Fenzi Food For Thought

I talk about genetics and how dogs turn out as adults.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

About those words… Punishment, consequence, choice, structure, reinforce, strengthen… All of these words have different meanings depending on your background, training, and where you're coming from. Just because a word has a scientifically defined meaning doesn't mean that it is the “right” definition; it depends who you're talking to. A lay person definition is equally valid! look words up in the dictionary… That should clarify things for you. Words have multiple meanings. The goal of language is to communicate and be understood. If your goal is to be understood rather than to be right, it's critically important to know the different ways that these words are used. Not only their definitions, but their connotations. If you have that understanding, you'll have sensible conversations. If you don't, you might be right all day long, but you won't be understood.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Do balanced trainers train (fix) dogs and positive reinforcement based trainers manage them? No. Not not at all. That's a problem with words and definitions, not actual outcomes. Do balanced trainers show their work and positive reinforcement trainers not? No. You don't know where to look. If you want to see really good positive reinforcement trainers doing cool things, you have to look in their circles. That's what I talk about here.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Can dogs be willful? Can they actively choose to disobey, while understanding what you want? Yes they can. Now what?   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Time. Priorities. Dog welfare. Human welfare. Guilt.  Dog trainers on social media seem out of touch with real world people and their priorities. Are we even doing our job if we don't prioritize our human clients as much as their animals? Those are things I covered here.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

No fetch? Chase but no return? No tug? Tugs but doesn't let go? Understand what motivates your dog makes training and problem-solving a lot easier. Taken further, it will set how you train each individual dog, which may be radically different than how you approached similar issues with the last dog. By comparing my Border Collie Ice and my Belgian Xen, both showing similar issues but with very different resolutions, I hope to illustrate these points in this live.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Trial analysis. What went right? What went wrong? And what am I going to do about it?   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

It's been about three weeks since I brought in the new young border collie, Ice. This is an update on the integration process.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I've got a new puppy! In this life I talk about the process of integrating him into my home, the reality of high drive dogs and puppies, handler sensitivity and hardness, etc. We covered a lot of territory!   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

The first time you compete… What's the best way to get through it?! I'll give you some ideas here.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I shared my thoughts about how I planned to acquire my next dog, and what I will do with that dog to start my training during the first few months!   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Structure is a your friend - really. you can get your way without using physical force or mental intimidation. The end result is higher quality of life for both you and your dog.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

About that reactivity… is a given dog reactive, or simply bored? Lacking structure? Doesn't know what to do in a given circumstance? There are foundation skills that all dogs should have, and they are particularly valuable if the dog should exhibit reactive tendencies here and there. The ability to get your dog's attention is a critical foundation skill. If you can't get your dog's attention in a given environment, you probably should not be there.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I wanted to illustrate it with the flea study but alas… It appears the flea study is not real. So I just talk about it. Habit! Most important thing you can keep in mind with your new dog or puppy. Plus a few thoughts on trying to train family.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Do you know the difference between cooperative care and low stress handling? You should! It's important if you want to maintain a trusting relationship with your dog.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

A safe walk with a dog is a function of the equipment on the dog, the leash that attaches the equipment to the handler, the size, strength, and temperament of the dog, and the environment. All of these things should be discussed with dog training clients to ensure the comfort and safety of all.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Dog Sports are not all about the dog. They are about people too! It's OK for you to seek happiness and joy, even if it doesn't mean maximizing your dog's happiness at every turn. Make it work; it's a cost of benefit analysis.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I'm in camp “genetics” over environment. Take a listen to this one if you want to understand how I got here. Plus, a little bit on selecting a puppy from a breeder.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

A quick look in the mirror… Are you doing the same things that you accuse others of? Behaving emotionally rather than rationally? Ignoring facts that don't fit the narrative that you want to drive forward? Probably. It's the human condition, and we all do it. The trick is to become aware of that, and maybe do better into the future.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

This live is my plea to apply a force free philosophy to entire life and not just to your dog training.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Apparently, folks are very capable of critical thinking skills! When they're motivated. How can we be motivated to show critical thinking all the time? Even when we're not not sure we like the conclusions. Especially when we're not sure we like the conclusions! Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

How and why science matters to those of us deeply vested in the Dog community. Plus other stuff.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

So many thoughts. How can we learn to be more critical learners, observers, and communicators? How can we face our own bias and become stronger as a result? Who can we talk to when we have questions? Covered a lot of territory in this one. Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Maybe allow people who are different into your world, and then you can learn about them. Learn about people, and you can have an impact. Don't allow people into your world and don't learn about them? Then you can't do much beyond ignoring (best case scenario) or antagonizing (worst case) others who feel differently than you. Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Do aversives cause aggression? If so, why are famous trainers using them and showing well-balanced dogs? What does the research say? I'm not a scientist, so mostly I can tell you what I see around me, and my thoughts on the matter. If you're interested, check it out. Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Should dogs roam the neighborhood? How about near busy roads? How about a quiet rural area? How about chickens - can they roam? Why or why not? If someone else has a different opinion about this than you for each type of animal, how might you change their perspective via education and perspective taking? Or do you opt for embarrassment and shaming? How's that working?   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I hope those of us in the Dog industry stop talking about “them”. “They” can speak for themselves. If you have a question, ask “them.” When you make assumptions about why people do what they do, or say nasty things about their character because they don't share your opinions? That reflects on you and it makes it very difficult to have honest conversations when you're present because you ruin goodwill, listening and striving for understanding.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

What relationship-based training means to me. I give the example of an informal recall with my dog. Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Super informal chat with Bryndon Golya, CDBC of OC Canine Coaching about management, training, medication, giving “enough” to our dogs and…plenty in between!   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

This live covers follower questions sparked by a panel hosted by Jo-Rosie Haffenden.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

The solution to the Dog Trainer people is to be like the chicken people. In this live I talk about roosters. If the dog people were like the chicken people, we could make radical advances in our field. Take a listen. Tell me what you think.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Train your dog! Even if you don't reach 100%, who cares? You're still ahead of where you were if you hadn't trained at all.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

In this live I talk about why I do bite sports.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Train the dog in front of you. What does that mean? Seeing as I wrote a book with this title, I have opinions about it! Two dogs can have the same issue, and the solutions can be radically different. At the end of the day, you have to know your dog… I give examples in this live to help you understand the concept.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

If you like the minutiae of dog training, you might like this live. Here I talk about the challenge I have with my dog in the Mondio ring search exercise… He prefers to bite than to bark! I talk about a “good training” solution which involves breaking it down into small pieces…small splits are good dog training. I talk about the fact that it didn't work. I talk about brainstorming to come up with an answer. And what all of this makes me think about? One challenge of training dog sports with positive reinforcement is lack of tradition around solutions to problems. Of course this is not a problem in Dog sports that are traditionally positive reinforcement based, but it absolutely is in sports with little to no tradition of +r problem-solving, because these sport have rather few +r folks playing the game.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Does positive reinforcement training mean withholding half of the information the dog needs to to be successful? Would the dog find more clarity if you included aversives? Would that actually be a relief to the dog? I give my thoughts on that here.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Life is complex. Dogs are one piece of the puzzle of complexity. Be open to the challenge of varied perspectives. Be respectful! And try to make things better. Dog trainers can do that. You're more than a dog trainer. You can change lives, and I'm not just making that up.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Your words are your power. Do not take someone else's words to placate them. Choose your words carefully. Explain what you need to explain. And reserve the right to say… It depends. I need more information. Getting a group of people together is easy when you simplify complex topics. Who doesn't appreciate simplicity? Well. Me. As long as life remains complex, I will explain in as many words as I need to say what I want to say. Don't give your power away. Choose your words thoughtfully, and insist that others respect what you said as opposed to what they think they heard. or maybe what they wanted to hear. what words did you say? Pain, uncomfortable? Aversive? Management? A training tool? Be specific, and insist that others respect your words, or end the conversation.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Continuing on with basic principles around force free training. Here I introduce counter conditioning, desensitization and habituation. Xen was along for the ride, so he illustrates some of the principles - what do you do when it gets too intense?   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Does reinforcement history or emotion/instinct drive behavior? Both. Emotion drives “behavior” - the general category of things we do. And reinforcement history drives the specific behavior which the learner chooses, from amongst all of the available options. The challenge here is that the word “behavior” means both the general category and a specific choice of a specific behavior. Both are happening. I spend a few extra minutes talking about this during this live. Plus - note how adorable my dog is. I mean…I can barely stand his cuteness!

Today, I explored where most force free behaviorists would start looking at a problem behavior… At the root! What matters less than the behavior in front of you is where it's coming from. What instincts or emotion are fueling it? If you can identify that, and do some thing about it, your behavior problem might simply disappear. Obviously that's your best case scenario but… It's still where you want to start. Because more often then you might think that is the solution.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Today I talk about the difference between training and management, and I give several examples to help you on your way.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

So appreciate those of you who gave your thoughts about the difference between discomfort and pain in my Instagram stories! In this live, I also explained why I like the word adversive. I like that it centers the experience of the learner and that it recognizes how individual that experience might be.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

How do you show up on social media? How do you balance your authentic self with the demands of the communities where you participate? Do you have an internal compass to guide you? And…how did FDSA start anyway?  If you struggle to find peace of social media, this live might help.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I decided to show you what a training session looks like today. Just the flow of it in real time. I hadn't planned to save it, but then I came in the house and we just talked. We talked about all kinds of things. So if you want a random grab bag of conversation, this is your live.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

No simple answer to this one. Depends on the goal, type of training. specificity of what you want, and what you mean by trained.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

How do you teach a highly generalized concept like retrieve - where you might want the dog to retrieve a wide variety of items? In this live, I touch on the difference between how I train behaviors for precision as opposed to more generalized concepts that I might want for life or dog sport.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog

Disagree all you want, but don't listen to misunderstand. That's when I disengage.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

I desperately wish that training dogs was easy. I wish there was a one-size-fits-all solution. I wish all of training could be cookies and toys and general happiness. But life is complicated and it's not like that. And if I come to a different place someday? If I'm able to find answers to my concerns? I will change my mind, and I will say so publicly.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Do you prioritize dogs above people? How about other animals? I wonder if that has ever happened at any other time in the history of our species…. Anyway, in this live I ramble along a bit on this topic.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

Do biting sports make dogs more likely to misunderstand in real life, and bite at the wrong time? Maybe. As with many things, it's not a simple answer.   Follow my training! Instagram The High Drive Dog More online training! Fenzi Dog Sports Academy