Syn , a female Portuguese Water Dog , retrieving a bumper from the water in a Water Trial around 2013 in Canyon Lake , Arizona .
to the left and I give her the tiniest little pop with the choke chain and keep right on going all cheery and great . But I could see in her posture that she thought that was weird . We go along again and she looks off to the left and I give her a tiny little pop with the choke chain saying happily “ Come on , let ’ s go !’ And she stopped dead . The one-half of my brain is saying “ You ’ ve done it now ! Ten months of work and you just ruined it ! You ’ ll NEVER get her to heel now !’ And the other half of my brain is saying “ She can ’ t stop in the middle of my training !’ And while I was standing there arguing with myself , suddenly her ears came back up . She wagged her tail and she whipped around to my right side all ready to start heeling again . The conclusion she came to was that maybe she should be trying this behavior on the other side of me where the hurt wasn ’ t happening . Right then I just sat down and cried . The choke chain wound up in the garbage can that day and I never used one on a dog again .”
Sue was finding amazing results with this new approach and she expected other dog people around her would be very interested in learning these methods , especially her fellow trainers in the dog club . “ We had such a good bunch of people training in those days in the club . We had an actual apprenticeship program and a trainers ’ meeting once a month . It was a wonderful environment , so I was excited to share all this fabulous new stuff that I was finding . At a meeting I showed the group of 12 or so trainers how I could easily train a dog to do all sorts of behaviors quickly using a clicker and food . And they responded with “ Well , that won ’ t work . We can ’ t do that . That ’ s stupid .’ I was absolutely gobsmacked !”
She tried another approach and suggested the club let her teach a class so they could see what happens . The club agreed . “ At the time , the club ’ s limit was 10 dogs per class with one trainer and one apprentice . They sometimes allowed up to 12 dogs if there were lots of small dogs or several trainers taking the class . Well , they signed up 23 people in my class ! And I didn ’ t even have an apprentice , so you can imagine what the first week was like .”
After that experience , Sue realized if she wanted to teach a clicker training class , she would have to do it without the support of the kennel club . She decided to teach a free class in a park and invited some people she thought would be open to learning something new and weird . “ Some people attended , and it went very well . I remember there was a kid in the class with a Springer . We were working on heeling around the figure eight and he came the next week and said watch this : and he heeled around the figure eight backwards ! As soon as I started teaching the free class , I was done with the kennel club . I didn ’ t stamp my foot . I just quit . I ’ ve since learned you can ’ t tell people things that they don ’ t want to know . We get so embedded in what we ’ ve been told to do and so it must be right .”
Sue continued : “ When I was about 13 years old , I was assisting teaching in an Obedience class with a club in Saskatoon . There was a woman in the class who wouldn ’ t use a choke chain on her German Shepherd . She said things like “ Mommy said lie down ” and “ I ’ m so disappointed . Can you please lie down ?” We made so much fun of her when she was not there . But her dog was the best in the class . And the dichotomy of her having the best dog in
The APDT Chronicle of the Dog | Spring 2022 47