Here’s a few videos of our training sessions today.
Speak
Gitta is actually my first dog to speak on command! We went with Judy’s method (our instructor at Dogwood) of giving the cue word, showing a treat and waiting for them to bark out of frustration. With other behaviors I’ve been trying to add the cue after the behavior is well established (the more typical clicker approach), but in this case I think having the cue from the beginning works because it lets the dog know early that no treats are available for barking unless the cue has been given. I don’t want her ‘offering’ barking all the time while I work to establish the cue!!! She has alot of superstitious behavior, but we’ll select that out of there eventually. It’s already much less pronounced than in our first few sessions. Superstitious behavior one: she often barks while downing. So I try and jackpot barks from a sit (or stand). Superstitious behavior two: she does alot of head jerking. I attribute that to our first shaping session for spinning. It started with a head turn and when she doesn’t know what to do – she often goes back to jerking her head around 
Down
We’ve been working on this one for awhile, but I’m still working on better response to the cue and generalization. We started by luring (treat down between the front paws) to get a nice sphinx (or lion) down. I got rid of the lure as fast as I could, but the side effect of the lure is that I was down low (so I could treat), so she has a hard time responding to the down when I’m standing. She usually will revert to a spin at that point (which I taught primarily standing up!). My thighs are aching from holding a squat as I try to slowly slowly give the command for a more and more upright position Also – our criteria is that the click ends the behavior, so there’s nothing wrong with her jumping up as soon as I click. When I start adding duration – I’ll simply withold the click for a minute.
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