Susan Garrett’s interest in animal behaviour started at the University of Guelph where she earned a Bachelor of Science majoring in Animal Science. Since then she has developed into a pre-eminent canine sports instructor and competitor. Susan is one of the most successful agility competitors of the last two decades. She has won multiple Gold Medals at National or World Championship events with every dog she has ever owned over the past 30 years.
A natural teacher and an entertaining speaker, Susan is a leading educator of dog trainers. Her understanding of how to apply learning principles to practical and competitive dog training has made her a much sought-after speaker throughout North America and as far away as Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The Dog Writers Association of America named Susan’s book “Shaping Success” the 2005 “Dog Training and Behaviour Book of the Year”. A passionate storyteller, and an avid learner herself, Susan loves sharing her training tales with podcast hosts… most popular being her recent conversation with Tim Ferriss on the Tim Ferriss Show and How to Master Pet Travel with Trivago.
Susan has been an invited speaker at training conferences worldwide including being the keynotes speaker at the yearly gathering of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers in both 2006 and 2012. In 2013 she was the only dog trainer invited to speak to zoo trainers at the annual conference of the Animal Behaviour Management Alliance (ABMA).
With a dog training philosophy about discovery, challenge, and innovation, her entire foundation can be summed up with this one thought: You can achieve great and effective training by simply playing with your dog. It is Susan’s mission to teach the world that training can be fun, for both people and animals. Dog training shouldn’t be a chore. It should be a time that you enjoy with your dogs; and time that they enjoy spending with you!
It is this philosophy that Susan practices with her own dogs at home. Susan loves dogs. When a dog comes into her home it stays for life. Her focus is always to raise a great family pet whose main priority is to be an amazing lifelong companion first, and talented performance dog a distant second.
As an innovator and entrepreneur in dog training, the next natural progression for Susan was to take her love of dog training to online programs so she could share her positive training message with people around the globe.
In 2008 she pioneered online dog training with the introduction of her wildly popular and much-loved foundation dog training program, Recallers. Since then she has developed further online classrooms and programs to help dog lovers and dog sports enthusiasts the world over. The very popular online format allows access to her training 7 days a week / 365 days a year and the programs are designed for all styles of learners with videos, written and audio resources.
Susan is now helping thousands of dog owners in 82 countries have the best relationship possible with their dogs.
The real joy for her comes from taking a puppy (or a rescue dog) and bringing confidence and joy to that dog and their owner through playful interactions and relationship building games. Susan’s programs are rich in rewards for both the dogs and owners, as each team learns to communicate and layer their learning in a reinforcement-based environment.
Her underlining message in her dog training is that looking for the good in everything your dog does in your dog training life will carry over into all areas of your life.
She shares her life with fellow dog enthusiast, John Blenkey, and their four dogs; Encore, Feature, Swagger and Momentum. Together John and Susan own and operate Say Yes Dog Training Inc., located in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.
Every single dog has got an unbelievable capacity to show you how brilliant they can be.
Susan Garrett