POPULARITY
9 episodes with heelwork
6 episodes with heelwork
2 episodes with heelwork
2 episodes with heelwork
4 episodes with heelwork
2 episodes with heelwork
2 episodes with heelwork
Sexier Than A Squirrel: Dog Training That Gets Real Life Results
Send us a textWelcome to this episode of the Sexier than a Squirrel podcast, the podcast that brings you real-life dog training results, and sometimes human training ones too!In this episode, Lauren is joined once again by wonderful Competitive Obedience Pro Linda Hughes, who is on a mission to make Obedience training fun - for dogs and their humans!Obedience sometimes has a reputation for being a bit boring, but Linda is here to show it's anything but dull. From avoiding the pressure of constant accuracy and repetition to celebrating the unique personality of every dog, Linda explains how training Obedience with games can unlock your dog's spirit, not bog it down.For Linda, the heart of Obedience training lies in building a strong, meaningful relationship with her dogs. It's not just about perfecting the moves or nailing the tests - it's about truly understanding the dog in front of her and creating a dog who wants to work with her - and finds joy in the game.With amusing anecdotes about her own dogs, like Sendze, her “headbanger,” and Ulla, her sensitive soul, Linda shares how every dog she's owned and worked with has taught her something new, and emphasises the importance of tailoring training to fit each dog's unique personality.Discover Linda's top tips for anyone looking to start Obedience training, including how to break down Heelwork, use special toys to build value in play, and bring games into your sessions to make learning fun and engaging. And when things go wrong? Laugh it off and keep going!Whether you're curious about Competitive Obedience or simply want to strengthen your relationship with your dog, this episode is packed with fun and inspiration!Keen to learn more? Check out Funbedience now!Support the showIf you're loving the podcast, you'll love our NEW Sexier than a Squirrel Dog Training Challenge even more! Get transformational dog training today for only £27!Want even more epic dog training fun and games and solutions to all your dog training struggles? Join us in the AbsoluteDogs Games Club!And while you're here, please leave a review for us and don't forget to hit share and post your biggest lightbulb moment! Remember, no matter what struggles you might be facing with your dog, there is always a game for that!
This weekend I taught a heelwork seminar, and loved it. Here are our after thoughts.
This episode I caught up with Trainer, author and lecturer Alex Lato. Alex wrote Braveheart and is now working on a new heel work course alongside his bravery boost stuff. the new course Heelwork for Dummies is out now.
Meet Bakersfield and Strike, as they relax in the dressing room, during a break between performances. These two collies are competing at the highest level in the Heelwork to Music competition at Crufts, the world's biggest dog show. It's a glamorous business, yet the atmosphere in the dressing room is cosy and good natured. Both handlers are veterans of the heelwork to music competition, with many appearances at Cruft behind them. Bakersfield's handler, Lucy Creek, explains what the sport entails and how she fell into it. To do well, her dogs have a focus and energy that marks them out from being tiny puppies. Lucy explains how distractions in the arena might call for a bit of improvisation on the fly. Heelwork to music demands precision movement from the dog. The freestyle round allows plenty of room for humour and artistic inspiration and the individual performances are very different from each other, so a delight to watch from the arena side. It's the first time Strike has performed at Crufts, but his handler, Lucy Heath has been here 16 times with various dogs, performing in the heel work to music category. She's honouring her last, beloved dog by choosing her favourite medley from the musical, Grease for the freestyle. With Spike by her side, their performance is a huge crowd pleaser. More photos at shineradio.uk/dogswithjobs Do you work your dog or dogs? If you would be interested in coming on the show, please get in touch with Kate at team@shineradio.uk or call 10730 555 500. © & ℗ Kate Fairweather 2024 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Meet Bakersfield and Strike, as they relax in the dressing room, during a break between performances. These two collies are competing at the highest level in the Heelwork to Music competition at Crufts, the world's biggest dog show. It's a glamorous business, yet the atmosphere in the dressing room is cosy and good natured. Both handlers are veterans of the heelwork to music competition, with many appearances at Cruft behind them. Bakersfield's handler, Lucy Creek, explains what the sport entails and how she fell into it. To do well, her dogs have a focus and energy that marks them out from being tiny puppies. Lucy explains how distractions in the arena might call for a bit of improvisation on the fly. Heelwork to music demands precision movement from the dog. The freestyle round allows plenty of room for humour and artistic inspiration and the individual performances are very different from each other, so a delight to watch from the arena side. It's the first time Strike has performed at Crufts, but his handler, Lucy Heath has been here 16 times with various dogs, performing in the heel work to music category. She's honouring her last, beloved dog by choosing her favourite medley from the musical, Grease for the freestyle. With Spike by her side, their performance is a huge crowd pleaser. More photos at shineradio.uk/dogswithjobs Do you work your dog or dogs? If you would be interested in coming on the show, please get in touch with Kate at team@shineradio.uk or call 10730 555 500. © & ℗ Kate Fairweather 2024 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this episode, Michelle and Katherine angree about trainwrecks and emotions! They also bring very, very different perspectives on the circus to town. Plus, Michelle makes Katherine cry! Dave Ross, “How Hair Hanging Works” in How Stuff Works https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/circus-arts/hair-hanging.htm Black Dawn Rise of the Super Soldier Conference Panel Full Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVO4SJqIIIw Crufts Heelwork to Music 2023 Competition https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=b2uNbw77XVQ NPR Interview with Larissa Fasthorse https://www.npr.org/2023/11/21/1214280692/larissa-fasthorse-the-thanksgiving-play The Emotion Wheel https://i.pinimg.com/originals/11/01/73/1101739e7f0b286c5b516e4a48a385f2.jpg “The Nature of Emotions” by Robert Plutchik, American Scientist https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-nature-of-emotions Hammond Circus Train Crash New Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGXE7ckAOOU
Petra and I talk about what it takes to get really pretty heelwork — namely, position, a good focal point, and strong engagement skills.
Julie joins me to talk about the importance of building enthusiasm into your heelwork right from the start, and how to avoid (or overcome!) training plateaus during the process of training your dog a beautiful heel.
Sexier Than A Squirrel: Dog Training That Gets Real Life Results
In this super cool episode of the Sexier than a Squirrel podcast, Lauren is joined by Crufts 2022 winner and Heelwork to Music Freestyle superstar Marianne Elise Methi!Lauren and Marianne chat on all things dogs - from Marianne's amazing team of superstar dogs, including her Crufts winning rockstar Vega, and all the wonderful things they have achieved together as a team - from obedience, rally and agility to dog dancing, trick training and so much more!We dive into how a love of dogs, setting goals, doing your absolute best and being your dog's very best advocate in life can bring you ultimate joy!We also chat on Heelwork to Music, how it works, what's involved and what it takes for a dog and owner to become an amazing performance team - AND Lauren and Marianne also talk on the epic opportunity that is Crufts, being followed by a camera crew along the amazing road to competing at this super event and how sometimes, you will face worthy opponents in competition and in life that require you to rise above so you can guard your own optimism and celebrate your success!This is a super insightful and inspirational episode you don't want to miss! Jump in and have a listen – and while you're here leave a review for us and share with us what was your biggest takeaway – and remember, no matter what struggles you might be facing with your dog, there is always a game for that!Support the show
Visit us at shapedbydog.com We're talking dogs with my friend, UK's Kamal Fernandez, elite dog sports coach and competitor, international seminar presenter, author, featured dog trainer on TV shows 'Dogs Might Fly' and 'The Dog Academy' and one of my long-time online students. We're chatting about the essential things anyone with a dog needs to know. The tips are the same for companion dogs through to those wanting to train for world-level dog sports competitions. Enjoy this extract from our livestream celebrating 200 episodes of Shaped by Dog. In the episode you'll hear: • Insights on everything reinforcing for dogs and how it can work for or against us. • Why labels about dogs can hold us back and limit what our dogs can achieve. • The power of five-minute dog training sessions vs. long time-consuming classes. • Examples of unknowingly rewarding problem dog behaviors. • Examples of transferring value from what a dog loves to what we want them to do. • How tapping into a dog's unique needs will bring training results. • Why Kamal's dog training superpowers are empathy and humor. • That dogs are always doing the best they can in circumstances outside their control. • Why truly positive reinforcement-based dog trainers become positive reinforcement-based people. Catch the 200 Episodes Celebration Replay and After Party Opportunities Click Here for the Livestream Replay, PDF Downloads and Special Online Program Opportunities - https://dogsthat.com/sbd-celebrate-episode-200/ Resources: 1. Kamal Fernandez's Website - https://www.kamalfernandezonlinetraining.com/ 2. Podcast Episode 208: Brilliance, Resilience And Gratitude: Inspiration And Motivation With Elliott Connie - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/208/ 3. The Dog Academy - UK TV Show Channel 4 - https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-dog-academy 4. YouTube Playlist: Reinforcement, Permissions and Transfer of Value in Dog Training with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy1IUj_4P54q2PIuLNtnXjFO 5. Podcast Episode 8: Get Your Dog in the Belief Loop of Awesome - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/8/ 6. Podcast Episode 207: Rescue Dog Behavior: Training Rehomed Dogs Chat With Nadine Hehli and Simone Fasel - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/207/ 7. Podcast Episode 122: Being Present With Empathy In Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/122/ 8. Podcast Episode 190: Using Daily Quickies To Fast Track Your Dog Training And Grow Your Dog's Skills - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/190/ 9. Podcast Episode 166: Puppy Freedom: How Much Is Too Much? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/166/ 10. Podcast Episode 196: Why Mastering Reinforcement Is The Linchpin To Reinforcement Based Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/196/ 11. Podcast Episode 90: Premack, Dog Training and Transfer of Value - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/90/ 12. Podcast Episode 6: The Art of Manipulation - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/6/ 13. Podcast Episode 117: What's More Important Than Your Dog Training Sessions? - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/117/ 14. Podcast Episode 151: How Location Specific Reinforcement Markers Will Improve Your Dog Training! - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/151/ 15. Podcast Episode 11: The Power of Permission in Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/11/ 16. Podcast Episode 200: Solve Your Dog's Separation Anxiety With FRIDA: Expanding Calm With Functional Relaxation - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/200/ 17. YouTube Playlist: Reactive or Aggressive Dogs: Key Insights with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy0Tbd6ZybIXgJk3mtpBLLk7 18. YouTube Playlist: Fearful Dogs Help with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy0KAsqgnkMWv0v-5JGjNQG_ 19. Podcast Episode 194: The Invisible Reason Your Dog Is Ignoring You - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/194/ 20. Podcast Episode 195: Making Your Mind Your Most Powerful Dog Training Tool - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/195/ 21. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/Ukf9zFnIMIg
Sexier Than A Squirrel: Dog Training That Gets Real Life Results
In this super cool episode of the Sexier than a Squirrel podcast, Lauren is joined by the amazing and wonderful Lorna who, with her Border Collie Nora, trains and competes in the magical world of Heelwork to Music and dancing with dogs!Lauren and Lorna are here in this awesome episode to chat all things Heelwork to Music, trick training and of course, DOGS!From the difference between heelwork to music and freestyle to how this amazing dog and exciting sport builds an incredible dog-handler bond and relationship and how it can be enjoyed by any handler or dog, no matter their age, size, breed or background!Plus, as Lorna and Nora prepare to make their debut at Crufts 2023, they are here to give you some of their favourite top tips on learning new tricks with your dog and then piecing them all together to choreograph a finished routine.There's so much more in this episode, from top tricks, tips and hacks for those wanting to get started in trick training and heelwork to music, to breaking down tricks into small steps when teaching your dog so that you can set them up to succeed!Even if you don't have any dreams to compete, trick training and dancing with dogs can be an amazing relationship booster in your everyday life with your dog! Dance, play and train tricks from the comfort of your living room and build an amazing, enriching relationship with your dog at the same time!AND you get to hear some handy hints for parents who have children who want to get into training tricks or even dancing with dogs in heelwork to music, not to mention Lauren and Lorna share their top tips on the qualities to look for in a dog who would be perfect for trick work and heelwork to music!This episode is absolutely one you will not want to miss, so dive in and have a listen – and while you're here leave a review for us and share with us what was your biggest takeaway!Support the show
Description: Shade comes on the podcast to talk about training toy behavior to create cooperative play, and the process of shaping heelwork.
I det här avsnittet träffar jag vinnaren av SM i Heelwork to Music 2021, Nina Steinbac. Nina berättar om hur hon arbetar med musiktolkning, varför lek och glädje är ett framgångskoncept för att lyckas på tävling och om var hon hittar inspiration för att utvecklas vidare. Du hittar Nina på Instagram som @kennelgladjeruset Och mig som @kompishundtraning
I det här avsittet berättar jag om vad podden kommer att handla om och vad du kan förvänta dig av säsong ett. Dessutom hinner vi gå igenom ett par vanliga frågor om Freestyle och Heelwork to Music - hur börjar man tävla? Vad skiljer de båda inriktningarna åt och hur görs bedömningen?
Was haben Bogenschießen und Hundesport gemeinsam? Auf den ersten Blick wahrlich nicht viel, auf den zweiten Blick lassen sich durchaus viele Parallelen entdecken. Mareike Doll und Host Eva nehmen euch mit auf eine Reise in die Welt des Bogenschießens und lassen euch teilhaben an ihren Erfahrungen zum Thema "Triff dein Ziel! - vom Bogenschießen zur Fußarbeit". Bogenschiessen zur Wettkampfvorbereitung! - Lerne, mit Deinem Kopf einzig und allein in der Situation zu bleiben - Fokussiere Dich auf Dich und Deine Bewegungen - Verwende bisher ungenutzte Ressourcen - Verbessere Deine koordinativen Fähigkeiten - Lerne Deine Variationen von Körperspannung kennen und nutzen - Reflektiere Dein Handeln All das sind Fähigkeiten, die wir in der Fussarbeit ebenfalls benötigen! Lasst uns bessere Hundeführer werden, mit mentaler Stärke, in Harmonie und gemeinsam mit unserem Teampartner Hund bessere Ergebnisse erzielen! Wir sind es unseren Hunden schuldig! Ihr wollt mehr über Mareike und ihre Arbeit erfahren oder würdet gerne an einem ihrer Seminare oder Onlinetrainings teilnehmen, dann seid ihr hier genau richtig. www.perfect-heelwork.de elearning.perfect-heelwork.de
Ein Interview mit Fragen und Erklärungen, auch Euren persönlichen Facebook Fragen, rund um die neue Obedience Prüfungsordnung, die ab 2022 gelten wird. Wer Gabriela Pichler noch nicht kennt: Sie ist seit 1998 super erfolgreich als Prüfungsleiterin für Obedience tätig. Ihre eigenen, persönlichen Erfahrungen als Hundesportlerin ( OB3, FH3, BGH2, RO3, seit 1994!), fliessen auch in Ihre Tätigkeit als Prüfungsleiterin ein, sie kennt beide Seiten des Prüfungsgeschehens. In Österreich ist Gabriela die Prüfungsleiterin, welche die meisten nationalen und internationalen Turniere und Prüfungen geleitet hat. Sie war bei mehreren Obedience Weltmeisterschaften (in Wien, Bratislava, Budapest, Salzburg und Kladno) und bei der WM der Belgischen Schäferhunde in Roudnice, sowie auf verschiedenen internationalen Turnieren, als Chefsteward tätig. Ihrer Verantwortung unterlag jeweils der reibungslose Ablauf der gesamten Veranstaltungen. Und vor Kurzem hat sie auch ein Seminar gehalten, zu dem Thema: Neue Prüfungsordnung Obedience 2022 in Theorie und Praxis. Und da habe ich Gabi gefragt, ob sie vielleicht auch Eure, unter den Nägeln brennenden Fragen, rund um die neue Prüfungsordnung für 2022 beantworten würde!!! Und in diesem interview hat sie nicht nur Eure Fragen beantwortet, sondern auch ihre ganz persönlichen Erfahrungen mit uns geteilt. DANKE dafür!!! Hier der link zur neuen PO: https://www.vdh.de/fileadmin/media/hundesport/obedience/2022/Neue_PO_Obedience_ab_2022_V2.pdf Mehr Infos zu Perfect Heekwork: https://perfect-heelwork.de Und zum Perfect Heelwork Elearning Portal: https://elearning.perfect-heelwork.de
Perfect Heelwork: Hunde Laufbänder im Training... sinnvoll? Im Gespräch heute mit Linda Geiser, Tierpraxis & Physiotherapie Vitaldogs und Britta Reiland, Sportphysiotherapeutin für Hunde "Gesundheit auf 4 Beinen". Ein Laufband für den Hund? Was kann das? Was soll das? Braucht man das? Und wenn, wofür? Was haben denn Hunde Laufbänder mit Fussarbeit zu Tun??? Diese und wirklich viele andere Dinge rund um diese spannenden Sportgeräte für Hunde, haben wir in diesem Gespräch gemeinsam besprochen. Und dabei spannende neue Erkenntnisse gewonnen...
This episode I talk to the wonderful Dawn Heaton of Preston Trick Dogs about Man trailing, scent work, tricks, Heelwork to music obedience and more.
Vor knapp 10 Jahren hat Host Eva Mareike Doll als eine der Ersten für ein Seminar zum Thema Fußarbeit nach Österreich geholt und ist seitdem vom Perfect Heelwork Spirit infiziert. In unserer heutigen Folge versucht sie euch gemeinsam mit Mareike einen kleinen Einblick in die Welt der Fußarbeit als Team zu geben. Was macht Fußarbeit aus, wie definiert sie sich und vor welche Hürden stellt sie uns in der sportlichen Umsetzung im Training und auf Prüfungen sowie Turnieren. Perfect Heelwork ist nicht nur "bei Fuß laufen". Perfect Heelwork ist ein Gefühl, welches Mareike mit ihrer einzigartigen Art nun auch Online vermittelt. Startet mit uns im Schritt und erreicht im Laufe dieser Podcastfolge gemeinsam mit uns und im Sinne eurer Hunde einen losgelossenen taktreinen Trab auf dem Weg zur schönen Fußarbeit. Perfect Heelwork Rocks! Mareike erreicht über ihre Website, das Online Portal oder einfach via Facebook oder Mail.
Description: Ever wondered what it takes for your dog to accomplish beautiful heads up heeling? Petra and I talk about the conditioning and body awareness work she does to achieve that picture for her dogs!
NEIN!!! Für mich ist es so viel mehr!!!❤️
Description: Nancy and I talk about heelwork and how the handler can make or break this awesome dance with their dog.
In this episode, I attempt to cover several heelwork exercises at breakneck speed. I also answer a question from Ally about over-arousal during heelwork.
In this episode, I discuss the difference between heelwork and loose-lead walking. I conceptualise heelwork and what it is (a moving stay, with a beginning and an end - and duration in between). And I discuss one huge consideration for training specifically retriever heelwork, when using positive reinforcement: How do we prevent the dog staring up at us, and missing marks?
In this podcast we spoke about shaping, targeting, differential reinforcement and some common misconceptions. Kay Laurence has been involved in training, breeding and rearing dogs for over 40 years. She has spoken at ClickerExpo for 12 years as well as other conferences and has competed at Crufts in Obedience and Heelwork to Music. She is also the author of several books including Tug More Learn More, Clicker Training: The Perfect Foundation, Teaching With Reinforcement, Learning Games and Clicker Dances with Dogs. Show Notes: www.nickbenger.com/kay-laurence IMPACT Tickets: www.growyourpetbusinessfast.com/impact Hannah Branigan Tickets: www.glasgowdogtrainer.co.uk
Summary: Julie Flanery 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, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, Parkour, Agility, and Trick Dog titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West coast. In 2001 she was named "Trainer of the Year" by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a stand-alone sport enjoyed by dog sport enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. Next Episode: To be released 9/07/2018, featuring Julie Daniels, talking about Building Canine Confidence. TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we’ll be talking to Julie Flanery. Julie 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, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, Parkour, Agility, and Trick Dog titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West Coast. In 2001 she was named "Trainer of the Year" by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a stand-alone sport enjoyed by dog sport enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. So welcome back to the podcast Julie! Julie Flanery: Thanks Melissa. Melissa Breau: To start us out, can you just remind everybody a little bit of information about your dog and what you do with her? Julie Flanery: I have Kashi and she is my 8-year-old Tibetan Terrier. She thinks her primary job is to keep our home safe from all of those wild rabbits out there. She will sit forever, just staring at the fence line, waiting for one to pop its head through, or if she sees one on the other side of the fence, she’ll calmly sit and wait until they believe she’s no threat, then she goes into stalk mode. My sweet, little, adorable dog has four kills to her name now. So it’s kind of funny, because despite her breed name, there is no terrier in Tibetan Terriers, so it wasn’t something that I expected in her. But she is really, really fun to train, and I find something enjoyable and fun about her every single day. She makes me laugh every single day. I currently compete with her in Musical Freestyle and Rally FrEe. And maybe in the fall we might be adding a puppy to the family, but I’m not quite sure yet on that. So more news to come, maybe. Melissa Breau: I will be excited to hear that, if it happens. Julie Flanery: I will too. Melissa Breau: I bet. So, I wanted to have you on tonight to talk about something that I think is probably pretty important to a good percentage of our listeners. I want to talk about heeling. Non-freestylers may not realize it, but heelwork is a pretty big part of freestyle, right? Can you just talk a little bit about the role it plays in the sport? Julie Flanery: To anybody that has done obedience, there is nothing more beautiful than a joyful heeling dog. We all have that picture in our head, and what it looks like, and it can take your breath away. The only thing I think might be more beautiful is watching a freestyle routine with a joyful heeling dog, and maybe I’m biased there, but I think that adds a whole ’nother level of animation to heelwork. Heelwork is really what holds a freestyle routine together. We often talk about it’s the glue that holds it together, but I think it’s really so much more than that. In terms of holding the routine together, it’s very easy to get lost in a routine. We have 3 minutes of 50 to 80 cued behaviors, and we don’t always remember our full routine. No matter how much you memorize your routine, and no matter how much you work your routine, it doesn’t always go as planned. I have never met a freestyler that said, “Oh yeah, we went out there and it was perfect.” So you have to be a little prepared for that, and having a dog that understands heelwork, has a strong desire to be in heel, one that defaults to a standing heel position, then your dog is always in a right place where you can make things right again. It also means your dog can maintain a sense of purpose. If he’s not quite sure where he should be, or what he should be doing, either maybe there’s a wrong cue, or I screwed up something in my choreography, he can maintain that level of confidence and joy by defaulting to a heel position, and it gives me the confidence then to pull us out of whatever scrape we’ve gotten into. In freestyle, we train our behaviors, especially behaviors that we use as transitions from a position to a position, so whatever behavior I’m going to include in my freestyle routines, I train it where my dog starts in a heelwork position. In order for that behavior to be completed, she has to come back to a heelwork position, and if she doesn’t understand those positions, then I’m going to lose the accuracy and precision of the behaviors. Those positions give me a stronger execution of all of my freestyle behaviors. So without that understanding, many of my freestyle behaviors are going to degrade, and if the dog isn’t set up correctly, then not only is that behavior not going to be accurate, but my next behavior isn’t going to start in a correct place and it’s going to lose its accuracy and precision. So having a dog that understands their heelwork positions is incredibly important in freestyle, because without it, everything else is going to fall apart, and that’s why we say it’s the glue that holds the routines together. I think that many see freestyle as kind of a loosey-goosey sport, you know, you go out and you move and you dance with your dog, and you have them do some tricks. But if you look at some of the world’s best freestylers, those handlers understand and utilize heelwork to give their routines that polish, that unity, that really make their routines stand out. So I think as we are moving forward in the sport, more freestylers are trying to make heelwork a much more important piece of their training program than maybe it was in the past. Melissa Breau: You mentioned in there that you’re looking for a joyful demeanor in heeling. Can you talk more about that and describe what you’re looking for when you’re training your dog to heel? What does that final picture really look like? Julie Flanery: As you said, first and foremost, I need my dog to learn to love heeling. That’s for the reasons mentioned above, but also I want her both to look and I want her to feel happy when she’s heeling. If heeling allows her to be in a happy emotional state, then she’s more likely to be able to ignore the environment, she’s better able to take and respond to cues, she understands and loves that job of heeling. If she or I get lost in a routine, her default will be to stay in heel, and if she can do that, I can get us through those rough patches. In terms of physical appearance, I like my dog’s head up. I like her looking at my face. That’s both because I think it looks pretty, but that’s kind of my security blanket. I think if she’s looking at me, she must be paying attention. So that’s part of my picture. I want her looking up at my face as part of my training. I like that the front end to be lifted so that the weight is off of the shoulders and you can get more lift to the chest and in the front feet. I like a dog that has a little bit of a prance to it, so I try to work that into my criteria. What people may not know is that in freestyle, the dog and handler team choose their own heelwork position. So if the dog is a little wide, but consistently a little wide, always that distance from the handler, then no points are taken off. Small dogs oftentimes are a little more comfortable not being right under the handler’s feet, so that’s an example where a handler might decide to allow their dog to have a little more distance from them. As long as that distance is consistent, then it doesn’t hurt the score any. I like my dog to forge a little, to show off that little prance that she has. So as long as she is consistent in her position, that she’s always forging that little bit, maybe my leg is closer to her shoulder or rib, and as long as she maintains that position in relation to me, then that’s not going to hurt our score any. And it actually showcases the part of her heelwork which I really love, which is that little foot action that she sometimes has. So in freestyle there’s some leeway. There’s some ability to customize your heelwork position as long as it’s consistent. So you can choose, or use A.K.C’s definition, or whatever organization you show obedience under, or you could vary from that a little bit to either help your dog be more comfortable in heeling or to showcase something that your dog really does well. Melissa Breau: Obviously, heeling is a super-complex thing to train. Just from that description, you talked about all these pieces of that criteria. Different trainers start with different bits and different approaches. I’d love to hear how you approach it. How do you get started? Julie Flanery: Like all training, we have to look at both the physical criteria and the emotional component. Heelwork is physically demanding, so I want to make sure that my dog is getting a really high enough rate of reward and value of reinforcement for all of that hard work, and I want to maintain that high rate of reward for a really long time, probably much longer and with much greater frequency than I do for other behaviors. Hand touches are a huge part of my heelwork. They help me both create position and lift and fun, and I can do all sorts of games with my hand touches. And yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to teach a hand touch, and people will learn that in the class that I’m doing in October. Platforms also, both standing platforms and pivot platforms, are really important in my program. It’s where I start to add the cue. It’s where I know with certainty that I can get my dog to perform that precision criteria that I really want. And the dog learns to use his rear end in a way through the pivot platforms that helps him maintain position. So those are really big tools that I use. Shaping is part of my heelwork training. I think a dog that understands how to offer correct positioning can fix an issue without waiting for the handler to do it for them, and I think in heelwork that’s huge. It also helps to build a desire to get to heel and stay in heel. That shaping includes both finding the position while I’m stationary and also while I’m moving. For example, I really like Dawn Jecs’ Choose To Heel protocol, and that’s all about shaping how to find a moving heel position. Too, with shaping, I don’t necessarily want to use the cue I started to add on the platforms, so I want my dog to understand that she doesn’t have to wait for a cue to give me either some or all of that criteria. So shaping gives the dog control of that reinforcement in a lot of different ways, and if she can offer that heelwork criteria that I’ve been working on at any time, or those things that earn rewards, then that puts me ahead of the game, because I don’t have to work as hard at getting that criteria all the time. And then, of course, there’s fun and games. We don’t want to forget that. Those things are where we don’t really worry about precision or accuracy at all. The rewards come for moving with me or moving to my side with lots of enthusiasm, and it’s that attitude that I want to really create and reinforce through games. So I teach technical aspects and then I also teach the fun and games aspects all in the same timeline. I don’t do one first and then the other. They’re both being played and trained all in the same timeframe. Once the dog has some experience in each of those, I can start to combine those components. But really I find that it’s the dog that starts to combine them. You’ll be playing a game and that promotes those certain attributes, like lift, enthusiasm, and all of a sudden she’ll move into a perfect heel position. Those are the times you want to be really ready and willing to click. It’s those one or two steps in the middle of a game that she’s suddenly offering, and that’s what’s really cool, when the dog says, through their offering of the things you’ve been reinforcing, that doing this precision work is really part of the game. That’s what I think is really, really fun to see. Of course, I use the games to sneak in the different components. So a game of chase could turn into clicking collection as soon as I start to slow down, or a game of “catch me if you can,” where I might use a bit of opposition reflex, will turn into the dog putting some lift and energy into that first step off in heel. So the dog is doing these components as part of that fun game again, and all of the components, whether they’re the game pieces or whether they’re the precision and accuracy pieces, they’re all getting heavily reinforced and rewarded, so I can get both that physical criteria, the technical criteria, and a dog that thinks that this is just all one big game. So that’s how I look at it. Because both of those pieces are super-important, I don’t think I would want one without the other. Certainly you don’t want this enthusiastic, bouncy, out-of-control dog without that precision and accuracy, and that precision and accuracy really just isn’t the picture that I have in my mind of beautiful heelwork without all that enthusiasm and joy. So I want to make sure that in my program I’m bringing them both together, but training them kind of separately. Melissa Breau: That’s interesting. It’s kind of a different approach. Julie Flanery: Yeah. I think a lot of people want both those things, and maybe they’re just putting it together in a slightly different way. But I really like it when the dog says, “Oh, this gets rewarded too,” and “Oh, I really like doing this just as much as I like the game aspect of it.” Because even though they’re rewarded separately, the dog learns to bring those two things together. They say everything bleeds in training. One piece of criteria sometimes will bleed into another piece of criteria. Or one action will bleed into another. One behavior will bleed into another. Those things that are reinforced will bleed into each other. And this is an area where you want that. Some areas you don’t want that. This is an area where you really do want that. Melissa Breau: We talked a little bit in there about obedience versus freestyle. I’m curious, how does the heelwork you want in freestyle compare to what somebody might want for the obedience ring? What are some of the similarities or differences? Julie Flanery: In both sports, obviously, you want that lift, that animation, that focus, the precision. In freestyle, the dog heels on both the right and the left side, so there’s some additional training time that needs to be put into that. Even if you don’t do freestyle, it’s a good idea to train heelwork on both sides to help build symmetry in muscle development, and I think more and more handlers are starting to do that. In freestyle, we teach heelwork as a specific place in relation to the handler while standing. So there are no default sits in freestyle. In obedience, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on the sit in heel. When you think about it, though, when heeling, I would guess that maybe 90 percent of the time the dog is actually on all fours, standing. So I think it’s important in training to separate out the sit-in-heel from the stand-in-heel from the move-in-heel. They’re all very different components with very different criteria. It’s easy to start to lump them together in our training, and I think that’s oftentimes to the detriment of some of the overall wholeness of our heelwork. If we spend too much time on that sit and heel, sit and heel, getting into to sit and heel, we may not be spending an appropriate amount of time on teaching the dog where he should be when he’s standing in relation to our body, and when he’s moving in relation to our body. Does that make sense? Melissa Breau: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s an interesting point, because you’re right, I see a lot of people practice especially that setup. Julie Flanery: The setup is huge. In freestyle, the other thing is that we heel in a variety of directions, not just forward. We’ll go sideways or laterally, we’ll be backing in heel or backing in right heel. In obedience, the dog generally is always propelling themselves forward, whereas in freestyle the dog learns that the handler may move in any direction, and that their job is to stay in position no matter what that direction is. While we do see more and more obedience handlers seeing the value of that, teaching multidirectional heelwork, it’s not required in the obedience ring the same way it is in freestyle. So it’s something that freestylers spend a lot of time on, whereas I think obedience trainers don’t spend quite the amount of time on it that we have to in freestyle. So I think that gives the dog a much better understanding of where that position is. I train it, I think most freestylers … maybe not all, but I know I train heelwork as a stationary position in relation to the handler. It’s not a moving skill for me to start, for my dog to start. The staying with me is a byproduct of the movement. So if my dog understands that she should be at my left side or at my right side, with her shoulder at my pant seam, then if I take a step backwards and she finds enough value in being there, she’s going to work to get there and stay there. If I step sideways, she’s going to work to get there and stay there. If I step forward, if I pivot, wherever my leg goes, she’s going to work hard to stay there. But I think some handlers skip the step of building value in the position in relation to the handler and spend more time on teaching the setup, the sit, or teaching forward movement. I think they would have those things if the reinforcement, the time, the energy was spent in teaching the dog to find value in just staying in the position stationary before we start adding a lot of movement, and then teaching the dog to move in more than one direction. I think that generalizes what we’re trying to teach them, that this is the place we want you to be, this is Disneyland, this is the sweet spot. Everything good happens here, and you only have to do one thing. You don’t have to think about moving forward, you don’t have to think about moving sideways, you don’t have to think about a pivot. All you have to think about is being right here at my side. I use only a single cue for all of my heelwork, whether I’m going backwards, whether I’m going forwards, or whether I’m doing a lateral side pass or pivoting. It’s all the same cue because it’s all the same behavior to the dog. I think that might be a little bit different than what many obedience handlers train. I think a lot of time is spent on forward-moving heelwork and on the setup. So I think that’s something people will see a little bit differently in freestyle training. Melissa Breau: I could certainly see how teaching the dog the concept of heelwork from that perspective of sticking with the handler rather than necessarily about a specific direction of what have you. I can see how that would be really valuable, regardless of the sport. Julie Flanery: To me, I think it simplifies the skill for the dog. It totally simplifies the skill. And in freestyle, again, we have a lot of cues in freestyle. We’re constantly saying, “Oh my God, I’m running out of cues.” To be able to have all of those behaviors — backing in heel, pivots in heel, side passes in heel, forward in heel, forward 360s — to have all of those behaviors be a single cue, I think that really clarifies it for the dog, and it makes it so much easier on both the dog and the handler. The dog doesn’t have to learn all of these different cues and what are the behaviors that they attach to those. They need to learn one cue and one skill. So I think it really simplifies it and clarifies it for the dog. Melissa Breau: If I understand correctly, one additional piece that maybe you didn’t get into so much is the value that you place on teaching the dog to really listen to a verbal in freestyle and not be cueing so much off your body language. Can you talk a little bit about that, why it’s important and how you work on it? Julie Flanery: No matter what, our dogs are always going to cue off of our bodies to some extent, and even if you have strong verbal cues, they do look to our bodies for information. In freestyle we want our verbal cues to override the value of what’s happening with our bodies. That takes a very strong reinforcement history for verbal cues and it takes a very specific process or protocol to teach those verbal cues. I may want to use my body, my arms, my legs, how I tilt my head, to interpret the music, to basically dance to the music or convey a story through a skit. I want my dog to be able to ignore what I’m doing with my body and favor what I’m cuing verbally. I want to appear as if my dog is performing of her own accord. I don’t want the audience to see my cues, as that can really disrupt the magic that we’re trying to present. We’re trying to show that the dog is not just a willing participant, but is actually initiating parts of this dance. That’s really the magic of freestyle is when those cues are hidden, when you can’t tell that the dog is being cued, and it appears as if he’s initiating these behaviors. That, to me, is really the magic of freestyle. That’s what I want to portray out there. In getting that, if I really want it, if I need my dog to really respond to my verbal cues, I need to count on his response to those verbal cues, I need to follow a specific protocol that’s going to help her truly learn the meaning of those cues. I think that, for the most part, handlers make the assumption that if they’re saying it, the dog is learning it, or if they make their hand cue smaller and smaller, the dog will take the information from what we’re saying, rather than that little bit of a hand cue that’s left, and that’s just often not true. We know that by the number of times we say things and our dog just looks at us like, “What?” It’s not until we provide some measure of body cuing that they say, “Oh, it was this. This is what you wanted.” They’ll certainly pick up meanings of certain words that way and phrases over time, you know, “Are you ready to go for a walk?” “Are you ready to get your ball?” And even obedience cues, yes, they will understand those to a certain degree. But I don’t have the time or luxury to assume that they will learn it, either on their own or using a less efficient method. Like I said, I really need to count on that response in the ring. Otherwise, my performance is just not going to appear polished. If my dog misses a cue in a freestyle routine, the music keeps playing. I can’t give the hand cue then and hope she does it right, because I’ve already lost the opportunity to showcase that behavior. I’ve already lost the opportunity to have it match the phrasing in the music. So having strong verbal cues is imperative to the freestyler, if they want to put out a really polished routine. And again, we want those cues to be hidden. We don’t want it to look like I’m showing my dog that he needs to spin. I want my dog to spin at a point in the music because the music moved him to spin, or it looks like the music moved him to spin, not that I’m actually cuing him to spin. And in that same vein I need to proof my cues against my own body movement, because I might be doing something totally different. I might be moving my arm in an opposite direction of the way I want him to spin. So I’ve got to proof those cues against not only the distractions, like we normally proof in training, but I’m going to have to give my verbal cue and make my body do something weird, and reinforce my dog for choosing what I said over what I did. So that’s a little bit of added training in terms of cueing for freestylers And then as well, freestylers teach choreographed body movements as new cues. If I know I’m going to use my body in a certain way, I’m going to spin a certain direction, I’m going to put my leg up this way or whatever, I can actually teach my dog that that movement, even though it’s not a lure-like or a leading action, that movement means to do something. It is a cue to do something. But it’s not being used as a leading cue, like if I were putting my hand out in a circle to get my dog to spin. But that’s a whole ’nother podcast. That’s freestyle, not heelwork. Melissa Breau: Right, right. I know you have a class coming up on this stuff in October. Can you share a little bit on what you’re planning to cover there? What level of class? Is it foundations? Is it intermediate? Problem solving? And maybe a little bit about what skills someone should have if they’re interested in taking it? Julie Flanery: In a sense, it’s a foundation class. However, it’s going to be most suited to teams where the dog already has some understanding, and has some reinforcement history, of being near or in heel position in relation to the handler. They don’t have to have strong heeling behaviors. They don’t have to have perfect heelwork by any stretch of the imagination. But if they have started on their heelwork skills, and they want to get more out of their training and more out of their dog, they want more joy and lift and precision — we’re going to go over precision and accuracy as well — but if the picture they see in their head of a beautiful heeling dog is not what they’re getting out of their dog in training, then this would be a great class for them. We are going to go over some precision and accuracy. We are going to go through a lot of different ways there are to build joy in our heelwork training. And then we’re going to be using a lot of reinforcement history and value in each of those pieces to allow the dog to bring that together. We’re also going to talk a lot about appropriate expectations in your heelwork. There are certain limitations. If you have a certain picture of what you want, and your dog’s structure dictates that that just isn’t going to happen, we still want to get the prettiest and best performance out of your dog that we can get. The Bulldog is not going to heel the same way that a Border Collie or a Belgian is going to heel, so we do want to take those things into account, but there’s still things that we can do to work towards that picture, or build a more dramatic style of heelwork for your dog. Melissa Breau: You mean a Bulldog can’t get quite that same lift? Julie Flanery: Not quite, not quite. Melissa Breau: Poor guys. Julie Flanery: Doesn’t mean they can’t do beautiful heelwork. I just saw the most gorgeous bulldog — actually it was a mix. I think there was some French bulldog in it, and something else, and oh my gosh, that dog just had such spark in his heelwork, and it was beautiful. It was just gorgeous. No, it wasn’t a Terv and no it wasn’t a border collie. It was just … for that dog, it was just gorgeous heeling, and I enjoy that as much as I enjoy seeing the some of the dogs whose structure is more conducive to the type of heeling that we picture in our heads as being beautiful and joyful. Melissa Breau: One of the things on your syllabus that caught my eye was that you’re planning on including some information on reinforcement strategies. I know that that’s a big topic. What are some of the common reinforcement strategies someone might want to use when working on heeling? And maybe a little on how to decide which ones you want to use and when? Julie Flanery: Something to note about reinforcement strategies that I think people aren’t fully aware of, or don’t fully grasp about why we use different reinforcements strategies: Reinforcement strategies are a way to alter future behavior and not the behavior you are currently rewarding. For example, if I feed with my dog’s head slightly away from me, it’s not an effort to lure her bum in, but rather to get her to start thinking about where reinforcement happens for the next reps. So if I reward the dog — let’s say just for fronts — if I reward the dog for coming into front by tossing between my legs, I’ve already clicked the behavior. I’ve already said, “You are getting a reward for what you just did.” But by tossing the treat or the toy between my legs, she’s more likely to line up straight and in a way that she can efficiently get to reward faster on the next rep, and that benefits future behavior. So if I want my dog, say, to take the weight off of her front and drive from her rear for heelwork, I’m likely going to have her reach up and forward a little for her reward, maybe give a little jump up to get her reward. If she starts thinking about that on the next few steps of heelwork and begins to think of, Reward’s coming, reward’s coming, where is it? Oh, it’s going to be up high, she starts to lift herself in preparation for that, and that gives me something I can click. That bit of lift she’s offering in preparation to take the next reward gives me my criteria shift, lets me click that behavior. Melissa Breau: Even though you designed the class thinking about freestyle, would the class still be a good fit for somebody whose primary interest is obedience or Rally? We talked a little bit about this already, but how would the skills that you value in heeling and in the class for freestyle carry over into those sports? Julie Flanery: Just given the things we’ve talked about, I think that all of those things, any obedience handler or Rally handler would like to have those things. Especially in Rally, the backing up, in backing up we want that skill to be a very thoughtful, deliberate action on the dog’s part, and I think that in Rally sometimes we’ll see handlers Band-Aiding that a little bit by rushing backwards in an effort to use the dog’s wanting to stay with them, but not really working on the precision aspect of that. For Rally skills such as the side pass — they do side passes in Rally, and they do backing up and heel in Rally — absolutely this class is going to benefit those. In obedience, again, freestylers are really looking for the same attributes in heelwork that obedience handlers are looking for. So, in many ways, a lot of these things … as a matter of fact, when I worked in obedience, these are a lot of the same skills that I did when I worked in obedience and Rally. The only place where there may not be carryover, and of course this is always added later anyway, would be the sits in heel, the automatic sits, the setup in a sit. But that’s going to be added later anyway. The way I train heelwork, it’s not something I add at the start. It’s actually going to benefit those obedience folks who maybe have centered their heelwork around that setup or the sit and heel. This is actually going to solidify your dog’s understanding of what it means to keep their body in relation to yours while they’re standing in heel, and while they’re moving forward in heel, and while they’re moving in any direction in heel. So yeah, I think that could definitely benefit obedience and Rally handlers. Melissa Breau: We talked a bunch about the October class, but I think you have a few other things you’re working on, right? Anything you care to mention? Julie Flanery: Yeah, just a few! I’m still working on the heeling class, too. I think I just scheduled to do some webinars. I’m not sure when they’re scheduled for, exactly. There was a lot of interest in the mimicry classes that I did, so we thought we would put that in a nutshell and let people experience what that protocol is all about, and try it a little bit with their dogs. So I’ll be doing a webinar on mimicry. And because my interest is Musical Freestyle and Rally FrEe, and I get a lot of questions from people about “What is it?” “How do you get started?” “How is it different?” So I’m going to do a webinar on Musical Freestyle and Rally FrEe, how they’re related to each other, some of the skills and behaviors that we use, how to start training for that. I’m really looking forward to that one because of course that’s my passion. I have another class, I think it’s in December maybe, a new class for me, also, Mission Accomplished. That class is going to focus on finishing up and completing all of those dozens of behaviors that we all start and never finish. That might be maybe because we’re stuck, we don’t know how to finish it, or maybe it’s just because we love that acquisition phase. We love starting new behaviors, and so we have dozens of new behaviors started, but we can’t seem to complete any of them. So we’ll help you get through and complete some of those. I’m really looking forward to that class, too. I think it will help a lot of people get over some training humps that they might be experiencing with some behaviors, and so they just move on because they don’t know where to go from there. So that’s going to be a really fun class, I think, too. Melissa Breau: Not that I’ve ever done that — had a behavior that I … Julie Flanery: No, none of us! I’m actually pretty good at finishing out behaviors, because in freestyle I have so many behaviors that I could use. Anything I want to train, I could figure out how to use it in freestyle. So I always have a motivation usually to finish out a behavior, or if I’ve got a theme that I want to use, or anything like that. I always have use for the behaviors that I train, and that motivates me to complete them. Melissa Breau: I’m sure that will be a popular class because I’m sure it’s pretty common. To round things out, my last question for everyone these days — what’s something you’ve learned or been reminded of recently when it comes to dog training? Julie Flanery: You know, I’ve heard you ask that question before, and so I knew that was coming up. There was a post, a Facebook post, the other day from one of our Fenzi family members. Esther Zimmerman talked about her Golden, and her Golden starting to refuse some cues, or just not seeming right in training. She talked about some of the steps she went through in her own mind — oh gosh, I’m going to get teary-eyed about this, oh dear — about how her dog’s welfare, and listening to what her dog was telling her, and not assuming that the dog was being stubborn, or blowing her off, or spiteful, or any of those things that we sometimes hear or maybe even sometimes think that in our own training, and that by really considering our dog’s point of view, and why they might not be responding the way they normally do, that really hits home with me. And gosh, this is horrible, Melissa! Melissa Breau: I think I know the post you’re talking about, where she was, like, the first day your dog doesn’t seem quite into training, OK, well, we just won’t do this today, and put them away. The next day, they’re still not quite into training and you’re, like, “Hmm, I wonder if there’s something wrong,” and by the third day it’s, “OK, it’s time to go see a vet.” Julie Flanery: And there really was something wrong, and it was just so kind of her, the way she talked about this. I know we all have that same philosophy, but sometimes we need reminding of that. My dog has had health issues. She’s 8 years old now and she’s had health issues all of her life. It can be difficult for me to sometimes read whether this is due to discomfort, is she not feeling well, but in the end it really doesn’t matter what the reason is. What matters is that we take the dog into account, that we listen to what they’re telling us through their behavior, and that we don’t make assumptions about their motivation. They can’t tell us when they’re feeling not right, not good. And it might just be a little thing, but continuing to train when our animals are not feeling up to par … if you consider how do you feel when you go into work and you woke up with a stuffy nose and a headache or a migraine, you’re not going to be at your best, and you’re likely going to resent that workplace environment because you have to be there. So it just reminded me to take my dog into account and listen more to her when she’s giving me some of these signals. Sorry about that! I didn’t mean to go into soap opera mode! Melissa Breau: No, you’re fine. I think it’s a great reminder. Julie Flanery: I think that’s really, really important, and we can lose sight of that because we have goals in our training. We have goals when we are working in these performance sports. These aren’t our dogs’ goals. These aren’t our dogs’ goals, and thank goodness they’re willing to do this with us. So it’s up to us to protect them in these environments, in these training situations, where they may not be feeling all that well. So thank you, Esther, for reminding me of that fact. Keeping track of my dog, my dog’s health, and how she’s feeling during a training session. Her and Amy Cook. Amy Cook has really changed a lot of my perspectives these last couple of years in training. So a big shout-out to Amy Cook on her work with emotions and training as well. Melissa Breau: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Julie. I’m so glad you could come back on the podcast. Julie Flanery: I am glad too. It was really, really fun. Thanks for having me. Melissa Breau: Absolutely. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in! We’ll be back next week, this time with Julie Daniels to talk building canine confidence. If you haven’t already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today’s show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services. Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!
SHOW NOTES: Summary: Julie Flanery 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, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, Parkour, Agility, and Trick Dog titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West Coast. In 2001 she was named "Trainer of the Year" by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a stand-alone sport enjoyed by dog sport enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. Next Episode: To be released 2/23/2018, featuring Kamal Fernandez, to talk about the benefits of competition and the concept of leadership in dog training. TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we'll be talking to Julie Flanery. Julie 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, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, Parkour, Agility, and Trick Dog titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West Coast. In 2001 she was named "Trainer of the Year" by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a stand-alone sport enjoyed by dog sport enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. Welcome back to the podcast Julie! Julie Flanery: Thanks. Melissa Breau: To start people out, can you just remind folks a little bit of information about your dog, what you do with her, and who she is? Julie Flanery: Currently I work with my 7-year-old Tibetan Terrier, and we are competing in Musical Freestyle and In Sync, which is a version of Heelwork to Music, and also Rally-FrEe. She's earned her Championships in both Freestyle and in Rally-FrEe, and a Grand Championship in Rally-FrEe, and we're working towards our Grand Championship in Musical Freestyle and our Championship in In Sync. Melissa Breau: Do you want to share her name? Julie Flanery: Kashi. Melissa Breau: Kashi. Excellent. Julie Flanery: Kashi. Like the cereal, you know? Good for you and makes you feel good. Melissa Breau: I like that! So I think we have a pretty fun topic lined up for today. I wanted to talk about the skills that trainers need but they sometimes don't learn until they get pretty into dog sports. To start us out, I wanted to start with talking about shaping. What aspect of shaping do you feel is usually the hardest for new trainers to implement effectively and why? Julie Flanery: I think there are a couple of things that can be really hard for trainers. The first thing, I think there is a very fine line between clicking what you observe and anticipating what the dog will do, so that your click is well timed. There's a tendency to wait until you actually see it, and then in that moment we have to process that information before we can act on it and actually click it. While this happens really quickly in the brain, there's still some latency, and this can actually result in late clicks, so you're giving the dog information that isn't actually what you want to convey. So first, having a picture in your head of the path the dog is likely to take, and shaping that behavior. Let's say you're shaping going under a chair. You can picture the dog's most likely path from where he's starting, as well as from where your reward is placed, and have a sense ahead of time of where your click points will be. You want to anticipate those click points. You at least want to have the precursor to your click points in mind and what they'll look like. This way you're going to be able to anticipate the dog's next likely action, and that's really imperative to good click timing. In a lot of respects this also relates to raising criteria, which is another place that handlers tend to have a lot of difficulty, and they're often getting stuck by clicking the same criteria for longer than is actually beneficial. You can often get stuck by clicking that same criteria for longer than we want, longer than is beneficial, so having that picture ahead of time can actually help the handler move forward in their criteria shifts as well. Melissa Breau: You mentioned the going under a chair example. If you know you're going to have the dog go under the chair, what is it that you're looking for? That first drop of the head? The drop of the shoulders? Am I on the right track? Julie Flanery: Depending on where the dog is starting, you might just be looking for looking at the chair. That might be your first click point. And certainly before the dog can move toward the chair, he's going to look at it. Before the dog can go under it, he's going to move towards it. But before he can move towards it, he needs to look at it. So you're looking at that progression and the behavior to determine where your click points are going to be so you can anticipate those things. If you put your chair out and then you go stand next to the dog and wait for something, you've probably already missed that first click. So setting that chair out, the dog is likely to look at it. That would be your first click. And then moving towards it, we can anticipate he's going to take a step towards the chair if he has any experience interacting with props. So we're anticipating that, and we're looking for it to happen, and we're trying to time our click and mark it just as he's doing that. If we wait until he actually does it, we're probably going to be late in our timing. Melissa Breau: Talking about timing, I know that one of the things you stress in your shaping class is the importance of good handler mechanics. I wanted to get into that a little bit. Can you share what you mean by that and how it's supposed to work? Maybe where folks tend to go wrong when it comes to mechanics? Julie Flanery: Sure. I think that we make it much harder on our dogs to shape than it needs to be sometimes. The dog needs to concentrate on the task, the task of figuring out “How do I earn reinforcement?” Remember, the dog doesn't know we're working toward something specific. He doesn't know there is an end-behavior goal. We know that, but he doesn't. He only knows that if he does certain things, he earns rewards. But I do believe that experienced shaping dogs do learn there is an end result and that they are working toward completion. They learn there is a process being followed and can anticipate the next steps, what we sometimes call “learning to learn.” They can anticipate within the process, once we have allowed them to experience it enough, which I believe is why some dogs seem to be better at getting behaviors on verbal cue while other dogs seem to struggle with that a bit. So the more verbal cues the dog learns, the quicker he learns the next ones, so there's an understanding of the process, what comes next, and the understanding from experience that verbal cues have meaning and value. In terms of clean training, clean training is really about creating the best environment for the dog to concentrate on the task and not be distracted from that. So in shaping, the primary information we want to provide to the dog is the marker and subsequent reinforcement. This is really all he needs within the shaping process in order to progress toward the handler's end goal. Yet we're constantly hindering their ability to do so in a variety of ways. Hovering over the bait bag, hands in pockets, reaching for food, or having food in our hands all indicate reward is imminent. The only thing that should indicate that reward is imminent is the sound of our marker. Anything else is overshadowing and diminishing the meaning and value of that marker: the click. That's our most powerful communication tool while shaping, and yet we're constantly putting in these extraneous movements or chattering to our dogs, and all of this, if done when shaping, can draw their attention away from the task. Think about if you're concentrating on a crossword puzzle and someone keeps interrupting you to ask a question. It's going to take longer to complete your puzzle, as there's all this extraneous stimulus that you keep having to deal with. So in our attempts to help our dog — getting the treat out faster, saying encouraging things, moving in a way that we think will prompt the dog — he's having to filter through what is relevant and what is not, and in our efforts to help, we're actually pulling the dog off task. So let them work. Your job is to provide relevant information and not to cloud the learning process by doing things that distract the dog from working towards that task. Does that make sense? Melissa Breau: Absolutely. Sometimes it just helps to stop and think about, OK, this is the process I'm actually following: it's a click and a pause and then reach for the treat, that piece. Julie Flanery: Right. In terms of mechanical skills, those are the things we're talking about. We're talking about, What is the handler doing with their body? Is their body still and quiet? Are they allowing the dog to focus on what's important, or are they taking the dog's focus away from that because there's something going on with the handler that isn't really adding to the learning process and is actually detracting from it. Melissa Breau: Even knowing all that, people tend to get frustrated when they're trying shaping, especially if they haven't done a lot of it, because they wind up with a dog that does one of two things. They wind up with a dog that stands or sits there and stares at them, especially if they've done a lot of focus work, or they get a dog that is throwing out behavior so fast that they're having trouble targeting one specific thing or getting motion towards the behavior that they're looking for. Any tips for folks struggling with those issues? I don't know if there are generic tips that apply to both, but maybe you could talk to that a little bit. Julie Flanery: That can be a huge deterrent and pretty frustrating to someone that's just starting out in shaping, and I know many, many trainers who gave up or basically said, “It doesn't work.” It's not that the process and protocol don't work. It's that they need to learn how to apply it effectively. So these are two separate issues: the dog that stands still and does nothing, and the dog that just starts frantically throwing behaviors at you. But in general I'd say they have the same solution, and it's a pretty easy mantra to remember: Click for anything but. Anything but standing still and staring earns a click, even if you have to toss a cookie to start them moving and give you an opportunity to click. Anything but standing still. A lot can happen, even in a dog that's standing still, but for a lot of new shapers, the two-legged kind, larger movements are going to be easier for them to see. So getting the dog moving and clicking anything but standing still will help. For those dogs that are frantically throwing things at you, you want to click way early, before they have an opportunity to start throwing behaviors out. You want to be ready before you get the dog out. A lot of dogs, we give these cues that we're about to start shaping. We pick up our clicker, we put the bait bag on, we put our hand in our pocket, we go to a certain place, and our dogs, before we even in our minds are starting to train, are already starting to throw behaviors out at us. All of those “pre-cues” that we're giving are actually cues to the dog to offer. So be ready before you get the dog out. The worst thing you can do with both these kinds of dogs is look at them expectantly, like, “OK, do something,” or “Do something else.” Sometimes we have to create those first few clicks to get the dog on the right path, so setting up our environment or a session to prevent both of those things by creating some type of an effective antecedent. So if a dog is constantly throwing things at me, then I might use a prop to direct his activity. Or I might click upon coming out of the crate and each step forward toward where we want to train. Often, dogs that throw behaviors just aren't being given enough information of what to do, so they're giving you everything they can think of in hopes that one of those will get clicked. So rather than shaping toward something, the handler is waiting for it to occur. I want you to click — again, it's “Click anything but,” so if you can take that moment of behavior — a single step, a single look, coming out of the crate — and click that, that can start to define for the dog the path you're going to lead them onto. It can tell them, “Oh, I don't have to keep throwing all of this stuff, because she's already clicking something. Now what did she click, so that I can repeat it?” The other thing that often happens with these dogs that tend to throw things or push farther in the criteria than we want them to be is although we aren't willing to drop back in the criteria, to move forward again. When the movement gets out of hand and you feel like the dog is pushing, or you're pushing, or you're rushing, it's OK to just stop, breathe, go back earlier in the criteria, click something way less than what you've been clicking, and then build it gradually back up again. So again, I think the answer is the same for both those situations: Click anything but. Melissa Breau: Excellent. I like that. It's nice, short, and easy to remember. This seems like a good point to dig in more a little bit on criteria. You were talking a little bit there about thinking about your criteria maybe a little differently than most people do. Are there general guidelines for how fast to raise criteria? I know you talked a little bit about going backwards in your criteria. When is it a good idea to do that? Julie Flanery: For me, and I think most of the Fenzi instructors, we all have a pretty common idea about raising or lowering criteria, and that is when it's predictable, when you can predict they're going to give you the exact same criteria again. I like to include the word confident, so when it's confident and predictable, then increase criteria, and if you have two incorrect responses in a row, then it's time to lower criteria. For my dog, oftentimes she's ready to raise criteria and looks confident, and for me, it's predictable in her within three repetitions. I can tell whether it's time to raise criteria, stay where I'm at, or lower criteria. A response might be predictable, but I'm not seeing quite the confidence I want to see, and so I might hold off another repetition or two to ensure that she really has some good understanding of that. But certainly if I see two incorrect responses in a row, then I'm going to lower criteria. Now that precludes that you know where your criteria shifts are, because when I say “incorrect responses,” you have to know what that is and what that isn't. Let's say I'm training a bow, and I am watching for the head and shoulder lowering, and she's moving in a progression forward, so I'm clicking the head drop, click the head drop again, then she lowers slightly lower, I click that, and I'm anticipating what her next movement is, so that I can actually see and anticipate, through my click, when she will do that. Let's say, for shaping, an incorrect response might be either less than what I previously clicked or no response whatsoever. She's predictably dropping her head and starting to lower her chest, but maybe her elbows aren't on the ground yet, and she's done that same thing three times in a row, then I'm not going to click that anymore. I'm going to wait, and hopefully she'll give me a little bit more, based on the fact that I've clicked this previously, she knows she's on the right track, and she'll be like, “Hey, did you see this?” and give me a little bit more, and I can click that. So it was predictable that she was going to drop her chest a little bit and her head is lowering. I don't want to keep clicking that because I'm going to get stuck there, because she's going to think, “Oh, this is right, I think I'll keep doing this.” If she is at that point, say, and the next offering, the next rep, her head isn't quite as low, so I don't click that and she just stands up. So she offers again and she still doesn't get as low as the previous one, and she just stands up. Then I'm going to say, “OK, she doesn't have clear enough understanding of what the next step is, so I want to build confidence in the previous.” In that case I'm going to lower my criteria maybe for a couple more reps and then start to build back up again. Does that make sense? Melissa Breau: Absolutely, and that was a great example because it walked us through thinking through the different steps and the bits and pieces there. Julie Flanery: Hopefully you can actually visualize that a little bit so you can actually see and be able to anticipate what that next step is. We all know what it looks like for a dog to bow and bring his chest and elbows down to the ground. You can map that out in your head and be able to anticipate what comes next, and if what you expect to come next isn't happening, you're stagnated, or you're getting lesser responses, then that's showing that the dog doesn't understand what that forward progression is next. Melissa Breau: You said something recently, and I can't remember if I originally heard it in a webinar or if it's from class, but you were talking about “leaps of learning” and how to respond if, while shaping, the dog suddenly makes a big leap in the right direction. Maybe we're trying for four paws on a platform, they've been struggling to give two, and suddenly they step on it with all four paws. Obviously you click it. Do you mind just sharing it here? Because I thought it was really interesting and I hadn't heard that before. Julie Flanery: I don't know if I will say exactly what you remember, but I understand what you're asking, and it did come up recently in the shaping class I'm teaching that you are a student of — and you're doing very well, by the way. Melissa Breau: Thank you. Julie Flanery: So there are times when it seems like our dogs get it right away, like, all of a sudden — what you just described —they were struggling with two and all of a sudden there's four and “Yay!” That doesn't mean you're going to hold out for four feet on the platform now. One correct response doesn't indicate understanding, and yet sometimes we forge ahead as if it does. I want to see not only predictable responses, I want to see confident, predictable responses, so that leap up of four feet on the platform might have looked confident, but we don't really know if it's predictable until we get a few reps. So I want to make sure that I see confident, predictable responses before I increase criteria, even if it appears that they've got it. Now, having said that, I don't want to stay stuck at the same criterion too long, so each handler has to determine what that looks like in their dog. For me, I can recognize confidence in my own dog, in Kashi, and for her, if she provides the same response three to four times in a row, that's predictable, and I'm going to go ahead and raise criteria there. If I made an error in judgment, I can always drop back down, but my goal is still going to be always forward progression. I don't want to stay stuck in any single criterion for too long, and that might be different for each dog, but consider your definition of predictable. For me, again, if she does it three or four times in a row and she looks confident in her actions, I can predict that she'll do it that fourth time or that fifth time. If I can predict it, I don't want to stay there. Kathy Sdao talked about criteria shifts in one of her lectures in relation to a recording being played on a record player, and how the needle can get stuck in a groove and not advance, so the record keeps skipping over the same place in the music. Well, if we click the same criteria for too many reps, the dog will get stuck in that groove, and you risk some increased frustration in working to get out of that groove. Sometimes lowering criteria is the way out. Sometimes withholding the click is the way out. Either way, you need to get out of that groove. Melissa Breau: Frustration on both the dog and the handler's part. Julie Flanery: Exactly, exactly. It's kind of like that dog that stands still and does nothing. You need to get out of that groove. What I talked about earlier about having a picture in your mind of the likely path the dog will take – that will help you not get stuck. I think sometimes people get stuck because they just don't know what to click next. So having a picture in your head, thinking ahead of time, “What is this process going to look like?” will help you anticipate that and will help you move forward in the process, to progress in the process, and not get stuck at any one point. Melissa Breau: What about duration? First of all, is it possible to actually shape duration, and then if so, how is shaping duration different than shaping more active behaviors? Julie Flanery: That's a really interesting question, and it's interesting because of the way you framed it. You said, “Is it actually possible to shape duration?” and that surprised me because yes, it's totally possible to shape duration, and I think really in general all duration is shaped in that we are marking and rewarding in small increments towards that end behavior, towards that extended duration of behavior. Shaping duration is like shaping any other skill, though your increments need to be sliced very thin in order to not get some other behavior in there. You're still withholding the click for a little more, and for most dogs withholding the click means do something else or push ahead. Duration needs to be more finely sliced so that we don't get some of that junk behavior in there. But that little bit, little generally less than what you might hold out for in a moving behavior, so you're not waiting long chunks of time, too, what we have to measure can be more difficult, so it's not as difficult to measure movement, as there is time and space, you can see a dog's action and how it carries him forward. So clicking movement, marking movement, in increments is not too difficult for the observer. In building duration, there's only time, there's no space, and we aren't very good at keeping track of time. If I paused here, then I asked three different people how many seconds did I pause, they would all have a different answer. So I often either count in my head or out loud to measure the advancement of my duration criteria. In appropriate criteria shifts for duration, especially since they should be sliced thin, we often aren't very consistent in our forward progression of time, and that can lead to inconsistency and a lack of understanding in the dog. I think that the reason people have difficulty shaping duration is because they aren't slicing those increments of time small enough. They're thinking of it like they would shape movement and larger pieces of behavior, and in shaping duration you can't do that because the dog is going to pull off. Let's take for example a sustained nose target. We want the dog to hold that nose target for — let's say our goal is three seconds. Four seconds, three seconds. Initially we click the act of pressing the nose and we click immediately. That tells the dog what the intended behavior is to which we're now going to start to attach duration. Once the dog presses the nose and expects a click and it doesn't come, he's likely to pull off, which is not going to get clicked either. Often when we withhold a click, which is what just happened here, on the next rep we will see a slightly higher-energy behavior, a little bit more, a little bit stronger, again it's like that “Hey, didn't you see this? Look, I'm going to do it a little bit more so you can see it.” In that moment of that second offering after the withheld click, you're likely to see a little more pressure — and I know it's hard to see, and this is why hand touches are a good thing for this, because you'll feel that pressure — and in that moment of more pressure, that takes a slightly longer amount of time. The time it takes for your dog to just touch something, and the time it takes a dog to touch something and put a little pressure, is slightly longer, and that's what you're clicking. That pressure is also criteria of sustained nose target, because they're going to have to put a little pressure there in order to keep their nose there. So that slice right there is super-thin, and once the dog pushes on again, you may have to go through a couple of clicks of he pushes, or, I'm sorry, he touches, it's not sustained even for a fraction of a second, you wait, that second one is sustained a fraction of a second, you click. Then you can start to extend by not seconds but almost fractions of seconds. So you're not counting one-one-thousand. You're counting one, click, one two, click, one two, click. If the dog pulls off, there's no click. So the dog is starting to understand, through both the withheld click for when he comes off and the click for continued small slivers of duration, that by keeping the nose to the hand, or the wall, or wherever you wanted the target, that's what he's building toward. But as soon as you start to increase that too far, too fast, you're going to get frustration, you're going to get poking at the wall, which is not what you want, and so the key to duration, to shaping duration, is really making sure that, number one, you are slicing those increments very small, and that those increments are very consistent, that you're not going all over the place with your duration, and that's where the counting or doing something that helps you measure that passing of time so that you have appropriate clicks will help. I'm not going to deny that it's a harder concept for some people to get, or it's a harder skill for some people to get, but if you understand the concept of shaping, and progressing through a behavior through small increments, it's just a matter of how finely you slice it for duration. That's all. Melissa Breau: That's really interesting, because typically you think of it's always easier to teach a dog to do something in the absence of a behavior. Julie Flanery: Correct. But you have to think of duration as a behavior. Does that make sense? Duration isn't the absence of a behavior. It's the continuation of a behavior. It's the absence of movement, and we've always been taught “Click for movement, feed for position” — still a very, very good rule. But in duration it seems as if it's the absence of a behavior, when in actuality it's the extension of a behavior. Melissa Breau: That gives me a lot to think on. Julie Flanery: Yeah, I'm sure. Melissa Breau: Hopefully it gives a lot for everybody to think on. But I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about training in general. I think you gave a great webinar last year on verbal cues, and it's part of what inspired the topic for today, the idea of what you didn't learn in puppy class. I feel like the concept of when to add a cue and how to go about it sometimes gets glossed over for a number of reasons, obviously, when dog owners are first learning to train. So when do you typically add a cue to behavior and how do you go about it? Julie Flanery: For me, something that I touched on earlier, I like the dog to have confident, predictable, correct responses that include the majority if not all of my criteria for that behavior. I say majority because there are some times, or some things, that I can add later, and the cue actually helps me draw that base behavior out of the dog. So, for example, duration or distance may be something I don't have yet, but will go ahead and put it on cue and build those in later. The behavior may or may not be fully generalized when I put it on cue, depending on the behavior. I may use cue discrimination as part of my generalization process. For me, the criteria, the majority of the criteria, needs to be predictable and confident and I'm certain that I'm going to get correct responses. As soon as I have that, I will start the process of putting the behavior on cue. Now, having said that, that will fluctuate, so I might have predictable, confident, correct responses in a session in the morning, and so partway through that session I start to add the cue. But maybe that afternoon or the next day, when I start my session, I'm not seeing the same confidence or the same predictability, and in that case I'm not going to continue to use the cue or add the cue in that session. There's kind of an ebb and flow to our dogs' ability to maintain predictability when they're first learning behaviors. It has to do with that leap of learning we were talking about earlier, about not assuming that because the dog does it correct once that they have understanding, and it's the same with adding the cue. I do want to take advantage of my dog's predictable responses in any given session, those predictable responses that again that are confident and contain the majority of my criteria. But just because I've started putting the behavior on cue doesn't mean that that next session, or that next location that I might work the behavior, that my dog is ready then to put it on cue. It's kind of like Denise's “Work the dog in front of you.” That dog changes from session to session, and so my training strategies have to change session to session, depending on what he's giving me at the start of that session. So again: predictable, I'm going to insert the cue; not predictable, I'm going to hold off a little bit. And that may all very well be with the exact same behaviors over different sessions. I think you are right in using the term “glossed over.” It's a part of the process that few spend very much time planning or implementing. It's either almost like an afterthought — “Oh yeah, now I need to put the cue on” — or they make the assumption that if they just start using the cue while training, the dog will get it somehow. So that process they apply is often random and very inefficient. Overlapping the behavior and the cue is a really common thing that I see. Cues should always precede behaviors with nothing in between, no junk behavior in between the cue and the behavior. You want it to have meaning for them. In putting behaviors on cue or transferring the cue, you really need to set that up. So if you're shaping, you first need a predictable, correct response. Are you noticing a theme here, Melissa? A predictable, correct response with confidence — that's really key to the dog's understanding. If the response is confident and correct and predictable, then we can start to assume some understanding. Until that happens, though, we're still working towards that. Once you have that, you insert your cue just prior to the dog either offering the behavior or the behavior being prompted. For example, we might have used a hand signal, we might not be shaping, we might have used a hand signal, or we might be prompting the dog in some other way, a visual cue or a prop might prompt the dog to interact with it. So just before the key phrase is, just prior to the dog offering the behavior or performing the behavior, that's when you insert the cue. Not as the dog is doing the behavior. Cues always precede behavior. It's why they're called antecedents. It's that old ABC: the cue is the antecedent, then behavior, then consequence. So when putting a cue to shape behavior, where people tend to shoot themselves in the foot is continuing to reward offered behavior. They might have started to put the behavior on cue, great, the dog is predictable, the dog is consistent, you're doing the correct thing by inserting the cue before the behavior, but unfortunately, you might be continuing to reward that offered behavior. So once you start to put the behavior on cue, execution on cue is the only thing that gets rewarded. Otherwise there's no value in the cue to the dog. If he can offer and get rewarded, or if he can get rewarded for doing it on cue, you're not going to get stimulus control because there's no value in the cue. Now there's a caveat to that. Melissa Breau: Of course. Julie Flanery: Yeah, and you'll learn about it next week in class, but there are times when you have a behavior that's on cue and you're going to want to remove the cue and encourage the dog to offer it again so that you can either fix or improve on the behavior. Maybe something's gone a little bit wrong, or you're not getting the criteria you used to have with it. It's gone a bit south. Then you want to remove that cue so that you can refine or improve the behavior, and then put that cue back on. That's a little more advanced process that is an important process too. Cues are cool. To me, putting the behavior on cue is the most important part of training the behavior, if you ever want to be able to draw it out of your dog. If you want the dog to respond reliably, then you have to really apply that process of putting it on cue very succinctly and very deliberately and not in a random fashion. We don't need cues if we don't care when the dog performs the behavior. But we do care. That's why we train. So cues should be a priority, and understanding how to put behaviors on cue should be a priority in any handler's learning. Melissa Breau: I think a lot of people struggle with that concept: the idea of getting something on stimulus control, getting a behavior to the point where it is reliable but also only actually happens on cue. Julie Flanery: And the reason is exactly that, because we have a tendency to still click off the behavior when it's offered. We love it, we like it, it's cute, I mean, “Oh, look at you, you did it again. How great,” and we have been patterned to click that offered behavior. We have to get ourselves out of that pattern. The rule is: Once you start putting the behavior on cue, you only click it when you cue it. That's what builds stimulus control. Melissa Breau: Let's say that you like to train, and you often get behaviors to that point where they're reliable enough for a cue. Is there any downside to having a bunch of half-trained behaviors that you never actually attach a cue to? … Julie Flanery: Well, that depends a little on your goals. If your goal is to compete and you need those behaviors, well, that's a really obvious detriment. But even more than that, in leaving behaviors what we're calling “half-trained,” you're denying your dog the opportunity and the experience to learn how to learn, how to learn a behavior to completion, and how to understand when you want him to perform that said behavior. Like most trainers, I love the acquisition stage. I love shaping, I love developing a behavior, but I also need my dog to understand the whole process if I ever want those behaviors to be of any use to me. I need my dog to learn how the process of adding a cue works so that he can also anticipate what comes next in the process. The more experience I give him at learning the whole process complete through generalization, adding the cue, and fluency, the faster and easier it is to train the next behavior, because it becomes something we are both working through the pieces to completion. The dog can help drive the process forward. That not only builds stronger behaviors, that builds faster behaviors, and that builds truly greater teamwork, in my mind, because you both are on the same path. You both have the same type of goal. But if we have a lot of half-trained behaviors, and only some of our behaviors are trained through completion, the dog just doesn't have enough experience to understand the full process and help drive that process to completion. Melissa Breau: A little birdie told me that maybe you're working on a class on that topic. Julie Flanery: I was asking the other instructors if they thought a class on finishing up all those half-trained behaviors would be a good idea, and they all jumped on it. So I'm planning to call it Mission Accomplished, and in effect you'll be providing your dog lots of opportunity and experience at learning how to learn. I think, for some, the reason that they haven't finished these behaviors is because they and their dog just need more experience at how to do it effectively and efficiently. People can get stuck in the process, just like dogs, and oftentimes that's why we have those half-trained behaviors. Maybe we don't know what we should do next, how to get it on cue, how to generalize it — all of those things that are involved in having a completed, reliable behavior. So hopefully that class will help some people. I think it will be a really fun class, and I'm just starting to develop it, but you've given me a lot of ideas in this podcast now that I can include in there, so that's super. Melissa Breau: Awesome. Do you have any idea yet when it's going to show up on the schedule? Julie Flanery: Oh my gosh, I have no idea. I'm just trying to get through this session. But I am keeping some notes and have some ideas floating around in my brain, and the schedule is a little bit set, but every now and then I'll add in a class if it's ready to go, so hopefully within the next few sessions it will be up on the schedule. Melissa Breau: Awesome. I'm looking forward to it, I will tell you that. Julie Flanery: Good. Melissa Breau: I think the other topic that gets overlooked — for lack of a better word — in pet training classes where most of us start out is fading treats from the training picture, so how to start reducing reinforcement. At what point in the process do you feel like a behavior is well enough established that you can start that process, and how do you usually tend to go about that? Julie Flanery: First thing somebody said is, I don't want the behavior well established before I take food out of my hand. That's personally for me. My rule of thumb for luring and removing the food from my hand is really first session, three to five reps, then present the hand cue, it needs to look exactly like my active lure, and I use it as a test. In general, especially dogs that have gone through this process, most dogs can do at least one correct response, or a partial response, without the food in your hand, due to the perception that the food is actually there, and you can build on that. Again, this is kind of important in terms of what we just talked about, about dogs learning the process. If a dog has gone through lure reward training and understands that at a point early in the process the food will no longer be an active lure, but that doesn't mean you won't be rewarded for following the hand signal, then that's a much easier leap for them than the dog that has an expectation of having food in the hand all the time, and really the only time he gets rewarded is when there is food in the hand. So that's one of the issues is we tend to reward less if we don't have the food right in our hand. But really it goes back to that teaching the dog the process so he has an appropriate expectation, and so it's not difficult to make those criteria shifts. The criteria shift of having food in the hand to having no food in the hand — that's criteria shift that the dog and handler go through. So three to five reps, and then I will remove the food from my hand and I will click early. I won't wait for the full behavior. I will click the dog following an empty hand cue on the path to the end behavior. I don't need to have the full behavior before I click the first time I take food out of my hand. If you tend to lure, if you use the lure for several sessions, then that's what your dog is going to expect. Lures are really effective for showing criteria, I do use lures on occasion, they're very effective at building patterns for the dog, but the sooner the dog learns to offer the criteria without food in your hand, the faster you're on your way to a more robust behavior, one that's going to, in my mind, have more strength and more longevity. So when I use lures, it's as a means to jumpstart my dog's understanding of what they should be offering. I think lures are an important tool, and I don't think we need to remove them from our toolbox, but I do think that people tend to keep food in their hand for far too long, far too deep into the process, so it becomes too much of an expectation for the dog, too much of a prompt, certainly. I hate to use the word “crutch,” but in a way it is, because really, until the food is gone, they're just following food. I don't believe that that stronger learning process starts to take place until the dog is initiating the behavior without prompts. Melissa Breau: That certainly matched my experience. Julie Flanery: I think that's why so many trainers now are really delving into shaping and are really starting to use that more as a primary tool than luring. Melissa Breau: Thank you so much for coming back on the podcast, Julie! I really appreciate it. Julie Flanery: I had a great time. I hope I get to come back again. I'm sorry I took so long. I get excited about this stuff and I love sharing it, and I want to share that with people, so I really appreciate you having me back here. Melissa Breau: Absolutely. I think folks are going to take a ton out of this. There's a lot of great information here, so thank you, seriously. Julie Flanery: Super. Melissa Breau: And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in! We'll be back next week, this time with Kamal Fernandez to talk about the benefits of competition and the concept of leadership in dog training. And guys, this week I want to repeat my special request from the last few episodes. If you listen to podcasts, I'm sure you've heard other people say this, but reviews in iTunes have a HUGE impact on helping new people find the show and in letting iTunes know that our show is worth listening to. It helps us get recommended and it helps us get more eyeballs on the podcast and ears. So if you've enjoyed this episode or any of the previous ones, I'd really appreciate it if you could take a moment and leave us a review over in iTunes. And if you haven't already, subscribe while you're there to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang.
Summary: Kamal Fernandez is an internationally renowned dog trainer and seminar instructor, Championship Obedience Judge, Crufts competitor and the head trainer and owner of East London Dog Training. He has over 25 years of practical dog training experience, based on a combination of science and hands on work that have led him to establish a reputation for positive training and to champion reward-based methods all over the world. Kamal has made a study of psychology and began his career as a police officer working with young offenders -- this has shaped his training philosophy and helped him craft a style that gets the best from his students, human and canine alike. He's probably most well-known for teaching heelwork, his primary focus here at FDSA, but he's successfully used rewards based methods in a wide variety of dog sports, including obedience, agility, protection sports and canine freestyle. His training specialty revolves around using play and games to create motivation and control. Links Mentioned: Dogs Might Fly Youtube Channel Next Episode: To be released 8/18/2017, featuring Melissa Chandler talking about nosework, parkour, and problem solving for soft dogs. TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we'll be talking to Kamal Fernandez. Kamal is an internationally renowned dog trainer and seminar instructor, Championship Obedience Judge, Crufts competitor and the head trainer and owner of East London Dog Training. He has over 25 years of practical dog training experience, based on a combination of science and hands on work that have led him to establish a reputation for positive training and to champion reward-based methods all over the world. Kamal has made a study of psychology and began his career as a police officer working with young offenders -- this has shaped his training philosophy and helped him craft a style that gets the best from his students, human and canine alike. He's probably most well-known for teaching heelwork, his primary focus here at FDSA, but he's successfully used rewards based methods in a wide variety of dog sports, including obedience, agility, protection sports and canine freestyle. His training specialty revolves around using play and games to create motivation and control. Hi Kamal, welcome to the podcast! Kamal Fernandez: Hi Melissa! Thank you for having me. Melissa Breau: I'm so glad to chat. Heelwork is always everybody's favorite topic, so.. Kamal Fernandez: Yes, so this should be an interesting conversation. Melissa Breau: To start us out, can you tell us a bit about your own dogs -- who they are and what you're working on with them? Kamal Fernandez: I have a malinois, I have border collies, I have a German spitz, I have a boxer, and I have a poodle-cross Jack Russell. So I have a real array of dogs and they do various things. Obviously, the primary focus for the majority of my career has been as an obedience competitor, but I've recently moved to begin doing other disciplines. Primarily for a bit of a change, really. I think I've been doing it for quite a long while, and I was looking for new challenges and something to sort of take my training a little bit further, and I've dappled with lots of disciplines throughout my career. So my border collie and my spitz both compete in agility, and my boxer, the intention with him is to do IPO. He's in the midst of training at the moment; he had quite a long period off with injury, 2 years out with quite a severe injury, so he's just been, probably in the last year, been brought back into work so we've got a lot of catch-up to do. And my malinois and my older border collie, they both do obedience. I'm sort of shifting my goals as it were to new disciplines and I've sort of done obedience for so long I just want to have a little bit of a change and I think for an instructor and a teacher it's really good to keep fresh and to teach your dog new things, and also be a recipient of being a student as well. I think that's really healthy. Melissa Breau: So you're pushing into Agility, is that what you're saying? Kamal Fernandez: Yeah, so I've just started -- my spitz does agility. He's up to… I'm not sure what the equivalent would be in the US but he's at grade 5 level now, and my border collie bitch is just starting her competitive career. So they're both doing… I've been really really pleased with them, I've only.. My times a bit… well, obviously, I have a young child now -- a baby -- so my time's a little bit limited, which is always a constant battle. Bless their hearts, they seem to be carrying me a little bit at the moment, to be honest, but that's a good foundation. They're great; they're all doing really really well. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. I know you mentioned you started out in obedience, so how did you first get into that -- how did you start out in dog sports? Kamal Fernandez: So, I was always obsessed with dogs and I was always fanatical about the prospect of owning one. And I badgered my parents for years and years and years about getting a dog and they eventually succumbed, and they buckled in to me to get a dog. And that dog was absolutely every single behavioral issue you can probably ever encounter, that one dog had. And it was largely down to pet dog owners -- you just, just naive people thinking “I tell it sit, why doesn't it sit?” “I let it off the lead, why doesn't it come back?” We just didn't understand the concept of training a dog, we just -- like a lot of people -- we just assumed the dog came hard-wired to do it. I actually was watching agility on television, and there was a guy there called Greg Derrett who anybody who knows about agility, he's one of the top competitors and trainers in the world, and Greg's a little bit older than me, and he was there competing at Crufts in the junior competition and I always thought, well, if he can do it as a junior -- and i think he won that year -- I thought well it must be achievable, i must be able to do it. So I tried to contact the local agility club and at that point they said you can't start bringing a dog to agility until you've gone to obedience training. She wasn't a puppy-puppy, she must have been 6-10 months old, and they said you can't start with her until she's well over a year, so I thought, “Oh god, what am I going to do for this time?” Anyway, they said take your dog to obedience training. And I took her to obedience training and it was just domestic pet training, very, very, very old school, you know. Choke chains, walking around the whole, choking the dog, which you know at the time -- this was 26 years ago -- wasn't unusual to be honest, in this country. And it just so happened that I stayed on one evening to watch the more advanced people train their dogs and there was somebody doing competitive obedience, and it just really really inspired me because of the level of control she had over her dog and I remember she left it at one end on a stage that's actually at the hall where i now teach, and she did like 6 position changes and I was just blown away by the fact that she could -- there's my dog that I can't even let off the lead and she could leave her dog at the other side of a room and give it positions which appeared to be on some sort of magic slash electronic remote control, i don't know, i was just blown away by it. So it just really made me go “wow I want to do that” and my career just really went in that path. I sort of got more and more interested in it; I saw her train numerous dogs to do heel work and I just got addicted to that as a concept, really. And I never really followed up on the whole agility thing, and it's ironic that now, 26 years later, I'm finally getting into agility. I'm a slow learner, but there you go. Better late than never as they say. Melissa Breau: Hey, you got there. You just took your time. So you mentioned that you started out choke chains and traditional training, all that stuff. How would you describe your training philosophy today? Kamal Fernandez: I talked recently at a conference, and was speaking about my personal journey in dog training and how it's really taken a really, really diverse route in that we started out like, i think, a lot of people that have been training dogs for 20+ years, in more compulsion based dog training and in dominance-based theories to training dogs; you know, you have to be the boss, you have to be the pack leader, and it was very much rout learning with them. The dog's thoughts, feelings, emotions were never considered, really. It was just make the dog do it, but i always instinctively felt there was a better way out there and it didn't sit with me as an individual; I thought, “Oh, I'm not a forceful person,” I'm determined, I'm very goal-oriented, but I'm not one for force. I wouldn't force somebody to do something; i wouldn't force my dogs, it just didn't quite align with who i was. And then i gravitated to more motivational methodology, which was slightly more what I'd call show and tell, so you'd show the dog what you wanted them to do, you'd reward the dog, and if the dog didn't do it you'd show them again, and if the dog didn't do it again after that you'd probably correct it and then reward it. So there was more reinforcement being used, but still that element of compulsion in there. And I was never extreme in my use of -- other than the choke chain scenario, which was just sheer ignorance -- I was always somebody that wanted to interact with my dogs, I wanted to… I mean I used to take my dog that i first had, she was my friend more than anything, I used to take her out and we used to go out for the whole day and we used to go play at what we call the dumps and stuff, so she was my little friend so there was a real conflict between what i was doing in training and how i was with her in general. So I gravitated to what you would now call reinforcement-based dog training and as clicker training became more prominent, in this country I'd say probably 15 years ago, something like that -- 15-20 years ago -- and initially the reaction was “oh gosh, this is rubbish” but I was inquisitive about it and i was skeptical, but the more and more I watched it I thought there's something to this, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Again, it's amazing how life takes you on this journey, I did psychology while I was at college and I did it later on as a -- I studied it as part of a certain degree and an element of it was psychology which part of it talked about learning theory and operant conditioning and classical conditioning and so forth, and it then sort of all fell into place and made more sense. So then i started to delve with the dog that i had into clicker training and my initial reaction was… I tried it, i pressed the clicker, I gave her a reward and the dog didn't miraculously do it. By that point i was a little more astute but i thought, “I'm missing something,” this isn't -- i just can't work this all out. Anyway, it was niggling away for me, and with that dog i sort of tried it and thought, okay this doesn't work, chuck the clicker, chuck my teddies out the pram, and flounce my skirt and I thought right, that doesn't work I'm going to go back to what i did. And I trained that dog more, what I'd say, traditionally. Flash with a bit more clicker training interspersed there, and he wasn't what I'd say was a straightforward, easy dog, but there were a couple of key things that made me realize, “you know what, i have to change what I'm doing.” Because the things I clicker trained where so -- the responses and the reaction and the dog's understanding were so more salient than what i taught him traditionally. And that's not to bash traditional training, it could be my application, it could be my understanding, it could be a thousand and one things, so with my subsequent dogs I made a commitment to say that's it, I'm going to do this or die, basically. I'm going to clicker train these dogs from the get-go, and if i don't clicker train them I'm not going to train them at all. I had that in my head. So I really sort of held a gun to my own head and said you're going to do this. And it was the making of my dogs and my career and how i perceive dog training. And now my philosophy in dog training is about reinforcement -- find a way to reinforce the dog and minimize the use of punishment, even just withholding reinforcement. Find a way to reinforce the dog and create the dog being correct and successful. And be strategic in your use of withholding reinforcement, etc. And it's brought me to a place, a dog training place that i feel really really comfortable with. I feel morally, ethically, even to be … it sound a bit grand, but even spiritually, I like the way that i train my dogs now. I feel comfortable in it, it sits with me on a personal level, it sits with me in terms of the relationship I want with my dogs. They make choices; they don't want to work, they don't train. I don't force them, I don't push them, I convince them that what i want them to do is interesting and kind of enjoyable and actually really really fun. And so the relationship I have with them, the relationship I have with my dogs now they're not waiting for the Jekyll and Hyde split personality, i was always very much about interacting with them, but occasionally I'd suddenly be this person that would say, hey now you're going to do this, and on some level I always felt there was that element of… they were waiting for that person to turn up. Now I don't have that with my dogs and I have… trained more dogs with reinforcement based methodology than not. And I was just fortunate that the dogs that I had that I trained alternatively were just very very forgiving. So my training philosophy, it's about really, reinforcement is the key. It builds behavior. If you learn nothing else about operant conditioning and clicker training reinforcement will save the day so-to-speak. Melissa Breau: So, I did some googling of you, before this call… I mentioned in your intro that you teach seminars internationally and they seem to be on a wide variety of topics, everything from foundations to extreme proofing... So I wanted to ask: what you enjoy teaching, what your favorite thing to teach is? And… why? Kamal Fernandez: That's sort of a real easy one. My actual favorite topic is foundations for any dog sport -- that is by far my favorite topic, because that's where all the good stuff happens. That's where you really lay your… well, your foundations, for a successful career in any dog discipline. And I think the irony is that people always want to move on to what I would call the sexy stuff, but the irony is the sexy stuff is actually easy if your foundations are laid solidly and firmly. And I think I've had more “ah-ha” moments when I teach foundations to people than I have with anything else. I also, i have to say, i like behavioral issues. You can make GREAT impact, and literally change somebody's life and their dog's life, or save somebody's life because behavioral work and giving them a new take on how they deal with their dog at present but i would say really really extreme behavioral cases are really really juicy to get involved in, and dogs that people say they're on the cusp of writing the dog off, and the dog is so phobic or aggressive or dog reactive or whatever the case may be and you can literally turn that person and that dog's relationship around. That's really rewarding and enjoyable to work with. But I would say as a standard seminar, I would say foundations by far. It's just you've got young, green dogs, you can see the light bulbs going off for the dogs, you can see the pieces strung together, that are going to ultimately lead to the dog being this amazing competitive dog, and you can see it literally unfold before your eyes. Melissa Breau: Right, and with the behavioral thing, a lot of people just think of that as a challenge so I think it takes a certain type of personality to be like, no this is actually pretty cool. Kamal Fernandez: Yeah, absolutely. I think you have to be a little bit odd to enjoy it, but i think we've seen so many changes in terms of dog training and I think there is a massive lack of knowledge in terms of behavior and how to deal with behavior so that the dog can actually function in the real world and also, I think there's more a sway toward behavior management versus actually helping the dog, and dealing with the actual cause of the issue, which is where i like to -- I'm all about management, I think that's great, to have skills to manage your dog and to have knowledge and awareness, etc. but what I really want to do is let's deal with the core issue. The core issue is this -- the dog is frightened, scared, apprehensive, whatever -- let's whittle it back and deal with that and let's help this dog be a confident, well adjusted member of society. Melissa Breau: Focus on the emotions and not just the behavior. Kamal Fernandez: Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's stripping it back to the real core, and the beauty is it's all done with reinforcement. It's all on just focusing on what you want the dog to do versus the symptoms of - let's actually get down to the real nuts and bolts of it, and help this dog, you know? As opposed to managing it, you know? Melissa Breau: Absolutely. So I want to switch topics a little bit and dive into heeling, since that's the thing you're most well known for. At FDSA, I know that's mostly also kind of your focus -- so since you're in the UK, and you do FCI-style heeling... and I'm sure you get this question all the time, but can you share some of the differences between the English, FCI and North American styles of heeling? What is that? Kamal Fernandez: So there is even from FCI obedience, to UK obedience, to AKC obedience there's slight changes. The basic principle of how i approach teaching it is all the same stuff, I just make minor little adjustments depending on the code that you subscribe to. Obedience in the UK, the general gist of it is that we allow contact with our dogs in heelwork, that our dog can be very very close to the leg where in FCI obedience and AKC or CKC or even Australian obedience the dogs are ideally, they should be a gap or a freeness between the leg and the dog. So that's the biggest, core, visual difference. There is technical differences between FCI obedience and, say, AKC and that is a different requirement of the test, in the UK our test is probably a lot longer than American heeling, in that it can go up to 5 or 6 minutes of heeling, you can do patterns, you can do weaving, you can do circles, you can do changes of pace and you do positions in motion. So our heeling is probably more complex, in a lot of ways, than AKC heeling. The FCI heeling test there's actually quite a lot to it, because they do changes of pace, they do positions in motion, they do side-step heeling, they do different little intricate moves. So there's complexities to FCI heeling that again, it just makes it interesting. Anybody that's a heelwork or heeling junkie i think that they appreciate that heeling is quite a complex exercise, there's so many entities to it, there's so many layers to it, and anybody that's into detail, that's into the fanatical little details of dog training would love heeling and the way in which i teach it. Melissa Breau: So, talking about how you teach it… How do you approach teaching heelwork? How do you start? Or how do you approach the bigger picture and break it all down? Kamal Fernandez: Yea, so everything is component trained in my training. Everything is broken down into tiny tiny little pieces of a puzzle and the pieces of the puzzle probably look nothing like the greater exercise or the greater goal, but what it does is it allows me to fast track the process of me teaching my dog heeling. And what looks like a very complex exercise for the dog is actually very simple because it's broken down into tiny little sections. I use a combination of shaping the dog and i will use lures but I fade the lure very very quickly. I minimize the use of a lure, but I use it very, very specifically, and I'm very aware of the times that I would use a lure. I'm looking for the dog to perform heeling with both drive and enthusiasm, but also accuracy and have a really comprehensive knowledge of its body, where it's body should be, where it's feet placement should be, where every single part of its position is. So it's quite a detailed process, and I'd say for people that really like the details of dog training. It's definitely one of the exercises they would gravitate to and this methodology is… also I appreciate that this methodology and this approach isn't for everybody because it's quite… it's quite intense and quite intricate in some of the maneuvers and handling. But once you have trained it, the way in which i explain it to people it's like you've got a dressage horse, which has the ability to react to a slight little adjustment in movement and they understand the tiniest little detail. For me, it gives the dog a greater level of knowledge and confidence and understanding, and also the end picture to me is far more appealing. Melissa Breau: So you mentioned in there that you break it down, sometimes even to pieces that don't necessarily look like heelwork - do you have an example of that, just so that we can wrap our brains around what you're talking about there? Kamal Fernandez: Yes, so one of the things I would teach would be a hand target, and i use the hand target as a means to teach the dog that then i transfer the hand target to a heelwork position, and then i transfer the hand target on my leg and I fade that out of the equation. So that would be one example. Another example - i teach the dog to do a foot target. The dog has to position its foot in a very specific place, next to the instep of my left foot. So again that one detail looks nothing like the picture of your dog moving and being in motion, but those two simple exercises - a hand target and a foot target - are core entities of how i teach heeling. Melissa Breau: So, in your bio I mentioned you use games and play to create motivation and control… and those two things, they can often seem like total polar opposites when you're actually training. How do you walk that fine line to achieve balance? Kamal Fernandez: You know, this stuff that we ask our dogs to do is largely mundane and boring, and unless there's an element within the dog that finds the behavior self-rewarding, like tracking or herding can be intrinsically rewarding for some dogs, but the stuff certainly for obedience for a lot of dogs can be very mundane and very monotonous, if there's a lot of repetition in it, which for a lot of dogs, they're not going to relish the thought of. So for me, the baseline commitment is i have to create the dog wanting to do this mundane boring stuff. Because at the end of the day it's just about my ego and my goals, the dog doesn't really care. He'd be quite happy going for a long walk and having a good time chasing little furry things. So for me i make that committment to motivate my dogs and to make sure the dog wants to engage in every part of their training. In doing so, obviously i need to create motivation, i need to build drive. But I'm always balancing that with self control around the reinforcement and I would do that, again, in my foundation. So there's foundation games that I play with my dogs that I strongly advise anybody in dog sports to make sure you have these skills. But there's also a lot of listening and a lot of thinking while in a high state of arousal that I implement via those games. So then when I move that onto actually teaching an exercise, the dog already has the ability to have self control, to have impulse control, understands the concept of proofing, etc. So the two things to me, although they are polar opposites, they're both striving for the same thing. You know, to have a dog that has loads and loads of enthusiasm, but is largely out of control, to me is displeasing to the eye. To have a dog that has lots of accuracy, if you want or technical correctness, but has no spirit or soul, to me, again is unpleasing to the eye. So it's about having both ends, and the reason i love obedience so much is that the sport itself is almost like a conflict of both those things; you absolute drive and accuracy, and it's so hard to get both and that to me is the appeal. I would say that to me, the most skilful trainers in the world, that I've seen, are from an obedience background and they have a strong obedience background, and the ability to create drive but also ultimately accuracy which i think, to me, is the absolute pinnacle of dog training. Melissa Breau: Kind of understanding those two and creating the balance, and having a dog that exhibits both of them so clearly. Kamal Fernandez: Yeah, absolutely. It's always a battle. When you get one, you create drive, you lose accuracy; when you create accuracy you lose drive; and the two things, I always say, it's about tipping the scale -- and I can count on one hand the number of times I've gone in there competitively and I've gone, wow my dog absolutely… it's like always get one thing and then you lose another; that's what you're striving for. It's a bit like winning the lottery, that one day when everything goes in your favor and all the years of training culminates in that magic moment, so to speak. Melissa Breau: So what it sounds like what you're saying is it's almost a constant process -- you're training one, and then you're training the other. And then you're training one… Kamal Fernandez: It's constantly in play. But to me that's the joy in it really, you never stop training, you never stop learning and you never stop growing, really. Melissa Breau: Well, it's time for us to get to the last 3 questions that I ask everyone who comes on the show. So first, what's the dog-related accomplishment you're proudest of? Kamal Fernandez: There's so many things, and not necessarily competitively related that I'm very proud of. I would say I'm proud of the first dog i ever trained competitively, he became an obedience champion and that was a bit of a personal journey as well as a dog training journey, so that was something that I'm immensely proud of. And the other thing that I'm also proud of when it comes to dogs, was being involved with Dogs Might Fly, a project where we took rescue dogs and we taught them to fly a plane as part of a project on television. The proudest moment in that is that those dogs were largely just discarded; they were rescue dogs. The impact, all those dogs found homes, but that was members of the production crew, largely -- like the makeup artist had one, the cameraman had another, a couple of trainers took dogs on, and it was great; everybody was so for the dogs in that project, it was all about the dogs and showing what can be achieved with good dog training and also that rescue dogs are capable of such great things, so I'd say that was something I'm very proud of, to be involved with something that had such a positive outcome. Melissa Breau: So, wait a minute - back up. You taught them to fly a plane? Kamal Fernandez: Yeah, yeah! So it's a project I did - oh god, it's got to be about two years ago now. We took 12 rescue dogs and we were with them for probably about… oh gosh, it was all the summer, so it must have been 6-8… probably 6 months? And we took these 12 dogs and they were literally sourced across the country, all rescue dogs, like one of them was due to be put to sleep the next day, another one was discarded… loads of different background stories, and we were involved with rehabbing them, from whatever issues they had and teaching them basic skills, and then the end goal, 3 of the dogs from the 12 were selected to go on to be trained to control and fly a plane. It was on Sky television - I don't know if you have that in the States, but it was a really, really great project to be involved with. Victoria Stilwell was involved with it, a guy called Mark Vette, who was involved with the driving dogs, I don't know if you've ever seen that on YouTube… Melissa Breau: I haven't, but now I'm going to have to go look it up. Kamal Fernandez: Yeah, search for Driving Dogs, Mark Vette. So that was, it was his brain child and I was one of the trainers involved with doing it, so that was a really really rewarding project. Melissa Breau: So when you say fly a plane, what exactly were they doing? What was the behavior…? Kamal Fernandez: The dog had to control the plane. So it was on a rig. The plane was got… by a pilot up, because they couldn't do it to land and to take off, but once the plane was flying, the dog had to control the plane and perform a figure of eight, and they ended up with 3 dogs -- actually I saw one yesterday, Thursday and Friday, a friend of mine now owns him -- and they took 3 dogs and they flew up in the air. If you google it, Dogs Might Fly, you'll see all the information about it. Melissa Breau: That's really interesting. Kamal Fernandez: Yeah and one of the dogs that I trained, because what happened was there was two phases, there was the initial phase, where they had the 12 dogs, and then they selected out of the 12 dogs the 3 dogs, and then they were passed on to 3 trainers to work intensively on it, and initially there were 4 trainers who were given 3 dogs each, and then they were whittled down to 3 dogs and then they took 3 trainers on. And one of the dogs that I worked with closely, his name was Reggie, he was a labrador-german shepherd cross, he went on to be one of the dogs that flew the plane. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Kamal Fernandez: So that's really rewarding and he now lives in New Zealand, and when I went back to New Zealand recently I went and met him and he gave me the most amazing welcome, and I put it on instagram and what-have-you; just an amazing dog. Melissa Breau: For our listeners - I will try and find the links to those videos and share them in the show notes, so you guys don't have to go google a ton. They will be right there for ya. Okay, so this is usually my favorite question, though i think you might have beat it with that last one… What's the best piece of training advice you've ever heard? Kamal Fernandez: The best piece of training advice I think is a Bob Bailey-ism, and I those well versed in dog training, or animal training… it's just Think. Plan. Do. Review. So think what you want to train, plan your training sessions, then go do it and then go and review your training sessions. That's one thing and the other thing is use video recording devices to record your training sessions; it's absolutely revolutionized my own personal training. It's like I have my own instructor that's with me 24/7 and whenever i want him to he can turn up and give me feedback about my dog training. If nothing else, I would suggest that everybody do both, which is what the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy is so great for, using the medium of the internet and video to facilitate great learning and i think it just encapsulates how powerful that resource can be if used effectively. And I know people are a little bit self conscious and a little paranoid about watching themselves, but by gosh, you will glean the benefits 10-fold over. So I'd say those two bits of advice -- Think. Plan. Do. And review your training - so be a mindful dog trainer as opposed to a reactive or responsive dog trainer, be thoughtful, be efficient in your use of your time and also video your training sessions. Melissa Breau: And then, finally… who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? Kamal Fernandez: The first person who really really influenced my training was someone called Sylvia Bishop, she lives actually down the road from me now, but she was a pioneer in the concept of play equals work equals play. And Sylvia trains a lot in the states, and our training is different a little bit, now… we don't necessarily follow the same approach to training dogs, but what i would say about Sylvia is that Sylvia was the first person that talked through the concept of -- or brought to my attention the concept of breaking exercises down into component parts and also making your training a game. And she was so far ahead of her time, when she was around and god she's been training dogs for… it's got to be 40-50 years now. And when she first came into dogs or obedience it was very very compulsion based and she was one of the first people that openly used toys and play, etc as a medium to train dogs. So she was somebody that was a massive influence, although as I say our paths are different now, and that's absolutely fine, i have the utmost respect for her in terms of the influence she had on me. The second person, or group of people, I would say is a really close friend of mine -- somebody called Susanne Jaffa, who is a british obedience trainer and working trials trainer, and she trains australian shepherds and she's one of the people that really really influenced my change over to clicker training, and she's again one of the first people that made - or one of the first people that was very very successful clicker training. There was somebody else, who now lives in Canada, a friend of mine called Kathy Murphy. They were the people that were really vocal about, we're going to clicker train our dogs, and we're going to do it and be successful at it. The other person who I'm sure numerous people will quote is Susan Garrett; anybody that knows me knows that I'm a massive, massive Susan Garrett fan. I think she's phenomenal in what she does, I think being a bit cynical, the internet and good marketing, often create the illusion of somebody being a good dog trainer but having been in Susan's presence when she's trained her dogs she's a phenomenal, phenomenal… her timing… and I would say all those people have what i call dog training hands. You can tell if somebody has dog training hands just by watching them; You know, the way in which they move, they interact, and she has a very comprehensive knowledge of science, and the science behind what she does. But her ability to interact, read, and the relationship she has with her dogs, there's nothing put on or fake about it. What you see is very much what you get. Yeah, but those are the people for me that I look up to, admire, and I constantly, if i was ever going to look for… and I look in the most weird and wonderful places for inspiration and ideas for my own training, but those would most definitely be… And the other person is Bob Bailey. Bob Bailey, world-renowned animal trainer, a constant reminder of what is effective dog training or animal training, reinforcement placement, etc etc, the endless list of pearls of wisdom that Bob gives out. So yeah, those are the ones that have really influenced me, or that I look up to, I should say. Melissa Breau: Awesome, well thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Kamal Fernandez: No, my pleasure. Melissa Breau: And thanks to our listeners for tuning in! We'll be back next week with Melissa Chandler to discuss nosework, parkour, and problem solving for soft dogs. If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in itunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services.
SHOW NOTES: Summary: Julie Flanery 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, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, and Agility titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West Coast. In 2001 she was named Trainer of the Year by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a standalone sport enjoyed by dog sports enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. Links mentioned: www.wonderdogsonline.com VIDEO: Examples from Imitation and Mimicry VIDEO: More examples from Imitation and Mimicry VIDEO: Rally FrEe Compilation / Class Trailer Next Episode: To be released 6/2/2017, featuring Mariah Hinds. TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we'll be talking to Julie Flanery. Julie 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, Freestyle, Rally-Obedience, Rally-FrEe, and Agility titles on her dogs. She began competing in Musical Freestyle in 1999 and was the first to both title and earn a Heelwork to Music Championship on the West Coast. In 2001 she was named Trainer of the Year by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003. Five years ago Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a standalone sport enjoyed by dog sports enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan Terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe. Hi, Julie. Welcome to the podcast. Julie Flanery: Hey, Melissa, thanks for having me. Melissa Breau: So excited to have you on. This is going to be a lot of fun. Julie Flanery: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Melissa Breau: So to start us out, do you want to just tell us a little bit about the dog or dogs you have now and what you're working on? Julie Flanery: Yeah. I'm actually down to one dog now. I've lost three dogs in the last couple of years, which has been a little bit hard, but all of them were about 15 years old so I'm down to just Kashi, and Kashi is my 6-year-old Tibetan Terrier. She is a great little worker, in spite of some severe food allergies she's had since she was a puppy and that kind of limits our training with food rewards a little bit, so we've really had to work hard to come up with some ways that she really enjoys her training and make every reward count. We do show, as you said, in Freestyle and Rally-FrEe, and we just showed our intermediate Heelwork routine last weekend and started work on putting together our new routine. It's a kind of a Las Vegas show-style illusionist routine, I'm kind of excited about it and Kashi plays my disappearing assistant and we just moved into... Melissa Breau: Sounds so fun. Julie Flanery: Yeah, it is, it is. I have the ideas kind of swirling around in my brain, nothing complete yet, but that's kind of where you start with freestyle is with an idea or some type of inspiration and you go from there. And then we also just moved into the Elite Division for Rally-FrEe after completing our Grand Championship last year. That was really exciting for me as well. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Melissa Breau:So I want to start kind of at the beginning. You know, I talked a lot about your history there and you've accomplished a lot, but how did you originally get into dog sports? Julie Flanery: That was a long time ago. If I'm really honest I would say it was about 25 years ago when I took my 5-month-old Border Collie to a pet class. I was a new pet dog owner, and I watched one of the instructors do a demo of how many tricks his 5-month-old Border Collie could do in a minute and I thought, wow, I want to do that with my dog. I mean I'm just a pet person here, but I saw that and I was so impressed and so intrigued at what training could do, that and having a great dog to start with got me really immersed into training, and my competitive nature kind of kicked in a little bit. And I didn't really start competing until probably a couple years in agility to start and then obedience, and both of those were rather short-lived due to my discovery of freestyle I'd say probably in the...oh, I don't know, mid-90s at an APDT conference after seeing a freestyle demo and again I thought, wow, I want to do that with my dog. And unfortunately, there was no freestyle available in the Pacific Northwest, or much really anywhere in the country at that time. It was just a fairly new sport then and there wasn't really the luxury of any online training back then, so if I wanted to do this I was going to have to learn this on my own, and because I didn't really want to do it alone I dragged a few of my students along with me, and today we have one of the largest freestyle clubs in the country and those first few students are still competing, are active members in the club today. So, that's kind of how I got started competing in general, first with obedience and agility and then really became enamored with freestyle, but I competed off and on in a variety of dog sports, as you said, so I think I have a little bit of a competitive nature at heart. Melissa Breau: Well, that's awesome. It's kind of cool that you managed to really...I guess you could almost start a movement in that area, right, like for the sport. Julie Flanery: I don't want to take that kind of credit, but I knew I wanted to do it, and I knew it was not going to be something I could probably do alone. Freestyle's not an easy sport to stick with and it really takes some perseverance to stay involved in it, and I just felt very passionate about it, and so anytime anybody would listen or anytime anybody wanted me to give a workshop on it I would go and I would oftentimes...early on with the club I would give free workshops just to get people interested and involved in it so that we could have a group that could put on competitions here. Melissa Breau: Well, I wanted to make sure that I told you, you know, I watched some of the videos of you and I think most of them actually you're working with Kashi on the FDSA website. Consistently she looks so happy to be working with you, and even the other dogs that you have in the videos, they all look so thrilled to be there and to be performing. So I really was curious what it is, or what you attribute it to in terms of how you train or the sport specifically that leads to that. Julie Flanery: Oh, I love...I love that that is what you noticed. So to me there really isn't much point in training unless you have a willing and happy partner, and in freestyle it's a sport where emotion shows through and emotion is something that you want to convey, and for most of us we want our dogs to be happy out there working, and as I said earlier, it's a very difficult sport and if you don't have a dog that's really enjoying it, it can be very, very difficult to progress in the sport. For me really, the shift to really wanting a happy, joyful dog out there came about when I started using operant conditioning and shaping specifically with al clicker. I'd always used treats in my training. I primarily have always been a positive reinforcement trainer early on in obedience. I did learn how to use a choke chain and I was quite skilled at that, but I did train with rewards and mostly the reward training, but when I started using a clicker and shaping it became a much more reciprocal learning process where both the dog and the handler have a vested interest in listening to each other and that that outcome includes a sense of enjoyment and a desire to keep going, and I think for me having that experience of learning about shaping and clicker training and really listening to the other dogs was very impactful for me and impactful about how I structured my sessions and what I wanted out of those sessions in terms of emotional fulfillment for both me and the dog and I think the most effective way to build that is through positive reinforcement training and really important is clear communication, with that communication being a two-way street. For years training has always been about the dog listening to the handler and I think it's just as important, even more so, that the handler learn to listen to the dog. So, I think just making sure you're paying attention to how the dog is feeling and responding in a session makes a huge difference in the outcome of that session and whether there is mutual enjoyment in that session. So, I think it's a combination of both the sport that I chose and the techniques and methods that I choose to apply in my training. Melissa Breau: That's really interesting. I mean I'd imagine in something that's typically set to music where really part of it is a performance aspect, like in obedience precision is precision and it's possible to a fairly precise performance, even if you're not super positive in your training, and I imagine it's much, much more difficult in a sport where the goal is really to have it look joyful and to have it look really pretty. Julie Flanery: Yeah, it certainly can be, and that's not to say that there aren't freestylers that use or have used aversive techniques, and to be quite honest you can't always tell, the dog's being just as happy out there. But for me personally, I really enjoy the fact that I know that what I see in my training is what I see in the ring, and that's all about that enjoyment of working together and bringing that joy to the audience as well because you're right, freestyle is an audience participation sport, so to speak. It's a sport that they're not only for competition but for entertainment as well. Melissa Breau: You kind of mentioned shaping and luring in there, but you wrapped up a class on Imitation and Mimicry and I have to say that's like such a fascinating concept. If you could start by just kind of explaining what that is for the listeners in case they're not aware of it, and just kind of sharing how you got into that, that would be great. Julie Flanery: Yeah. No, I'd love to. Imitation and Mimicry is a form of social learning or learning through observation, and we've long known it to be effective in human learning, but it wasn't until probably the last 10 years or so that we've really seen any studies on its use in dog training. I first heard about it at a ClickerExpo, a talk that Ken Ramirez gave on concept training in dogs, and then further researched Dr. Claudia Fugazza's study that she did, and in 2006 she created a protocol that showed that dogs can learn these new skills and behaviors by mimicking their owners and it's her protocol that we use in class. Also what's fascinating is that Ken Ramirez has developed a protocol for a dog-dog imitation and mimicry, and some of the videos I've seen on that are just truly, truly amazing. So, things that we didn't think were possible now we know are and we're actually able to bring to more people now. The class was really quite inspirational for me because my experience of course had been limited with it in working with it with my own dog and then some of my live classes, my students there in my live classes, we work through it, and when Denise asked me to do a class on it I was really excited, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect and I have to say my students in that class are just amazing. They have really shown me what this protocol can do and how truly capable our dogs are of learning some of these concepts, so it's been a really exciting class for me. And matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead and put it back on...I think it is already...Terry's added it to the schedule for August, and so I'm really excited about doing it all over again. Melissa Breau: It's so cool to watch. Julie Flanery: Yeah. I think you've seen some of the videos that were on the alumni page, and they've really drawn a really great response, so it is very exciting for me and I hope for the students too that are taking the class. Melissa Breau: Other than just being an additional tool in the toolbox, and of course we all want as many of those as possible, right, what are some advantages to using that as a technique? Julie Flanery: Well, first off, mimicry is not necessarily suited to all behavior training. It's really best used for broad or more general behaviors, behaviors that require a high degree of accuracy or precision may be better learned through shaping or some other method or reward, however mimicry can be quite useful and at least one study has shown that behaviors learned through mimicry were learned as quickly as they were through shaping which really surprised me. I was quite surprised by that. Some service dog work for example, retrieving items, turning on lights, opening drawers or cabinets, not only can the dog learn these skills very quickly through mimicry, but once the mimic cue is in place, even inexperienced handlers can teach the dog these behaviors with very little training themselves, so it allows inexperienced handlers to train these more complex behaviors much more quickly which I think is really quite cool. It can also give the dog the big picture, so to speak. So in most training the dog has no idea of what the end result is, only we know what that looks like and the dog needs to muddle along, and he may not even know that when we reach the end result that is the end result. So, mimicry allows the dog to know what he's working toward and may even help him to better able to guess steps toward that end result, so it could very easily shorten that training process, at least the big picture, at least the broad strokes of that behavior. I think too it forces us to look at the dog's perspective in how or what we are communicating. In mimicry the only information you're giving the dog is your demonstration of the behavior. If your demonstration doesn't make sense to the dog, he won't possibly be able to perform it. It's really no different than other forms of training. If we aren't giving the dog the information he needs then it's not that he's unwilling to do the behavior, it's that he's unable, and unfortunately all too often errors are blamed on the dog rather than our inability to communicate, so to me this really gives us that perspective from the dog's viewpoint. What am I communicating to the dog, and how can I make this more clear, and we learn that through our demonstrations in the mimic protocol and how we actually demonstrate these behaviors. I think it's been very fun to see some of the students realize, oh, wow, that demonstration couldn't possibly make sense to my dog, how could he possibly do that? So, I think that's a really interesting thing is that we gain a new perspective on the dog. I've also had several students tell me their dogs are more attentive to them, they appear more relaxed in training. The process itself, the protocol itself, is very predictable and so it sets the dog up to succeed. For me though I think it really comes down to a connection. I think I have a pretty good relationship with my dog, but the emotion I felt...the first time she truly mimicked the behavior that I had demonstrated was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Not only did I feel a different kind of connection with her, but I think she felt a different connection with me as well, or at least I'd like to believe that was what I was seeing. So, it's an amazing feeling that first time your dog mimics something that all you've done is demonstrated for them and then asked them to repeat it and like I said, for me it comes down to a different...maybe a deeper connection with my dog. Melissa Breau: Do you remember what that first behavior was for you? Julie Flanery: I do. It was a spin. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Julie Flanery: It was amazing. I taught her...went through the protocol of teaching her the mimic cue, and then I did my spin and I told her “do it” and she glanced at me for a second and she did it and I was like, oh, my God. It was really quite exciting for her. I get a little teary thinking of it right now. I know that sounds kind of weird, but it really is such an amazing feeling. It's a different feeling than what I felt...I can't say that. You know it's funny. The first time I used shaping and had my dog offer something that I did not command him to do because that's the term we used then, “give your dog a command,” the first time my dog offered something just because I had clicked and rewarded it, that to me was almost the same kind of feeling, it showed me the power that that technique and method had and I felt that same way with the mimicry too. It really showed me the power this method could have. Melissa Breau: I just think it's so interesting, the different ways our dogs are really capable of learning if we take the time to teach them how. Julie Flanery: It is. It's amazing. It's really amazing. It reminds me, Ken Ramirez once said in a lecture and it's actually one of my favorite mantras, I keep it on my monitor. He says, “We limit ourselves and our animals by assuming things aren't possible” and that is so true I think. It's so important that we keep an open mind to some of these techniques and methods because we don't know what we don't know, and it's up to us to explore these techniques that can really bring out the best in our dogs and our relationships with our dogs. Melissa Breau: Now this session you're offering Rally-FrEe class, right? Julie Flanery: Yes. Melissa Breau: So, I want to make sure we talk a little bit about that too. In the class description you explain it as a combination of Rally and Freestyle. My understanding is you're the founder of Rally-FrEe so I'd love to hear what led you to develop the program and why those two sports? Why did you choose to combine them? Julie Flanery: Right. Originally I wanted to develop a structured way for freestyle teams to focus on their foundation skills and build their heel work and transition skills primarily to better their performances and really to increase their longevity in the sport, and then ultimately improve the quality of the sport. Since I've been involved in freestyle I compete, I'm a judge, I've been teaching it for almost 20 years now, and I was seeing a lot of attrition in the sport. Freestyle is not easy. I would say it's probably one of the more difficult sports out there. There's a lot more involved in freestyle than just training behaviors. Teams would get through the novice level and then they would really struggle in the intermediate class and they'd end up leaving the sport. In freestyle you can train any behavior you want. You have a lot of options and so you do, you train anything you want and mostly that's the really fun, cool, complex sexy tricks, and generally they didn't train any foundation in to support the complexity of the tricks they were training. So like any sport, freestyle has a specific set of foundation skills, but these skills, these foundation skills, I know when I first started in freestyle nobody told me what they were, I'm not sure anybody knew what they were, it was such a new sport back then, and even if we knew what they were freestylers were so spread out around the country and there was no real instruction available to it, the information just wasn't accessible, and the information wasn't really given the importance and value I think. You know, having foundation skills didn't seem as important because of the perception that freestyle was free and you could do anything you wanted. And I remember...I remember one of the reasons I wanted to do freestyle was I didn't want to teach my dog to heel anymore, you know, heeling was, oh, my God, I don't want to teach my dog to heel, it's so awful. Of course heeling was taught quite a bit differently than we do now, but I didn't really understand at that time how important heel work and positions really are for freestyle. Melissa Breau: When you say foundation behaviors, is that what you're referring to is kind of the positions and... Julie Flanery: Yeah, the positions, the transitions, yeah. Those are considered foundation skills, and then there are certain foundation tricks in which all of the other more difficult, more complex tricks are more easily built off of as you know that anytime we start building a skill without a foundation it can be really easy to get frustrated in the training because it's not built on the foundation skill. The dog doesn't have any support for that skill, and so the skill tends to fall apart a little bit, and so as teams were moving up both the dog and the handler would start to get frustrated and not have that foundation to support the more difficult criteria and those routines would start to fall apart, and when they fall apart and it gets frustrating it's no longer enjoyable, and so as a result the quality of freestyle wasn't really getting any better and we were losing a lot of competitors. So, Rally-FrEe was a way for freestylers to build skill in their foundation and heel work so that they could be more successful in the sport and find more enjoyment in competing in freestyle, and in the long run improve the quality of freestyle that we were seeing in the ring. What I didn't realize is that teams from other dog sports Rally-Obedience, Agility, they were starting to participate. I didn't realize that this was going to become a worldwide competitive dog sport with participants in over seven countries, I mean I was like, wow. I was like wow. I remember one morning waking up and going how did this happen? I don't understand how this happened. This was supposed to be a fun little game for me and my students, and I'm not the first one that has put together these two sports in an effort to help freestylers or have more fun with Rally. There are many instructors that have done this. Somehow I was able to and I had the support of many, many people to have this grow into a worldwide competitive dog sport, so I'm very thankful for that happening, but really I have no idea how that happened. Melissa Breau: Hey, it was a lucky break, right? Julie Flanery: I guess. I guess. I'm sure glad it did though. It truly has met some of my goals. We are seeing a much better quality of freestyle. We are seeing teams coming into it with a stronger foundation, and we're seeing much more skilled teams staying in it longer, so for that I'm really thankful. And we're seeing new people coming into the sport, coming into freestyle that maybe never would have considered it partly because of the choreography and dance aspect to it, and partly because it is a difficult sport to understand the foundation for how to start training, and Rally-FrEe really allows the new exhibitor, the person that just is considering wanting to get their feet wet in freestyle but really don't know much about it, Rally-FrEe is the perfect sport to learn the foundation skills and then maybe ease into freestyle if you find you enjoy that. So, I've really actually been quite pleased at where we've gone in the last five years and how a lot of my goals have already been met with it. Melissa Breau: That's awesome. Hey, good ideas catch on, right? Julie Flanery: Yeah, I guess so. Melissa Breau: So I did want to ask you, you mentioned kind of in there something about novice and intermediate levels, and as somebody who hasn't competed in the sport. I was just kind of curious what some of the different things are I guess that they look at in the competition. Julie Flanery: Yeah. So for most freestyle organizations the scoring or the judging is broken down into several categories, one would be content and execution. So, content and execution would be what do you put into your routine? What is the variety of behaviors and how well are those behaviors executed? What is the accuracy and precision of those behaviors? Another thing that is looked at would be difficulty or creativity. How difficult are the behaviors that you're including in your routine? Are you using hand signals because hand signals indicate lesser difficulty than behaviors that are solely on verbal cues? Another aspect of it would be musicality and interpretation. How well do your behaviors and your sequences match the phrasing in the music? What is your attire, does it match the genre of the music? We also look at transitions and flow, and transitions are behaviors that allow the dog and/or handler to change position and/or direction in a way that creates ease of movement and a visual aesthetic or flow to the routine. And then Rally-FrEe Elements, which is the organization that I created that also conveys titles in freestyle, we also look at the teamwork and engagement between the dog and handler team. How well do they enjoy working together? How well does the handler support the dog? And I think we're probably the only organization that actually looks at teamwork as a judged criteria, so that's something that's a little bit different from most other dog sports. Melissa Breau: That's really interesting, and you kind of mentioned something about the verbals and the visuals in there. I was really curious how much of the cueing is verbal versus visual and what the role of each is in the sport, so do you mind just talking a little more about that? Julie Flanery: Sure. So in freestyle we use three different kinds of cues. We use verbal cues and generally we like those verbal cues to be not loud and obtrusive, but loud enough for the dog to hear them but not so loud that they are disruptive to the routine or distract from the enjoyment of the routine. In using those verbal cues we're aloud to talk to our dogs through the whole routine. There's nothing like in obedience where you need to give one cue. In freestyle you may give multiple cues. Obviously, you don't want your dog refusing cues or not responding to cues, but we are allowed to talk to our dogs the whole time, and so oftentimes we are giving our cues continually throughout a routine. We also use subtle physical cues. So my sweeping arm might mean for the dog to back around me or go out to a distance, but we want those cues to be hidden somewhat within the choreography, we don't want them to be very obvious like what a lure-like hand signal would look like. And then we also use something called choreography cues, and choreography cues allow us to teach new physical cues that we can then use within the routine as our choreography, so they are physical cues that appear counter to a hand signal. So for example, I can teach my dog that when I throw both my arms up into the air that's actually a cue to spin or to take a bow or whatever behavior I attach to it through training, and I can change those choreography cues for each routine as long as I understand and apply correctly the process for putting new cues onto behaviors. But truly, verbal cues are extremely important in musical freestyle and they're probably the most important cues in musical freestyle. It's those strong verbal cues that allow the handler to include their movement and their interpretation into the ring. If you're tired to hand cutes then you're really restricted in how you can interpret the music and that's part of what you're scored on, but having those verbal cues doesn't mean that we don't use some visual or body cues. We just really want those to be subtle and portrayed as part of the choreography. The goal in freestyle is to make it appear as if the dog is not being cued, that he or she is in total sync with the handler, and while the handler is leading the dance the dog is a voluntary partner. We want to create that illusion I guess, that illusion of dance partners, not one of telling the other what to do. If you've ever watched ballroom dance, even though you know one is leading it's really hard to tell because they're both so engaged in that process. So yeah, we have a lot of options in terms of cueing, but we work hard to avoid cues that appear lure-like or showing the dog or leading the dog into what to do. Melissa Breau: How long is your average performance? I mean it seems like...in agility even you have signs out to help you and I mean you kind of have to memorize the whole thing in a freestyle routine. Julie Flanery: Right. Yeah. For beginners, generally a routine is going to be about a minute and a half to two minutes. As you get up into the upper levels they're going to go three minutes plus, and these are routines that you choreograph, so you're actually memorizing them as you choreograph them. But make no mistake, it's not an easy task to choreograph two minutes of behaviors. You're probably looking at anywhere from I would say 30 to 80 cued behaviors in a two to three minutes period. Not only are these cued behaviors, but the dog needs to perform them in a timely manner with the music, so your timing of your cues is actually well before you need the dog to perform it so that he can actually perform it at the point in the music where it makes sense. So there's a lot to cueing in musical freestyle, and so it's something that I've had to learn an awful lot about and it's something that once you get involved in freestyle it becomes a really important part of your success. Melissa Breau: It seems like that would be a really interesting thing, even for somebody who wasn't interested in freestyle, to take a class on just because it feels like there's so much carryover there. Julie Flanery: Yeah. And I think actually, is it Mariah? One of the instructors I think is doing a class on cueing. Melissa Breau: Yeah, I think it's Mariah. Julie Flanery: Yeah. It's an amazing concept in and of itself and all of the different ways that we can teach our dogs to take our cues and all of the different ways that they can read our cues, so yeah, I think it's fascinating and I've spent a lot of time in my own personal training development learning how to do that and what's the most effective and efficient means of doing that. Melissa Breau: So, I wanted to kind of round things out with the three questions I ask everybody who comes on the show. So first up, what's the dog-related accomplishment that you're proudest of? Julie Flanery: Well, that's easy. Creating a venue that allows teams to really succeed and enjoy a sport that I love, but if you're talking personally I'd say that earning our Rally-FrEe Grand Champion MCL title. I really did not realize how hard that accomplishment would be and how fulfilling it was to get there. I created it and I didn't realize how hard that would be, I mean, I had to work hard for that title and it was very, very satisfying to be able to accomplish that. Melissa Breau: Well, congratulations. That's awesome. Julie Flanery: Thanks. Thank you. Melissa Breau: So possibly my favorite question every single episode, what is the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? Julie Flanery: The best? Oh, wow. So I've heard tons of great training advice. Certainly something we all do, which is to make our training sessions enjoyable for all involved, that learning doesn't really happen under duress and to keep it fun and light and amusing and enjoyable and amazing. I don't remember where I heard it, but a quote that always stuck with me is that “criteria is joy” and if we don't have that within our sessions then it's really all for naught. That and what I talked about earlier, Ken Ramirez who said that we limit ourselves and our animals by assuming things aren't possible. That hangs in my office because so many of the things that I'm doing with my dog now that I would have said weren't possible just a few years ago, so staying open to that. But I think the one piece of advice that has really benefited me the most as a trainer, I heard from Hannah Branigan. I bet she gets this a lot that she's responsible for most people's success in their training, but for me really she talked about being aware of when and where our peak in a training session and not letting them slide down that backside of the bell curve. I am the queen of just one more, and that little lesson from Hannah has made me so much more aware of when it's time to end a session and how much that really impacts the success of that session. So that's probably one that I have benefited the most from, most recently and that sticks with me. I try to remember that every single session, all right, where's my peak? Don't want to go down the backside of that bell curve. Melissa Breau: So that's three, but I think they were three excellent ones. That's awesome. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Melissa Breau: No, that's okay. They were worth it. Julie Flanery: There's just so much training advice out there, you know? Melissa Breau: That's awesome. No, it's my favorite question for exactly that reason because I feel like It's solid takeaways and you kind of walk away with a really solid reminder of something, and I think those three tie together nicely too. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Melissa Breau: So, my final question is who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? Julie Flanery: You mean aside from all the great instructors at FDSA? Melissa Breau: Preferably, I mean, they're all awesome. Julie Flanery: Yeah. That's right. They really are so passionate, so compassionate about what they do. I couldn't say goodbye without saying it's a real honor to work with them all and learn from them all, but outside of Fenzi, boy, the list is almost as long. I think probably Kathy Sadao has had the most long-term impact on me starting from probably about 15 years ago. Diane Valkavitch, my hero in freestyle, who taught me everything I know about transitions. I can't leave out Michelle Pouliot who inspires and pushes me to do better every single day really. And Cassandra Hartman, she's another really fabulous freestyler who is...she's like the complete package when it comes to training, performance, relationships with her dogs. She's just a real inspiration...all of them, super inspirational trainers and I'm really, really honored to learn from all of them. Melissa Breau: That's awesome because there are some new names in that list, so that's super exciting. Julie Flanery: Yeah. Melissa Breau: I'm always interested in more trainers that I can go out and look up and read about and see what they have out there in the world, so that's awesome. Thank you. Julie Flanery: Oh, yeah. They are great, and they all compete in various dog sports as well, so in spite of their current interest in freestyle and them being such great freestyle trainers they really have a wealth of information in regards to all different dog sports and training in general, you know, training is training is training and these folks have really impacted how I train and who I am as a trainer today. Melissa Breau: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Julie. Julie Flanery: Thank you so much. It was really fun. Melissa Breau: It was really fun, and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We have a super special announcement this week. You'll no longer have to wait two weeks between episodes. That's right. We're taking the podcast weekly. That means we'll be back next Friday, this time with Mariah Hinds, who Julie mentioned there in the podcast, to talk impulse control, positive proofing, and competitive obedience. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have your episode automatically download to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services. Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!
www.DogCastRadio.comHear our Crufts 2013 coverage, with interviews from Sarah Fisher and Tony Head, Nick Jones talks about offering advice to Crufts visitors, Sara Bingham discusses her Parti Poodle, Claire Guest launches a Medical Detection Dogs initiative, Tracy Genever reveals how the Blue Cross supports grieving dog owners, and Juie interviews two of the Kennel Club's Heelwork to Music Activity Team.
www.DogCastRadio.comHear our Crufts 2013 coverage, with interviews from Sarah Fisher and Tony Head, Nick Jones talks about offering advice to Crufts visitors, Sara Bingham discusses her Parti Poodle, Claire Guest launches a Medical Detection Dogs initiative, Tracy Genever reveals how the Blue Cross supports grieving dog owners, and Juie interviews two of the Kennel Club's Heelwork to Music Activity Team.
www.DogCastRadio.comTalented artist Carole Pivarnik talks about producing Doggitude, her book of stunning dog portraits. Heelwork to music specialist Jenny Deakin talks about preparing for Crufts and her classes for "grumpy" dogs. Plus the DogCast Radio News, mandatory microchipping in the UK and more.
www.DogCastRadio.comTalented artist Carole Pivarnik talks about producing Doggitude, her book of stunning dog portraits. Heelwork to music specialist Jenny Deakin talks about preparing for Crufts and her classes for "grumpy" dogs. Plus the DogCast Radio News, mandatory microchipping in the UK and more.
www.DogCastRadio.comThe second part of our Crufts coverage including interviews with Susan McKeon whose Greyhound lead her into a whole new career, Sealyham Terrier breeder Harry Parsons, The Blue Cross's Education Development Manager Tracy Genever talks about the charity's rebrand, plus interviews from those competing and judging in the Heelwork to Music finals, and youngsters getting involved in the Young Kennel Club.
www.DogCastRadio.comThe second part of our Crufts coverage including interviews with Susan McKeon whose Greyhound lead her into a whole new career, Sealyham Terrier breeder Harry Parsons, The Blue Cross's Education Development Manager Tracy Genever talks about the charity's rebrand, plus interviews from those competing and judging in the Heelwork to Music finals, and youngsters getting involved in the Young Kennel Club.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
