A guest post by the Awesome Lynda “Ethel” Orton Hill aka LOH.
I’ve been pondering for a few weeks on what I think has been the secret to my success with my relationships with my dogs (Ruby, Spirit, Favor & Cool Moss) in the Do-Land program. The more I thought about it the stronger I believed that the success of the relationships I have with my dogs is now available to everyone who opens up their learning to Susan’s latest project . Puppy Peaks.
I have spent the last 10 years watching Susan Garrett train dogs. I realized that the secret to my success in this program is this simple, I’ve been watching Susan Garrett train dogs. I have always been in awe of the behaviours she creates in her dogs but for 10 full years and I’m sure 10,000+ hours I have just watched Susan, not the dogs or the puppies she was working. Puppy Peaks is just that, videos of Susan training her puppy Swagger with cameo’s of her fantastic adult dogs.
If you watch Susan’s videos you will see with amazing detail :
- How Susan sets up her environment, manages her environment, chooses behaviors in a sequence that in the future will help guide/build more behaviors
- How she engages, interacts, responds and reinforces dogs.
- What hand she uses where/when with what reward, details missed by most.
- How she builds trust, and an enthusiasm in the dog before she works them ultimately building a confident and outgoing driven dog.
- How she uses games, shaping, record keeping and the power of science to build behaviours she wants to see repeated.
- How she problem solves to instill confidence if it’s weak, settles arousal levels to a manageable level if out of control, just through use of reinforcement, giving dogs choices and then using her own voice and demeanor to help the dog be able to think.
I’ve watched her work high barking out of control dogs and dogs that are mashed against the floor. Her training addresses each spectrum of arousal while bringing out a glimmer of hope for their owners that they too can move forward with difficult training challenges. I’ve watched Susan detail the smallest of details in own her training that seem unimportant at the time but ultimately create behaviour like no other.
I’ve watched her program grow from taking her own training weaknesses and finding a solution that makes learning for others so much easier and fun at the same time. Swagger has opened a door for people to see first hand the way she trains life skills, relationship building, body awareness, sport skills and all in an entertaining way like only Susan can do!
As an administrator for Puppy Peaks I have received all kinds of emails from “this is fantastic” to “this isn’t for me.” I guess it is the latter emails that got me thinking…”Wait! Wait! look at it from a different perspective! “You can have what I have! Just by watching!”, and at your leisure. This program, just like Recallers, will open doors for trainers just like myself all over the world to watch Susan train Swagger as he grows. Something I’ve had access to for all those years of my learning “how to train a dog.” I went from never owning a dog to what I like to think as a pretty successful dog training life. Watching Susan and putting into practice her relationship building program with my own dogs has taken me around the world to teach Susan’s students and competitively playing on five Canadian world agility teams in 2 jump heights. Most importantly, my dogs are a joy to live with and bring joy to our family no matter the challenges as they grew up!
Just remember “the secret”. If you are already a member, watch from a different perspective. Watch Susan and all the detail she is offering to you! If you are not a member, try it out to see what she does with her own dogs! Then go out and build great relationships with your own dogs while training fun, useful behaviors for great pet dogs first and competitive dogs second!
Lynda
PS: Susan is dropping PuppyPeaks membership down to the introductory price. For one day only… Her birthday! July 26th, till 12:01am on the 27th (new york time) you can join PuppyPeaks at the lowest it will ever be. $5 a week! And wish Susan Happy Birthday!
Speaking of Puppy Peaks . . .does anyone know why the login page is not displaying???
When is the wonderful Ethel coming back to Australia! 🙂
One of the big things on puppy peaks that has helped me is being able to watch Susan work Swagger through the DWDH moments and seeing sometimes how much time and effort she has to put in, yep even Susan has too! With recallers 1.0 I now know I gave up way to soon with those moments with Zach……seeing how Susan works through with Swagger is so helpful.
LOH — write that book!!!!
For me, PuppyPeaks is worth much more than it costs (believe me, I was willing to pay twice more for it without a seconds hesitation) There is so much to observe, I can’t imagine thinking “I don’t need it”.
Lynda, you’ve convinced me now. So want to see the little things that make a difference. Your recollections of your beginnings with Spirit in the Say Yes programme keep coming back to me.
WOW! So good Lynda
Thank you for sharing *the secret*
Happy Birthday Susan!
As a novice dog trainer I have been inspired in the recoilers course by Lynda sharing her struggles with Spirit, and now in puppy peaks by seeing Susan share her challenges with Swagger.
It is one thing to know that I need to work through the don’t wanna don’t have to moments and quite another to know how to actually accomplish that.
My dogs are two and three. Initially I didn’t know if I’d find Puppy Peaks valuable. Now I see that the videos can apply to a dog of any age and I’m grateful to be there.
Started last week in the PP program, it is the mechanics and the swift delivery that are always a take away for me! I once found it hard to be fun and silly but have mimacked SG so much that the fun silly side has BECOME me and I love the relationship I have with my dogs now. Thw course is a constant reminder of little details that often get missed by many.
I love what I’m learning in Recallers and Puppy Peaks. Puppy Peaks is giving me a new way to approach training with my 3, 4 & 5 year old dogs. It is most especially helpful for my 4 YO who likely spent the first 2 years of his life in a kennel/cage. I love that I can laugh when training “goes wrong” (I’m reinforcing something I don’t mean to reinforce). I love that I am beginning to be able to evaluate what went wrong when they quit trying to shape what it is I think I’m shaping. I’m seeing such great levels of trust with my 4 YO. I love that I’ve quit blaming my dogs when they do something “wrong.” Now I search for what I need to change so they can be correct. I’m sure they were always giving me feedback. Now I’m able to process that feedback so I can make corrections in my handling so they know what I really wanted. It’s all just so amazing. I would like everyone to be open to Susan’s methods and the Say Yes philosphy!
I have learned so much just in the first week of watching puppy peaks. My dogs are 3 and 5 years old but definitely can apply what I have already seen with both of them. I’m hoping when you do your recallers course again, that you will also offer that at a monthly fee. I so wanted to take it but couldn’t afford all of that money up front. Thanks for offering it at a monthly rate for puppy peaks
Alright, Susan, all this benevolence of yours has convinced me that I have to join Puppy Peaks after all- money be damned! I just want to confirm that if I sign up for the monthly rate today, it will remain $19.99 for the entire year for me, and not go back up in price after tonight (i.e. first month @ $19.99 rest of year month at $39.99)
LOL no Dakota, I wouldn’t do that to anyone. When you sign up your price stays the same for as long as you are a member.:)
Whenever I get to see Susan in person- either at a trial or at her home for a camp or seminar I make it a point to watch her work with her dogs. Then again when I see you Lynda with your dogs I do the same. I strive to have a working relationship with my boy – Puppy peaks is like Job Shadowing with Susan Garrett I am so glad to be part of it.
Happy Birthday Susan- have a great day!
It seems like a lot of $$, but it isn’t. Not for what Susan is giving us.
Back in June, I was actually travelling across the midwest on I-80, when I checked my email and read about Puppy Peaks. I drove past a couple more exits and then pulled off the interstate and registered then & there.
I enjoyed the Recallers so much I knew the Puppy Peaks would be fabulous also.
I am using some of the puppy stuff on my 3 year old dog. It works no matter what age — with just a few tweeks!
Happy Birthday Susan & THANKS for sharing your gift!
Yes Willy, it is $3.85 per week if you join for the year and $5.00 per week if you join month to month. After today it goes up to $7.65 and $10.00 per week if you wait until tomorrow.
Wow- I better make a decision today! Since Swagger is no longer a very young puppy- can anyone confirm that the videos of him as a young pup are available for members? I mean, if I sign up today- am I getting today’s training forward, or do I get the backlog as well?
Happy birthday Susan!
Willy, I’m pretty sure that all the videos that have ever been put on the site will remain on the site as long as the site is up (i.e. as long as Susan decides to run the program), and that every member can see every video as many times as they want as long as your membership is still active, no matter how late you join.
Yes, there are plenty of videos of baby Swagger many from 3-4 weeks of age. However, all the foundation skills SG is training are appropriate for dogs of all ages. I have both a 14-month old puppy and 7-year old dog. It is awesome to see SG in action! All videos are available for viewing as long as your membership remains active. Highly recommend jumping off the fence and joining us!
Willy: You’ll get the backlog as well. I wasn’t certain about the $199.99 either, so went with the $19.99/monthly option. Trust me – It’s totally worth it!! You can log in and view each video by month and week, at your pace – then review each one whenever you want. My new puppy isn’t even born yet and I am getting very excited about training a better dog, with Susan’s videos showing many steps along the way. Honestly, just go for it! You can sign up for a month and simply cancel if you want to. Doubtful you will want to though!!
Great blog, Lynda! I’m so addicted to this way of life now. My pup thanks you, I thank you and the people she is in contact with every day says “thanks Say Yes, Recallers and Puppy Peaks!! Woof, Woof!!!”
Can you help me understand your PS? The price is currently less than $5. Will the cost actually go UP tomorrow to $5/week? I am still on the fence about joining, and this will definitely influence my decision.
I meant that it is currently less than $5/week. Unless I’m looking at the wrong thing- it’s $199.99/year, or $3.85/week currently. That’s why I am confused.
I do belong to Puppy Peaks and I have also taken both Recallers…BUT I hope we get to see some demos on what to do for the dog that is plastered down to the floor, one of my dogs is a rehome whom I have had 6 months and you never know what is going to set her off, she goes into that phase then it takes me days to get her out of it, her previous home was not a good one…. I am just hoping to be able to turn her around she is such a wonderful little dog who needs to be happy now and not living in fear.
Michele –
We had a foster as you describe in our rescue he had a primary FH about an hour from me and as he built confidence he came to our home a couple times to generalize his new found confidence.
I will say it is ALL about reinforcment for approximations of the target behaviors you want, we also used TTouch while at our house and his foster home was very massage aware and used this on him as well. He was a long-term foster (2 years) but now has an AWESOME home, really perfect and is a very confident dog who makes really good choices.
I think Susan would agree it is about positive reinforcement for such a dog, as this is how you CC fear and help the dog understand what you want (i.e. what you create to be reinforcing).
Hope this helps, take one day at a time and celebrate the small sucesses they will all of a sudden bloom into larger sucesses when you least expect it!
Mary