Denise Fenzi Problem Solving Clinic with Trainers. About Denise. About Denise s Sports Academy (on line)

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1 Denise Fenzi Problem Solving Clinic with Trainers July 30, 2014 at Fetch Sam s About Denise When Denise is working with dogs in some of these videos, notice to her attention to everything the dog does and her quick responses. About Denise s Sports Academy (on line) schedule local and on line/ Attendance at Clinic: Judy Baird, Rich & Alicia Dayton, Mary Dent, Darleen Filena, Mary Ann Graziano, Christine Hsu, Eilene Johnson, John Maher, Marla Marlow, Bea Moore, Lori Littleford, Suzy Phillips, Penny Robinson, Pat Ropp, Heather Ross, Dave Signorotti. I want to thank everyone who contributed to this document. We are extremely grateful that Denise offered to do this Clinic for our club. She had so much to say and some was not easily to hear, so your cooperation is invaluable to all of us. First of all, before I put the notes down that I received from you, I want to bring to your attention that Denise has many, many free articles on dog training on her web site. Just go to and type in the Search Box what you are looking for, and it will most likely miraculously appear. You might be interested in Denise s free Understanding Behavior Chains e book at: Christine Hsu Directed Retrieve: (see full account below) I asked Denise about the Directed Retrieve (Glove exercise) for Utility. My dog Ronan knows how to retrieve a glove that I've pointed him toward, but he doesn't perform the exercise reliably. Sometimes he will do things like go out and get two gloves at once. He also doesn't like to be wrong, so every time a mistake like this happens, it makes the exercise more stressful and it is showing in his work. I want all our obedience work to be fun for both of us, so I asked Denise what I can do to fix this problem. Denise s Blog on Directed Retrieve Dave Signorotti Focus on Figure 8: Denise had good advice for our figure 8. Hide the treat, but when your dog loses his watch bring it out and lure your dog back a few steps and try again. When your dog gets it right, reward.

2 Working with Dave s dog attention to everything dog does and her response. Denise s Blog on Heeling Focus Rich Dayton 3 second training: I d like to find out what her 3 second training is like. Denise s Blog on 3 second training seconds of work/ John Maher Barking Every time dog barks, be consistent with what you do time out or crate etc. John Maher Preventing dog from stepping forward Back to basics on Stay. (See below for Active Stays) Leave dog with back to dog and return with back to your dog. Heather Eye Contact Rex has a problem with drifting eye contact, especially over uneven ground and when he s less energetic. Since we'll be on the field for the obedience phase of IPO/Schutzhund for over 10min, if his energy level fades, his heeling will fall apart and speed will decrease. Denise recommended holding a high criteria. Get him very excited to heel with him in front first, lots of play and 3 sec behaviors where he can be successful and motivated. Start heeling with energy, and if he looks away 'oops! what happened?!' and jog back to where we started to re set. We need to go back to basics a bit, and work on 5 step heeling patterns, getting perfection through one left, one right, one about turn, one section of short, straight heeling, etc. If we can t find success in heeling within a few tries, then to just change exercises, (go to dumbbells, etc.) so we don't build too much frustration and keep heeling fun/a privilege. Penny Forging Dogs See below FORGING

3 Darleen Dogs Pulling on Leash Here s Denise s Link on Leash pulling: Christine Hsu Directed Retrieve: (full account) I asked Denise about the Directed Retrieve (Glove exercise) for Utility. My dog Ronan knows how to retrieve a glove that I've pointed him toward, but he doesn't perform the exercise reliably. Sometimes he will do things like go out and get two gloves at once. He also doesn't like to be wrong, so every time a mistake like this happens, it makes the exercise more stressful and it is showing in his work. I want all our obedience work to be fun for both of us, so I asked Denise what I can do to fix this problem. Denise had some very helpful information and suggestions. First she said that some dogs get overexcited or over threshold easily, and when dogs exceed a certain threshold then no learning can take place. At that point some dogs might shut down or exhibit other stress behaviors like zooming around. Especially for these types of dogs that go over threshold easily, corrections would just make things worse. While the dog is learning, strive to set up scenarios that prevent errors. This is a complex exercise, so with dogs just starting out, break down the exercise and start by training direction of travel. One way to do this is to train the dog to go to a foot target. To see Denise doing this with her young dog Brito, view this blog post: direction of travel/ When working with the actual gloves, start with just one glove. Have the dog retrieve the glove in progressively more challenging scenarios, changing distance, terrain (going over different surfaces and varying surfaces), and even areas where the glove cannot be easily seen (like a dark hallway) or is hidden. This also keeps the exercise interesting for the dog. Put the glove in and near crates (which may or may not be empty could have a stuffed or real dog in it). Working with gloves near crates serves another purpose because oftentimes in competition there are crates near the ring with dogs inside, so the working dog needs to be able to focus on the glove even if there are crates nearby. [Side note: these last two parts of the exercise can be done with the dumbbell retrieve, too]. If the dog fails on the retrieve, change the picture and make it easier. If the dog is close to threshold, then with a failure, just end the exercise and do something else to get the dog focused again. [This applies to an exercise like scent articles, too].

4 When progressing to two gloves, set it up as a 180 with you in the middle so it is less likely the dog can retrieve the wrong glove. Keep sending to one glove, but progressively move the start closer to the second glove. Eventually the dog will be at a place where the second glove is visible and closer than the glove that the dog is being sent to, so this will reinforce to the dog to retrieve the glove they are being pointed toward. This is what our working session looked like: Set dog up. 1. Straightforward retrieve in an easy direction away from distractions. [He was successful] retrieve of two gloves away from distractions [he was successful] Note: On the first two successful retrieves, I was rewarding with praise and a hand touch. Denise noted that I should have also been rewarding with a treat, which I did for the subsequent successful retrieves. 3. Retrieve glove set up in front of the group so he had to move toward a major distraction [he was successful] 4. Retrieve glove draped across an open crate door [he was successful] 5. Retrieve glove set up next to and slightly behind open crate [failed he went to investigate the crate instead of retrieving glove] 6. Change start position to make crate less attractive and point more directly at glove[successful dog angled toward crate but then got the glove] Instead of doing it again (since he had made a mistake and was getting very excited and close to threshold), Denise asked us to break it off and do some heeling to get his head back in the game. At this point he ran to see Brito in his crate, who barked at him and threw him the rest of the way over the edge with excitement. Once he calmed down after a few seconds, he did some nice heeling and went back to a good working mode. That was the end of our turn, and Denise noted that it is good to keep training sessions short. I'm looking forward to incorporating these suggestions and think they will make a big difference for my dog. Denise Comments during Clinic: Casually walking on leash (i.e. dog walk) with dog pulling not important to Denise. Teaching classes: Teach a class in small parts and do a lot of talking. This way dogs don t get worn out in an hour long class. They can rest between exercises. Break classes into small groups to work together on exercises. Forging: (more below)

5 Treat on left side of dog s head & behind, forcing dog to look away and not forge. Denise Links: When Denise is working with dogs, pay attention to her attention to everything dog does and her quick responses. Several good articles including HEELING (includes forging, beginning training, new locations, heeling games, precision heeling, shaping, retrieve, fly At the Clinic, Denise referred to this 3 seconds of work: seconds of work/ Since then, Denise has referred this 3 seconds of work follow up: second behaviors easy chains and high arousal/ I found another 3 seconds of work article on her web site: Trial Readiness Teaching Direction of Travel (Utility Directed Retrieve) direction of travel/ Posted on June 28, 2014 by dfenzi In the Utility class of obedience, your dog must be able to follow a direction of travel for both the directed jumping and the directed retrieve exercises. Taking a line of travel as directed by the handler is a basic foundation skill, and can be taught completely independent of the retrieve (for the directed retrieve) or the jumping portion of directed jumping.

6 To start, your dog will need to understand how to go to a place. You can do this with a foot target, a nose target, a mat, platform, cones, etc. I tend to teach a variety of options, depending on the tendencies of the dog and what trial conditions I am most likely to encounter. This blog will start with the assumption that your dog can go away at least eight or ten feet on cue to a place. In the first video, you ll see that I ve set up three foot targets two are 180 degrees away from each other, and the final target is down a hallway. In this manner, I can stand in one spot and pivot to any of the options, but Brito cannot see a wrong option when he is facing the correct option. This makes it extremely likely that he will have plenty of success while he learns what I am looking for. Then I start making it slightly harder by starting his send closer to an incorrect target. I finish by sending him to the target down the hall behind the line of the other two targets so he can see them both on his way to the correct ones. This video was taken on the third or fourth day of these lessons and includes our errors: After you ve mastered the basic exercise (pivoting and sending in different directions), you ll want to begin proofing the work by making it more and more possible to select an incorrect target. Initially, make sure that the correct one is much closer than the incorrect one to set your dog up for success. With time, you ll want to reverse that so that your dog has to go past the incorrect choice while heading to the correct one. Cheerfully call your dog back from incorrect choices and stay silent with correct ones. Remember, silence tells the dog that he is correct. (Watch for that in this video; there are several errors included): If your interest is the go out for directed jumping then the next step is to significantly lengthen the distance that your dog needs to go in order to reach one target ignoring other visible targets on the way. Eventually those other visible targets will become jumps. If you re interested in the glove exercise, then replace targets, one at time, with gloves. You can alternate doing sends to targets with sends to retrieve gloves. When your dog is ready, take the show on the road. Bring only one target and work in close. When your dog is confident, go ahead and add your additional targets. Use your imagination as you added incrementally more interesting challenges for your dog to ignore on his way to the platform. Have fun with this you ll find many uses for this exercise if you give it some thought and even the youngest puppy can master this in a short period of time. Lyra 9 months Active Stay 9 months active stay/ Posted on May 15, 2012 by dfenzi Now that Lyra has some nice drive to work with, I am teaching her an active stay. In my training there are two types of stays, and they are distinctly different.

7 A passive stay is boring. Nothing interesting is going to happen, so go ahead and relax while you wait it out. An active stay is exciting. Be prepared for an explosive release. I teach passive stays in my house and often with multiple dogs at the same time. I make no effort to use motivation on a passive stay; I just need you to stay there. For a day or two I ll use cookies to help the dog for the first few seconds, but mostly I rely on the fact that I will put the dog back every time they break until they figure it out. If I have to put you back ten times, then that is what I do. I am gentle; I just return the dog to the spot and the position (usually a sit). I do not reward the dog when I put them back. I don t care that much if they enjoy this exercise, as long as they don t dislike it. I start in my house so there are no fear issues and not much to distract them. I like to use older, experienced dogs in the same group, since I think the trainee learns from the behavior of the other dogs. Within a week or so, most dogs can sit or down and do nothing for a minute or more, whether I m watching them or not. I may use cookies here and there, but that is not the reason the dog does the stay it s because I will repeatedly return them if they break. Yeah, it s boring but it gets the job done with minimal fuss and they get it quickly. I teach a passive stay when dogs are either older or calmer. Since Lyra started calm and gets more wired with age, I started her passive stay a few months ago before she was ready for an active stay. In the house with the other dogs she is pretty good about it. I never do passive stays with her in a training environment; I want all real training to be high energy and intense at this point. With puppies that are wired, I rarely bother with a passive stay until they are grown up but I teach the active stay early. An active stay is the opposite. I teach that to dogs that are in drive and I care very much how they feel about it. Lyra is ready to learn this now. An active stay means something very interesting is about to happen. It is of a short duration no more than five seconds or so. It involves intense attention, distraction, and an explosive release. If Lyra breaks I get excited as I put her back since I want her to remain in drive. Whereas in a passive stay I am calm and boring, in an active stay I make sure the dog knows that this is an exciting game. Here is Lyra s third lesson on an active stay. She breaks in her second attempt so you can see how I handle it. By her fourth attempt, you can see I m adding a bit more distraction before releasing her. Soon I will actively snap the toy around and she will be expected to hold the stay until I release her. I ll also add a verbal release when the toy is not moving, so that she goes on my command rather than on the action of the toy. Lyra has had a few more lessons in active stays since this video she gets it. Now I can begin to use a stay command to set up for recalls, jumps, retrieves and wherever else I might want an explosive release.

8 FORGING Dog Forges because of Incorrect Toy Reward Placement This is extremely common when dogs are trained with toys. Many people offer toy rewards either forward (throwing a ball is an example) or in the front of their body (to play tug). Both of these errors make forging (and wrapping) extremely common. Here are two examples of toy presentation that will create forging and crowding 1) throwing balls straight ahead and 2) tugging back into your body: You can either switch to food as the reward for heeling or use the toys in a fashion that reinforces correct heeling position rather than a forged one. If you choose to use a toy for the reward, here are some possible positions to offer the toy: 1) on the ground and send the dog back to it; 2) straight down; or 3) back behind the dog (dog must turn out). Note that the toy is always passed behind the back and to the right hand to reward coming from the front will exacerbate the problem: Dog Forges with Food Reward If you have a higher drive dog that forges as much out of temperament as much as reward placement, here is a technique for you to try: Feed behind your butt! The goal is to offset the dog s innate desire to forge with reward placement this tends to cause dogs to end up in the middle (over time): It is important that you force the dog to go back behind your back three fingers and to take the food from the pocket hand position this keeps the rear end in. Here is Raika showing correct food, hand and finger placement: Here is the same technique with a small dog: Finally, In addition to food placement, watch for your criteria are you catching errors of forging on the very first step or are you ignoring them for many steps in a row? If you ignore nine steps of forging and then attempt to fix the issue on the tenth step, your dog will not understand what you are trying to communicate and frustration and confusion often makes forging worse in a driven dog. Dog Forges to see your face Some dogs forge because they want to look up at you. Personally, I let dogs select their own focal point. I offer the pocket hand to put them in correct position and then I let them select on their own. If I am happy with how it looks, then I leave it alone. But if you taught your dog to watch your face and he then defaults to that in movement, then you need to re evaluate the position of your pocket hand. Is it at your side in the correct position? Does your dog push their head against your hand or is your hand just sitting there while your dog s head ignores it? If the dog uses your hand as a guide correctly, and if your hand is in the proper position then there is no way he can end up too far forward all you d have to do is move your hand back a bit to reset a better position. Every time your dog begins to forge, you

9 must instantly put them back. But don t get in the habit of walking with your hand on your dog s head it is a correction. When the dog is correct, then take your hand off and let them try it alone for a step or two. If your dog succeeds, reward! Try it:). Here Cisu s forging is extremely minor, but I still offer the pocket hand to fix her and then I remove it as quickly as possible. I also say easy when I use the pocket, so that she can learn the meaning of the word: Dog Forges. Who knows why? Sometimes we do everything right (we think, anyway) and STILL the dog forges! We are past the point of frequently rewarding the dog in training and we need a way to allow the dog some success even when we have nothing to offer. Try this game the basis is a fly from heeling games, but now the fly is BEHIND the dog instead of ahead. It looks like this with Raika: Note that the first several times I am actually teaching her to do it, and therefore I reward her for each successful repetition. Then I send her on a fly (behind) and continue with heeling. If you watch her carefully, you ll see she begins to be on the verge of LAGGING, which is very atypical for her. Once your dog knows this behavior, you could do several fly s within a heeling pattern without rewarding them at all. Most dogs enjoy fly.