We had our last class of this session tonight and it was very insightful for me.

I have been reading now, with earnest, Control Unleashed, and I am trying very hard to read Carnegie's behavior during class. During the heeling, down and circle, down and leave your dog, he has absolutely no interest. His tail is down and he is looking away. If I didn't know my guy better, I'd say he looked stressed out. Like this is the last place he wanted to be.

I didn't push him, in fact, I tried some calming moves like rubbing his muzzle and ears. I thought I was calm, maybe he knew better.

Towards the end of class was game time. Relay races and sits and downs with major distractions.

He raced his little heart out in the relay race. Our team lost 3 to 2 but he loved it. Then came the long sits and downs. Here is where it got interesting. During the sit, Tawn bounced a tennis ball in front of each dog. When she got to the lab pup, Diesel, he grabbed the ball and away he went. His brother, Dakota, broke and ran after him. For a good 15 minutes, they ran, with glee, with that ball and 4 dogs out of 11 didn't break their sit. Carnie was one.

Then came the long downs - the one he wouldn't do earlier. Tawn walked in front of each dog with a toy, then food, then dropped the food in front of each dog.

It was a 3-way tie for 1st place. Guess who was in that top 3

Oh, I didn't realize that we were at the end of an 8-week session again already. Wow, time flies.

Overall it sounds like you had a lot of fun.

Is there any way you can bring several types of treats, ranging from low value (e.g. plain Cheerios) to medium and high value, so you can vary rewards based on Carnegie's level of difficulty on specific exercises?

Wow, sounds like Carnie had some great moments in that class. Great job.

I'd love to see Carnie's cocker butt running in a relay race! I think it sounds like you and Carnie has a good class, overall. I can't imagine either of mine being able to ignore food (Oliver) or a ball (Jack)!