Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - FE193: Don't Worry Be Happy

Course Details

Play your way to success

This course will focus on the people side of play with consideration of some science and some "art" elements.

Your dog as play partner will certainly come up and be relevant but the course is mostly for and about the human side of play. I anticipate that there will be more video on my side of the screen and you may choose to communicate through video as well.

This class will have a TA and a FB study group for bronze students.

We'll look at when and why is play hard sometimes. What changes about our ability to play as we mature?

How does gratitude fit into a play paradigm and where is the fun in our work with our dog?

What play techniques might help you move forward and what help do you need RIGHT NOW to play "better"?.

As always in my courses, there is lots of flexibility in making the course work for you and lots of different approaches to the various issues and concerns you might have about relaxing, playing and simply finding joy in the training and completing side of this life you are invested in!

Instructor: Andrea Harrison

Andrea Harrison (she/her) is passionate about all species, including dogs and humans! Having lived with dogs her whole life, Andrea was an early convert to positive training for people and dogs. She has taken this message to the media many times...(Click here for full bio and to view Andrea's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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Play your way to success - the weekly topics

1. Play Principles for People - an Introduction - how well do you play? Identifying strengths and gaps. Making your plan
2. Zen and the Art of Dog Training - the science and art of people play - creativity, adulting and more
3. Physical Play - let's add our dog - what if they don't want to play? what if they don't want to stop?
4. Mental Play - for all species - the importance of gratitude
5. Matching Styles and Timing
6. Adapting your plan Testing and Working your Plan

Prerequisites & Supplies

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An open mind is all that we need! Actually, just a willingness to test opening your mind is enough. Believe me when I assure you that your issues or worries are things I've worked with people on before - including small children who didn't know how to play at all! I've got your back and you can take as many little teeny tiny steps as you need or want to figure this stuff out!

Sample Lecture

The Science and Art of Play

There is no doubt that "adulting" as the current expression goes can suck the joy right out of life. Knowing that there are bills to pay, or a house to clean, children to bathe, vet appointments to organize, laundry to do and so on makes taking time to smell the flowers, be silly and have fun difficult to put it politely! Practicing good self-care at any particular moment may or may not include time for fun in a given moment. Overall fun and joy are important considerations to make room for when possible in life.

There are many important studies about play we will look at in this class but one I want to consider now is the Bobo Doll Experiment ( https://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html). In a nutshell, children who had watched models be aggressive were more aggressive in many (every 5 seconds) measured ways. I share this study not so you go punch a Bobo Doll (as tempting as that is sometimes!) but to highlight the role models play in influencing behaviour. We are lucky here at FDSA to have excellent role models who can illustrate good dog play for us - USE THEM. Go look in your library and look for an example of an instructor playing well with their dog. (What kind of play are they doing? Why did you like the example you found? What would be hard for you with your dog?). In the next lecture, we are going to be looking at three specific examples. We will work through them together so go practice your analytical skills before we start!

Creativity

Sometimes a block to play is not believing that we are creative or artistic. Opening up creativity can leave people feeling unskilled, unworthy and not particularly happy. Sigh. That said, if you want to improve play with others (of whatever species) carefully looking at what get's your creativity flowing and considering what you WANT to practice and work with will make a significant difference to your playability. (Is that a word? It is now!)

Dogs have little inhibition about practicing until they get it right!

There are a number of factors that can cause our blocks though ... perfection paralysis is one block that is we learn to fear doing "it" whatever it is, wrong. If it can't be perfect it won't be fun, it won't be right. I hate to say it again but mistakes and errors often provide us with more learning than success. We know this in theory but internalizing it can be so so hard. Sigh.

Resistance is futile ... By that I mean it's time to get playing. Get experimenting, get sharing why you aren't happy with the way you play so we can work together on being better. It's a GAME ... it's FUN ... (or it will be). I so badly want to say there is no wrong to play - but of course, there are things we do that can block play ... but they are whoops moments - not tragic mistakes that can't be overcome! I cannot tell you how absolutelyI believe that.

How long do you need to work on the human side skill of playing? Not very long at all - can you give active, hands-on play 5 minutes every other day? That's 15 minutes in a week - and you don't even always need a partner to do it! Starting to work on the skills and beliefs inherent in play will make all the difference to play. (We'll talk soon about the doubting voices that may be in your head - aka the monsters soon - for now push them aside). Set a timer if 5 minutes seems too long or short. If 5 minutes makes you anxious test playing for 2 minutes and see how that feels.

There are three exercises this week:

1) Analysing three people/dog play interactions

2) the "What if " play tool

3) Process Vs Outcome in play

Gold students may want to pick and choose which activity they do - or may want to post on all three

Homework: If you have questions arising from this lecture feel free to ask. Please determine when you will be able to set aside time for play practice (either on your own or with a play partner)

Testimonials & Reviews

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

The instructor is very supportive and encouraging. She understands the difficulty many of us have in being playful. I appreciated being able to explore that.

So glad I got to take this class. The combination of mental/thinking work and actual play (both my own and with my dog) was wonderful for developing new ways of approaching play and thinking about the what's and whys of where it was sticky and where it worked. I would love to see the planning section a bit earlier in the class.

I found it very helpful. As always, Andrea helped me get a more balanced perspective about how I think about how I do with my dogs.

The class inspired me to continue to explore the world of play and to expand the role of play of all kinds in my life. I also appreciate Andrea’s upbeat thread in the pause between classes encouraging people to find gratitude in their day.

Really enjoyed the course and admired the time you took with each of your Gold students! Will be taking more courses from you in the future!

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 10:00am Pacific Time.

FE193 Subscriptions

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Tuition	$ 260.00	$ 130.00	$ 65.00
Enrollment Limits	10	10	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	✖

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FE193: Don't Worry Be Happy

Course Details

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Silver

Bronze