Creative Canine, LLC

22/01/2025

It's registration day! Super excited to be teaching a new class at FDSA!
FF215: Game Changer!
Taught by Julie Flanery
Registration opens 11AM PT January 22, 2025 and starts February 1, 2025 at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com
for class description and more information on registration.
RA550: Transitions and Flow – Creating Effective Sequences for Musical Freestyle Routines
Taught by Julie Flanery
Registration opens 11:30AM PT January 22, 2025 and starts February 1, 2025 at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com
for class description and more information on registration.

Online dog training classes for obedience, rally, agility, tracking, nosework, dog behavior, freestyle, and foundation skills.

08/01/2025

With the New Year upon us and my "puppy" starting to come into a slightly more focused stage of his development, I find myself noting that over the past year I've been a little all over the place with his training and the "style" of training I've been providing so far.

By that I mean, I've forgone anything needing a lot of reps, or a high degree of food reinforcement either for value or stillness as his value in food and his value in stillness are both super low. Working within that paradigm of using food to create stillness gets us both frustrated fairly quickly.

So this past year I've explored ways of building food value and keeping training sessions more active with toys or play as reinforcement, and eating food as a behavior to earn more toys and play.

In spite of what I see as a lack of training structure (only because I've deviated from many of the skills I normally start my dogs on) he has learned quite a bit! And now that we have gotten to know each other and how we each like to work, I see more of an opportunity to start to build more of a reperatoire of behaviors with him, and the ability to use more food as reinforcement while keeping the toy play he thrives on.

With Phee, having so many behaviors in maintenance phase, and Will, having started but not completed just as many behaviors, I'm looking for a way to organize my training a little better. I'm at a phase in my training career that a journal or log doesn't work well for me. It becomes too much of a task to maintain. I'm constantly falling behind on it or misplacing it. I just wanna train! ;-)

What I have started doing which seems to work well for now, is pretty colored index cards on my magnetic white board. I assign each a dog and a behavior and can move them around, write notes on them, put my current criteria, or my "new" cues that I need to be able to remember, and I can review quickly and easily, several behaviors by looking at my white board first when I go out to train.

What systems do you like to use to keep you on track in your training? What works for you? What doesn't work for you? What is lacking in your current system that you aren't sure how to implement?

08/01/2025

Now open for registration! So excited to be presenting with Lynn Ungar and Michele Pouliot! Follow this link for more info or to register! https://www.dogsgonedancin.com/march-2025-workshop

28/12/2024

THIS ⬇️ Reposted by fellow trainer from Woof as a Second Language -Dog Training and Behaviour Modification FB page. I've been there - any of us with high level goals has likely been there at one time or another, with one or more of the points below. It would benefit all of us to assess where we are on each of the points on this list on a 1-10 scale and work to rectify it. My dogs deserve better than what I sometimes give.

Poisoned Praise

Lately I've been pondering experienced handlers who seem to be doing all the right things -enthusiastic markers, good technical personal play concepts, no obvious or heavy-handed corrections, good core training techniques- yet have dogs having a hard time.
From dogs who shut down to dogs who look bored to dogs that start to view the games we play with them as chores to slog through.

I'm not stranger to this myself. So what gives?
I believe a large factor (if not the largest factor) is poisoned praise. That although we've done all the right technical mumbo jumbo, that our dog doesn't believe our praise. Somewhere along the line we've poisoned it.

How? It comes in many forms, but these are the most common versions I see -and almost always there is a large combination of elements at play.

1) Frustrated handlers dealing out frustrated praise. We are trying to pass off a lie and they know it. If our praise feels like cloaked frustration, that's the end emotional result.

2) Drilling Skills. For all but a few dogs repetition kills enjoyment yet many of us continue to train and train and train to get something "right".

3) Focusing on Specific Skills too Early. Before we can truly get skill we need attitude, teamwork and communication. Many experienced handlers want to rush into skills. If you don't allow the dog to cultivate desire first, you're gonna have a heck of a time getting a great performance.

4) Obligatory Praise. As handlers we know we should reward our dogs. However if praise, treats or tug feels like a chore to the handler, the dog feels that in the communication. Just another chore on the training front today. Thanks.

5) Praise is Pressure. I could write a whole post on the topic, but in a nutshell as we advance skill sets praise comes with a level of pressure. When we earn an A on a paper we feel we should be able to earn similar again. Less than an A can make us feel defeated, even if we weren't prepared adequately. If we keep pushing the envelope on skills, sooner or later you are going to find a dog who has some level of pressure stress. Where pressure lives desire and joy get worn away. Couple this with the fact that there is handler pressure too and the dog praises us with the wanted behavior, the team can quickly be dealing with a heck of a lot of pressure.

6) End Goals are Prioritized Over the Process. Especially for handlers well into their sports, there is a conscious or unconscious push towards the end goal -getting on that competition floor. It motivates you, but it often also takes you out of the moment when you train your dog. Plan away, but not being present with your dog is a very, very good way to create disconnect and make your praise seem hollow and fake. Don't go through the motions.

7) Making Mountains out of Molehills. People -experienced or not- have the very odd ability to find a single great session amazing while completely unravelling with one off session. We all have set-backs, but I promise just like a few great repetitions isn't actually as amazing as you think it is, nor is a couple of bad repetitions as detrimental as you may believe. What we communicate is what's going to hold water long term. You don't need to be super duper happy about the set-backs, but save your mental breakdowns for when you're not playing with your dog. Honestly, it's just dog sports. You're not curing cancer.

8 Not Taking Time to Play. Interact like you mean it. Play for the sake of playing. Quit training and have fun (a lot of handlers truly don't know how to mentally entwine the two). Build muscle memory for joy, desire, messy speed. You can refine it later. You obviously have the skills to teach "stuff". Now teach yourself to have enough fun that your dog believes you.

9) Quest for Perfection. We all want our dogs to do it right, but I promise the quickest way to strip desire in a dog is to make them go back and fix their work. God what a chore! Like a teacher over your shoulder telling you the moment you get something wrong. What a nag! Keep flow. Keep momentum. Keep speed. Keep desire. Those are way the heck harder to train anyway. Don't worry at some point you'll have enough steam in the tank to fix things, but until you actually have that, keep moving. Poor finish -keep moving! Missed a jump -keep running! You do not need to make it "right" all in the same session.

10) Time Lines. Deadlines create pressure. If we want X by Friday, unless it's already close to ready, I will need to strip desire in favor of simply "getting it done". There are times I may need to do such, but if more than 10% of my training is rushed, that rushed feeling is going to start to poison things. Rushing kills the process, which kills joy. Marie Kondo would feel we should throw it out.

If you think you may have poisoned your praise I encourage you to take a training break. A couple of weeks or even a couple of months. Enjoy your dog. Begin to grow a new praise system -one they believe and buy into. Allow them to show you how brilliant they are and have them believe it. Let them be cheeky.

When they have some fire in their soul, then you are ready to try again, going slow, relishing each session as two teammates who at the end of the day really enjoy time spent together.

23/12/2024

Happy Holidays to all of you from all of us! May 2025 bring you Peace, Joy and more Fun than you can imagine with your pups!

15/12/2024

We hear alot about "building trust" in R+ dog training. What does that mean to you? What does that look like? How do you operationalize that with your dog?

13/12/2024

Work smarter, not harder

https://fb.watch/ws4sPsdAbC/

12/12/2024

Wanted to share a couple of tidbits that students found of value from the "things to remember" thread in the discussion group and their own threads over in the shaping class:

"Sometimes when we have a tight loop, the more reps, the more aroused the dog will get."

"And often I tell students not to even use the clicker on the first few reps as we really don't know what we will observe. Trying to figure something out in our own mind and still indicate with clarity for the dog doesn't always happen. So getting a couple of reps where you can predict what is likely to happen before using the clicker can be a good strategy."

"I think sometimes we are intent on watching for something more like the goal behavior - put your paw on my foot, and we think the dog has to be close to do that so we wait until they are close enough to touch no matter the orientation. I try to use a funnel approach, starting a little further out and then shaping them "through the funnel" to where I want them to end up."

"Thanks Julie, you're absolutely right, on our "under" I was just taking any approach to the chair, not distinguishing which side she approached. I appreciate your point though - direction matters and it's harder for her to figure out what I'm asking for if I'm clicking multiple sides/approaches. Thanks for pointing that out."

"Thanks for the terrific advice about how to initiate a shaping session and the problem of junk behavior. Since the start of the course, I keep thinking “Errorless Learning” and your feedback helped solidify the connection!"

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12/12/2024

Hmmm...are you a perfectionist? Do you feel under pressure to do it all? Be it all? Where is that coming from? Sometimes we need a reminder that we are good enough without even trying. More than good enough even. Don't let the pressure you put on yourself make you doubt how amazing you already are.

12/12/2024

Training behaviors with shaping is super cool and fun! The limit is your imagination...what do you know about this method? Take the quiz: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7JNRTRT

07/12/2024

Who wants to take my FDSA Shaping class? Each term I give away a free class! yep! A bronze spot absolutely free. Tell me in the comments why you think shaping is an important skill for you and your dog? You'll then be entered in the drawing. Drawing takes place Sunday Dec 8 at 6PM. Oh! and don't forget to post the obligatory pic of your dog(s)! Here's what mine are doing right now.

02/12/2024

Okay! what are your best cyber Monday finds? Enquiring minds want to know... Ok, just I want to know! :-D

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02/12/2024

Classes started yesterday! So much great info in my shaping class in the gold threads already! There's still time to join! I'll likely post some juicy morsels here as some are just too good not to share! Like how to get back on track when a shaping session goes south, and how do I tell my dog I don't want him to touch the thing! Or why shouldn't I help my dog a little by prompting or luring!? Or how long should I wait for my dog to offer something? And more!

Online dog training classes for obedience, rally, agility, tracking, nosework, dog behavior, freestyle, and foundation skills.

25/11/2024

Woot Woot! Awesome opportunity! Look at all of these amazing webinars! You might recognize more than a few names 😁😉 Grateful to be included in this list of amazing presenters, voted on by FDSA students as the ones they would like to see return for a second debut.

22/11/2024

It's registration day! This session I'm offering RA560 Shape up! Improving and maintaining your and your dog's shaping skills and RA500 Foundation skills for Rally-FrEe and Musical Freestyle! These are 2 of my favorite classes to teach and both have so much value for cross-training as well! From mechanical skills, to cueing, to marking, and then all the behaviors! let me know if you have questions! links in the comments!

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18/11/2024

And just like that brain cells start to grow, neurons connect and things start to take shape❤️

16/11/2024

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15/11/2024

It's been a minute, but I'm opening up my 10 for 10 coaching again! It's open to 10 dog and handler teams for 10 days for $110. You can post as many vids for review and coaching as you want in the 10 days between November 20th and 30th with Thanksgiving day off. Maybe you need help getting something started or finishing something, or are just a little stuck, needing motivation or accountability. It's all about you and your dog! You will also see what others are working on as well. This will be in a private FB group. Let me know if you have questions in the comments. If you would like to be included in the drawing send me a message. I'll contact those names 11/17 with invites to the private group.