So I’m halfway through the Beginner training class for my little Hershey Bar and what can he do? Sit, Down and sometimes Leave It. We need to practice more! Something totally unexpected is the way he “speaks up” in class just to get a little more attention! It is a peculiar whining vocalization that I never hear him do anywhere else. What a showoff! He also seems to like the down position and rolls over on his own, so that may be an easy trick for him to learn after class. I really advocate clicker training and although you might not always have a treat and/or clicker around, these are tools that you eventually do away with. But to see a dog all of the sudden “get it” is amazing. Then the sky's the limit! My sister and I once attended a weekend seminar about clicker training given by an English woman, and one of the exercises was to see how long it took for humans to “get it” – to respond correctly to the clicker. The final goal was to flip a light switch, but there were successive steps to get there. Click and treat for each right step (our treats were M&Ms). Every time, the dogs got the idea quicker than the humans! I’ll post a picture of Hershey’s graduation photo soon – he is just so darn cute! And his fur is like velvet.