Thanks Tracy….Yes, everything you said makes TOTAL sense! And yes, he is perfectly happy to leave me in the dust to run to a toy. We’ve been working on his bringing the toy back…making progress but I need to remember to run away as soon as he picks it up and I had totally forgotten about having a “better” toy to reward/tug with him with when he gets to me. He’s definitely got a couple of favorites!
He doesn’t “love” his MM, it’s OK but it’s not highly valuable….I think it’s because the treats are so slow (in his view) to dispense because he definitely does love his food, he is a Cocker after all 🙂 When he was real young I fed him his meals out of it for quite awhile to build a lot of value, and it is valuable but definitely not at the top of his list!
And I really like the second exercise and your suggestions are GREAT! I think driving in “tight” is going to be a skill that doesn’t come naturally for him and we’re going to need to “cultivate” it 🙂
Thanks again, Tracy. Loving this class already 🙂