I’ve just listened to a Fenzi Dog Sports podcast with Chrissi Schantz: Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast by Melissa Breau on Apple Podcasts
I like her style, and she made a lot of observations I found useful. One small aside that stuck with me was how your own needs are as important as your dog’s needs, but it's easy to forget that when training. Her example was that her dogs like to have an hour or so's off-lead exercise a day where they get to sniff and mooch at their own pace. She says she likes to have time in the outdoors and particularly woodland - her dogs probably don't care so much about the environment, in that they could be in a dog-park or at the beach, but she values woods so generally takes her dogs to the woods and they all benefit. It was a small comment but really struck home for me in terms of just thinking creatively about what you can do to address and meet all your needs, not just the needs of the dog.
She also said that she often finds it tough to do short bits of training regularly and keep up the motivation when it's not giving instant positive results. She discovered from a friend with children about sticker charts, where a good behaviour gets a coloured sticker and so many stickers add up to a treat or reward or some sort. And she thought that she likes stickers, so it'd probably work for her - so now she uses lots of different coloured stickers on her calendar for different training behaviours she regularly carries out, and finds it a great motivator
Finally, she also mentioned a postcast on Applied Behaviour Analysis called ABA Inside Track which she regularly listens to. It's a digest of recent research, USA-based - mainly humans but some canine/animal, and as she said a lot of it seems to translate across species. I thought it sounded interesting so will give it a go: ABA Inside Track
I like her style, and she made a lot of observations I found useful. One small aside that stuck with me was how your own needs are as important as your dog’s needs, but it's easy to forget that when training. Her example was that her dogs like to have an hour or so's off-lead exercise a day where they get to sniff and mooch at their own pace. She says she likes to have time in the outdoors and particularly woodland - her dogs probably don't care so much about the environment, in that they could be in a dog-park or at the beach, but she values woods so generally takes her dogs to the woods and they all benefit. It was a small comment but really struck home for me in terms of just thinking creatively about what you can do to address and meet all your needs, not just the needs of the dog.
She also said that she often finds it tough to do short bits of training regularly and keep up the motivation when it's not giving instant positive results. She discovered from a friend with children about sticker charts, where a good behaviour gets a coloured sticker and so many stickers add up to a treat or reward or some sort. And she thought that she likes stickers, so it'd probably work for her - so now she uses lots of different coloured stickers on her calendar for different training behaviours she regularly carries out, and finds it a great motivator
Finally, she also mentioned a postcast on Applied Behaviour Analysis called ABA Inside Track which she regularly listens to. It's a digest of recent research, USA-based - mainly humans but some canine/animal, and as she said a lot of it seems to translate across species. I thought it sounded interesting so will give it a go: ABA Inside Track