Fenzi TEAM Titles for Advanced Obedience Training

By Erica Pytlovany

Ready for advanced obedience training and want ideas for what to do next?  Let's look at one option:  Fenzi TEAM Titles (http://fenziteamtitles.com).

TEAM stands for Training Excellence Assessment Modules, and is made up of 6 levels of video "tests" for foundation through advanced obedience training skills.  Levels 1 - 3 are Sport Foundation, and build valuable sport skills from formal obedience to rally, freestyle, or even agility.  Levels 4 - 6 are Obedience Master and practice complex behavior chains, reduced reinforcement, and a high degree of fluency and discrimination.

What I like about the TEAM program:

• Sensible progression of skills, starting with a range of basic foundation items and layering of new challenges at each level
• Modular structure makes it rewarding to work on individual pieces of a complicated exercise so that it doesn't feel overwhelming
• Completing the video test is hard! If you plan to compete in live trials, the tests are a better simulation than you might imagine
• Don't get a successful video?  No problem, try again tomorrow.  If you mess up in a live trial, you have a long drive home, and you might wait weeks to try again.
• Tests require that you are very specific about your cues and your treats, so you are pushed to practice clean handling and mechanics
• Don't care about the video tests? Most of the skills still have practical, "real life" application, so you can still use the structure and the checklist

I suggest the program if you are interested in any dog sports. If you want to compete in formal ring obedience, I'd consider this "a must".

Cheat sheet for Level 1 exercises - right click to enlarge. 
Formatting credit to Emily Gaydos

Examples of passing Level 1 videos:

Jan & Sky:


Janet & Teddy:


And before you ask: No, you do not have to be a poodle-owner named Janet in order to play.

Want to try it?

• WOOFS! students: join the Sports Obedience class
• WOOFS! Facebook group for Dog Sports & Tricks
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/woofstricks
• Official TEAM Facebook group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/142115976184339/
• Fenzi Dog Sports Academy holds a multitude of terrific online classes:
  https://fenzidogsportsacademy.com

WOOFS! Dog Training Center is not affiliated with Fenzi TEAM Titles or the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy.