the tools you need to succeed.

Sarah's eye for clean training and ability to assess the dog in the moment is truly a gift. Thank you!

I can tell that Sarah cares about each and every dog and handler in the course. When reading through the forums it seems like they actually know each other. There were definitely relationships built over the duration of the course.

This course and your experience have given me hope and a better understanding of how I can work through the teenager issues with my young high drive dog. Thanks so much Sarah!

I'd like to say thank you to Sarah for teaching this course. You gave me so many tools and ideas to work on to help my dog and I be a better team.

I loved that Sarah was honest, but positive with her feedback. Her humour helps keep the responses friendly and relatable.

Registration

There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please subscribe to our mailing list for notifications.

Registration opens at 11:00am Pacific Time.

FE425 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	✖

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

Course Schedule

FE425: Teenage Tyrants: Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence