Last weekend I attended the Training Levels Seminar led by Susan Ailsby. It was in Columbus at the new BRAG facility.

I registered for a working position and brought both Katy and Ellie. It was nice to have both dogs with me - I was able to work each one depending on the exercise and each dog’s skill set.

I took Ellie out on the mat for the “come” game. We played with Julie and worked on Ellie’s jumping problem. This is always a challenge because she really loves to jump up on Julie. She did well. We were using her name, though technically at Level One the dog’s name isn’t used. We used it since she’s already tested through Level One.

The seminar would be a great experience for “cross-over” trainers and new clicker trainers. Sue has many years of experience and is a cross-over trainer herself. She is great at comparing the different training methods and explaining the benefits that she has gained since making the change over to positive training with the clicker. At the end of the seminar, as Sue wrapped things up, she brought tears to a lot of people’s eyes while reflecting on what she could’ve done with her “past” dogs had she used her current training methods.

For experienced clicker trainers, Sue is a great resource for troubleshooting certain behaviors and for her great breakdown of basic behaviors. I really liked the way she demonstrated the swing finish. Watching Scuba work her hind end during heeling and doodling was great. I definitely got some serious “I want my dog to do that!” motivation from that demo.

One excellent quote:

“Our job is not to control our dogs. Our job is to teach our dogs to control themselves.”

And something that she came back to several times (my paraphrase):

“Dogs have been selected by humans for thousands of years to be our companions and working partners. They want to work with us and be with us. We don’t need to hurt them to make them do what we want. They already want to do the right thing. All we need to do is teach them.”