2nd to last 2nd L2 Class!

So we had class last nite. Orion did pretty well, only a few outbursts. He was pretty rough on heeling, the dogs that weren't heeling were too much of a distraction. On the upside, when the JRT we were heeling with broke her heel and came running over to him, he was perfect with her, wasn't a jerk, and almost gave me more attention it seemed, because of it. I rewarded him with many pieces of hotdog! :) He did allright with his sit stays, but refused to go from sit stay into a down. We've done it before, but he was having none of that last nite. He did offer me downs though when I didn't ask for them!? Crazy dog. I kind of feel like he's using his "let me bark at another dog and quickly turn and look at mom to get a reward!" as an excuse to bark. So, I was inconsistently rewarding that behavior and instead asked for things like "leave it" (when barking) or sit (after he had returned to me), and then clicked and rewarded. I'm thinking that it's a good thing to mix it up a little, so he doesn't get too used to a certain way of me doing things. We worked on targeting in the room, not in the hall, and he did excellent at the "touch" command, and okay when I asked for a touch and then a sit, while he was still at the target. I think most of the time though his non-compliance really has to do with him paying attention to everything but me, and not his actual knowledge. I think he really knows all the behaviors we do in class, sometimes he opts to do them, sometimes not. Obviously we need practice, and practice we will get. I plan on doing L2 with Orion until he has all the exercises down cold. Next week is our graduation, and the following Thurs. we start our CGC Prep class. We'll see how that goes! Hopefully in January I will have a dog with a CGC, but if not, we'll keep working until we get there. Hey, no one ever said a Chinese Crested Dog is supposed to be a good obedience dog. We'll just keep working, and we will get there! :) It's all just a matter of time. As long as we are making progress I feel like we are doing something right.