Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - RA590: Tricked into Freestyle: From Foundation to Fantastic!

Course Details

Are you ready to add some paw-zazz to your trick training? Tired of the same old tricks of spins and weaves? Let’s kick it up a notch! We’ll take the basics and transform them into an array of awesome tricks and behaviors! Whether you do freestyle, therapy dog work, enjoy earning Trick Dog titles, or just love to train, this class will give you plenty of options to enhance your repertoire, your routine, and your training relationship!

Teaching Approach

Each team works at their own pace and at a level where their dog is showing understanding and confidence for the exercises. Each week contains several exercises as handler's choice depending on dog and handler skill level.

Lectures are released weekly and include written descriptions and video demonstrations of each exercise in a step-by-step approach. Some lectures and exercises also include diagrams. Lectures and exercises start at a foundation level and take you through the process to more advanced skills. Supplemental lectures may be provided depending on need.

Video demonstrations of the exercises include the instructor's training sessions with her own dogs as well as actual students working the exercises. There are a variety of breeds and sizes represented in the demo vids. Demonstration video length varies between 1-3 minutes. Many of the demo videos are also captioned.

Students will be provided with both general and specific written feedback, often including timestamps for clarity. Students will be able to show their work for any previous weeks as well as the current week’s exercises for continued feedback.

The exercises can generally be completed in a small space. The equipment list is very specific to the class exercises so you will want to be sure to have them ahead of time to get the most benefit from the class.

This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the Bronze and Silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.

Instructor: Julie Flanery

Julie Flanery (she/her), CPDT-KA has been working professionally with dogs and their handlers since 1993. She focuses on the needs of the dog and helping people form a strong relationship, through clear communication, and positive reinforcement. She has placed Obedience...(Click here for full bio and to view Julie's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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Wk 1 Lecture: Trick, Tricky, Trickier Trickiest!

How the Class is Layed out

Expectation for Students

How to Pick and Choose

Wk 1.1 “Get this Party Started!” - Building Block Behaviors/Tricks

Lecture and Exercises: Value of base or foundation tricks

Pre-requisite Base or Foundation Tricks to Brush up on or Start.

Fly: Wrap/around a cone or other prop

Around: Circle handler

Jump: A bar, person parts or other prop

Thru: Pass between handlers legs from one side to the other

Spins: CW and CCW

Paw lift: On independent cues (verbal or physical)

Back up: Independent of handler

Between: Dog between handler’s legs

Left and right side cues a plus!

Wk 1.2 Lecture only: Adduction/Compound tricks – Simplifying Complex Tricks

Wk 1.3 Lecture: Adding cues

Wk: 1.4 Base behaviors for week 2 tricks: Circle handler/Circle cone or prop instruction

Wk 1.5 Homework: Practice your dog's base behaviors and check cues

Wk 2 “Will it go Round in Circles” and “On a Wing and a Prayer - Tricks built from Circles and Jumps

Wk 2.1 Circle handler opposite/Circle prop opposite

Wk 2.2 Hoola hoop 8’s/Fig 8 between handler and prop

Wk 2.3 Circle single leg/Circle 2 circle 1

Wk 2.4 Rebound off wall/Rebound off handler

Wk 2.5 Jump handler Arms (while circling!)

Wk 2.6 Homework - Trick, Tricky, Trickier, Trickiest

Wk 3 “Dreamweaver” - Tricks built from Thru/forward weave

Wk 3.1 Fig 8/elongated Fig 8

Wk 3.2 Walk back weave from in front/Forward weave to walk back weave

Wk 3.3 Fancy A weaves

Wk 3.4 Arm weaves

Wk 3.5 Homework - Trick, Tricky, Trickier, Trickiest

Wk 4 “Baby got Back” and “So Far Away” - Tricks built from Backing/Distance as a concept

Wk 4.1 Back away distance/Distance Behavior

Wk 4.2 Back circles/Back around a cane or prop

Wk 4.3 Turn back thru/Back weaves

Wk 4.4 Back fig 8/Back fig 8 with pivot

Wk 4.5 Back up crawl or bow

Wk 4.6 Supported Handstand

Wk 4.7 Homework - Trick, Tricky, Trickier, Trickiest

Wk 5 “You Spin me Round and Round” and “Keep Lifting me Higher” - Tricks built from Spins and Paw lifts

Wk 5.1 Inside spins/Thru to inside spin

Wk 5.2 Kick spins

Wk 5.3 Wipe/cover eyes

Wk 5.4 Hold a cane

Wk 5.5 Limp/Hop

Wk 5.6 March (with or without touch/in front or behind)

Wk 4.7 Homework - Trick, Tricky, Trickier, Trickiest

Wk 6 “Stuck in the Middle with you” and "Stand By Me" - Tricks Built from Left Right or Middle!

Wk 6.1 Indies/Add a bow!

Wk 6.2 Feet on Feet/on the move!

Wk 6.3 Tuggers!

Wk 6.4 Homework - Trick, Tricky, Trickier, Trickiest

Prerequisites & Supplies

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Teams should have a basic understanding of markers, shaping, luring and targeting.

We will be working from a list of foundation tricks such as spins, circling the handler, passing thru the handler's legs, paw lifts and backing. We will be building on these base tricks to create more advanced tricks, so having at least some of the base behaviors will be beneficial. I will be providing only brief instruction on the base tricks.

There are alot of choices in this class on which tricks to train so you do not have to have all of these. The more you have the more options you have of what to train in class. If you are unsure if your dog has enough understanding of the base tricks for class you can e mail me! You will also have the opportunity to practice and improve on the base tricks as well.

Base Behaviors - Starting points for tricks covered in class

Wrap and curl: around a cone CW and CCW

Around: Circle handler

Jump: A bar, person parts or other prop

Back up: Independent of handler

Spins: CW and CCW

Thru: Pass between handlers legs from one side to the other

Paw lift: On independent cues (verbal or physical)

Left and right side cues a plus!

Equipment list: Several pieces of equipment are optional depending on the tricks you want to train.

Training gates – These are flexible barriers that will be used for several tricks, both basic and more advanced tricks. Can be home made using "wire cube organizers" found online or can be purchased online at www.rallyfree.com/products. A set of 2 strips of 10 panels will work best. One strip of 10 are shown below.

Pvc jump bar or similar – If you plan to do any of the jumping tricks you will want at least one jump bar or length of pvc.

Cone – will be used for several tricks (good to have a hole at top and at side that fits your pvc jump bar, though optional)

Hoola hoop – cheap and easy to find at dollar stores – large enough for your dog to jump through. A way to have it stay upright is helpful – something as simple as zip-tied to 2 chairs, jump standards, or a home made stand.

Target stick: Ball end for nose, flat end for feet (spatula’s work well)

Solid board for rebounds (4’x4’ for med to large dogs, or 3’x3’ for small to med dogs) covered in yoga mat or foam matting. – Needed only if you will be working on wall rebounds

Smaller board similar in size of a standing platform for supported handstands – if you use your platform be sure it’s very rigid.

Useful but very optional: KLIMB platform or CATO board

Sample Lecture

Wk 3.2 Walk back weave/Forward weave to walk back weave

These are a couple of fun “thru” variations with a twist! Both figuratively and literally!

The base behavior is “thru”. The handler will be moving backward though as the dog weaves forward:

To start this behavior:

Cue your dog to pass thru your leg to the other side
As he does so, move your forward leg (the leg he just passed under) back, as if taking a step backward.
This now leaves your other leg forward for your dog to pass thru. Cue your dog to go thru and again, step back with the other leg.

Forward weave to walk back weave – with a pivot transition

In this next variation, we will combine the forward walking weave, with a pivot, then the walk back weave:

Steps to create this combination

Start with a few steps of your forward thru or walking weave
With your leg forward, and your dog just finishing going under, encourage your dog to stay next to that forward leg, through your eye contact, hand target or position cue.
Put your weight on the ball of your feet, bringing your heels up slightly and pivot in place with your dog is moving next to you on the outside as you turn away, 180 degrees.
As you turn, your far leg from the dog is now open for you to cue your dog to go thru.
Then step back with the forward leg, providing the new opening for your dog to go thru.
You can now step back into the walk back weave.

Testimonials & Reviews

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

This course was very rich in content. The lecture material and associated demonstration videos will be a huge resource to refer back as I continue to work on improving tricks and learning ones that I didn't get to try during the course. As a Gold student, Julie's feedback was insightful and constructive. It has helped me not only improve on the specific tricks but also on how to be a better dog trainer in general. Highly recommend this course.

I had a wonderful experience in this class! I took it thinking that we would learn a few more tricks, but it was so much more. Julie's videos has sparked my interest in freestyle and my dogs and I hope to take more classes on that topic. Thank you for a truly unique class.

Loved all of the information Julie provided as well as her advice to take it in at your dog’s pace. We took this course at Gold, and that can be overwhelming, but Julie made us feel comfortable that we were being successful by doing things at our own pace. Looking forward to continuing to work on this material for many months to come!

Julie mentored her students tailoring her feedback to the handler's style, personality, and level. She made it fun for all of us. She added encouragement when needed and challenged us to try new things. I learned so much more about shaping and training techniques while picking up tricks. Thank you, Julie! Wonderful class!

Julie Flanery is one of my favorite instructors. Her written lectures are organized, concise and easy to read. The videos are supremely helpful because they are of her students who are in the beginning learning stages, and offers verbal feedback along the way. This is quite helpful to me.

Really fabulous course, Julie is an extremely knowledgeable, experienced & creative Instructor and I found all of the content extremely helpful & motivational.

Julie is an excellent instructor. I really enjoyed the course. The materials, feedback and videos' were outstanding. I highly recommend to anyone interested in tricks and/or freestyle.

This was a great class with tons of information. Lots of gold students working on different things. So even if you didn’t work on a specific trick, you got to watch people who did. Great course snd excellent, helpful feedback from Julie!

This class was Awesome! I would love to take it again! The example videos of the finished product and the processes to get there are extremely helpful. Julie is a great teacher, and she explains everything very clearly. This is a wonderful course.

You will never go wrong taking a course from Julie, no matter what you think your goals are. She may rock your universe.

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 10:30am Pacific Time.

RA590 Subscriptions

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Tuition	$ 260.00	$ 130.00	$ 65.00
Enrollment Limits	10	15	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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