Fenzi Food For Thought: Recent Episodes
Denise Fenzi
Catch me here telling stories, conversing with curious and warm-hearted friends, breaking down barriers in the training world, and of course, sharing my love for these amazing beings we share our lives with: the dogs!
I'd love to hear from you!
Instagram: @denisefenzi
Dog training: @fenzidogsportsacademy @thehighdrivedog
All three of my dogs learned about electric fencing - the hard way. This live is about their different reactions… And how that might impact them into the future, especially if I were a trainer who chose to use electric collars.
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Learning may well be a function of reinforcers and punishers. But behavior over time? Reliability? Habit and relationship should be the end goal. That’s what I talk about here.
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I sat down with a guy at a party and we talked about his reactive dog. What happened next? If you want to have intelligent dialogues with people that potentially change behavior, you might find this live interesting.
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I talk about genetics and how dogs turn out as adults.
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About those words… Punishment, consequence, choice, structure, reinforce, strengthen… All of these words have different meanings depending on your background, training, and where you’re coming from. Just because a word has a scientifically defined meaning doesn’t mean that it is the “right” definition; it depends who you’re talking to. A lay person definition is equally valid! look words up in the dictionary… That should clarify things for you. Words have multiple meanings.
The goal of language is to communicate and be understood. If your goal is to be understood rather than to be right, it’s critically important to know the different ways that these words are used. Not only their definitions, but their connotations. If you have that understanding, you’ll have sensible conversations. If you don’t, you might be right all day long, but you won’t be understood.
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Do balanced trainers train (fix) dogs and positive reinforcement based trainers manage them? No. Not not at all. That’s a problem with words and definitions, not actual outcomes. Do balanced trainers show their work and positive reinforcement trainers not? No. You don’t know where to look. If you want to see really good positive reinforcement trainers doing cool things, you have to look in their circles. That’s what I talk about here.
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Can dogs be willful? Can they actively choose to disobey, while understanding what you want? Yes they can. Now what?
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Time. Priorities. Dog welfare. Human welfare. Guilt. Dog trainers on social media seem out of touch with real world people and their priorities. Are we even doing our job if we don’t prioritize our human clients as much as their animals? Those are things I covered here.
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No fetch? Chase but no return? No tug? Tugs but doesn’t let go? Understand what motivates your dog makes training and problem-solving a lot easier. Taken further, it will set how you train each individual dog, which may be radically different than how you approached similar issues with the last dog. By comparing my Border Collie Ice and my Belgian Xen, both showing similar issues but with very different resolutions, I hope to illustrate these points in this live.
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Trial analysis. What went right? What went wrong? And what am I going to do about it?
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It’s been about three weeks since I brought in the new young border collie, Ice. This is an update on the integration process.
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I’ve got a new puppy! In this life I talk about the process of integrating him into my home, the reality of high drive dogs and puppies, handler sensitivity and hardness, etc. We covered a lot of territory!
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The first time you compete… What’s the best way to get through it?! I’ll give you some ideas here.
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I shared my thoughts about how I planned to acquire my next dog, and what I will do with that dog to start my training during the first few months!
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Structure is a your friend - really. you can get your way without using physical force or mental intimidation. The end result is higher quality of life for both you and your dog.
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About that reactivity… is a given dog reactive, or simply bored? Lacking structure? Doesn’t know what to do in a given circumstance? There are foundation skills that all dogs should have, and they are particularly valuable if the dog should exhibit reactive tendencies here and there. The ability to get your dog’s attention is a critical foundation skill. If you can’t get your dog’s attention in a given environment, you probably should not be there.
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I wanted to illustrate it with the flea study but alas… It appears the flea study is not real. So I just talk about it. Habit! Most important thing you can keep in mind with your new dog or puppy. Plus a few thoughts on trying to train family.
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Do you know the difference between cooperative care and low stress handling? You should! It’s important if you want to maintain a trusting relationship with your dog.
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A safe walk with a dog is a function of the equipment on the dog, the leash that attaches the equipment to the handler, the size, strength, and temperament of the dog, and the environment. All of these things should be discussed with dog training clients to ensure the comfort and safety of all.
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Dog Sports are not all about the dog. They are about people too! It’s OK for you to seek happiness and joy, even if it doesn’t mean maximizing your dog’s happiness at every turn. Make it work; it’s a cost of benefit analysis.
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I’m in camp “genetics” over environment. Take a listen to this one if you want to understand how I got here. Plus, a little bit on selecting a puppy from a breeder.
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A quick look in the mirror… Are you doing the same things that you accuse others of? Behaving emotionally rather than rationally? Ignoring facts that don’t fit the narrative that you want to drive forward? Probably. It’s the human condition, and we all do it. The trick is to become aware of that, and maybe do better into the future.
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This live is my plea to apply a force free philosophy to entire life and not just to your dog training.
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Apparently, folks are very capable of critical thinking skills! When they’re motivated. How can we be motivated to show critical thinking all the time? Even when we’re not not sure we like the conclusions. Especially when we’re not sure we like the conclusions!
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How and why science matters to those of us deeply vested in the Dog community. Plus other stuff.
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So many thoughts. How can we learn to be more critical learners, observers, and communicators? How can we face our own bias and become stronger as a result? Who can we talk to when we have questions? Covered a lot of territory in this one.
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Maybe allow people who are different into your world, and then you can learn about them. Learn about people, and you can have an impact. Don’t allow people into your world and don’t learn about them? Then you can’t do much beyond ignoring (best case scenario) or antagonizing (worst case) others who feel differently than you.
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Do aversives cause aggression? If so, why are famous trainers using them and showing well-balanced dogs? What does the research say? I’m not a scientist, so mostly I can tell you what I see around me, and my thoughts on the matter. If you’re interested, check it out.
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Should dogs roam the neighborhood? How about near busy roads? How about a quiet rural area? How about chickens - can they roam? Why or why not? If someone else has a different opinion about this than you for each type of animal, how might you change their perspective via education and perspective taking? Or do you opt for embarrassment and shaming? How’s that working?
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I hope those of us in the Dog industry stop talking about “them”. “They” can speak for themselves. If you have a question, ask “them.” When you make assumptions about why people do what they do, or say nasty things about their character because they don’t share your opinions? That reflects on you and it makes it very difficult to have honest conversations when you’re present because you ruin goodwill, listening and striving for understanding.
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What relationship-based training means to me. I give the example of an informal recall with my dog.
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Super informal chat with Bryndon Golya, CDBC of OC Canine Coaching about management, training, medication, giving “enough” to our dogs and…plenty in between!
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This live covers follower questions sparked by a panel hosted by Jo-Rosie Haffenden.
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The solution to the Dog Trainer people is to be like the chicken people. In this live I talk about roosters. If the dog people were like the chicken people, we could make radical advances in our field. Take a listen. Tell me what you think.
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Train your dog! Even if you don’t reach 100%, who cares? You’re still ahead of where you were if you hadn’t trained at all.
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In this live I talk about why I do bite sports.
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Train the dog in front of you. What does that mean? Seeing as I wrote a book with this title, I have opinions about it! Two dogs can have the same issue, and the solutions can be radically different. At the end of the day, you have to know your dog… I give examples in this live to help you understand the concept.
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If you like the minutiae of dog training, you might like this live. Here I talk about the challenge I have with my dog in the Mondio ring search exercise… He prefers to bite than to bark! I talk about a “good training” solution which involves breaking it down into small pieces…small splits are good dog training. I talk about the fact that it didn’t work. I talk about brainstorming to come up with an answer. And what all of this makes me think about? One challenge of training dog sports with positive reinforcement is lack of tradition around solutions to problems. Of course this is not a problem in Dog sports that are traditionally positive reinforcement based, but it absolutely is in sports with little to no tradition of +r problem-solving, because these sport have rather few +r folks playing the game.
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Does positive reinforcement training mean withholding half of the information the dog needs to to be successful? Would the dog find more clarity if you included aversives? Would that actually be a relief to the dog? I give my thoughts on that here.
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Life is complex. Dogs are one piece of the puzzle of complexity. Be open to the challenge of varied perspectives. Be respectful! And try to make things better. Dog trainers can do that. You’re more than a dog trainer. You can change lives, and I’m not just making that up.
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Your words are your power. Do not take someone else’s words to placate them. Choose your words carefully. Explain what you need to explain. And reserve the right to say… It depends. I need more information. Getting a group of people together is easy when you simplify complex topics. Who doesn’t appreciate simplicity? Well. Me. As long as life remains complex, I will explain in as many words as I need to say what I want to say. Don’t give your power away. Choose your words thoughtfully, and insist that others respect what you said as opposed to what they think they heard. or maybe what they wanted to hear. what words did you say? Pain, uncomfortable? Aversive? Management? A training tool? Be specific, and insist that others respect your words, or end the conversation.
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Continuing on with basic principles around force free training. Here I introduce counter conditioning, desensitization and habituation. Xen was along for the ride, so he illustrates some of the principles - what do you do when it gets too intense?
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Does reinforcement history or emotion/instinct drive behavior? Both. Emotion drives “behavior” - the general category of things we do. And reinforcement history drives the specific behavior which the learner chooses, from amongst all of the available options. The challenge here is that the word “behavior” means both the general category and a specific choice of a specific behavior. Both are happening. I spend a few extra minutes talking about this during this live. Plus - note how adorable my dog is. I mean…I can barely stand his cuteness!
Today, I explored where most force free behaviorists would start looking at a problem behavior… At the root! What matters less than the behavior in front of you is where it’s coming from. What instincts or emotion are fueling it? If you can identify that, and do some thing about it, your behavior problem might simply disappear. Obviously that’s your best case scenario but… It’s still where you want to start. Because more often then you might think that is the solution.
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Today I talk about the difference between training and management, and I give several examples to help you on your way.
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So appreciate those of you who gave your thoughts about the difference between discomfort and pain in my Instagram stories! In this live, I also explained why I like the word adversive. I like that it centers the experience of the learner and that it recognizes how individual that experience might be.
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How do you show up on social media? How do you balance your authentic self with the demands of the communities where you participate? Do you have an internal compass to guide you? And…how did FDSA start anyway? If you struggle to find peace of social media, this live might help.
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I decided to show you what a training session looks like today. Just the flow of it in real time. I hadn’t planned to save it, but then I came in the house and we just talked. We talked about all kinds of things. So if you want a random grab bag of conversation, this is your live.
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No simple answer to this one. Depends on the goal, type of training. specificity of what you want, and what you mean by trained.
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How do you teach a highly generalized concept like retrieve - where you might want the dog to retrieve a wide variety of items? In this live, I touch on the difference between how I train behaviors for precision as opposed to more generalized concepts that I might want for life or dog sport.
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Disagree all you want, but don’t listen to misunderstand. That’s when I disengage.
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I desperately wish that training dogs was easy. I wish there was a one-size-fits-all solution. I wish all of training could be cookies and toys and general happiness. But life is complicated and it’s not like that. And if I come to a different place someday? If I’m able to find answers to my concerns? I will change my mind, and I will say so publicly.
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Do you prioritize dogs above people? How about other animals? I wonder if that has ever happened at any other time in the history of our species…. Anyway, in this live I ramble along a bit on this topic.
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Do biting sports make dogs more likely to misunderstand in real life, and bite at the wrong time? Maybe. As with many things, it’s not a simple answer.
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Words are so complicated. If we remember that the purpose of words is to communicate rather than to create division, we’ll get along a lot better. Does dominance exist? Can we talk about dogs in packs? How about hierarchy? Let’s look at it.
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Try to be kind. The dog world seems to discourage that, but you don’t need to follow a negative trend. Be nice to people whenever possible.
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Why do I use leashes in public, if not to direct my dog? To allow society to feel comfortable in my presence. It has nothing to do with my dog’s behavior at all.
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If you want to be involved in conversations on social media about ethics, tools, how training works, etc., you really need to know the basics. Dogs do more of things they like and that work for them. Dogs do less of things they don’t like or that don’t work for them. Leverage is a thing. Some tools work by leverage, and others work by aversive properties...and various other stuff as well.
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Here I talked about shades of gray in dog training, the problem of the lowest common denominator, and the difference between emotional and overly emotional behavior in relation to punishment.
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What is your focus on the dog world? Take my word for it; it’s got problems. Focus there! We worry too much about other people’s problems and not our own area of interest. Did you watch Crufts? Yeah, there’s a problem. and unfortunately, problems in one sphere of the dog world begin to impact all spheres. That’s when we see regulation. if you don’t like it, start by cleaning up your own puddle.
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Do biting sports cause aggression? Can a dog show aggression that has never done biting sports? Is that normal or atypical behavior? And what do you do with all of that information? That was the topic of this live.
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From the Facebook vaults!
Off-leash dog enounters are a fact of life. I share how I handle it when Xen was a young dog.
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Which ones are the best? Should you compete if your dog doesn’t enjoy it? Should you find the sport that your dog loves, even if it’s not your favorite. You decide. Take a listen.
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Is eye contact Good? Bad? Should you create continuous eye contact throughout a working session? I don’t think so. Eye contact starts a conversation… I look at my dog when I want them to do something for me, and they look at me when they want me to do something for them. Anyway, there’s more to it than that. Go ahead and listen to this live if you’d like to learn more about the topic!
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Reactivity training in the wild is hard. If you're working on reactivity with your dog, I hope this old live from my Facebook vaults is helpful!
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Communication or control? When trainers talk about communication on social media, they generally mean control. They do the talking. They tell the dog what to do. The dog responds to that…or else. That’s not communication. Communication is a two-way street. Control? That’s another matter all together! The next time you read about a trainer helping to improve your communication, ask yourself… Do they really mean control? Go ahead and do what you want with that. But be honest about it. If your dog is not part of the conversation, then calling “getting your way” communication is a marketing tool, and it’s dishonest. Which brings up the next question. Have you fooled yourself? Can you differentiate communication from control? How did that happen?!
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Here’s a quick and dirty set of tips for how to get a reliable recall on your dog without corrections.
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From the Facebook live vaults! We chat about reinforcement strategies for high arousal dogs.
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When addressing undesirable behavior, it’s helpful to consider if the behavior is rooted at the instinctual, emotional or operant level. In this live, I consider instinctual and emotional roots, and the challenge of genuinely impacting desires that are rooted in instinct. Alternatives to removing the interest might include redirection or work, but truly changing instinctual behaviors? I question if it’s even possible in some dogs under specific scenarios.
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From the Facebook live vaults! I got a chance to sit down after a training session with a young Xen to answer some questions. Here's a little window into my thinking and analysis following a session to inform my training choices going forwards!
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This one's from the Facebook Live vaults where I discuss classical and operant conditioning as it pertains to teaching behaviors. Enjoy!
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This one's from the vaults! I talk about crating with Xen when he was young and prone to getting into mischief!
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It's true; dogs are not children! And if you choose not to use models of thinking that compare children to dogs, you will have walked away from the most valuable tool available, in terms of understanding and training or living with dogs. The truth is… Children and dogs have a whole lot in common in terms of how they behave in a wide variety of circumstances, especially around learning. Don’t give up that free resource lightly. Embrace it, and your training skills will skyrocket overnight. You will have the tools to motivate and understand, and you will find the solutions when challenges occur. Really. Simply by putting yourself into the position of your learner, (even as an adult!) and considering what would be happening inside of you, if you were the learner.
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Nope. You cannot. So be nice to your angry, fearful, sad, or frustrated dog. You won’t make them more angry, fearful, etc. And I’ll do the same for you! If you are sitting next to me and you’re feeling afraid? I’ll hold your hand and talk nicely to you, and I’ll try to make you feel better. And no, you won’t get more fearful.
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Decision making about when to apply pain to others, how and when we use force or restraint, and our thoughts about balancing autonomy and control are heavily influenced by culture - and are very much shades of grey. We work to balance the needs of all the parties - physical, emotional and financial - to come to our best possible decisions.
Yet, there is never a right decision. Only possibilities.
Make your choices with compassion, kindness and knowledge and you’ll get where you need to be.
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If learning cues is not what people need to live in harmony with their dog; if the goal is habits… What exactly does that mean? How do we get there? What role does a dog trainer play? Where does communication fit - and is the dog talking back? What is failure about, what makes failure more or less likely, and…do we even care if the dog is on board with our plans? Wow. Covered a lot of territory today!
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About that trained dog….does it even exist? Training is a process, not an end (trained) state of being. Only behavior that makes it’s way to “habit” can truly be called “trained”. Which is fine. How about we “raise” our dogs and try to live in harmony, while working hard to get everyone’s needs met.
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Words matter. Don’t water down powerful words simply because you don’t agree with another’s choice or situation.
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From the Facebook vaults: remarckably, and sometimes despite us, our dogs get trained!
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From the Facebook vaults! My thoughts on eye contact with your dog.
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What does it mean to treat a dog like a dog?
Start by recognizing that in modern society, dogs are captives. If they are going to have any sort of interesting life at all, you are obligated to provide it.
Beyond that, dogs are individuals. What one dog likes or needs is going to be different than what another dog likes or needs. Same as people!
And this affection thing… Being affectionate with your dog does not cause behavior problems, same as with small children; if they enjoy the attention, then you’re good to go. If they don’t, then don’t do it so much. You’re being annoying.
Do you know what I think our society needs around dogs? Many fewer rules. Don’t worry so much about what people say your dog must or should do. Watch your dog. Are you happy? Is your dog happy? Is society happy?
Then you’re good to go!
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Do we need to add stress to our formal training or behavior work in order to progress?
Nope.
This live explores why it’s not logical to add stress when the root problems are emotional and not rational.
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Training for competition doesn’t mean your training should look like competition.
Training for competition means that you are aware of the criteria required to successfully compete, and you have broken the exercises down into small pieces that you then teach individually in training.
When you have those pieces, you start to combine them and slowly…you end up with a routine that will hold up under the pressure and complexity of the competition ring. Hopefully! Since sometimes you’ll miss things, and that’s okay too. Live and learn.
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Absolutely! I can’t even believe that’s a question.
Does positive reinforcement work? Absolutely! That also should not be a question.
From there, this live goes a little deeper into the similarities and differences of choosing reinforcers or punishers in training.
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What is high drive? Arousal? How are they to live with anyway? Listen to this chat between Crystal Wing and Denise Fenzi.
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When deciding how to train a young dog, I consider the dog’s natural tendencies around arousal, the sports I am targeting, and the expectations of those sports.
If you set a thinking foundation on a dog who’s already calm and your goal is a higher arousal sport, you are going to struggle.
If you set a high arousal foundation on a high arousal dog destined for a thinking sport, you are also going to struggle.
Take a moment to think about where you are trying to take your dog, and what you need to be most successful.
You will always be balancing precision, arousal, speed, etc., but since dogs tend to revert to their foundation emotions under stress, you’ll want to think about these choices sooner rather than later.
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How do you build toy play in a dog with limited drive?
You can use arousal. But there are caveats! This live explores the difference between building toy interest using drive versus arousal.
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“But does your training work on a ___?” Fill in your breed of choice.
This short live looks at exactly that. What determines whether training will work with a given dog in a given situation?
*Note: The Auto Leave It webinar through Fenzi Dog Spots Academy mentioned in this live has now passed, but look for other offerings coming up on the schedule at the time of this release.
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Conversation is an exchange of ideas between people who behave respectfully. Listening is the name of the game! Educating is something else. Educating assumes that one knows more than the other, and is not likely to be appreciated by another with a different world view.
We need more focus on conversations and less on educating.
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It makes me sad when people say medication is a last resort. It creates needless suffering in your dependents.
If you would cheerfully give your dog pain medication for a broken leg, please recognize that mental pain is also suffering. This is true for people and dogs, and leads to tragic results in people who remain unmedicated and who can’t find their way. Dogs just suffer - they can’t advocate for themselves.
We can do better by our pets! If your dog’s quality of life is impacted by fear, anxiety, or extreme emotions of any negative type, consider medication along with training. Not as a last resort but as a kind addition to the dog’s well being.
There’s nothing to be ashamed of when you help your dog live well.
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So much of the distress in the dog industry is misunderstanding. We’re talking about different things - and suffering so much as a result.
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If your dog finds it aversive when you withhold reinforcement in training as a natural part of the learning process, re-evaluate your training. The game of training itself, the puzzle, should keep the dog well vested, regardless of whether or not each moment in time is successful. It should not feel aversive to the dog whether a reward comes or otherwise.
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The focus of this live was acquiring a dog! Maybe from a rescue, maybe from a breeder. Then we spent some time talking about purebred dogs. Honesty is everything.
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Do mother dogs use food to “train” behavior in other dogs? Are dogs wolves? What can we learn from dogs and wolves in our interactions with our own dogs?
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Relationship or training? This live talked about exactly that!
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In this live, I talked about using props within training. Why we use them, advantages and disadvantages, and how to get rid of them!
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We train behaviors and condition emotions. In this live, I explained that in more detail.
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In this live, I talked about reinforcement. It’s a lot more complicated than just toys or food! If you understand your dog’s hierarchy of reinforcement, you can make strategic decisions that significantly increase your training success.
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Whether or not you think there is a place for suppression in dog training, we need to be logical in our explanations and thinking. Not moving does not mean an animal is in a “calm state of mind” if you have punished the movement out of the dog. It simply means the dog is not moving.
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Structure is good. Choice is good. It’s a matter of the right one at the right time. Plus a bunch of behavior conversation.
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Adolescent a$$hole?! The truth is, some dogs aren’t so great during adolescence. Your compliant puppy is not so compliant anymore! This will give you some ideas for navigating this period of time. In short, you will be reducing your dog’s choices and increasing structure. Identify issues before hand, and cut them off before they have a chance to develop.
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This time I focus on the perspective of reactive dog handlers. If you are a professional trainer you might find this one interesting.
Note: the Live mentioned from the day before didn't end up saved on IG, apologies for the confusion!
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Here, CC stands for classical conditioning. I gave a variety of examples, both behavior and training-oriented, where classical conditioning gets behaviors much faster than operant conditioning, and with a more reflexive/fast response as your end result. I’m loving classical conditioning to train and maintain behaviors! I also answered random questions on various topics.
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As a seasoned trainer and competitor, Laurie Williams has seen and experienced a lot, and tonight she shared her story as she transitioned from traditional to positive reinforcement based training. I enjoyed this interview and I hope you do as well!
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I had the opportunity to do an in person training lesson; something thing I have not done in years. In this IG live, I talked about the dogs, and how I made the choices I made to address their behavior and training needs. I focus on a discussion of evaluating a dog’s need for movement or stillness, structure or choice.
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What is the cause of the misfortune? Genetics? Environment? Something else altogether? Frankly, it doesn’t matter. The blame game leads to suppression of behavior via punishment and that leads to a loss of honesty. This IG live was all about the cyclical relationship between the blame game and the problems that result. We can be be better!
Structure is not a bad word. Choice is not a bad word. You need both! Which one depends on the circumstances.
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This is the number one thing I want dog trainers to understand. You cannot control a dog's “state of mind” by managing it through training their behavior. Emotions don’t work that way.
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We know quite a lot about keeping our dogs safe, but we don’t often consider how that creates trade-offs….Quality and quantity of life have a tendency to be at odds, when push comes to shove. We each make decisions based on our risk assessment. The world could be a much kinder place if we allowed others the same freedom without judgment.
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If you find consistent struggle to get along with your challenging dog in society, listen to this Instagram live I did. You might find it helpful in your efforts to get your needs met.
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This was such a fun time! Dr. Amy Cook joined me to talk about fear, anger, food, conditioning, what happens if you get your timing wrong, and a whole lot more! And if you worry about your timing or choices? You definitely want to listen to this one.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Michael about all things aggression! We covered quite a bit of territory, from whether or not to use a muzzle to matters of medication to dogs in shelter.
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Our society is based on punishment, and we have internalized that. We accept fear and sadness as acceptable emotions, and we want to comfort those who feel them. But we do not accept anger and frustration, and their emergence makes us want to punish those emotions when we see them. I talk about why you might struggle to apply the principles of classical conditioning to behaviors that society does not find acceptable. Follow my training!
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In this live I was joined by Michael and Jamie Badial to talk about how to become a dog trainer, starting your business, and getting your first clients! This was a fun chat with lots of practical advice that you can apply right away to get your business up and running. Take a listen!
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Errors are nothing to be ashamed of! Let’s talk about it. Be public about your errors! It will reassure your colleagues that they are not inferior beings because they have errors, and it will attract the general pet population who struggles to identify with trainers who show only perfection.
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What an excellent conversation! If you are struggling with separation anxiety with your dog, or if you know someone else who is, you will definitely want to listen to this interview.
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This is the secret to getting your puppy or dog to opt into training with full attention, and to stay connected for long stretches of time. It works. Really. Take a listen.
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As with most things, it’s not black-and-white. Some dogs benefit from more splitting, patterns, higher rate of reinforcement, and easier training sessions with less puzzling than other dogs. Those dogs might benefit from more lumping, more behavior chains, and more unpredictable/challenging training sessions with plenty of puzzling. In all cases, you need to watch your learner to determine how your interventions are being received. As a general rule, force free trainers err on the side of patterns and high rates of reinforcement for too long, making behavior chain goals hard to reach, and balanced trainers err on the side of the unpredictable and challenging training with too much frustration and lack of clarity in the work. You could pick your poison, or better still, watch your learner carefully and pick that just right path!
We had a great talk! We talked about relationship, playing with dogs, what Dante has learned working with other species, preparing for dog sports competition, and more! I hope you enjoy this. Follow Dante on Tik Tok @dantedogworks
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Do you have a relationship with your dog or a dependency? Does your dog want to spend time with you, or are they trying to avoid the alternatives? We explored questions like that in this Instagram live.
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Are you against medication for your dog? Take a listen to this Instagram live recording where we talk about just that!
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Here we have a short discussion of personal play, food play, and toy play, specifically in relation to changing the dogs emotional state.
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Dice gave a perfect example of controlling his behavior without impacting the underlying emotion. This goes along with the fact that we can control external behavior but we need the learner’s cooperation to change emotions. Take a listen; this one is short. Follow my training!
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It is critically important to know the difference between an emotion and a behavior. Changing a behavior to look the way you want does not mean the dog’s emotion has changed. It means you changed the behavior! Are you sure that’s what you want? Are you sure you understand what you’ve done?
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Handling errors of impulse, quality and understanding!
There are many reasons why dog make errors. In this live, I covered the three that showed up in my training session that morning: errors of impulse, errors quality of work, and errors of understanding. They are different, and require different approaches.
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Guest Sharon Carroll and Denise chat about sensitive dogs
I have spent a lot of time talking about dogs who express arousal through high levels of energy, movement, and sometimes even aggression. Today I talked with Sharon and we looked at another kind of display; dogs that are also experiencing great arousal, but who internalize that experience through freezing, low energy, or simply poor performance.
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The reality is, in most dog sports 70% of your time is spent waiting for the judges direction, moving to the start of an exercise, etc. Relatively little time is spent with the dog doing work.
Have you trained the dog for this reality of a lot of waiting and relatively little doing? This live talks about my thoughts with my own dog, and how I plan to start working on this for our team.
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Are these developmental possibilities in a dog? Heck, are they even about the other, or are they about the one doing the describing?
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Can you separate what your dog sees, hears, smells and feels? Splitting these factors apart can help your reactivity training go faster.
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My plan was to work on setting up my environment for success, but I still had struggles. In this live I talk about what I did with the information and how I analyzed the session.
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It’s OK to be frustrated with your dogs behavior. And sometimes it’s OK to change the dog’s behavior so that you can be more comfortable. But that doesn’t mean you’ve changed how the dog feels. Follow my training!
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In this live, we talked about how the placement of reinforcement impacts both precision and attitude. We considered this both in the realm of pet training and competition dogs. We talked about how to do a Cue transfer, considered dogs that are good candidates for luring versus shaping, and touched on the impact of patterns vs unpredictable choices in our work.
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What things do you teach your dog? Why do you teach these things? How about your clients? Do you change your expectations for different dogs in different circumstances? Why or why not? We explored these issues in this live.
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I think preparing for Dog sports competitions is one of the best ways to push your dog training skills. We talked about that here! How to avoid perfection paralysis.
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It’s OK to give a motivator to a dog who has made an error. This episode is all about that process.
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We talked about setting, raising, and lowering criteria. Using the concept of foundation skills when setting criteria, and problem-solving, with an eye towards how to shift criteria.
In this live we discussed barking in a variety of contexts, and some options you may have to resolve it.
Wait! You won’t solve your behavior challenge in two months!
My dog brings some tremendous benefits to the table but we are far from out of the woods! Remember, my process is not your process. Take your time, especially if you have a challenging dog, and celebrate what goes right.
We also talked about managing your own anxiety with overaroused and reactive dogs.
This live explored the difference between flooding and habituation, and discusses why I choose to put out information on dog aggression, reactivity and over arousal, even though I know some of that information will be used poorly or misunderstood.
In the past, I have done several IG lives where I talked about components of over aroused or reactive behavior in more detail. On this one, I tried to summarize how I use those qualities when working with my own dog. In short, I tend to think about arousal rather than worrying about controlling the environment. Because I cannot control the environment and the triggers; there are too many of them. But I can control his arousal via techniques that work for both of us.
We covered more than that, but in effect, we had a conversation about what happens if an undesirable behavior has a reinforcing quality, even if it’s not obvious to us with that reinforcing quality might be. The short answer is that your choice of reinforcement might increase the behavior you want, but it won’t necessarily decrease the behavior you don’t want. Or at least not to the point of extinction.
This is primarily aimed at dog sports competitors, but applies to pet dogs too. When reducing reinforcement, focus on your goal. What are you trying to accomplish? Recognize the trade offs of your choices when you select your route to ring readiness.
As with most things, it’s not black-and-white. Some dogs benefit from more splitting, patterns, higher rate of reinforcement, and easier training sessions with less puzzling than other dogs. Those dogs might benefit from more lumping, more behavior chains, and more unpredictable/challenging training sessions with plenty of puzzling. In all cases, you need to watch your learner to determine how your interventions are being received. As a general rule, force free trainers err on the side of patterns and high rates of reinforcement for too long, making behavior chain goals hard to reach, and balanced trainers err on the side of the unpredictable and challenging training with too much frustration and lack of clarity in the work.
You could pick your poison, or better still, watch your learner carefully and pick that just right path!
Dogs react very differently to a singular event or a mass distraction. This is another one of those personal qualities that you’ll want to know about your dog when you work on matters of overarousal or reactivity, or you might find yourself doing exactly the reverse of what is most helpful to your situation.
In this live, I describe how I am going to train my dog this weekend away from home. What is my route? What is my plan to ensure that we have as much success as possible? It’s important to have a plan when you are training, especially when you are away from home or have limited opportunities for away training. This one applies to both behavior work and Dog Sports competitors.
We’ve all been there. Watch this live to get some ideas for how to handle it when you’re ready to throw in the towel over a single bad day.
Once again we covered a lot of territory! This live will introduce you to the quadrants (operant conditioning), and also classical conditioning. We discuss when reinforcement makes the most sense and when you might consider punishment if that is in your mental paradigm. We talk about extinction, habituation, and other random topics that dog trainers might find of interest!
Does your dog become more or less reactive to triggers when you increase your dog’s exercise? While counterintuitive, it appears that some dogs might do quite a bit better if they receive less exercise!
Link to the research study mentioned in this Instagram live.
Are you teaching what you think you’re teaching?
This live covered correlation is not causation and the risks of superstitious learning in humans! We talked about evaluating your training choices with care and reflection; modulating emotions in dogs; a few thoughts on how to change human behavior in life; a few thoughts on how to be happy in life; and a bit of problem-solving. Enjoy!
I hear this word used a lot in dogtraining. Usually it’s the trainer saying that the dog trusts them. How do you know that? Trust is given, not taken from another. Consider how you do, or do not, have trust within your training relationship.
This is from an Instagram Live I did last year. Enjoy the replay!
Yes, bitesports can be done positively. But if you put a traditional foundation first it will be a whole lot harder, if you can do it at all.
**Since my first podcast wasn’t clear and/or was widely misunderstood on the topic of instinct sports trained as force free as possible, this re-recording is designed as a summary and clarification.
Denise & I hung out with our very first guest, Erin Lynes, FDSA instructor and breeder of the most versatile labs around--in our humble opinion, that is...
We talk about what temperament adds to versatility and those wrecking ball puppies we just can't resist!
Plus, we get an insider look into the world of dock diving and learn about some skills you can train even before hitting the water. Enjoy!
It’s helpful to try and meet your client where they are at. Plus we talked about lots of other stuff!
Denise & Ingrid got together to discuss harmony in dog training, between the client and pet professionals, dogs and culture and we got a Della the hamster update. Unfortunately, she's not as keen on doing things for sunflower seeds as we originally hoped, but she's pretty cute :)
We’ve all been there. Listen to this episode to get some ideas for how to handle it when you’re ready to throw in the towel over a single bad day with your dog.
The tradition in bitesports and the hunting world is to build a dog’s drive and add control later. That brings unnecessary anxiety and lack of clarity to training and makes the need for aversives highly likely.
This is from an IG live about how one might balance drives and control from the very beginning to prevent problems throughout the dogs career.
Denise & Ingrid get together to chat with this conversation about who we are, how uniquely cute & talented our puppies are among other things that made us laugh and captured our dysfunctional brains this week. Enjoy!
What can a balanced trainer learn from a force free trainer? What can a force free trainer learn from a balanced trainer? Where are we strong? What can we add to our training plans that make us better trainers?
This is a recording of an Instagram live I did last year. Look out for new episodes soon where I chat with some guests!
I've got another IG live for you I did last year on handling errors of impulse! Enjoy!
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In this first episode of Fenzi Food for Thought, I'm sharing with you a popular instagram live I did on the topic of movement vs. stillness and why this matters for training the individual dog in front of you.