Training Articles

This is a little how-to guide to prove that making a platform isn’t rocket surgery.

Start by gathering your supplies. You’ll need enough mats to fit your design. In this case, I wanted to make a smaller square platform, so I only needed one mat. I use a decent pair of scissors to cut my mat(s) but a utility knife will work. You’ll need something to measure with, like a tape measure or yardstick, and a permanent marker (Sharpie) or pen to mark your mats at your measurement points. To hold the platform together, I just use Duck tape. 

Today I decided to work on TEAM three with Brito. I worked on every exercise except for the stay while moving equipment. Can you see it – all of the small pieces that were addressed? Some of the session went well and plenty went wrong. That’s okay because the nature of dog training and learning involve both success and failure! There is nothing to worry about unless either the dog or handler become distressed. If you watch with care, you’ll see what +r trainers mean when we say “proofing” exercises.

Who would ever have thought the lonely little foot target could be such an important tool in teaching our dogs so many behaviours and concepts?  But just how helpful are they?  Well, it depends on the type of foot target and what you’re using it for.

Let’s consider a couple of basic foot targets and some corresponding behaviours they can assist you with. This will by no means cover everything, but it gives the novice or beginner trainer a clearer understanding of when they might use a specific type of FOOT TARGET.

So you’ve worked hard and ... you now have a Level 1 pass under your belt.  Congratulations!  In our opinion, you’ve now got a great range of foundation skills that will serve you well going forward. So ... what about those Plus levels? The Plus levels are designed to...

Engagement is a super difficult skill for some teams, especially if you have a high-drive dog that is in the habit of going straight to work and if personal interaction or play has not been part of the dog's upbringing. So why do we insist? Because eventually, if you...

The TEAM program advocates for the use of targets when teaching the skill of dogs going away from us and to develop the execution of skills at a distance.  Let’s take a closer look at this principal, and where the challenge lies.  To demonstrate the concept, we will...

The Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast regularly interviews leaders in the dog training space about different aspects of their training or about key concepts in dog training today. Recently, Denise Fenzi was featured on the podcast talking about the TEAM training program to talk about founding TEAM and how the program works. 

Purpose: The goal of this exercise is to teach the dog to back away without any forward motion from the handler into the dog's space.  This skill is extremely useful to add into other exercises where the dog has to perform at a distance.  If the dog starts to...

The TEAM program encourages clean training without food/toy visible in your hand to have your dog perform. The TEAM Level 3 test takes this concept further and looks at two new components: 1.       Working when the reward is off your body and at a distance. 2.      ...

In TEAM titles, during the beginning levels, deviation from parallel heel position in any direction up to 30° can be considered as allowable or as Q (questionable). Any further angle such as 45° is definitely a NY (Not Yet). As you get further into TEAM levels, heel...