I received this letter from a student yesterday that I thought it was well worth posting it to all of you. Not just because of the uber nice things she says about me, but to put all of this focus on recalls into perspective.

Hi Susan,

I am writing to express my gratitude to you.  You helped me save my dog’s lives.

Yesterday morning I arrived at my parent’s house.  My 4 dogs jumped out of my truck and ran for the front door (after being released, of course).

On the other side of the front door my mom is  in the kitchen ready to dole out  special treats to her beloved “grand dogs”.  I trailed behind with an armload of stuff.

My dogs arrived at the front door to be greeted by a huge, agitated 4ft long rattlesnake (we live in Arizona), coiled and buzzing loud enough that I heard it from 20feet distance.   It was less than 2 feet from my group of dogs.

I called my dogs to come and all 4 of them turned off grandma’s treats (and the snake) and ran back to me.

That is a brilliant recall!

After my heart stopped pounding and the fire department removed the snake, I had a moment to contemplate the events and my first thought was: Thank you, God, for Susan Garrett and her part in my life and my dog’s life.

This reminds me that each of us can make a difference in another persons life, even if that person is a thousand miles away. We truly are all connected.

I’m a weekend enthusiast for agility, without aspiration for more, but even from this place, there is purpose for a brilliant recall.

Thank you for your gifts and talent and most importantly, for sharing those gifts.

Gratefully yours, Tracy, Dart, Bingo, Jackpot, and Elgin

After I read the letter, I wrote Tracy and asked her if I could post it for all of you. This was included in Tracy’s reply;

I think it is worth mentioning that my dogs are hard-core Australian Cattle Dogs.  They are not “what-else-can-I-do-to-please-you” Golden Retrievers, for example.  They came when recalled because they have been reinforced for doing so in a variety of circumstances and not just because they love me and want to please me.  They recalled off  high-value rewards  in their  ” 10 step value hierarchy”  (My mom’s cooking is 8 .  A wiggly reptile to chase is probably a 5).   They  are living proof that the concepts taught at Say Yes work.  One of my favorite “Susan-isms” is “Reward your dog. Pay the dog!   It is money in the bank”.  Yesterday, I made a huge withdrawl on that account.  And it was worth every penny…..

Again, my deep gratitude to you.   Sincerely, Tracy Paul

Those of you already signed up for the Brilliant Recall e-course know what Tracy is talking about when she mentioned the “10 Step Value Hierarchy.” That of course,  was your first piece of course homework that you found when you logged into your membership area of the blog.

Now I am not bringing all of this up  just to taunt the rest of you that are not members (because we closed down registrations yesterday at 4 PM).

Here is what happened last night. As you all know we have never done anything like this before. It is a brand new venture for sure. Thus, we had many hiccups with the process and around suppertime last night we realized we had some overlaps/duplications or unpaid memberships sooooo . . .

The number of registrations we thought we had was not all together accurate. For that reason, we are going to open up registrations again, but only for one day.  By Thursday we should have a better handle on exactly who is in and who is not. So 10 AM Thursday morning I will re-open sales but just for 24 hours. Thursday 10 AM to Friday 10 AM you can once again get a spot in this course. That is it. Really! Please don’t email and ask for any extensions after Friday at 10 AM.

Meanwhile let me say how grateful I am to those of you that have registered. You were all marvelously patient through the process and it’s hiccups:). Neither Jason nor I had to deal with a single cranky pants and for that, really I am so grateful.