Carnie and I got a new perspective on class last night.

Sabine took him through his heeling and down paces at the start of class which enabled me to observe how he handled the commands and how someone else handled him. He was great! It also gave me some important insight as to some tweaking in my behavior might help us get back on track.

I think this would be a great idea for anyone who is "stuck" and is lucky enough to have someone who your dog is comfortable with. He looked like he was having a blast again!

Thank you so much Sabine

That's great to get a fresh perspective. It's nice that Sabine and Carnie are close enough for her to handle him. Nice.

That's awesome Bari and a good point about why having training buddies is so important-- (or video taping yourself,but I don't need that kind of ego beat down right now).

You are very welcome! If only a certain terrier hadn't whined and cried like crazy, watching from the sidelines.

Carnegie did great and I was surprised he worked with me that well! I can't say that Quigley would do that, but then he could surprise me, too.

We need to sit down together and go over what exercises you need to work on most.

Oh and I think you really, really need to start using that clicker! Carnegie responded to it really well yesterday, I don't think he needs any more special instruction on what it means!

That's great! I agree with having someone else give you a different perspective.

It's also sometimes nice to try working with someone else's dog to realize how good your dog is! I remember in class one time with Caesar we switched dogs and I wound up with a little bit of a thing - I couldn't believe how hard it was to click/treat w/ a dog that wasn't at hand/thigh level! :-)

I think this could be a very valuable training component if others are willing to participate. I just loved watching Carnie and Sabine showing off what he could do. Albeit, we do have quite a lot of work to do.

For the amount of time you two have been training in competition prep, I think you are doing well.

Awesome!! I know it's always also neat to watch someone else work my dog - 'cuz I get to just stand there and appreciate it in a way that I can't when I'm involved. But it's a good barometer, for sure.

Yeah, the video thing... can be borderline abuse. For the human.