Denise Fenzi Seminar

[Jigsaw]

If anyone is interested in forming a stronger relationship with your dog, competing in competitive sports or thinking about dipping your toe into competitive dog sports, you may be interested in this!

Day 1 is suitable for any dog sports, agility, schutzhund, obedience, rally-o and pet dog training.

Day 2 is specifically tailored towards competitive obedience.

Positively Powered Up Inc (NFP) is pleased to announce that Denise Fenzi will be coming to Wyee on 13 & 14 July, 2013 for a two day seminar. Day 1 will discuss Drives & Motivation and Day 2 is specifically for Obedience Problems. There are unlimited auditor (watching) positions available so if you're struggling with motivation for your dog or have an obedience problem come along and see Denise interacting with handlers and providing positive training solutions to their problems! For more information visit our website!

Positively Powered Up

[whitka]

If anyone is interested in forming a stronger relationship with your dog, competing in competitive sports or thinking about dipping your toe into competitive dog sports, you may be interested in this!

Day 1 is suitable for any dog sports, agility, schutzhund, obedience, rally-o and pet dog training.

Day 2 is specifically tailored towards competitive obedience.

Positively Powered Up Inc (NFP) is pleased to announce that Denise Fenzi will be coming to Wyee on 13 & 14 July, 2013 for a two day seminar. Day 1 will discuss Drives & Motivation and Day 2 is specifically for Obedience Problems. There are unlimited auditor (watching) positions available so if you're struggling with motivation for your dog or have an obedience problem come along and see Denise interacting with handlers and providing positive training solutions to their problems! For more information visit our website!

Positively Powered Up

Does anyone know what state this will be in?

[Cleo's Corgwyn]

It's NSW, Whitka, up near Newcastle. I've booked my spot!

If anyone is interested in forming a stronger relationship with your dog, competing in competitive sports or thinking about dipping your toe into competitive dog sports, you may be interested in this!

Day 1 is suitable for any dog sports, agility, schutzhund, obedience, rally-o and pet dog training.

Day 2 is specifically tailored towards competitive obedience.

Positively Powered Up Inc (NFP) is pleased to announce that Denise Fenzi will be coming to Wyee on 13 & 14 July, 2013 for a two day seminar. Day 1 will discuss Drives & Motivation and Day 2 is specifically for Obedience Problems. There are unlimited auditor (watching) positions available so if you're struggling with motivation for your dog or have an obedience problem come along and see Denise interacting with handlers and providing positive training solutions to their problems! For more information visit our website!

Positively Powered Up

Does anyone know what state this will be in?

[Ptolomy]

There are also seminars in Brisbane and Perth

[Tassie]

I'd love to have gone, but doing agility with Nancy Gyes in June. Decisions.....

I'm observing another one of Denise's on line courses , starting in June :-)

[Wobbly]

OMG! I just emailed to ask for a spot at the Morrisset seminars, hoping for a handler spot with my dog. Only 24 spots though, fingers crossed we get one of them. My dog is so perfect for this kind of training, but I really need a LOT of help.

Please pick us, pick us pick us!!!!!!!

[Wobbly]

Damn, just realised handler positions are full. Auditor it will have to be.

[Wobbly]

She's doing private lessons as well!!! I want 2! :D :D :D :D

52 sleeps to go. XD

Haven't logged into DOL for ages, so glad I did today. Thanks for the heads up on this. :D :D

[whitka]

Looks like im out

[Wobbly]

Is anyone having trouble paying for this? The account number given was BSB: 934858 Acc:637000105 My payment got rejected for incorrect number? But I have made no transcription errors. :/

Please take my money, I really want to hear this lady. Her youtube videos are amazing, she has taught me so much. I would love to see her seminar.

For anyone sort of on the fence about going, here is a blog post from someone who attended her seminars: http://reactivechampion.blogspot.com.au/search/label/denise%20fenzi

Scroll down on the page for the seminar info, it's covered in the earlier posts.

(Thanks Corvus for that link, am reading the entire blog, I like this lady and the way she thinks a lot.)

Edited May 30, 2013 by Wobbly

[whitka]

I love watching her youtube vids and reading her blog. If she was holding a seminar in Vic you bet I would be there :) I hope everyone who goes reports back I want to hear everything :D

[Wobbly]

Yeah I adore her youtube vids. I have learnt so much from her. Everytime I watch one of her clips I have a new epiphany, the latest one was when I was watching her clip on proofing fronts with Lyra. When Lyra wasn't "getting it", Denise's response was "You're trying Sooo hard" so I started doing that. And found that when I am concentrating on recognising how much effort she really is putting in, I don't get frustrated. It made a huge difference to both how I and my dog feel.

We actually did score a handler spot!!! :D

I am so excited, (also terrified that I am going to be the most inexperienced and clueless there and make a right fool of myself). I'm thinking I should arrive with Jarrah a little early so she can can acclimatise to the environment before everyone arrives, so she can have a good sniff around and stretch of her legs and a few games of tug to satisfy herself that it's a pretty boring environment and she'd really much rather be working. I imagine I won't be the only handler doing that!

I love Denise's emphasis that training comes as a result of a deep, close relationship, and the more I understand her videos and posts (I am sometimes a bit slow to understand), the better we get. I used to buy into the whole "you must dominate/compel the dog to get behaviours" method of training, which of course worked (or at least gives the appearance it's working if you're not connected enough with the dog to see the resulting displacement behaviours it causes) but that style of training left both of us very unhappy. For many years I didn't really do much training beyond the basics because the bulk of the information I was accessing was compulsion based. I think it may have been Kavik that originally posted the link I first followed to Denise's blog? and well I am really making up for lost time with training now! Not that I want to compete or anything, we're just doing it for the sheer enjoyment of it.

[Tassie]

Colour me green with envy, Wobbly - but I'm doing the Nancy Gyes agility seminar this month, and 2 big mainland trips couldn't be done. And

also terrified that I am going to be the most inexperienced and clueless there and make a right fool of myself

.. ohhhh yes - I'm right with you there :laugh: , but I'm sure you'll be fine. I've audited one of Denise's online courses, and am starting to audit another, and she seems really good and patient with people. Of course, you might crack up if she says to you

"You're trying Sooo hard"

. .

I'm another cross-over trainer, and I'm just having the best fun with my two now, and trying to pass that enjoyment on to other people. :)

[RubyStar]

Congrats Wobbly on scoring your handler spot!

I've got a working spot at the Perth seminar and don't know who to take! I want to take Ruby because I really need Denise's help with motivation and drive with Ruby, but Ruby can really embarrass me with how little drive she has. Or do I take Pippa, who is a hoot to work with, to ensure I stay on the right track with her?! I don't want to "ruin" Pippa, I want to keep it light and fun, even when things don't go to plan!

Regardless, I'm really looking forward to the seminar, too :D

[megan_]

Take the terriorist!

[xena98]

Colour me green with envy, Wobbly - but I'm doing the Nancy Gyes agility seminar this month, and 2 big mainland trips couldn't be done. And

also terrified that I am going to be the most inexperienced and clueless there and make a right fool of myself

.. ohhhh yes - I'm right with you there :laugh: , but I'm sure you'll be fine. I've audited one of Denise's online courses, and am starting to audit another, and she seems really good and patient with people. Of course, you might crack up if she says to you

"You're trying Sooo hard"

. .

I'm another cross-over trainer, and I'm just having the best fun with my two now, and trying to pass that enjoyment on to other people. :)

Cant afford to see her as I have just done Dave Munnings (absolutely brilliant) Seeing Jill Houston(hopefully spelt correctly) Kamal and also Stacey

Still trying to work out where I am going to get all this money from though. But it will be great though

[Tassie]

xena98

Seeing Jill Houston(hopefully spelt correctly)

Is that the June weekend in Adelaide? I'll see you there . Swinging by on my way (more or less) back from Sydney. I'm getting the Dave Munnings DVD - and I loved Kamal's workshop last year - still trying to put that into practice - and the same with what I learnt from Stacey when she was out years ago. We're really getting spoiled for choice at the moment, aren't we - but it's great - for us and the sports. :D

[Wobbly]

Oooh yay, glad there are more Fenzi fans here! I just watched her youtube of Cisu's OTCH, such a lovely dog and so incredibly focussed! Just amazing.

Congrats RubyStar! Bring the dog who you feel would benefit the most I think!

I have joined up for Denise's online "Problem Solving" course as a Silver member. The stuff I have learnt so far is just incredible. Denise's insight into my dog, just from a few descriptions of mine is amazing. For a silver member of her courses, it's forum style Q & A. Great format for a recividist forum poster like myself. The Gold Members submit videos of themselves working in addition to the Q&A on the forum.

SOme of the things I have learnt so far (this is just over 5 days) : Jarrah's "game" is swim/fetch/tug, this is all one game to her, and it's her one true love (I knew this ofc, I made her like this). I have often played this with her in the presence of running dogs who may pique her chase instinct, since I am confident that it will keep her attention on me and she will ignore the running dogs, that has worked for us for years. Funny how I conditioned this over years, but never really understood what was going on with it at all. I'm glad I did it though, since despite all my mistakes, it's great her drive is well developed. At the time I just did it because Jarrah was such an active dog (classic case of "too much dog" for me), so I needed to get her swimming lots everyday to keep my furniture and sanity intact.

Because the swim part of her game requires water, her drive has become location based, she only goes into massive drive like this if there's water. When I switch to just tug in say a park, (no water so no opportunity for swim/fetch/tug) she loves her tug, so she goes into drive, but it's missing the essential ingredient of "Swim", so she's not so obsessive about it. I had sort of grasped this, on a subconscious level, but now I really do understand it.

What I realise now ofc, is that the way I have made Jarrah "work" (swim) for her reward, built huge value for the reward, and the association also built value for swimming itself. I could just as easily have made that "work" obedience, and built value for obedience, so I am making a start on that now. We'll always keep swim/fetch/tug as an activity, since that is her passion, we love it. Hopefully I can make the same passion for obedience too (with a few important differences ofc, to address the many mistakes I have made with my approach to swim/fetch/tug).

The big breakthrough for me is this - Denise explained a dog's drive can be so strong, it overrides their ability to know they have a choice. So with Jarrah ignoring other dogs when we're playing swim/fetch/tug, it's not that she is making a conscious choice to choose playing with me over running dogs; to her there is no choice, she just must do as her drive compels her and play swim/fetch/tug, she must ignore those running dogs. It's still really compulsion training (in the nicest possible way) since she has no choice.

So ofc, when there is no water, no swim/fetch/tug, she finally has a choice between running dogs and me. Amazing I never realised this, but I never did.

Denise and Nancy (Denise's colleague who is also an instructor for this course) have set me some exercises and homework. We are working on giving Jarrah the opportunity to choose between me and running dogs, and setting it up so she makes the right choice (playing with me) and then I can heavily reinforce her good choices. Denise says keep the reinforcement just above the value of the distraction. If the distraction is value 7 to the dog, make the reinforcement an 8, if the value of a distraction is 3 to the dog, make your reinforcement a 4. The dog is given a choice, but set up so the dog will make the choice we want. Basically our exercises are playing and training in the park on a long line, sub threshold from other running dogs, so she can keep a clear head and make good choices and be well rewarded for them. Very fun stuff. My other homework is Susan Garrett's Crate Games (definitely Kavik has linked this before, but I didn't follow it up enough to realise how valuable it is, I know now though!). So we are working on that too, it's certainly turning out to be a very busy 6 weeks for us.

All fun stuff! Even if you can't attend a seminar, I would highly reccommend Denise's online courses http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/schedule-and-syllabus

There are Bronze level scholarships for people who are having financial difficulties too. Definitely a great thing for forum posters, I am terrible with all other forms of correspondence (if you ever tried to email me you will know that), but a forum set up really works for me. It's also great since I see all my classmates questions and answers too, which is very valuable as well.

The course I am really looking forward to is Heeling Games - Jarrah and me have most fun with heeling since it can be a very dynamic exercise. I want to attend that one as a gold member though so Denise can see where we're at there, we need lots of help since I am such a newb at it. I have a few prerequisite classes to cover before I can do that though. Lots to look forward to!

The awesome thing for me about finding Denise now is that it comes at a time when both Jarrah and I are getting older, and we both have had some injuries over the years so we are slowing down now, swim/fetch/tug everyday is more than my back can cope with, and she doesn't need it everyday anymore anyway now she's older, calmer and my understandings have increased. Obedience offers us a really awesome framework for interaction together that's very rewarding to us both, on so many levels. We are still very new at it though and need lots of help.

Dave Munnings, Jill Houston - some new names now filed away in memory for future reference. XD

[Weasels]

That's great Wobbly! I love how much passion you have for working with Jarrah and troubleshooting in a fun way :)

I am doing heeling games as a bronze-level participant at the moment. Fortunately I have a very very generous friend who was been watching my videos and providing feedback so I didn't 'need' the higher levels. Chess really doesn't value heeling much and her ass is in a different orbit to her front end so I'm working on that with her. Weez loves heeling and has beautiful movement, so I'm mostly working on ignoring distraction and improving precision & duration with him. It's been great fun so far (way better than club training).

Edited June 8, 2013 by TheLBD

[Wobbly]

Hah LBD, Jarrah is a crab walk heeler too! I am trying to use walls to my advantage for that. XD

Of course, you might crack up if she says to you

"You're trying Sooo hard"

. .

She's pretty much saying that to me now in the course! :laugh:

Nancy Gyes, another person for me to keep in my mind. My list of awesome people to check out is getting bigger and bigger.

I think I can squarely blame Steve Courtney for putting me on this obedience track, when he taught me to how to teach Jarrah an out and he was explaining to me how his dog thinks, and why, I began to realise all the possibilities I really have with Jarrah. And now I have that out, it's all looking distinctly possible from here. "D I just looked at the CCD requirements - if I was allowed to treat and make noise and play between exercises, and they aren't too worried about our lack of precision, she could totally do that now.