I popped that agility audio CD for some ambient noise during training so that the dogs gets use to the noise and focus on me. I increased the volume enough so that it could be heard as a soft talk.  

So today I figured that I would attempt to get both dogs at the same time to heel on my left and right and it seemed to working for a bit but Chloe left and gave a look to me like, "there's no room, he is hopping around like a rabbit, call me back later." And there show goes off into my computer desk chair. Meanwhile, Scout is figuring it all out, he is fine on my left but call for a switch to my right once we turn to the left, he goes to my left. OK, I'll use the food to bring him to the correct place. Done, that works. We're fine going straight and here comes that turn to the left again, "Alright!" he got it. Go straight again and then turn, "Oh no, he dropped to the left". I kept on the right so that we can end on a positive note because he will get it sooner or later. I'll tell you this, when he hears the clicker he goes bonkers as his tail is wagging faster, his jaw opens and he smiles because he knows something good is coming. He reminded me of Chloe during the early months of her training when she was 3-4 months old.

Then I start wanted to work on his sits, downs, stays, and here/breaks. The first break I called for he came fast but out of nowhere, you hear these trotting footsteps coming in fast, it was Chloe! Good girl!

I decided to put Scout in the crate with the comforter covering the crate and continue on with Chloe. We worked on our crosses with the help of a standard jump at 2' width and our 90s and 270s. She was getting tighter and now faster around the jumps. However, I know this is going to change once she gets more room to maneuver. Then back to basics with the stays and breaks. All this time, Scout is getting whiny in the crate. So Chloe has to work through both the CD and Scout's rants. I start over with some heel work again with her and then ended the session and swapped dogs. This time Chloe can see what we are doing. Since she has issues with me walking away or being attentive with another dog. Jealousy, possessiveness...

Scout is all excited wondering on what we are going to do and I decided to break the norm and bring out the standard jump. He is a JRT for God's sake and they love to jump! I start him in a heel on my left and walk him over to the jump that is set at 12". Once he goes over, I put him back in heel on my right and repeat. I do this several times and then increase the height by two inches. This is a touchy area because the last experience once I went over 12", he started to go under it. But this time around, he was jumping over the 14" height with some big confidence and he was raising up his hind legs. Before he was just hit the bar with his rears. I think he is starting to get an idea that he has back legs! That ladder helps a great deal of course. Now it was time for the big test, 16" height, will he do it or will he go under?

"Scout, here, heel, jump!" Click. "Good boy!" Three times on each side and we were done. Mr. Spunky did an awesome job!

Now it was time for something new and since he left me a present on the floor yesterday, it was time to learn the bell! I took the bell off the knob and went into the room and mind you, I put him in a sit-stay and he kept it! "Atta boy!" I just grabbed the bell by the string and let it hang in the air. He was in a sit looking at me. I said, "touch." and he is seeking what to touch. He touches my left hand because there is some chicken in there and he notices no click. He goes for my knees and nothing. His nose hits the bell by accident when he turned away from my knee. His ears perked up as the click is heard and he is looking for his chicken. And like the touch game, he starts increasing ringing the bell with his nose and the treat machine is alive and well. I start to label the action and he starts ringing the bell on cue. He learned that quickly in a span of 5 minutes! Now it was time to increase the difficulty level and put the bell back it where it belongs, on the door knob. "Ring it", no action towards the bell and he is looking for it.

Let's back up, "touch", success! And was soon followed by "Ring it!" Now continually work on this so we can get moving on when to tell me you want to go out.

I was thinking about adding a new command to his vocabulary and what was rollover. I know this was going to be difficult because dogs are funny this way since he just learned Beethoven. So I started to shape the behavior in trying to get the correct direction of roll but he kept offering the roll that I didn't want. This is going to take some time from what I could tell. As I kept trying, Chloe had enough watching the failure so she began to paw at the crate door. I let her out and hoping monkey see, monkey do works in this case. She goes to a down and rolls over. Scout is all excited and does the opposite roll. I tried manually pushing him in the direction I wanted and it didn't phase him. So I guess I have to work on this very slowly. So I just stopped and asked for a sit and a down and ended the session.