Last weekend Denise Fenzi was in Ohio to present two days on “Drives and Motivation for All Sports” and one day of “Problem Solving.” I especially enjoyed all the obedience enthusiasts and all of the golden retrievers present!
Denise is a great presenter, many of the attendees had attended multiple of her seminars before. She’s fast paced with a level of enthusiasm for teaching and training that is very similar to Julie Shaw and Theresa McKeon. Very focused on the task but occasionally going off the plan on a different topic for a while or re-ordering the agenda based off of what the attendees are asking about.
Her training vocabulary is a little different than what I’m used to, I sometimes had to be translating in my head, but I suspect most people listening went right with it and are used to the vocabulary.
Many of the activities during the first two days were very relevant to all of my students (competition focused, 4-H’ers, and pet training students) and some of those activities are definitely going to be worked into classes. Most of the activities are things Denise has used for her self and/or students who are trying to focus dogs before going in the competition ring and so the activities take up minimal space and are more about spending time together than training specific skills. Great for down times in class or breaks, and for at-home activities and the vet waiting room.
The problem solving today was especially interesting. For about half of the teams, it was a matter of looking at foundation skills, asking different questions, and really knowing what was going on with the team. They didn’t always have a clear picture of the final goal behavior, and for some that did, they weren’t doing training that would reach that point.
Other teams were just starting out, which is a great opportnity to not have to go back and do repair work to the training.