“ Now , imagine if the dog had been corrected for making the mistake . In the past , she would have been given a correction for jumping just the two boards and it wouldn ’ t have been her fault . And I never would have seen that mind-boggling mental ability in her to see the mistake that was made in communication before I saw it . I can ’ t see something like that and think about what happened without knowing that I spent 20 years of my life not understanding the animal I was working with .” important to you because you ’ re going to make mistakes . There is one thing I will absolutely guarantee you as a crossover trainer : If you have a dog you started the old way , and cross over and then get a puppy , you will not have the same strong desire to train the old dog anymore . You will be so excited by what the puppy is teaching you that all your effort will go into the puppy . This has happened a hundred times .”
Sue shares another experience of the cognitive dissonance can happen when deeply held beliefs are challenged .
“ In the early 1990s , my vet asked me to come to a Vet Association meeting and talk about dog training . Normally there would be 12 vets there , but for the night of my talk the room was standing room only because the vets had brought their families . With everyone sitting / standing in a big circle , I put my puppy , Scuba , on the floor in the middle and said “ Okay , I ’ m going to make Scuba go and touch your boot ’ and then I ’ d use the clicker and drive her over to the boot . “ Now I ’ ll get her to go around your chair ’ and I ’ d drive her over there . And then “ Now I ’ ll get her to spin in circles ’ and so on . I worked Scuba for 20 minutes , and then I picked her up — totally unbrushed — and I said “ Okay , I have two questions : What is it ? And How old is it ? They all agreed it was a mongrel and somebody said “ Well , you wouldn ’ t have been able to teach her all that stuff in probably less than about five years so I ’ m saying she ’ s five years .’ I said “ This is a Portuguese Water Dog , so “ mongrel ’ was a good guess because you ’ ve likely never seen one before . This is a Portie and she ’ s three months old .’ One of the vets exclaimed “ You couldn ’ t teach her all that stuff in three years !’ I had to pass the puppy around the circle so the vets could look at her teeth because they didn ’ t believe she was a puppy .”
Sue has since learned to accept that people need to be open for a shift to happen . “ When the pupil is ready , the teacher appears . But look at what I discovered when I opened myself up . I had to actually sa “ I don ’ t do that anymore ’ before I could start seeing what were the little tiny shoots of what was going on around me .”
Sue persevered through the obstacles , including the ones created by other dog people in her community who didn ’ t understand the new methods she was using . She kept learning as much as she could about the science of dog behavior , clicker training , and the potential of the “ little persons inside the dog suits .”
Jennifer Berg , CPDT-KA , is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Dog Trainers ( CAPDT ) and is the owner of Oberhund Dog Services & Products . She has more than 16 years ’ experience providing force-free , science-based dog training and behaviour modification services . Jennifer is passionate about promoting dogs ’ physical , mental , and emotional wellbeing and she specializes in private and group classes to help dogs and their people enjoy the outdoors together . She can be reached through her website at oberhund . com .
Resources
• For more information about Sue Ailsby , including how to purchase her books , visit www . Sue-eh . ca
• For the Michelle Borchardt interview posted by Kate Camplin and featured Aug . 17 , 2015 in the “ The Crossover Trainer Blog ” created by Ines Gaschot and Bev Maahs , please visit http :// www . thecrossovertrainer . com / crossover-story-michelle-borchardt /
“ It ’ s much easier now to make the switch if you ’ re in the right place mentally and have the right people around you . I mean , there are people who are still in my old kennel club who are being told the exact same thing , and it would be just as much of a break for them as it was for me or anybody else . It ’ s your whole social circle . If you ’ re thinking of making the switch away from compulsionbased methods but you aren ’ t sure you want to take the risk , try teaching a behavior that isn ’ t important , like a trick , and then you can see what happens . You do not want to start with something
The APDT Chronicle of the Dog | Spring 2022 49