Episode Details

Summary:

Sue Ailsby is a retired obedience and conformation judge. She has been "in dogs" for more than 54 years, having owned and trained everything from Chihuahuas to Giant Schnauzers. She has trained for virtually every legitimate dog sport including — and guys, this really is quite the list — sled racing, schutzhund, hunting, tracking, scent hurdle and flyball, carting, packing, agility, water trials and herding, rally, conformation, obedience, and nosework.

Sue is an internationally known speaker on the subject of humane training for dogs and llamas, and has been fundamental in introducing clicker training to Canada.

Links mentioned:

• www.sue-eh.ca

Next Episode:

To be released 8/3/2018, featuring Sue Ailsby, talking about Rally.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods.

Today we'll be talking to Sue Ailsby. Sue is a retired obedience and conformation judge. She has been "in dogs" for more than 54 years, having owned and trained everything from Chihuahuas to Giant Schnauzers. She has trained for virtually every legitimate dog sport including — and guys, this really is quite the list — sled racing, schutzhund, hunting, tracking, scent hurdle and flyball, carting, packing, agility, water trials and herding, rally, conformation, obedience, and nosework.

Sue is an internationally known speaker on the subject of humane training for dogs and llamas, and has been fundamental in introducing clicker training to Canada.

Welcome to the podcast Sue!

Sue Ailsby: Thanks Melissa. It's great to be here.

Melissa Breau: I'm super-excited to talk to you today. To get us started, do you want to tell us a little bit about the dogs you have now and what you're working on with them?

Sue Ailsby: I have Syn — that's for synchronized, not for bad — who is a Portuguese Water Dog, 7 years old. She's finished with conformation and Rally and drafting, and she's now working on nosework and the highest level of water trials.

Serra is my yearling Giant Schnauzer who's probably going to be a puppy until he's 6 or 7. He's doing foundation work through the training levels. He's learning to swim and do nosework, and he's working really, really hard on remembering not to french-kiss people.

Melissa Breau: That would be a good thing with his size to learn not to do!

Sue Ailsby: Yeah, it would be nice.

Melissa Breau: So I was hoping today to talk a bit about today, since I know your Rally 1 class is back on the schedule. Obviously I read that huge list — you've competed in a lot of different dog sports. How did you get started in Rally?

Sue Ailsby: Well, when you do everything, you have to try everything that comes along, and once you've tried it, then you can decide whether it's going to be fun for the current team you've got or not. And every one of my dogs has really enjoyed Rally. It is fun. Since I had dogs already with obedience titles, it's an easy transition to get into Rally, so we got into Rally and they enjoyed it and we did it.

Melissa Breau: That's awesome. What is it about Rally that appeals to you that's led you to go through the whole process of developing a course on it?

Sue Ailsby: Well, as I said, it's fun. And a lot of the behaviors in Rally are really foundation behaviors for all dogs, like sit and down and come and walking on a loose leash and brief stays.

A lot of people try it because it looks easy, and then give up because they don't have a swing finish or the attention they need from the dog. Since those are behaviors that make life with a dog easier anyway, I just want to sp