Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast

Caden Cristopher joins me for a discussion on training your dog to recall while building a relationship that enables both of you to do more together... we dive into advanced scenarios as well as chatting about the basics.

Many of the sports we do with our dogs require us to play keep up — whether it's running our dogs in agility or following them on a long track. And if we want to keep playing those games with them for the long-term, that means paying attention to fitness on both ends of the leash.

If you've ever had a dog that couldn't train around food or who stopped eating in certain environments... you know that training with food isn't always as simple as "Click, Treat, Cookie!" In this episode Sharon and I dive into the ways food can interfere with teaching behaviors and what we can do about it.

What do cues and mechanics have in common? A lot, it turns out! If you've ever asked your dog for a behavior you'd have sworn they knew, only to have them stare at you like you're speaking Greek, this episode is for you. Behavior expert Karen Deeds shares how conflicting cues come to be and what we can do about them.

Nose work is about so much more than setting and finding hides — in this episode, Michele and I dive into how you can be more intentional in skill building for your nosework dog, both by developing your own observation skills and by thinking through the challenges you set them a little differently.

Wondering what it actually means to be a good nosework handler? Join Julie and I for a conversation on how your handling impacts your nosework dog and what you can do to become as good at your role on the team as you expect your dog to be at theirs.

Teaching our dogs the concept of "stillness" is more complex than we sometimes realize — after all, how do you teach a dog that what we want is the absence of a behavior? In this episode, Nicole and I talk about how she teaches the concept, and then how it serves as a foundation behavior for teaching rock solid stays to her competition dogs.

Four of the presenters from the upcoming one day conference, Arousal Modulation: Building a Clear-Headed Dog!, join me for a conversation about how arousal works, why it's not all good or all bad, and what handlers who have dogs that tend toward overarousal should stop doing... then what they should start doing instead.

Dr. Amy Cook and Josefin Linderström, founders of the Social Approach, join me for a deep dive on the topic of touch and our relationships with our dogs. In this episode they share some of the research that's been done on the benefits of touch, their take on how much of our dogs' preferences are nurture vs. nature, and how they'd add touch to training (including as a reinforcer!).

Does your dog have big feelings about dog agility? Whether they love the sport so much they can't contain themselves or have big feelings about new environments, other dogs, or strangers, in this episode Bronagh and I talk about how big feelings impact your dog's agility performance and what you can do about it.

Curious why and how to teach a contact heeling behavior? Contact heeling is a transport behavior distinctly different from formal obedience heelwork or loose leash walking – and in some instances, it offers significant advantages over either of those other options. In this episode Sarah Rida joins me to talk about why she teaches contact heeling, when it can be helpful, and how to actually begin training this useful skill.

What does it really take to stand out in obedience and rally? In this episode we look at the invisible skills you and your dog both need to perform and achieve your goals, from careful splitting of behaviors and building behavior chains to managing your own mental game. LINKS & RESOURCES: Skills & Beyond: Obedience & Rally from the Backyard to Competition (May 16, 2026): https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/36252 FDSA Course Catalog: https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com

Living with multiple dogs means managing multiple personalities, and like any home with multiple personalities, there will be times when there are disagreements. In this episode, Christina Young and Melissa Breau talk about how to prevent conflict between dogs in your home, the early signs of tension people tend to miss, the difference between management and structure, and how to teach your dogs to actively move away from situations that might escalate. LINKS & RESOURCES: Christina's upcoming class, B3002: Fighting at Home? Teach Dogs to Move Away From Conflict (starts May 1, 2026): https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/51912 Christina's FDSA instructor page: https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/49783 FDSA Course Catalog: https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com