Control Unleashed..

I am reading an AWESOME new book that I cannot say enough good things about. Everyone should read it, even if they don't have a dog with "issues".
I just wanted to share our first night last night of working some of
the CU principals. I first wanted to work on attention with holding
a treat in front of Nemo and *click/treat* when he makes eye
contact. He caught on really fast with treats, and I was quickly
getting consistent eye contact. His ball is a bit tougher..he gets
a frozen eye-LOCK on his ball, so I *click/ball toss* for ANY blink
or eye movement away from the ball. I was soon getting at least a
nice glance from him for his ball. :)
Then I introduced him to that mat. When he checked it out, I
*click/treat* on the mat and continued to treat and praise while he
sat on the mat. It took no more than three minutes of this before
he was FLYING to the mat and diving to a down! He loved it! I was
very impressed!! He was also not breaking his stay on the mat (I
didn't cue stay at all, he was just doing it), until I gave him his
release work "okay". I was already able to add mild distractions,
at which he never broke his stay, and also add the verbal cue for
the mat. Yay!!
Afterwords we had some calm, sleepy time (RP) on the mat. I'm glad
that he liked the mat game, but I hope he's not too excited about
and will see it as a place to calm down. :)
Today I'm looking forward to working on the "Look at that" game and FINALLY a lesson with JH! :)