FE395: The Art of Training: Developing Confidence and Flow
Course Details
Science has done much to bring our training techniques for companion animals out of the dark ages. Scientists greatly expanded our knowledge of humane and effective training techniques. They have given us a framework for training that is thorough, evidence-based, kind and replicable. It is now commonplace to teach our animals behaviors with the use of a clicker and a pile of cookies. We have motivated animals who understand the training process, and we can create desired behaviors with amazing speed and accuracy.
At the same time, we need to acknowledge that training existed long before scientists took much interest. For example, many of us can probably remember teaching our dogs to shake hands by picking up their foot repeatedly. After a time, the dog complied by raising its foot before we had a chance to grab it.
How is it possible that people have successfully trained dogs for so many years, well before trainers knew about the science? How did they do it? Most important for our purposes: what can we learn from them? Was there any advantage to this pragmatic and traditional, ‘get it done’ approach over the more structured scientific one that we advocate today?
How does one confidently blend what is known of science with the applied art of training a dog before you've actually trained several dogs? What does one do when a perfect training situation cannot be set up, because of insufficient skills, or the lack the locations and resources? How does the trainer avoid paralysis and maintain the joy and flow that comes with a mutually engaging training session? How can we work with our own artistic temperament, yet include science, so that each of us can truly enjoy our training at whatever level of competence we are able to muster?
We can develop our skills as competent and engaged leaders. We can focus on our relationship with our dogs above our actual training goals. We can add work to the relationship, rather than developing the relationship after or away from work. We can learn enough about dog behavior and emotions to prevent our dogs from reaching unacceptable degrees of stress. We can take advantage of the fact that dogs can meet us more than halfway, and often bail us out. We can learn to focus on watching our dog’s responses to our training rather than focusing on our technically correct execution; we can work towards becoming "in the moment" with our dogs. We can accept that errors are a natural part of the learning process, without unduly worrying about them.
In short, we can focus on reality over ideal and then let the dog fill in a few gaps. When the session is over, we can look back and reflect! That’s when we use science: to help us figure out where we went wrong – or where we went right. Next time we’ll do a little better.
I want people to explore and appreciate the joy of training -- the art of training -- in the same way that I do! We start here, in this class. We start with the assumption that you already have a basic grasp on the scientific principles of training. We focus on execution of our knowledge; moving what we know from our brains to our bodies in as joyful and fluid a manner as possible. Let’s make it happen!
Is this course right for you? This class offers extensive written lectures, no verbal lectures, and many videos of varying lengths (up to 5 minutes), designed to help a student understand the context of a session - what works, what does not work, and how that will vary by dog. It is rare that relevant speaking takes place within a video; they are designed to be watched and follow with the ideas presented in the lecture. There are specific homework assignments in some lectures, but others provide food for thought and a general direction rather tahn specifics; those lectures require studying your dog and finding the route that works best for your team. A wide variety of examples will be suggested and illustrated with video. This class will work best for students who learn best by reading text lectures, watching videos and who feel comfortable trying out a variety of approaches until they find the ones that works best for their dog.
For answers to commonly asked questions see our FAQ page.
Denise Fenzi (she/her) has competed in a wide range of dog sports – titling dogs in obedience (AKC and UKC), tracking (AKC and schutzhund), schutzhund (USA), mondioring (MRSA), herding (AKC), conformation (AKC), and agility (AKC). She is best known for her flashy and precise ... (Click here for full bio and to view Denise's upcoming courses)
(pre-lecture) Wk 1.1: Why do we need this class and what will we do here??
Wk 1.2 Leadership: Control over Emotions, not Behavior Wk 1, Exercise 1: Leadership: Know and Appreciate your Canine Partner! Wk 1; Exercise 2: Can your dog count on you? Wk 1.3 Leadership: Connection Wk 1: Exercise 3: Video optional: Encourage competition behaviors with routine interactions Wk 1 Exercise 4: Video Optional: Disconnect in training? How are you handling it? Wk 1.4: Behavioral Control Wk 1.5: What is Relationship? Wk 1.6 Habit Wk 1.7: Do all dogs need Leadership, Behavioral Control, and Relationship? Wk 1: Exercise 5: Apply this concept within and outside of dogs Wk 1.8: Wait a sec - I’ve never heard of any of this. Are you sure?
Wk 2.1 The Sweet Spot: Your Dog’s Ideal Training Zone (ITZ) Wk #2: Exercise #1: Spend some time deciding what your dog’s ITZ is. Wk #2: Exercise #2: Videotape several sessions of your work. What do you see? Are you staying within your required zone?
Wk 2.2: Maintaining your dog’s ITZ Wk #2: Exercise #3: Think about your dog and his “tendencies”. Does he tend to go high or low when he is out of his ideal training zone? What is your plan?
Wk 3.1 Adding work to the Play and Relationship Wk #3: Exercise #1: Show some play...and add a tiny bit of new work! Flow into it. (Expect a greater change in demeanor - more silence, etc.) Wk #3: Exercise #2: Show some play...and add a tiny bit of known work! Flow into it. Expect a minimal change in human demeanor; heeling is awesome!)
Wk 3.2: Work, Learning and Engaging a Human as a Motivator: Wk #3: Exercise #3: What are your dog’s favorite activities? How can you incorporate your dog’s favorite activities into your training? Wk #3: Exercise #4: Watch a videotape of your practice. Can your dog predict what you will do next? What exercise, what order? If so, is this the best option for your team? Wk 3.3: Less than perfect Wk 3.4 Flow Training
Wk 4.1 “Force of Personality“ Wk #4: Exercise #1: Is your dog aware that silence is a positive? Wk 4.2 The Conditioned Emotional Response (CER) Wk 4.3 The spaces in between
Wk #5.1 Error: Avoiding Paralysis Wk #5.2: Handling Error Wk #5.3: Mischief is about to happen! Wk 5.4 Summary Week 5: Exercise #1: Select your default behavior for errors; what are you going to do? Week 5: Exercise #2: Let’s combine the idea of the ITZ with handling errors and concepts of leadership and human engagement.
Wk 6.1 The training/trialing discrepancy Wk 6.2 Putting it all together Wk #6: Exercises: Where do you need to develop more fluency and comfort in your training?
This class assumes that the student has a good grasp of the principles of clean, science-based training, and that topic will not be discussed here. This is not an entry level class! No special equipment or space is required. Please see the syllabus for more information.
Wk 2.1 The Sweet Spot: Your Dog’s Ideal Training Zone (ITZ)
When you are within a training session, what you need to focus on is not the science of dog training. That takes too much thought, and thought takes your attention away from your dog. In the moment you do not have that luxury; you simply have to respond. And to do that we are going to focus exclusively on how your dog is feeling at the moment. We're going to ignore the science of behavior and learning theory until after the training session is over.
When you're done with your session and quietly reflecting on what you did, I would fully expect that you will give some thought to how you might have handled a given situation better using what you know of science, but that is not the domain of this class. This class is about handling training in the moment, and to do that I am going to keep you focused on your dog’s emotional state because at the end of the day, I think that is the only thing that matters. Behaviors are easy to get and to modify but love of work, confidence, and a desire to work for you are much harder to change once your dog has lost them (or never had them in the first place).
The good news is that if your dog is generally happy within training, then you will have lots of training freedom because your dog is likely to stay happy while you muddle through just about any options, even some that might be truly appalling when observed by a trained outsider.
But if your dog is not happy, then you need to handle that first; instantly! I truly do not care how technically correct your session is; if your dog doesn’t want to be there, then that is everything. That must be fixed.
If you’re working with a softer or more fragile dog that requires a good deal of leadership from you to succeed, then you’ll need to read this part very very carefully because your dog will only stay happy if you make good decisions that support his emotional well being. Note that I didn’t say good training decisions because this is not about training decisions. I said decisions that support his emotions.
If your dog is sensitive and if you make a poor choice in training a behavior then you’ll know it right away because your dog’s attitude will suffer and that will be reflected in his moving out of his “Ideal Training Zone”, or ITZ for short.
His what?
His Ideal Training Zone.
We are going to talk about setting an optimal training zone for your dog. Let’s take a look:
On a scale of one to ten, With one being extremely low energy and shut down, and ten being over-the-top excited and unable to learn, what is the absolute highest that your dog can be in training and still succeed? That is the first question. So let's say that you know that if your dog gets to around a nine, no learning can take place under any circumstances. He might look happy and bouncy either from anxiety (stressing up) or sheer excitement (over aroused happy) but regardless, there is no learning at that point.
Take a look at what happens to Brittany’s session as her dog begins to make errors. The dog begins to whine, and the dog’s capacity for getting the correct behaviors goes down dramatically. Once the whining starts, that is your cue to either stop training, try to get the dog back into their ideal training zone, or move on to different work. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the change in her tone of voice when she cues the sit - she becomes more demanding. It doesn’t work because the dog is no longer in a place to process and learn. He is over his ITZ:
Compare that to this session. Can you see how Britney did a much better job allowing for small errors, to keep the dog’s attitude at a better place? The team is having fun, without hyper focus on accuracy - the dogs ITZ is just about perfect. This is a good session:
Now we need another number. This is the number that you are not willing to fall below because in your experience, under that number you do not have sufficient engagement for any training to take place there either. Let's say that's a four. What that means is that under that number you believe that your dog’s attitude has degraded to the point where either they are no longer processing and trying, are literally beginning to shut down, are sufficiently distracted and disinterested that engagement is not likely, or maybe you simply don't like the picture that you are getting. That's your bottom.
Now we have two numbers. We know that above a nine or below a four it's time to throw in the towel on teaching anything. Which doesn’t mean ending the session, but it does mean making changes. It’s time to stop teaching and get your dog back in the game.
Now we want to refine that system just slightly. Note that a range between 4 and 9 is pretty broad. That's on purpose! For starters, it gives you a little wiggle room to do some "on the fly" training. You can experiment with your dog and see what works, as long as your dog is in that range. And the second reason for that wide range is because what we want to see in our dogs when we're practicing a full agility course is different than what we want to see in our dogs when we're shaping a new behavior. So while engagement is always required of a dog that is working, whether learning or practicing, energy and excitement very dramatically according to what we are actually doing and trying to accomplish.
Here are a few rules of thumb to get you started:
If your dog seems a bit flat and you want more energy, than use work or motivators in a way that gets your dog moving. Recall a bit slow? Throw the treats between your legs rather than handing them over - this is the time to ignore that less than perfect sit.
Here is Harley adding movement via a ball toss for his nice broad jump:
If your dog seems a little high, then use work or motivators that create more stillness. For example, feed your dog quietly in a down stay. Use plenty of cookies and give them while your dog is not moving rather than zooming around. This is also a great time to think about what you are going to do next, while you are quietly handing over another cookie.
Here Sarah is feeding for calm:
For contrast, here Sarah is feeding for energy:
When learning new behaviors, we want our dogs on the lower end of the scale; most of the dog’s energy should be within their brain and not expressed through their body. For example, when shaping a brand new behavior, you might want your dog closer to a 4 than a 9.
Here’s a nice shaping session; note the overall calm and thinking environment:
If you are training, what do you do when the dog is in the ideal training zone?
Go for it; have a ball! If your dog makes an error, do the first thing that comes to your mind. If the dog stays in the ideal training zone, you can keep right on training. Later on, you can review and make decisions about how you could have handled various issues a little better, but don't do that during the actual training session.
Here’s a video of Brito. We start out with excellent success! And then I raise criteria too fast and I train for too long. Let’s look at his behavior - his tail is still wagging; he’s still trying and I’m not upset or even frustrated.
So I continued on. I did no good - that’s for sure. But did I do harm? Not really. I watched the video afterwards and saw that I trained way too long. That I had too much failure and should have quit. I should have used reset cookies. I should have moved to another exercise to give him a mental break. But my dog? He’s ok.
On a side note - can you see that I am relatively quiet when he is working? Praise and rewards come together but not normally during the work. That is when I am silent. But when he struggles you’ll hear a lot more verbal interaction from me. That’s good - it makes it clear to him that I'm not upset.
Think about how you would feel if you are learning a task that required a good deal of concentration. For example, you are trying to alphabetize a filing drawer. Someone was sitting with you to help you be correct. Do you want them to chatter nonstop the entire time, or let you figure stuff out while they wait quietly? And when you have completed a unit of work, do you want them to quietly hand you a candy, or do you want them to tell you that you did a super job and add a little personality to the whole thing? Most of us prefer personality. Think about that for your dog too.
But what if the dog falls out of their ITZ? The dog starts to lose energy or the dog gets too high? What do you do then?
Stop teaching behaviors and get your dog back into his zone! When he’s back, you can restart your training.
The next lecture will give you ideas for getting your dog back into his ideal training zone if he strays.
Wk #2: Exercise #1 Set your dog’s ITZ: Spend some time deciding what your dog’s ITZ is. You should have a clear idea in your head of what each number will look like to you. When your dog is in his ITZ, what are his ears doing? How fast is he moving? Does his tail wag? How intense is he? How much does he glance away at random distractions, if at all? If you think that there is no such thing as "too high", then think again. Dogs that are too excited, either caused by stress, fear or anger, are not in a good position to learn, and dogs that are so excited that they are expressing extreme frustration behaviors are in a very bad place indeed. Find your sweet spot, and then try to stick to it
Wk #2: Exercise #2: Videotape several sessions of your work and look for ITZ. What do you see? Are you staying within your required zone for the work you are focused on? Are there any things that give you pause? Are there certain reinforcers that you use that cause your dog to go outside of his ITZ; either too low or too high? Can you use those reinforcers in a different way and keep them within your training plan, or should you ditch them altogether? Focus on how your dog looks when they're happy and how they look when they're unhappy because that is the basis of this class. You will only work your dog when he is in his ideal range, so make sure you know what it looks like! If you are at gold, send a video, or simply discuss the issue with me.
A sampling of what prior students have said about this class ...
The focus on the relationship between the handler and the dog helps students to strengthen their training program. I learned that my dog's state of mind plays a huge role in how well she learns and cooperates with me. It's my job as the handler to design our training and manage our everyday life interactions to keep my dog engaged with me and wanting to work with me. I highly recommend this course to people who want to learn about how to optimize their training through strengthening their relationship with their dog, bolstering their leadership skills, and keeping their dog in the best state of mind to learn.
This is the first class I've taken that isn't about polishing certain skills, but getting to a successful relationship - both working and non-working. I learned an enormous amount about my dog and we were able to enrich our relationship through the class.
Denise, you always make it easy to learn. Your presentations and lectures are just right. Not overwhelming, and very inspirational :-)
I gained some insight into what I was doing wrong regarding leadership, keeping things flowing and how I was handling errors. I also learned some ways to fix this. I learned a lot.
I feel like I know how to care about the emotional wellbeing of my dog, how to help him, how to make him successful and how to have lots of fun with play and work! Seven months ago, I was desperate, my dog was nervous and didn't trust me, and we had no more fun with any kind of training or dogs sports. Now we are a happy team, confident, trusting each other and learning amazing things every single day! Thank you!
Denise is crazy amazing - really inspiring to teach with the same clarity of info and respect for the learner and learning process.
Registration
This is a self-study class. The lectures will appear directly in your library, under the "Self Study classes" heading. Self Study classes do not have class homework forums. You will not have any access to the course instructor for questions or feedback. Please note there are no refunds on self-study classes so review all the information provided carefully before purchasing.
You will have access to these materials in your library for one year from the date of enrollment. You can keep your library pass current by enrolling in at least one course or workshop a year. Alternatively, you can purchase a library pass for $25 per year for as long as you wish to have access to prior class materials.
Instructor: Denise Fenzi
