Sue Ailsby driving with her sons during the 1982 winter festival in Regina , Saskatchewan .
actively pursuing it because I wanted to make a change in the way I was training . I read an article in “ Dogs in Canada ” called “ Food vs Force in Training ’ so when I was in Toronto for a dog show I phoned the author . This was before long-distance calling was free . He told me Ted Aranda in Detroit was doing some stuff , so I looked all over the place , and I found Ted doing a seminar in Detroit . I took a train to Windsor and rented a car to attend that seminar . But it wasn ’ t a how-to seminar , it was a problemsolving seminar . He didn ’ t explain anything at all about what he was doing ; he just got one dog up after another and solved the problem . So I went home from this seminar and tried to reverse engineer what he was doing .”
Sue says she was having lots of success , but her understanding took a giant leap forward when Grace MacDonald , a trainer from Winnipeg , came to her house one day . “ Grace was probably like five minutes ahead of me in her discovery of this stuff . I had judged her husband in Obedience a couple of months before she came to visit me . He was showing a St . Bernard in Obedience and I couldn ’ t believe this St . Bernard . I had never seen anything like it . The dog was excited , interested , and enthusiastic , and I had never seen a St . Bernard work like that before . And I had shown St . Bernards ! Grace ’ s husband had done a bunch of double-handling and things like that , but I didn ’ t nail him for it because I was just so impressed with how his dog was working . “ Grace and I were standing in my kitchen talking about training and she said , “ You ’ ve got one more half a step to take .’ And she showed me how to use the clicker . Soon , I was using it to get my dog to touch my hand , and then my knee , and then my hand again , and so on . Suddenly my dog turned and ran up the stairs to the second floor and turned around and ran back down and touched my hand again . And I thought “ Huh .’ One half of my brain is saying “ Why did she do that ?’ And the other half of my brain is saying “ My dog can ’ t walk away from me in the middle of a training session !’ So I asked Grace , “ Why did she do that ?’ and she said , “ Well , because she was feeling a little like she ’ d been thinking a lot and she felt like she just wanted to take a little time off so she ran up the stairs and realized she was okay and ran back down again .’ I was faced with the realization that I ’ m allowed to let the dog think . After that moment , it was just me bounding along learning things and finding people who were also exploring .”
Sue returned to training Obedience , but this time with the new methods she was learning . But she discovered she had one more barrier to push through . It was the first time Sue would be entering an Obedience trial with a dog she trained without a choke chain , a dog trained without any physical corrections . “ One half of my brain is saying “ Okay , we have a trial coming up in a week and she ’ s doing great . Don ’ t change anything about what you ’ re doing .’ But the other half of my brain is saying “ But she doesn ’ t understand that she has to heel . She thinks it ’ s negotiable . I ’ m just going to tell her that she has to do it . I can do it . I can be nice .’ So I put the choke chain on her while the other half of my brain is screaming “ Don ’ t do it ! Don ’ t be stupid !’ And we start practicing . This Giant Schnauzer is actually doing a strut step heeling , which Giant Schnauzers don ’ t do . She hears a little noise off to the left so she looks off
46 Building Better Trainers Through Education Photos : Sue Ailsby