Course Details
BAT Practice Class
This is a practice class for those who are already familiar with BAT 2.0. The next round will be in 2015.
This course is unique in that it does not have large weekly lectures. The main lectures were all published in the BAT 101 course, which is a prerequisite for this course. Each of the mini-lectures in this class will focus on a way to help improve the way you do BAT.
NOTE: BAT 101 through Fenzi or a thorough understanding of BAT 2.0 from elsewhere is required as a prerequisite for this course.
If you haven't taken BAT 101 yet and want to take BAT Practice, please prepare by watching the Intro to BAT and BAT Leash Skills webinar recordings from the Empowered Animals site. Then practice! You can still purchase the library from BAT 101 here. That's a good option if you already know about BAT 2.0 from elsewhere but haven't taken the Fenzi course.
What is this class? The BAT Practice class is just that - a chance for people who are familiar with BAT to practice their set-ups and continue honing their skills. It's a great way to make sure you're maxing out your chance for progress.
Each week will have some new bit of information or something to focus on, but again, there will not be large lectures. Part of the homework for Gold level students is to assess videos -- your own, videos of friends, or random clips that you find online.
Trainers: If you can't afford a gold spot, see if a client or friend will sponsor your spot to do the course with them and their dog.
We understand that for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be cold. That means you might want to do more training inside. We will work on giving you ways to incorporate BAT into indoor training environments, but do remember that BAT is best done with enough space so that the dog does not have to be micromanaged. So for those of you wanting to be inside, arranging the set-ups will require more creativity. Grisha and the her Teaching Assistant, Kristin Burke, will help you with that.
Registration
Registration is not open for this class.
NOTE: BAT 101 through Fenzi or a thorough understanding of BAT 2.0 from elsewhere is required as a prerequisite for this course.
If you haven't taken BAT 101 yet and want to take BAT Practice, please prepare by watching the Intro to BAT and BAT Leash Skills webinar recordings from the Empowered Animals site. Then practice! You can still purchase the library from BAT 101 here. That's a good option if you already know about BAT 2.0 from elsewhere but haven't taken the Fenzi course.
When registration opens for this term, you can sign up for BAT 101 to get the library materials. You will not get the discussions, because it is not offered in October, you can register for it to get all of Grisha's BAT 101 lectures in your Fenzi Academy library.
Please subscribe to the Fenzi mailing list for updates.
For answers to commonly asked questions see the Fenzi FAQ page.
Syllabus
The plan is for each gold student to aim for one set-up each week. Specific items will be requested in the footage, but mostly we are going over the set-ups with a detailed eye to see how they could be improved for each of the students. Students will also have a chance to go over other BAT set-ups done outside of the class environment.
Here are the topics of the mini-lectures:
- Conflict Creation: accidentally leading the dog forward
- Human Parachutes: when to do Slow Stop
- Before and After your Set-Up
- Mark and Move for working up close
- Creative Barriers
- Advanced Long Leash Tricks
Prerequisites and Equipment
Prerequisite: Intro to BAT 2.0 in some official form. One or more of these must be done before the BAT Practice course:
Gold Level Participants will need:
- Long leash, 12-15 feet (or two 6-foot leashes clipped together). Grisha recommends the Mendota or Clix leashes.
- Dog harness with rear attachment. We recommend something like the Perfect Fit, XtraDog, Balance, Mekuti, or Freedom Harnesses, which have leash rings on both back and front.
- A dog with mild to severe reactivity directed at dogs or people ('triggers') - from mild fear or frustration through big issues. This course is not appropriate for dogs with generalized anxiety (i.e., anxious and worried about everything, all the time) or only resource guarding (which is dealt with more easily in other ways). This 'student dog' can be your own dog or a client's dog, but you must be ablet to practice with the same dog during the whole course and have permission to film those sessions.
- Access to a training area in which the student dog is only mildly interested in the trigger without handler distraction. This may be indoors, but is almost always outdoors.
- Access to a helper dog or person (trigger), preferably more than one. In the course, you will film training set-ups with the helper starting at an appropriate distance.
- Video camera, a way to film yourself training, and a way to upload your videos. A GoPro or other wearable camera would be an excellent way to capture some Ninja BAT (aka stealth BAT, training with real life helpers who are unaware that they are helping you.)
- (optional) 'before' footage of your dog would be helpful, if you have any. Don't set your dog up to freak out, but if you have some footage, it would be good to post it to your thread in the homework forum.
