E180: 새로운 FDSA 동문 모더레이터 팀 소개

with minimal equipment, um, and minimal space really as well. Awesome. Uh, Becca, do you want to tell us a little bit about you? Sure. I am a mom of two who we are currently distance learning. So we're spending a lot of time on that. We have two dogs right now. Justice is supposed to be a bore bowl. Who knows? He was a rescue. We got him when he was two and a fairly serious behavior case. And, uh, he's now 10. So we're working on fitness and a lot of love. He thinks he's a lap dog. So we spend every evening together cuddling as, uh, as he enjoys. He gets to just do whatever he wants these days. Daisy is our second dog. She's a Russell Terrier. And my, uh, 12 year old daughter has been totally bitten by the bug. So she started off showing, uh, one of my clients, Karen Terriers in junior handlers. She shows Daisy, her Russell Terrier in breed. And this year at Cow Palace, uh, Daisy debuted in the junior ring, which they don't go into the junior ring typically until they're a little further along and they're a pretty solid confirmation dog. And then she's earned her first trick title. And, uh, we are working on dock diving now. So it's been a, it's much easier to work with clients who take their dog home and all of the things they do home. It's much harder when your client lives in your house and talks back in English. So, but it's fun. I really enjoy it. We're having a good time. Good. And where are you? We are in Northern California. All right. Um, Ashley, do you want to go next? Yes. So I have two small children who I'm also homeschooling and solidarity. We started this week. I'm already ready to pull my hair out. I have three dogs. I have a retired, my retired agility obedience Doberman who turns eight this year. One of my longest living Dobermans and two Australian shepherds. I have my young teenage male Maui. That's my agility prospect. And then I just got a little Australian shepherd female who's now 10 weeks old. Um, so you may hear some puppy screaming in the background and I will mute. Um, I've been taking FDSA classes for quite some time because four and a half years ago, my son was diagnosed with leukemia and I was put in a bubble. So I could not be around in the public or around other people due to his compromised immune system and dog training is my outlet. So I was so thankful to find FDSA and be able to take all these classes and this wonderful online community has just been therapy and just amazing for me. Awesome. Um, Amy. I live in Ohio, um, kind of the Northwest corner of Ohio. I have six rescue dogs. Four of them really just kind of lay around and, and guard the place where they think they

do from the mailman. But, um, two were promoted to my dog training partners. We have done duck diving, barn hunt. Um, we are active in team. Trick dogs. And we play a little bit at agility. And just started tri-ball. Um, thanks to Melissa's class through FDSA. And, um, I think that it has given me a, a great outlet of things to do with, with the dogs in our house who four years ago barely knew how to sit, um, when asked. So we've come a long way. Awesome. Uh, I'd love to talk a little more about how everybody kind of got into dog sports. Um, kind of what brought you to this world. Um, Becca, do you want to take this one first? Sure. I, um, was that child that brought home every stray animal that she could possibly find. And my mother didn't let me keep any. And she said, if you want a dog, use your own money, go out and buy one that's registered and you can have a dog. Much to her surprise, I did. Um, and brought home a Doberman puppy who at the time was, um, her father was the first Doberman to go best in show at Westminster. I had a neighbor that showed Labradors and bred Labradors. And so I had a driver and a way to get to shows. And I started showing when I was 15, um, did some obedience with that particular dog who had quite the personality as most Dobermans do and really enjoyed every, everything I could do with her. She was dock diving before dock diving was a sport. And, um, she was just absolutely my best friend. And I've always, for a long time, went back and forth between horses and dogs and eventually ended up just doing dogs. And then started with FDSA a couple of years ago and love the variety of things that are available so that we can do almost anything. There's just really no limit with FDSA. So I've really enjoyed that and been blessed to show different sports at different times and have really enjoyed it. Awesome. Uh, Ashley, you kind of mentioned that, um, you know, you found FDSA when your son was diagnosed, but, uh, were you, were you in sports before that or, or was that kind of where you started? I was, I actually grew up doing horses. And so that's kind of where my love for agility came from because I did hunter jumper and trail courses with my horses. And after sustaining quite a few injuries as a very young adult teenager, I was moving towards smaller animals that were not going to leave me crippled by the time I was 30. So I moved officially over to dogs at that point. And I paid for most of my college books and tuition and such with, by teaching dog classes on the side.

So I found a love for teaching and just kind of went into that route with my dog sports and competing with my dogs and primarily agility and some obedience on the side. Awesome. Amy, do you want to, do you want to go next? How did you get into dog sports? I started my life in horse sports, equestrian sports as well. And, um, was always looking for something more once, once the horses left the farm. Um, I ended up adopting a 16 week old puppy who had big feelings and landed at a training center that had offered agility. Um, probably not the best option for him, but not knowing any better at that point, we signed up for agility classes and, um, that's where it started. That's exciting. I mean, that's kind of a jumping in feet first. That sounds good. It, it was, it got better because, um, the other instructor at the facility turned out to be an FDSA instructor. So we were saved pretty quickly and, um, and found a better path for him, but, um, have another dog that, that got to play there too. Is that Dr. Jen? It was Dr. Jen. Yep. We found Dr. Jen in the middle of West Virginia. What about you, Mala? So, um, I've only had dogs for about, um, 11 years. I bought myself, um, a little puppy, a little, uh, Jack Russell poodle cross. Um, and he was the best thing I've ever done for myself, uh, in terms of things like, uh, mental health. Because the dogs, they get you out, they get you sociable. You have exercise, you're out in the open air, um, at least twice a day. Um, you have, uh, well, the cute little waggy thing. And, and that's a really lovely inclusion in your life. Um, and I was, the one thing about him was he was such a good dog. Every time I was out with him, I just felt really proud of him. And then unfortunately, uh, he was attacked in the park, uh, got bitten up pretty badly, stitched up, was getting better, retained his love of life and other dogs and all people. He always thought everybody else wanted to meet him. And then he died probably of, um, parvo virus, even though he was vaccinated. Um, and it kind of led me to ask or try and find out what I could about, um, dogs and temperaments and aggression and training. Uh, because what people tell you in the park, it just doesn't sound right. So I jumped down that rabbit hole of looking on the internet. So I read bits here and there. Uh, I read that the sort of the good stuff, the bad stuff, everything. And where I ended up was, um, Sue Ailsby's website. And, um, she has had so much information on there. Very generously, it was all free. And I found her original levels training, uh, joined the Yahoo group and started.

I got Lola, um, as, and I apologized to her for being in a bad way and probably not being a very good owner at that point. Um, and I thought, well, you know, if I'm going to have this dog, hopefully for, let's say up to 16 years, I don't want to be going around the park the same every time being bored. Let's do stuff with her. And the more I saw, the more I thought, well, if, if that's what you can do with dogs, let's do all the stuff. Um, and as I say before, um, the, the thing that's most accessible to me is obedience. Although there's a big pile of homemade agility equipment in the hall. So we've had to go at that. And I would have done, uh, tried to, had to go at a doggy parkour with her, except she's a little elderly. And her, I think her abdominal muscles have divided. So she doesn't have the abdominal support and the back support anymore. So I can always push my other dog on with that. But, um, yeah. And then at some point there was a message on the Yahoo group saying that FDSA was starting and I headed over the websites and signed up for my first class, which I think was healing games. And I couldn't make head nor tail of that, but it's still in the library. So if I go back to it now, it would probably make sense to me. But at that point it was too big a step, but I kind of haven't stopped reading about dogs and working with mine and other people. Since then. That's awesome. I love that. Uh, you kind of went straight from training levels and, and basics to healing games. I can understand how that would be a big jump. If you know nothing about it, you don't know what a big jump it is. And I didn't know at that time. Yeah. This time let's start with Ashley, but, um, I kind of want to hear about, you know, when you started out, did you start out in kind of this positive training world? Did you, you know, was it a journey? How did you end up here? Um, was there somebody or something that kind of turned you onto this stuff? Like how did, what kind of led you to, to our plus? Okay. So I like, I grew up showing and competing with horses. And for those of you fellow equestrians, most of the horse training back in the nineties was not very positively reinforced for horses. And I distinctly remember I was 12 and I went to a Ron McLachlan, dating myself, a Ron McLachlan clinic. And he was one of the first positive reinforcement equestrian at the time. And he just opened my eyes to animal training and clicker training. I remember he used to clicker with the horses. It was just mind blowing, but he was just incredible with treating. And it just changed my perspective altogether for animals.

And so I always took a little, I always say that the dogs are so much like the horses when it comes to training, except for they're easier because they're smaller and you can work with them all the time. You don't have to go to the barn. So I feel like he made such a big impact on how I viewed my relationship with my animals. And for me, it is more of a relationship between the animal in front of me than it is a specific goal in mind. I like just that, having that bond and that friendship that I have always found with my animals. So he was a big impact for me for animals. So moving over to dogs, it was very difficult to find a trainer that I, being the strong headed person that I am, could align my own values with the way that they taught animals. So I really found myself without a whole lot of local support because in the 90s and the early 2000s, I mean, it was the error of prong collars and negative reinforcement for dogs and negative punishment. And I had very sensitive Dobermans that did not work for them. I mean, if you yelled at them, they were done. So I really had to kind of seek and find, you know, resources where I could and call on former horse people. And, you know, luckily things started really coming around in the late 2000s. And so things have started shifting over to that positive reinforcement side. And I have just loved it. And now there's so many more people doing it. It's like, oh, there's my people. I love it. It's great. So that's kind of for me. So I wouldn't say that I've necessarily always been positive reinforcement just through a learning process. And it certainly started with the horses. But I can say now that my last five dogs have all been brought up and raised and trained fully positive reinforcement. And I love it. And my kids are learning to train the dogs with positive reinforcement. And it's fabulous to watch. That's so cool. It's so interesting because I know I've interviewed other kind of horse folks. And a lot of them learn about positive stuff in the dog world and then kind of carry it over into their horse lives. And you kind of had the opposite story. I found a trainer. I don't even know how my mom found him. And she's like, we're going to go to this clinic. And the other people, I remember the other girls at the barn and their parents were like, oh, he's not a show person. We're not going to go to him. Like, we want to compete and win. And he was magic. Like, he was teaching his horses these tricks. And they were laying down and just doing all sorts of stuff for, like, raisins and, like, little horse treats. And I was like, oh, I love this man.

Like, this is so cool because I don't want to be mean to my horse. Like, I've been in love with, you know, a 10-year-old little girl. I'm in love with my horse. Like, I would never want to do anything nasty with them. So it was just life-changing for me. That's awesome. Amy, what about you? How did you kind of get turned on to this stuff? I think originally as a pet dog owner, before we started any training, we had dogs on the farm. And I didn't know any better. And, you know, we got – we had an electric collar to keep the dogs from killing the chickens. But I've been really lucky because once we started a training journey, I have been – I landed right with Dr. Jen. And that's Dr. Summerfield for anybody who's wondering. But so I've had only positive training since I've been actually trying to train, which has been helpful. And right from there, she introduced me to FDSA. And it's been so much better than all of the struggles that we had before I knew anything and when I was only trying to use tools to get the results that I wanted. Mala, what about you? Well, having only been involved in this for the past 11 years, I didn't have a lot of stuff in my head to get rid of to start with. And the question itself just made me think, well, I think the only, like, TV dog training we had was in the – in 1980, we had a woman on there, Barbara Woodhouse. And because of this question, I went on YouTube and looked her up. And it was only 20 minutes, her programs. And I lasted 10 minutes before my shoulders were up by my ears and every sphincter was clenched because it was kind of unbearable. I was looking for anything good in the program. And the best I can say – she came from horse training as well. And the best I can say is she loved the animals. But I think so little was known then. And, I mean, we've had 40 years of development since then. So I don't – I didn't have a lot to get rid of in my head and I didn't have a lot to retrain from, apart from those usual things people say about smacking your dog on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. And we had a dog growing up. My sister had a dog. And there was never even enough information out there to teach the dog not to poo in the house. So it's – over here, the history is slightly different. And even now, you don't see dogs with e-collars. You might see an occasional dog with a chain. But mostly they will be non-British people. If somebody came into the park with an e-collar, they would be yelled at. It's a different culture for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Are they actually illegal over there or are they – they're allowed, they're just –

It's illegal in Wales. In the rest of the UK, it's frowned upon. And I think that the culture with animals in this country is that we kind of value them highly enough that we will speak up for animals where people wouldn't speak up for other people, I think. That's interesting. That's kind of a powerful thing to say, you know. Becca? I've been at this a little bit longer than some. Starting off in horses and then my first dog was a Doberman. My friend raced labs and hunted. Obviously, we started off with correction. That was the basis of training. Fix the thing that's wrong. I still remember the first time we had a lab. My parents did. And we started hunt training. And to this day, I remember his first ear pinch. And that's the day I quit hunt training. I just couldn't – he yelped and I was done. And so my background with horses is three-day eventing and dressage. And three-day eventing is definitely a higher drive sport. And I'm known for being slightly competitive. Like, get out of my way because I will run you over to win. But with that said, I raised – I bred and trained all my own horses. Or I did off-the-track thoroughbreds. And in the horse world, a lot of training at that time was jump on and go and fix it from the saddle. And my approach was completely different. I've always asked, what can I do to make it easier for the animal? And so all of my horses had tons of groundwork. I did long lining. And my goal was always, by the time I sat on their back, for being on their back to be the only new thing they experienced. Little did I know at the time that I was training in increments. I had no clue. With the Dobermans, it was not – it didn't feel horrible to have a choke chain on them. You know, they were big, powerful dogs. I'm five foot tall. What am I – you know, I couldn't do a whole lot. I moved to Germany and I went down to Cornwall in the UK to get a dog. And I was getting a Parson Russell Terrier. And I still remember coming home on the train, going back up to London to catch a flight back to Germany. And she's on the table in front of me. And I just thought, I can't. I can't put a choke chain on this itty-bitty little puppy that I thought of at the time as so incredibly fragile. Of course, she was a terrier and she would have taken down any of my Dobermans. And it just totally started me on the path of changing what I was doing. But I didn't – I was showing quite a bit in Europe in confirmation. But finding any type of positive reinforcement in the early 2000s wasn't something I was able to find. I read Don't Shoot the Dog. And that had a lot to do with what I was thinking.

And then when I moved back to the U.S., I live in Vacaville, right down the street from Davis. And Dr. Sophia Yin is right there. And I signed up for one of her classes and went and talked. And we ended up doing a lot of talking. And as we talked, I found that really this is what I was doing and didn't totally have a name for it because I had cobbled together all my own things. And she highly recommended that I get certified. At the time, I didn't see a need to because I had – I still don't have a website. I'm terrible at tech. But I have a waiting list and it's six to eight weeks out at all times. So after she passed, I took her advice, went to Clicker Expo and kind of went, these are my people. We get each other. I need to be here. And I called my husband. The defining moment for me was Ken Ramirez at the end talk said, if you call yourself a positive reinforcement trainer and you're not treating people the same way, you're not walking the talk. And I called my husband and said, I'm doing this because it fit my values through and through on how I believe we should treat all species. And that has just led to an absolutely wonderful experience. And then doing a lot of seminars. I ended up at a Michael Shikashio seminar. And I had been doing some stuff with FDSA and following FDSA. And then we got put at this aggression seminar. We got put into small groups. And we had a stuffed dog. And you had to learn how to do leash skills with a stuffed dog. And as I'm standing there paying attention, trying to figure out what we're going to do, all of a sudden, a stuffed dog attacked me. And it was being wielded by, of course, Denise Fenzie. And that's when I fell in love with her because I love somebody that can take a serious situation and find a way to make it fun and enjoyable so we can learn. I really believe if you're having fun, you actually learn better. And so doing that course with her was an absolute joy. And that's when I really decided that not only do I love FDSA as an organization, but I truly like and respect Denise as a woman. So that was kind of a really neat experience for me. And that's how I kind of have traveled to where I am today. Awesome. And I'm so glad we managed to get that story in there because what listeners don't know is we were chatting about it off mic for a little bit. I was like, oh, we got to find a way to sneak that in there. So I'm glad you got to share it. Yeah. So my next question for you ladies is what's the dog-related accomplishment that you're proudest of? And Amy, do you want to strike this one?

I think that I am still early enough in the training journey that every moment I'm proud of. Every time that we reach a goal or that they manage something well makes me laugh and makes me smile. Well, we did. I did get my team one honors title with Marley, the dog with big feelings. And that was quite an accomplishment because working outside of our bedroom, we did all of our team one training in the bedroom with the curtains drawn because outside environments were too much for him. But so that was the first time I trained intentionally. My dogs are doing things intentionally, not just the accidental sit or teaching the shake because they want a treat. So I think that was probably my best moment. We're working on team two now, so we still have a ways to go. But still, I can certainly understand how that's a big moment, right? Being able to say, hey, we did this. We did this on purpose. What about you, Mala? Well, we haven't done many competitions or been out there very much. I remember when we passed team one, me and Indy, feeling ridiculously happy for weeks, completely out of proportion, I think. So that, even though we passed team two since, that team one was the big one. But apart from that, I think the fact that they're such lovely dogs to live with, because they get all this training. I mean, they'd be absolutely unbearable without training, both of them. But they help me when I want to put their harnesses on or off. They walk nicely on leave. They don't counter surf. They won't steal my dinner if I leave the place out. They don't beg for food. They sit. They go nicely through doors. Or they don't crowd me when I open the door. All of those things that you do every day, they know how to behave to make my life easier. And that's a huge thing for me. That's awesome. I know a lot of dog sports competitors who struggle with a lot of those life skills. So that's certainly worth being proud of. Me included. But yeah. What about you, Becca? It's so hard to pick one. When I was living in Europe, the Parson Russell Terrier I was showing was top three at the World Winter Dog Show, was the number one dog of a breed in Belgium. And we did a lot of things. And that was really amazing. I was disabled in 1995. I have four cervical fusions. My left arm works when it's in the mood. My right hand, my pointer finger and my thumb are reliable. The other three fingers are not. And when we adopted Justice, which is short for just don't kill them, he was human dog and cat aggressive. And of course, I had my Parson Russell Terrier. We had a house cat. And I'm married with children. And he was a very challenging dog.

He did not connect with people. He was raised on a chain in an inner city. And they used a high-pressure hose to punish him for barking. And he was 27 pounds underweight when I got him. Did not walk on a leash. Not potty trained. And he is a dog. So we have outdoor movie nights at our house a lot. And the kids all love to sit on chairs because Justice goes from child to child, walks up, turns his back, sits in their lap. They feed him popcorn, scratches back. And then he gets up and he goes to the next child. And if I have 20 kids, he does it to 20 kids. He is a dog that now loves people, hasn't been in a required to crate for about six years and lives with my other dogs. He actually is my bounce-off dog for training clients that have challenging dogs. And he retired from that this year because he's now 10 and showing a little bit of signs of age. That is a dog I couldn't train with force. He and I weighed the same amount. And I can't, you know, with my disabilities, there wasn't much I could do that wasn't asking him what he wanted to do and letting him make the choice. So recovering him and then taking that knowledge and working with client dogs is incredibly amazing. But the truth is there is absolutely nothing more amazing than watching my daughter take the dog's cheese training and compete and do well. That is what I'm proudest of. That's pretty, I mean, first of all, what a story. But then to kind of top that with, yeah. Next generation. There's truly something there. Well, and even with my clients, there's just something so incredibly amazing about being able to pass on the gift of learning to love working with your dog. It's just what I'm meant to do. I love that. Not to set you up with a hard one to follow there, Ashley, but what about you? Go ahead. For me, I think, I don't think I have one specific accomplishment. I've had lots of titles and achieved lots of materialistic type goals with my dogs. But for me, every time I take one of my dogs out to the agility field and they just opt in to work with me, no treats, no toys. They just, they just choose to work with me. That's just such a huge win for me. I think Dobermans are a little, a little bit of a struggle because they're so independent in their thinking ways. So being able to get a dog that is like, I don't want to today. And they're just like, sure, what do you want me to do? That's, that's huge for me. So that's something that I'm most proud of. I kind of want to shift gears a little bit, guys. I want to talk about the alumni group a little bit more.

So, you know, as the kind of new admin team and the folks that are helping kind of moderate the group going forward, what are some of the things that members can, you know, kind of look forward to in the group over the weeks or months or even years to come? Mala, do you want to start this one? Who, me? Yeah, you. Sure. Well, I've already said that I really enjoyed doing team with Indy and we've done team two and I'm working towards team three. And I have to say, the thing about those titles is you've got to learn all the different exercises. And then you get to that point, you think, hey, he knows these exercises. We're almost there. And that's the point where you kind of go back to the beginning because you're nowhere near ready. You have to spend the same amount of time again, putting it all together. So we've been working on towards team three, four forever. And I kept thinking, hey, we're weeks away from this. We're really not. There were things that get in the way there. So I will be doing a bit more of that. I think we talked earlier about sharing training videos more. And I've been doing that anyway with Indy on his breed club page, partly to say, I know they're supposed to be difficult and stubborn dogs, and they are, but they can do this too. So I'll be very happy to share some of that on the alumni page because one of the reasons I persist with trying to do obedience with him is that he moves so beautifully. I mean, I think he's a handsome dog. He might look to other people like a very matted old rug. But I think he's handsome. But he's got a lovely, easy bounce to his movement. And I'll be very happy to share that. And then for me, I don't have a club. I don't have people that I train with. I have only FGSA. So it's nice if the page has that community feel to it. I know I'm far distant in miles, but we're kind of working on similar sorts of things. And I won't be sharing, you know, I've been to this trial or that trial and got this little rosette. But I think showing support for our tiniest little achievements. And in that way, even the people who don't post, don't like to post, feel a bit shy about it, feel like they haven't got very far, can put up little tiny things that they're really happy with. And then we can all enjoy them. And I will certainly be doing that myself with training video of Indie. And it's not the whole picture, but it's a training group. That's what we do. So that's what I'll be doing there. Awesome. Becca? One of the best things I think about FENZI is just one of the core foundation beliefs, which is it's a supportive, kind place to be.

And I think that we are all working toward keeping that sense of community. But it's a community that's kind and supportive and loving. And we should all feel safe sharing our videos, no matter how goofy they might be, and put our mistakes out there. One of the things I love about some of Denise's videos is she shows us the mistakes. And I don't know about everybody else, but I get really self-conscious about that. It's like, oh, I need to make this video. Shoot, I forgot to brush my hair. Okay, I'm going to post the video. Oh, my gosh, I forgot to put on a bra. Dang it. No, post that stuff. Let us all enjoy it because it's reaching out and finding the humanity in each other that creates that sense of community. And I am really looking forward to seeing people's videos. I know Ashley is going to talk about our challenges that we've been working on. And I had the honor of getting to do the first one and pick the winners with my little randomizer. And that was so incredibly fun. And not only did you get to see the videos, but you get to know people. And part of community is getting to know each other. And those challenges allow us to get to know you. They allow us to get to know your dog. And just in this podcast, Ashley and I have so much in common. And that can happen in the alumni group. And the alumni group is our club. That's our training place. That's where we all come together and we become friends and create relationship. So please post, post, post, post. Yeah. So Ashley, you were next on my list anyway. Do you want to talk a little bit about the training challenges and what they are? Yes. I'm so excited about this because like most everyone else on here, especially now with COVID, I feel like everyone's in the same little bubble. But like I said before, I've been homebound and not been able to kind of be around people for so long. So it's lovely to be able to connect with like-minded people if we're all on this journey together. So we have come up with a monthly challenge that we're going to be posting. And in that challenge, it's going to vary from different activities and specific training things that you're working on with your dog. And there's no right or wrong way to do it. We just want to see what you're training with your dog, no matter what it is. If it's life skills or for a competition. And then we're going to use a randomized generator to pick a name from one of the shared videos. And somebody is going to win a prize. So incentive to play with us. But I think it's a great way to get to know people. And it's like, oh, I'm working on that same thing.

Or I'm really struggling with that too. And then you can have the buddy system. And it's just such a good way to get to know our fellow dog people. Really excited. Absolutely. Amy? Anything you want to add? One of the things that I enjoy doing and sharing, and I hope that the students will enjoy coming up, are the things that maybe aren't as well known within our FNC group. I know everybody is aware of the discounts going on right now, the shopping discounts, which is a benefit for all of us unless we have a budget. But we're kind of learning to rework those, I think. We're also trying to use some student blogs. If you have a blog post or a blog that you work on, we're trying to add those in and share those in the group. And on the FDSA main page as well. We are creating a book list for the books produced by the FDSA instructor. And that will be in a file on the alumni page for access for everybody so that if you need a topic and you want to know what a good resource would be, you could just go up there and look. There are actually quite a few things in that file folder on the alumni page. There's a list of all of the smaller groups within FDSA. You can find that there. It's a great resource if you haven't checked it out. But I think adding in all those things and making the total package a little more comprehensive in the alumni group will be a great project going forward. So I want to kind of round things out here with one last question, which is your favorite piece of training advice. I'm going to ask you each to share a favorite piece of training advice with our listeners. And hat seat goes to Becca first. So my favorite advice, and I use this for myself and with clients, is if your dog isn't having fun, you're doing it wrong. Go back and figure out where you need to change the environment, the rewards, whatever it is you need to change, and get to a point where your dog is enjoying the process because training is supposed to be fun for all of us. I like that. Ashley? My biggest piece of advice for, like she said, myself and for my clients is train the dog at the end of your leash. It's different for every dog. It's not like just breed standard. It's not the dog that you had before or your neighbor's dog. So really get to know your dog specifically and find out what they like and what they don't like and have fun from there. Amy, words of wisdom? I like to remember that five minutes of happy, fun, productive work is more effective than a half hour training session when your dog is tired and bored and done with the whole thing.

So keep it short and sweet and enjoy those five minutes and move on. What about you, Mela? I think it's something around managing your expectations. I think sometimes when you're working on a particular problem and you see some progress in a class, in a session, and you go back to it the next time and you think you know where you're going to get to in that next session, then you don't. And that leads to frustration. So what I do now is I have a plan in my head of what I think we're going to work on. But I also try and think back to what is the picture I like the best about my dog? The way he's moving, the way he's looking at me, the way his tail wags, and try and replicate that in whatever I'm training him in. So, yeah, it's similar, I think, all the way around. But the most I get out of training sessions is working with a happy dog. And so I don't expect to get to a certain point in that session. But I hope to play games and move forward a little bit without having a certain point I want to reach. I like that. And it kind of brings them all together, right? Like all of the concepts everybody's been talking about. So that's a great place to kind of end. Thank you all so much for coming on the podcast. This has been great. We had to coordinate lots of time zones and everything else. Thank you for organizing that, Melissa. Thanks, Melissa. Thanks for having us. Thank you for having us. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week. Don't miss it. If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone. As soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in and happy training. Be right. Thank you.