Things managed to settle down by midmorning and Sanity "helped" with the 11 a.m. class. This time the help was in the form of the other dog doing a set of stays. From this point on, she will be the extra dog during stay practice for every student. It does help the instill a steady, reliable stay. Of course on the path to that reliability there are many corrections. What is a correction for her for stay breaking is a distraction for the other dog. Right now it would appear that the sit/stay is the big problem for her. She will hold a down stay for long periods of time. I suspect that comes about because of the "sit on the dog" exercise and lots of practice when I am teaching and need for her to be near but at the same time out of the way. Anyway, at this point she is up to holding for about 90 seconds and then can't seem to think of a single reason why she shouldn't lie down. HA! I am the reason for not laying down and she will slowly get the point.
The retrieve today was practiced in part as a piece of Leo's (the Newfie puppy)distraction training. He is working on a tossed fifteen foot retrieve. So I would set Sanity up to do an arm's length retrieve about five feet away from where Leo had to pick up his tossed dumbbell. That proved to be a pretty strong distraction for the both of them. After several repeats they were both getting it right every single time. So we stopped on a high note.
Later, during the Monday Open and Utility polishing class Sanity did a bit of a back slide and tried to insist she really didn't ever, ever do a placed retrieve at that distance. Somehow the need for the hold command is still there.
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