Sue Ailsby - Training Levels: Steps to Success

Training Levels - Steps to Success

TRAINING TOOLS

Training your dog in easy steps for pet, sports, or work

By Sue Ailsby

with Lynn Shrove

M2M Endeavours Ltd.

1167 Ashley Drive

Swift Current, Saskatchewan

Canada S9H 1N4

www.sue-eh.ca

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, or in handouts for students with appropriate acknowledgement, including the addition of our website, www.sue-eh.ca.

Unattributed photos are by Lynn Shrove, Jan Greenberg, Karen Hoyt, Cathy Matson, or Sue Ailsby.

ISBN 978-0-9869119-2-7

2000 through 2012 by M2M Endeavours Ltd.

On the cover, 8 week old Portuguese Water Dog puppy, Syn, enthusiastically begins her training journey - step by step to success.

Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really.

- Agnes Sligh Turnbull

This book is for Ron, of course;

for my parents, who taught me to wonder how;

and for the dogs, who taught me everything they could and who put up with my thousands of experiments.

Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

- The Buddha

Many hands (or jaws) make light work - whether you're making a book or having a picnic. Scuba sets the table, Shayla runs out to get the meal (she's the only one old enough to drive), and Lily cleans up when they're done.

I have to thank first and foremost, Lynn Shrove. Without her enthusiasm and organizational skills, I would have long since wandered off to play with my pups;

the beta testers - Jan Greenberg, Karen Hoyt, Cathy Matson, Robin Walters, and the rest for (obviously) testing, and for taking marvelous photos of their beautiful dogs (and letting me use them!);

and the thousands of great trainers on the Training Levels Yahoo list who shared their successes and never failed to let me know when they didn't understand what I was saying.

With overt gratitude to Eileen Anderson who volunteered to edit this thing when only she knew how much work THAT was going to be!

Thanks, too, to all the dedicated trainers of Freedom Dogs and other Service Dog organizations using the Training Levels to make the world a better place.