Training your Dog:Sue Ailsby Seminar Part One

TRAIN YOUR DOG: Sue Ailsby Seminar – Part One
By Sharon Schaefer

If anyone wants to compete in any dog sport, including conformation, or simply to develop a better relationship with their partner-dog, I would strongly recommend attending any of Sue’s seminars. Whether you attend with a dog or as an auditor you are involved hands-on in life skills or training situations that are set up to let the dog and the person succeed. Sue has been a judge, a private trainer specializing in problem dogs, a private coach specializing in high level obedience and other sports, and she is still a competitor and 4H leader and . . . Sue’s Portuguese Water Dog Scuba, besides having conformation, obedience, agility, drafting, water trial titles has the only Herding Title (not instinct test) in that breed worldwide.

In real life Scuba is her Service Dog. Earlier in her career Sue bred and trained the most titled Giant Schnauzer in breed history, a dog who is still several titles beyond any others in her breed. Sue now uses and recommends clicker training through #1 shaping, #2 capturing, or #3 luring. Scuba is 10 and has been completely clicker trained. Sue’s last Giant Schnauzer was her ‘crossover dog’ and she’s the one who achieved all those titles. Clicker is about giving control over their life to the dog. Not control over our lives – positive doesn’t mean permissive. Some of her basic rules are ‘Let the clicker talk. Shut your mouth (because when you open your mouth you need the dog to listen and you’re not ready for that yet) and let the clicker talk.’

Practise the mechanical skills without the dog. Click like shooting a gun – relaxed posture and breathing, squeeze, don’t jerk but the click is fast. Click the eye blinks of a news anchor on TV – now with the other hand. Click left steps of someone striding or strolling along a road. Practise both hands. Place 10 Cheerios in your right hand, click with left hand and drop one Cheerio from fingertips into a bowl immediately after you click. Switch hands. Practice until you can feed Cheerios as fast as you can click. Click and toss dog food into centre of a blanket, keep eye contact up and do the above exercises. Never click next to the dog’s or a person’s ear instead use a click-word like ‘Yes’ to mark behaviour.

Practise the specific sequence for a technique (eg hand zen) without the dog just before teaching it to her. The ‘treat’ must be rewarding to the dog and small food bits are better than toys to begin. To introduce clicker training to your dog plan on a session between 10 seconds to 2 minutes long, - ads in a TV show are good. A quieter room is better but probably not necessary. Doing this in the 5-30 minutes before the dog’s normal meal is perfect – use their kibble. Have the extra treats easily reached and start with a few in your clicker hand, which is resting beside you. Offer your other fingertips (thumb touching fingers), palm up to the dog as if you had a treat in them – dog touches your fingers – click/treat – by dropping the treat on the floor or tossing it at the dog. Repeat. You WANT to reward the dog as much as possible so if the dog is unsure make it easier – put your fingers right in front of their nose, stick your fingers in your own mouth ‘Yummy’ then offer to dog – every time dog touches your fingers or hand they earn a c/t. If they try to touch the clicker/treat hand they do not earn anything, keep the other hand more available. After the first ten seconds, which might be a bit confusing, a timing of about 8 treats in 10 seconds is great. Some dogs are slower than this but they should be ‘in the game’ and trying to earn their next treat.

Traditionally trained dogs might sit or lay down & quit because offering behaviours has never ‘paid’ in their life just make it easier – explain it again. The third or fourth session of target training have them touch a pen in your hand. Show the pen then c/t every time they touch it – you are asking by showing the pen. Continue with finger targets as well. Remember – keep your mouth shut! By about the 100th c/t for touching the pen or fingers you will be ready to add a cue word immediately after the click and keep saying it with the click for another 300 times before trying the cue word first to see if the dog has associated it yet. Give cues, not commands.Now to a life skill – hand Zen. It’s very, very important in these zen exercises that the dog NEVER gets the treat until they stop trying.

Clicker in one hand, put a treat in your other hand, close your fist around it, offer closed hand palm down to the dog and keep it closed no matter what they do to it. The second they pause without touching the hand c/t and drop the treat for them. Repeat. Over a dozen or more short sessions you want to work up to the dog not touching on an open palm. About the third session of this use really yummy treats but closed fist again. They earn the treat by ignoring it or turning head away or however they solve this problem for themselves. This is the beginning for the dog not stealing the 2 year old’s ice cream.

Counter zen (if you’re doing OK you can start this the same day as hand zen and one day after starting clicker training if you’re confused wait a week or so). Use a nose level surface like a chair or coffee table, clicker in one hand and place kibble on the chair so dog sees it – dog goes for it, cover it with your hand – no matter what they don’t get the treat. Dog pauses or takes nose away from your hand c/t by flicking the treat to the floor. Repeat lots. For both these introduce a cue word like ‘Leave it’ after about 100 c/t’s and practise with the cue word after the click about 300 times then see if dog has learned it yet.


Sue has authored a Training Levels book which is available in three different formats for free download at her website www.dragonflyllama.com. Also available are training charts and any diagrams or other needed material. The Levels takes you and your dog through a broad assortment of skills in a very clearly explained step-by-step manner, which is designed to let both partners succeed. They are designed for the average trainer-dog team to complete a Level every three months. Any dog-handler team who has completed Level 7 is less than a month away from a title in any dog sport, even those that are still to be invented!!