E251: 데니스 펜지(Denise Fenzi) - "2022년의 FDSA"

But being within, reaching distance of people, being able to touch someone on the sleeve, losing that strikes me as a really, really big loss. Camp is so much more than education or hands-on. It's, it's just, it's meant to be a much richer experience. And the loss of that, plus the overall uncertainty that the students were expressing about what they would need to feel safe, just, it took us to that final decision. Yeah, that makes sense. But I know there's been some talk recently, kind of some, some things behind the scenes, maybe, of alternate, alternate, excuse me, options. What's kind of in the works? Well, that's, of course, the first thing we were thinking about. And the answer is, I don't know. But one possibility is, like, I haven't traveled in years at all. I haven't traveled for myself. I stopped doing seminars many years ago. And the only time I was traveling was for conferences. So this would have been an example. So I think I'll make an exception. And at the very least, I will travel to teach with a focus on FDSA students. There's a couple of ways that might go. We do both boot camps and mini camps at FDSA. A boot camp is a preset syllabus and outline that involves students listening to lectures beforehand. They have several hours of lecture. That is part of their purchase. And then when we get together in the boot camp environment, I think the last time we did it was me and Deb. Yeah, it was just the two of us did it together for two days. Very, very heavy. Yeah, exactly. You were there. Very heavy on hands-on. And the reason that works is because people had the lecture up front. So they knew what we were going to do when we got there. And that was a lot of fun. So we did one boot camp, and then the world fell apart. But we had many others scheduled, and we had to cancel them all. The second option is a mini camp. And that might be me and a couple of other instructors going somewhere and having a much smaller event. So rather than hundreds of students, you have, I don't know, 50 to 75 or 80 maybe. And that's a little bit, I think, safer and more doable. So those are the things that are on the table right now as possibilities. They're also a little more flexible in terms of dates and when and what, right? Absolutely. Yeah, camp is a big deal. Organizing camp with many activities happening at the same time. There's very complex financial arrangements with hotel rooms and the rooms that we use and restaurants and caterers. It's a whole other level of complexity that we can get around. Yeah. So do we have plans for 2023? We plan on doing camp in Oregon, back to Albany again.

Hopefully this one's going to come through for us. Yeah. All right. So even though we've canceled training camp, the Lemonade Conference is still on. So we're doing that in February. And I know we kind of planned some new things this year. So I was hoping you could talk a little bit about that. Can you share a little bit about the new workshops option? Yeah, we're going to try out something new. So this time I am teaching precision healing. And what I will do is instead of going straight through for an hour and a half or however long the presentation is, I will present for, let's say, 45 minutes. And I will provide very specific steps for people to try out. And then we'll have a break. And during that break, people will go and do the steps that I gave you. And they will have the information in advance. So if they get confused or muddled, they can just go look at the presentation or the notes that they already have. Because those will be released in the morning. And they can follow along. And then they can come back if they get stuck. So there would be two ways to do that. One is during that half-hour break, I will still be there. So I'll still be answering questions or chatting with people or, I mean, frankly, leave me alone for any period of time. And I can find plenty to talk about. So things will be, something will happen during that time. And then when the time is up and people come back, then they can talk about what their experiences were. Did they get stuck? How did it go? And we can sort of do some problem solving. So we'd like to try to get people a little bit more involved. And see what happens with that. So that's going to be our new adventure this year. And if it goes well, then I would imagine we will expand it in future years. Yeah. And you're doing that. I think, I'm trying to remember who else is doing those. And I don't have it in front of me. But I'll have to look it up while you answer my next question. And then I can talk about it a little bit more. Is Sarah Bruschi doing one? Sarah Bruschi is doing one of them. And I'm trying to remember who else was doing them. And I can't off the top of my head. But I can pull it up while you talk a little bit more. About how you're going to approach it. So you mentioned you're covering precision healing. Can you share a little more about kind of what about precision healing you're sharing? And how attendees should prepare? What they should have with them for the session? Well, the good news is it really will start at ground zero. So if you have absolutely no healing whatsoever, you will benefit from it.

And if you have a lot of healing, you will benefit from it. Because I'm a pretty big fan of foundation skills and pivots. To me, excellent healing all comes down to left and right on a space. If you can turn left and your dog can stand position. And if you can turn right and if your dog can stand position, then most dogs don't have that much trouble with the straight lines in between. So the emphasis has to be on the corners. And that's where I start the training process. And I'm super systematic about, you know, step one, can you get a cookie in the dog's mouth? That sounds simple. But when you do it my way, you'll discover it's not so simple. And then can you start doing that as you stand next to your dog? So those first two steps will take a lot of people more time than you might expect. And then starting to tweak. Do you like that head position? So in my mind, if a person did nothing more than what I will teach you, that first four to six steps, I'm not even sure how many I put in there, really emphasize that you will be so far ahead of the game, no matter how you decide to teach healing, how you decide to finish it out. So that's my plan. And that's why I picked precision healing, my topic, because I've taught it this way several times, and I know it's effective. And I know that it goes well in an online environment. And I know that people can fit it in no matter how they already teach it. So that was my decision this time. Who knows if, if we do this again next year, I'll have to come up with a new topic that's equally amenable to being broken into small, small bits. So it looks like Amy's also going to do a workshop, Amy Cook, on her Playway stuff. And then we also have Sarah Bruschi doing a workshop on happy holds, working on holds. So they should be good. I looked it up. So TLC isn't the only thing that's kind of been happening at FDSA lately. Can you share a little bit about the other stuff that's kind of in the works behind the scenes? Yeah, we actually have a really big thing coming up. Our website is almost 10 years old now. And it's built on a Joomla frame, but it's extremely heavy on customization. That was not only because of how it was designed in the first place, but because we keep growing. So we just started out with classes. And then it became classes and then webinars. And then we added workshops. And then we added self-study and pet program. And there's just more and more shows up. And that means we have more random things bolted on. And that starts to be very hard on your system. Because then when you try to add or change one thing, you inadvertently break other things.

And we got to the point where our tech company said, you're kind of hitting a do or die here. And we can't just keep doing this. It's time to step back and make some decisions. So that is what we are in the process of doing. We're working with fantastic people. I can't tell you how excited I am about our team. And they include various specialties. And they all work together. So the goal is to have an extremely well-integrated design, technical, marketing platforms interface. So that all the pieces make sense. And I have told everybody over and over, the most important thing to me is that it be clean, easy to navigate, that a current student can come in and in minimal number of clicks get from here to there without being confused, without so many bright lights and shiny objects that people can't do what they're on the website to do. So we want a super functional, friendly design and underlying technology base that will make this make sense. I know, like, you know, little things. As a non-tech person, I've sort of learned the hard way over the last many years what technology is. And so I can't count how many times people have said things to us like, well, why can't we have a way to mark the classes we want and be notified when they come back up on the schedule? I think that would be a great thing to have. Or why can't we have a shopping cart? I think that would be a great thing to have. It's not that we don't agree. And it's not that we don't think those are great things to have. But what sounds like, why don't you just is not, why don't you just, we don't have it because it would break our entire system. And that's the kind of thing that eventually you run yourself into a wall and you say, those would be wonderful things to have. And we would like to have those things. And so we are pretty hardcore now in the center of the process of trying to design a really great platform and working with experienced people who are very familiar with learning management systems. By coincidence, very familiar with the dog training space because at least one of our people is a pretty heavy FDSA user already. So she understands exactly where we're going. So I'm actually excited about it now. Three months ago, I was terrorized because I just see, I just see, I just see broken bits. I just see struggle. I just see sleepless nights. But now I actually am excited about it. And I think our team is going to pull something together, which is fantastic and that the students will love. Cool. I'm excited to see what everybody comes up with and how it all turns out and works out.

And where are students likely to start seeing trickles and bits of that become available or impact things that they see kind of on a day to day basis? That's a great question. I would say not earlier than June. You might see some minor changes to like emails, things like that. The email programs might change. But the actual working website, I would be amazed if it was more before June. And then for anybody who's ever worked on building or technology, you know, just like if you say your house is going to be ready in June, everybody knows you should add 50%. So between now and June, I would say that would bring more like September. But, you know, somewhere in that June to September, we might start showing you stuff. There's also, I'm sure, going to be periods in between now and then when we might ask for some, hey, we're looking at this. What are your thoughts on that? So we might be looking for some feedback at various points, but we're not we're not quite there yet. All right. So kind of one last thing I want to talk about before I let you go, and that is FDSA is doing some free stuff for the holidays. We're giving away some free things. So do you care to spill the beans? Share a little bit about what it is we're giving away. Yeah, we have a couple of gifts. The first one is a free webinar, and it's very timely because it's about goal setting and planning. So this is as good a time as any for you to do some goal setting and planning for 2022. And it will be a panel discussion with Megan Foster and Petra Ford and Sharon Carroll. Some of you may not know that this, but Sharon Carroll is a Olympic level coach. So quite qualified for this. Petra Ford is a national champion in obedience. So qualified for this. And Megan Foster is a longtime coach and judge, et cetera. So well qualified to talk about it. So this is really a fantastic group of people. So feel free to sign up for the free webinar. We'd love to have you. It's a great introduction to the school. And for sure, share that with your friends who may not be familiar with FDSA because, you know, free is a nice way to start. Absolutely. And they can do that. They can sign up for that over on the webinar page, just so folks know. So if you go to the normal webinar page, kind of at the bottom, there's a link to go sign up. And then you will be able to give us your email address and get notified with the link. And then there's a number two, right? What's our number two, Denise, our gift? Yeah. A few months ago, we offered a webinar on accessibility and dog training.

So people could buy that, but we decided to purchase the recording from Atlas, who made it for us. And we're just going to make that available for anyone who wants to use it because there's quite a lot in there for people who are professional dog trainers who might be offering either in-person classes or online classes. There might be little details that you hadn't thought about that might make people feel more comfortable in your classes. So if you want to explore your options, you might find some things in there that you didn't think about or that are really pretty straightforward or that you think might make a significant difference in your ability to help people out. So that will be free. And that will be on the Pet Dog Training Online link from the main Fenzie Dog Sports Academy page. So you go to Fenzie Dog Sports Academy, select Pet Dog Training Online. And from there, there's a link for free resources, which has all kinds of stuff that we've put up over time. And you will find that video there. Excellent. Good stuff. So, yes, I hope some folks enjoy those things. And it gives you something to watch or listen to or check out over the holiday since we're taking a break from webinars this week. And then we'll have the free one next week, which will be, I don't think we said the day and time for that. So it'll be December 30th at 6 p.m. Pacific time, which for those of you on the East Coast with me, it's 9 p.m. Eastern. All right. And with that, Denise, thank you so much for coming on kind of last minute here and chatting about some of this stuff with me. Wrap up the end of the year. It's good stuff. Yeah, so excited to see what comes each year's bigger and better and more interesting. And there's always new stuff showing up. So let's see. Let's see what happens this time around. Awesome. All right, guys. Thank you to our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with Erin Lyons to talk about living and loving our older furry friends. If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast on 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. Thank you.