A truly inspirational teacher...

So I blogged the other day about finding myself inspired at the UK Agility Grand Finals at the weekend, and I said that we all need inspiration and aspirations - well, I'd like to offer you another of my biggest inspirations at the moment, and that's Canadian dog trainer and agility competitor extraordinaire Susan Garrett. She's been leading the way in agility training for a while now, and is a big name amongst those enlightened people in the know, but her methods and training games are also just as applicable to the average pet dog, and at the heart of all her training are the key words RELATIONSHIP and VALUE; what is your relationship like with your dog, and where is the value in your dog's behaviours - is the value with you and your reinforcers, or is the value with the other dogs across the park, or with the rabbits or pheasants? The concept of value is such a simple one, but once you understand it, it has the power to completely change how you look at your training, your dog and its behaviour.

Want to know more? Well luckily Susan is extremely generous in sharing her knowledge, and her blog post is always full of inspirational articles, including this one which is what inspired this post. Sign up to her email newsletter (press 'home' and fill in the box) and you often get sent free resources or links to free webinars (online seminars), and at the moment the offer includes a free audio download on training tips. Very few trainers are so generous with their ideas, and I find that really inspiring to! 

Who is your biggest inspiration?

ADDITION:
Just had a look at this blog - these are the winning videos made by people who took Susan's last Recallers course (I've just started the new one) on how it has changed the lives of their dogs, and videos 2 and 3 in particular brought a tear to my eye!! Check them out yourselves and tell me you're not inspired?!
Winning videos here...