Excellent Obedience Foundations

In less than a month a brand new online obedience titling organization is going to be up and running. I know, some of you have mixed feelings on online titling and I guarantee I had the same thoughts.
But the way this program has come together is completely different than any other obedience organization out there.  Regardless of whether you want new titles or not, you need to check out Fenzi TEAM Titles just to get an extremely thorough progression of training that will take you through novice, open, utility, and well beyond.

Unlike all other obedience organizations that I know of, the TEAM program is about extremely solid foundations.  It mimics excellent training.  Instead of people just training to get through traditional novice (heeling, heeling, and more heeling), the start of retrieves, scent articles, jumping, and even backing up is in the very first level.  Actually you won't see anything resembling traditional heeling until you get to level 4!  The TEAM levels encourage people to have all the little bits and pieces before they move on.  That means teaching the dog how to move their rear end around a disc in heel position.  Teaching true side steps and backing up.  Little doodles that test if the dog truly understand heel position all before you go forward more than 2 feet at a time.

By the time you get to level 3 of the current 6 (eventually 9!) levels, you should have over half of the foundational pieces for traditional open and utility started.  By level 6 you have mastered utility.  Honestly, I've been working my dogs through the levels and none of my dogs can consistently pass level 3 each time I try.  So close, but not quite there every time.  TEAM is not a gimme.  Indeed you will see that the early emphasis on precision (often with props in the early levels!) and the distraction training built in from level 1 will really push your training to be better, no matter what level you're at.  The testing for Zumi has been especially great as it's getting her used to the feeling of formality and flow between exercises all while being at home and without the pressure of other people.

Here is Zumi working on level 3.  Almost!

And I think this emphasis on foundation, fun, and early success (level 1 should be doable with just a few months of excellent training) can help suck a lot of people back into obedience.  People that may have been wandering away to other dog sports.  Or people who just didn't know how to train past novice.  The levels setup will give anyone interested a very serious guide on how to get their training from step 1 all the way up with distractions, discriminations, and precision.

If you're interested in really good training, regardless of whether or not you want shiny titles, check out the TEAM website.  And if you need help in training any of the exercises, I will be teaching an online foundations class starting August 1st going over all of the exercises in levels 1 and 2.