Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - Course Schedule

October 1, 2025

Agility

AG220: Building and Maintaining Stopped Contacts

Many dogs start their agility career with good stopped contact performance. But over time, the behavior or the criteria changes and morphs into something undesirable. What causes that to happen? This cla...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

AG316: Precision Charged Weaves - Handler Choice

Did you miss registration for “AG315 - Precision Charged Weaves Poles” last session? Did you take the class, and would you like to continue to get feedback on your weave progress? This handler’s choice class allo...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

AG345: Connection & Commitment: Mastering the Key to Clean Handling

Want to run an agility course clean and with ease? To feel like you can get everywhere you want on course? To be able to trust your dog to go where you send them every time? Connection is without a doubt one of t...

Bronagh Daly(Faculty)

Behavior

BH150: Management for Reactive Dogs

https://youtu.be/tNKvwjofJ8U Ti of "just managing" your lungy barky dog in the moment? You can AMP up your management with an Active Management Plan! Don't improvise, don't "make it up ...

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

BH255: I CU in the Real World: Advancing Your Control Unleashed Skills

Ready to take your CU skills on the road? Welcome to I CU in the Real World: Advancing Your Control Unleashed Skills! This class will build on all previous CU classes. Gold students will have the opport...

Kim Palermo(Faculty)

BH295: Advancing Reactive Integration into the Real World

Advancing Reactive Integration into the Real World Is your dog reactive to other dogs on leash? People coming into the home? People they see outside the home? Does your dog respond negatively to specific stimuli or s...

Karen Deeds, CDBC (Faculty)

BH335: Dealing With Feelings: Applied Counterconditioning and Desensitization

Whether your dog is having problems in the ring or struggling in daily life, the key to addressing problematic behaviour can be understanding and improving the dog’s emotional state. That's where countercondition...

Irith Bloom(Faculty)

BH365: Thinking Patterns for Arousal, Reactivity and Acclimation

Does your dog struggle in new settings or situations? Do they get worried and shut down, or become hypervigilant and reactive? Whether you are going into competition, to the vet, to a training class, ...

Karen Deeds, CDBC (Faculty)

BH405: Composed & Focused Around Critters

This class is for the dogs who just cannot ignore the scent, sight and/or sound of prey animals or birds, making walks with them difficult to enjoy. Prey drive is one of the fundamental parts of making dogs who t...

Tracey McLennan(Guest Instructors)

Body, Health & Fitness

CC205: Targeting Fitness

Want to start fitness using targeting? Maybe fine tune your dog’s fitness skills to uce your dogs luring during exercises. This class is for you! This class will teach a variety of targeting skills including fro...

Kelly Daniel(Faculty)

CC260: Those Bum Knees

Knee problems are incibly common in dogs. Whether the dog is a top level athlete or a professional cookie catcher at home, the knee is one of the weakest links. Cruciate disease, ACL or CCL problems a...

Debbie (Gross) Torraca(Faculty)

EL840: Get Going Gently: Handler Fitness 10-Minute Daily Reset

Starting a fitness journey can feel overwhelming — especially if it seems like everyone else is already ten steps ahead. This course was designed to meet you exactly where you are. Is this you? You want to fe...

Liz Joyce(Faculty)

Electives

EL125: Skills for Canine Good Citizen or Therapy Dog Evaluations

This course brings together the best of therapy dog preparation and Canine Good Citizen training, creating a strong foundation for both ends of the leash. Whether your long-term goal is to become a registe therap...

Heather Lawson(Faculty)

FE375: Is This It? Match To Sample

Can your dog pick out the identical matching item you're holding or pick out an item from a pile that you've previously touched? Ever wonde just how far you can go in stretching your dog’s cognitive abilities? In...

Heather Lawson(Faculty)

FE525: Managing Multi-Dog Mayhem

Multiple dogs can create some interesting training challenges! This class is designed to give you the tools to make a multi dog household a peaceful and productive place. In this class, we will cover...

Loretta Mueller(Faculty)

FF230: Tricks with a Purpose

There are so many reasons why training tricks are beneficial to your dog, yourself and your relationship, tricks aren’t just for entertainment or rainy days anymore! Teaching tricks not only help our dogs learn h...

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

FF410: Cognitive Challenges: The Key to How Your Dog Thinks

A creative class developed by Barbara Lloyd to test your dog’s ability problem solve. This class is suile for puppies and dogs all the way up to adulthood. For puppies in particular, this class wo...

Barbara Lloyd(Faculty)

Foundations

FE130: Toys - Developing Cooperation and Play

Do you have a dog that chases the ball, yet won’t bring it back? Plays keep away with toys? Tugs but won’t let go? Bites you instead of the tug? Obsesses over toys, yet won’t listen to a single thing you say? Is ...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FE145: First Things First - Puppy Foundations for a Bright Future

First Things First is the new puppy owner's guide to building strong skills and social behaviors -right from the start! With a progression based on my board-and-train puppy program, this s...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

FF145: Food Cues and Markers: Powerful Reinforcement for Clean Training

Is your dog barking at you, demanding that you get that treat out of your pocket NOW? Easily frustrated, skyrocketing into arousal and unable to think about anything but the food in your hand? Or, are they easil...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FF205: Confident Exams and Measuring

This course will focus on how to break down the exam skills needed for obedience trials and measuring before doing their first agility trials! Is your practice for exams/measuring a mix of shoving a billion cook...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

FF320: Better Still: Stays Without Frustration

Are you frustrated with your dog constantly offering behaviors when you're trying to teach them to stay still? Welcome to "Better Still: Stays Without Frustration," a class designed for dogs who thrive on activit...

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

Obedience

OB205: Optimizing Arousal for Learning and Competition

Understanding and managing your dog’s drive state/arousal level is a critical component of training and trialing successfully. It is very difficult and uncomforle for a dog to learn and compete in a state o...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB225: Competition Heeling Part Two - Skills & Engagement

Heeling requires significant concentration and sustained focus to maintain position, focal point and engagement. Heeling is easily the most difficult obedience exercise. When trained properly, it is a ...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

Other Dog Sports

DS150: The Power of Pulling - Introduction to Dog Powered Sports

Got a dog with “big dog energy” (whether or not they’re a big dog)? Looking for an outlet? Or, maybe your dog needs more exercise but cannot be off-leash. Dog-powe sports allow your dog to expel more energ...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

DS380: Push it! Treibball Foundations and Problem Solving

Want to build your distance control and connection with your dog while participating in a great new sport? Or maybe you’ve always been fascinated by herding, but don’t have sheep. Check out Treibball! So...

Melissa Breau(Faculty)

Rally & Freestyle

RA330: Movin' On Up: Skills and Signs for Master Rally

Did you know you can go from novice to the master class in just 9 runs? It happens so fast! Are you a little intimidated by the master signs, with all those spins, sends, and signals? Don’t be! The r...

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

RA500: Foundation Skills for Rally-FrEe and Musical Freestyle

Rally-FrEe is a unique sport with the structure of a Rally course and the creativity of Musical Freestyle. To learn more about Rally-FrEe, please visit www.rallyfree.com Each sport has its own set of foundation ...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

RA540: Joy of Heeling - Rock it like a Freestyler!

What is your ideal picture of beautiful heelwork? It likely includes words like precision and accuracy. Does it go beyond that to include enthusiasm, energy, lift, spark and joy? These are the attributes th...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101S: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Nosework is easily the hottest new sport around, and it’s easy to see why! It’s fun for humans, dogs love to participate, and it’s good for building confidence and focus in dogs that have issues like shy...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

N120J: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

You’ve put in the time to build your foundation - now don’t let that momentum fade! This next step will take you from solid basics to confident, competition-ready searching. And the best part? We'll mee...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

NW200: Are You Trial Ready? Trial Preparation for Nosework Teams

So you’ve been training hard at this sport and want to go out and test your skills. You’ve heard all about howfoundations are critical to success. You don’t know if you have them or how to go about getting ready ...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW525: Achievement Unlocked: Success at the Upper Levels

You've found yourself at the upper levels and now it gets complicated! Search areas get bigger and more challenigng. Times get tighter. Maybe you have more hides but maybe the area is blank? &nb...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW720: Find It! - Lost Item Recovery

Want to expand your scent work skills and play new, engaging scent games with your dog? Lost Item Recovery is not only a fun sport but also a practical skill - and teaching it is one of my specialties! In the No...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

TR101: Foundation Tracking 1

This class covers everything the handler needs to know to get organized and get started in tracking. We will discuss topics such as equipment preferences, other equipment needed, how to develop a start rout...

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

December 1, 2025

Behavior

BH110: Dealing with the Bogeyman: Helping Reactive and Fearful Dogs - The Play Way!

This is Amy's signature Play Way class! Is your dog brilliant at home but shuts down at the show? Or does he bark and lunge at people or dogs on walks? Does she seem generally stressed, whether frantic about it ...

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

BH160: Sound Advice: Conquering Noise Sensitivity

Is your dog worried about the noises around her? This class is for you! Whether the issue is in your house with your dog barking at the sounds outside, or you have a dog that can't go out because buildi...

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

BH170: Harnessing the Powers of Choice and Habit

Harnessing the Power of Choice and Habit A dog’s behavior matters. That’s true whether you are competing with your dog or just want a wonderful family companion. Understanding where your dog’s behavi...

Irith Bloom(Faculty)

BH230: Control Unleashed - A Deep Dive into Pattern Games

Bring the power of Control Unleashed into your training with this deep dive into CU Pattern Games! Control Unleashed is a program that was founded by Leslie McDevitt to help dogs adapt to and live comforly in our...

Kim Palermo(Faculty)

BH240: Working with Reactive and Hyper-aroused Dogs

This class is best suited to dogs that respond in an active way when experiencing fear, excitement, or frustration, or when exposed to a "trigger" that initiates an innate response (e.g. a desire to herd or chase...

Sharon Carroll(Faculty)

Body, Health & Fitness

CC140: Aged to Perfection: Keeping Your Senior Fit in Mind and Body

As the owner of multiple dogs in their double digit years, each at various stages of ‘aged to perfection’, I understand the challenges that can come with having an older dog (or several!) This class i...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

CC280: Preventing and Addressing the Iliopsoas

Iliopsoas injuries are unfortunately becoming a fact in many performance dogs' lives, as well as the lives of active dogs. This course will review the reasons why so many dogs are suffering from iliopsoas i...

Debbie (Gross) Torraca(Faculty)

EL880: Core Concepts for Canines and Handlers

Core strength is essential for absolutely everything that we, and our Canine teammates, do. From sitting, or standing still, lifting and moving limbs, to more complex whole body movements. The core musculatu...

Liz Joyce(Faculty)Kelly Daniel(Faculty)

Electives

RA590: Tricked into Freestyle: From Foundation to Fantastic!

Are you ready to add some paw-zazz to your trick training? Ti 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 beh...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Foundations

FE335: Spaces In Between

This is a class about preparing our dogs for the competition or seminar environment. Over and over I see dogs that are unprepa or rehearsing behavior we don't want at seminars, classes and trials. Over time this ...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FE420: Bye, Bye Cookie: Hello Delayed Reinforcement!

Do you struggle to get your dog's attention without a cookie (or toy!) in your hand? Are you ti of your dog only responding to a cue when you reach into your pocket? ...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

FF140: Connect and Engage with Games: Build Focus for Sport Dogs

Have you ever felt embarrassed when your dog checks out in the middle of training — or worse yet, in the middle of the competition ring? This could look like the dog sniffing on the ground, running to another per...

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

FF175: Building Bravery: Concepts and Games for Growing Confident, Optimistic Dogs

Teaching Approach: Sample Lecture New class! Registration courselist sessions FF175 /s

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

FF225: Energized Engagement

Engagement is the most challenging skill to achieve in dog training. It’s also easily the most important. An engaged dog is actively involved in the learning process and pushing you for more. When a dog is offeri...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

Obedience

OB115: TEAM Sports Foundations - Level One

Interested in obedience or rally? This isn't a class full of heeling around in circles! Learn about using foot targets, backing up, and fancy pivoting. Geek out about precise position changes such ...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

OB140: From Pivots to Practical Heeling

Build Beautiful Heeling Without the Stress Feeling stuck on the pivot bowl? Unsure how to turn those stationary skills into smooth, confident heeling? You’re not alone—and this class was designed for you. If th...

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

OB380: Unstick the Stuck Heeling: What's Keeping you from Trialing?

Are you and your dog struggling with heeling? Do you and your dog have nice heeling when you train, but the performance falls apart when you leave the comfort of home? Have you been stuck with the same problem fo...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

OB405: Open Obedience - Conquering Complexity and Challenges

Instructor: Petra Ford Registration courselist sessions OB405 /s

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB630: Shaping a Fast and Furious Retrieve

Want a strong, motivated retrieve of the dumbell and a good foundation for utility exercises? Join me as I teach you how to create a firm hold, the end skill in the complex retrieve chain. Our basic goa...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

Rally & Freestyle

RA545: Joy of Heeling Part Two - More Rock it like a Freestyler!

You’ve found the Joy! Now how are you going to keep it and use it in the ring! In Joy of Heeling Part Deux we will add some new games, start to add duration in heelwork and start to change the ratio o...

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101J: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Julie Symons(Faculty)

N120S: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

Did you know that the MOST important time in a dog's early career in Nosework happens AFTER they learn target odor (as in NW101) and BEFORE they start their general searching? Making mistakes now are costly. &nbs...

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW385: Ambitious Drills for Analyzing Skills

This is the third class in my popular Drills and Skills series. With all training we need to maintain skills, progress skills, and then be a little more ambitious to try something more difficult! Our dogs are ama...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

TR102: Foundation Tracking 2

This course will continue to develop both drive and accuracy on foundation tracks. Our priority for this class will be to further develop the skills that the dog acqui in TR101. We will work towards incre...

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

February 1, 2026

Agility

AG190: The Glue for Future Agility Stars

This course is different than most agility foundation classes. Rather than introducing obstacle and flatwork skills needed to run an agility course, this class lays out the critical skills (the glue) your dog nee...

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Behavior

BH150: Management for Reactive Dogs

https://youtu.be/tNKvwjofJ8U Ti of "just managing" your lungy barky dog in the moment? You can AMP up your management with an Active Management Plan! Don't improvise, don't "make it up ...

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

Body, Health & Fitness

CC220: Massage for Canine Athletes

Learn how to care for your canine athlete while training, resting, or on the day of a big event. This class will focus on teaching you the skill of using your hands to work soft tissue to increase circulation, uc...

Aleks Woodroffe(Guest Instructors)

CC300: Getting Geeky About Fitness

This class is an intensive dive into the geeky side of Canine Fitness and Conditioning training. We’ll look at relevant biology and biomechanics, anatomy and physiology terms, relevant training theory and applica...

Kelly Daniel(Faculty)

Foundations

FE130: Toys - Developing Cooperation and Play

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FE280: Cutting Out the Cookies (or Toys!) - Reducing Reinforcement for R+ Trainers

Ever feel envy when you watch a obedience/rally/Schutzhund/etc… trial performance and the dog executes perfect skills for the WHOLE routine? No treats in the handler’s pocket, no toy in their hand, but the dog is...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

FF125: The Adolescent Dog: Making a Terrific Teenager!

Adolescence... argh! The era of big bodies and big feelings but tiny brains and tiny attention spans. That time frame between around 6 to 24 months when your sweet little training superstar seems to dissolv...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

FF155: Go Ahead, Motivate Me! Engagement for the Differently Motivated Dog

The types of dogs that will be best suited to joining us in this class are those that are naturally quite independent, appear to have very little interest in “work”, appear to have a very short attention-span whe...

Sharon Carroll(Faculty)

Obedience

OB195: Creating Confidence in Your Obedience Dog

Most dogs are not innately confident. Especially when it comes to obedience. A sport that is not inherently self-reinforcing. A sport where dogs must learn to perform complex behaviors under a lot of pressure. In...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

OB305: Fronts & Finishes: From Foundations to Fabulous!

There are lots of fronts and finishes in obedience! Fronts and finishes are incibly complicated. They consist of many pieces that all need to come together. Because they are so difficult, the error ratio te...

Petra Ford(Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101S: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

N120J: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

Julie Symons(Faculty)

NW160: Alerts - Developing and Problem Solving

This course is a handlers choice to work on improving your dog's detection alert. Does your dog need to have a specific alert behavior in order to compete in your nosework venue? Is your dog not committed...

Lucy Newton(Faculty)

NW320: Motivating Drills for Maintaining Skills

Like with many sports, it's nice to have some drills to set up and run! Drills can help us maintain skills. They can also surface gaps! We may also find we aren't pushing ourselves for more challenges whe...

Julie Symons(Faculty)

April 1, 2026

Behavior

BH110: Dealing with the Bogeyman: Helping Reactive and Fearful Dogs - The Play Way!

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

Body, Health & Fitness

CC190: Caring for Your Star Athlete

This class is going to take an in depth look at an integrated approach to your canine athletes physical and emotional wellbeing. This will include: home life, emotions and behavior, competition and training, phys...

Kelly Daniel(Faculty)

Foundations

FE155: Crucial Concepts of Competition - Shaping/Luring/Capturing and More!

Got a new puppy? A new sport prospect for the sport of your choice? Got future plans but no idea how to start? Which behavior DO you start with? Got a pet dog and discove how fun teaching is? Interested i...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

Obedience

OB425: From TEAM to Trials: Building Skills & Chains for the Open Ring

Obedience can be fun!! Even if you are just starting your journey and think that getting past novice sounds like a pipedream, you want to start this class! Get unstuck from the boring stuff in novice ...

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

OB460: Shaping a Flashy and Confident Heel - Foundations

Do you have “heeling envy”? Do you see all those prancing dogs in perfect position looking up at their handlers and wish you could teach your dog THAT? Does your dog love the pivot platform, but how DO you get fr...

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

Other Dog Sports

DS110: Dryland Dock Diving Training- Foundation, Fitness and Fixes!

Are you interested in dock diving and want to give your dog a great foundation before you even hit the pool? Or perhaps you’ve been to the pool with your dog and things didn’t go as well as you expected. OR...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

DS180: Introduction to Shed Antler Hunting

Searching for and retrieving antlers- either as a pursuit in the wild or for competition- is one of the fastest growing activities that appeals to a large variety of dogs. In this class, I'll provide you with a r...

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

Scent Sports

N101J: NW101 - Introduction to Nosework

Julie Symons(Faculty)

N120S: NW120 - Introduction to NW Search Elements

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

NW225: Rise Above: Resilience in Scentwork Environments

Rising above environmental challenges can be the hardest part for our dogs. Scentwork dogs face more than the average sport—working inside, outside, on different surfaces, and in infinite setups and surroundings....

Julie Symons(Faculty)

Need a prerequisite course? Please go to our Prerequisites Classes page.

Don't want to wait for a course? Check out our Self Study Class options.

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Course Schedule

SCHEDULE

October 1, 2025

October 1, 2025

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Nancy Gagliardi Little(Faculty)

Bronagh Daly(Faculty)

Amy Cook, PhD(Faculty)

Kim Palermo(Faculty)

Karen Deeds, CDBC (Faculty)

Irith Bloom(Faculty)

Karen Deeds, CDBC (Faculty)

Tracey McLennan(Guest Instructors)

Kelly Daniel(Faculty)

Debbie (Gross) Torraca(Faculty)

Liz Joyce(Faculty)

Heather Lawson(Faculty)

Heather Lawson(Faculty)

Loretta Mueller(Faculty)

Sara Brueske(Faculty)

Barbara Lloyd(Faculty)

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

Shade Whitesel(Faculty)

Laura Waudby(Faculty)

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

Petra Ford(Faculty)

Petra Ford(Faculty)

Erin Lynes(Faculty)

Melissa Breau(Faculty)

Nicole Wiebusch (Faculty)

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Julie Flanery(Faculty)

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

Julie Symons(Faculty)

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

Stacy Barnett(Faculty)

Julie Symons(Faculty)

Lucy Newton(Faculty)