No discernable difference in the response this morning. Avoiding, touching, mouthing. We're working in the kitchen this time. Once she decides to pick up the bucket, we're back in the game, and play hard with three buckets again, rightside up, upside down, over here, over there. There are two dog toys on the kitchen floor which she has the chance to pick up but she ignores them, grabbing the buckets with gusto.

The last four kibbles we go in the parlour and I ask for swing Finishes. She nails four out of four perfectly.

Evening, success! I put the other dogs out, go into the kitchen, look at the bucket on the floor and ask Stitch to get it. She moves right to it, bunts it once, picks it up, and hands it to me.

I assemble three buckets and we spend one entire meal just retrieving buckets. Before we start I put one in the middle of the kitchen and encourage her to pick it up. I have to repeat myself a couple of times, urging her to pick it up and bring it to me. She touches it and mouths it as usual, but then brings it instead of her more usual lying down. In the parlour I toss all three buckets around the room and wait, and she jumps into the game with all four feet. She tries dropping the bucket at my feet a couple of times, but I can't see it when it's on the floor, so she picked it up again and held it until I asked for it. I threw them in different directions, under the coffee table and the chairs. Finally I started placing them upside down so she had to bunt them to knock them over before she could pick them up. No problem. As she brought each bucket back, I clicked, took it, dropped a few kibbles in it and put it on the floor so she could eat the kibble. Then she'd pick it up and hand it back to me, and we'd repeat the process. After the third or fourth one, I'd take it from her without clicking and send her off to get a different one. Excellent session. We'll see what effect the session has on her behaviour tomorrow.

A week before Christmas, and Stitch is in season for the first time at 17 months. Probably not an ideal time to be training. Nevertheless, I put the other dogs out, put Stitch's bucket on the floor, and wait. She clearly knows the job. She looks at the bucket, walks around the bucket, nudges the bucket and glances at me. I do nothing. She picks the bucket up gingerly and drops it, then sighs, gets a better grip on it, and hands it to me. Great rejoicing.

I fill the bucket and give her a few kibbles, then we go in the parlour with the nine chairs. Man! She could find Heel position blindfolded! We do three repetitions in each chair, and she nails every one. What the heck, let's make it harder. Her grasp of Heel position with me standing up wasn't particularly secure, so I stand up, prepared to do the same work over again, but she's got that too. No matter where in the room I go, no matter what direction I face, no matter whether she has to sidestep to find position or back up into it, no matter whether I ask for a full swing finish from Front or ask her to fix tiny errors in position, she's got it. The Level Five Finish test is 3 out of 3 minimum 1/2-point-off Finishes, and because I've been working it today, I make the test harder. We do five in row, not anticipating the cue but responding immediately to it. Four perfect and one 1/2 point off. Gosh, I love clicker training!

For six meals, we have success with the given criteria. I first ask Scuba to get all three dishes, then put Scuba and Ruby in the dog room, put one bucket on the floor and look at it. Stitch mouths it a couple of times, then picks it up and gives it to me, then we rush to the pantry, fill the dishes, and put them down.

I up the ante by putting Scuba and Ruby in the dog room without Scuba getting the buckets. I take one bucket out of the basket, put it on the floor, and stare at it. Stitch touches it once, then lies down. In a flash of brilliance, I toss two pens on the floor by the bucket. Stitch picks up one and hands it to me and gets a good cuddle in response. She then turns, looks at the second pen, picks up the bucket, and delivers it to me. Victory!

Stitch still doesn't pick up her dog dish (actually a small stainless steel bucket with a handle) unless we're actively in training mode, me with food and clicker in hand, and her in the game. I've reached the "this is ridiculous!" stage. I spend four days working each meal with her retrieving the bucket. She's not happy with it, but she's in the game so she's doing it. Maybe what's so ridiculous about it is that this is a dog who can't think when she's excited unless she's got something in her mouth - Leroy (her stuffed dog), her dog bed (which she rushes to greet and carry around the house every morning), paper, empty pop cans, shoes, Ron's huge winter boots. But she isn't comfortable with the kerflushinner bucket. We're going to change that.

I watch her carefully during these eight sessions, and discover that she's especially uncomfortable when she picks it up by the handle and it swings whiles she's trying to walk. She WILL pick it up by the handle, if I insist, but there's no reason to insist, so I let her discover that it's "safer" if she picks it up by the rim. It's difficult to hold on to that way, unbalanced, but it's her choice - and certainly better balanced than a boot. It's metal, but so are the pop cans. No possibility of knowing what's in the little brain, but we ARE going to change her mind.

So, eight sessions, eight full meals spent on retrieving the bucket, and adding the cue. The ninth session, I set everything up exactly as before, get the other dogs out of the room, and ask for the bucket. She looks at it, she touches it, she licks it. She looks at me. She lies down. She does Princess Paws. She whines.

I get the other two dog dishes, fill them, and put them down. The dogs chow down as usual. I resume position, staring at the empty bucket. Stitch looks at the other dogs, licks her bucket, runs to the other dogs as if I've accidentally left her breakfast over there and not told her, comes back, licks the bucket, nudges the bucket, lies down and gives me Princess Paws.

If I was telling someone else to do this, I'd tell them to reward the nudge, but I'm going to be a bit harsher than that. She gives me Princess Paws and I walk over to the computer and start working. She runs to me, stares at me drooling, then runs back and forth between me and the other dogs. Hmm, THAT didn't go as she'd planned at ALL!

At suppertime we start again. If this doesn't work, I'll give her another eight meals of being in the game, then reward the nudge. I fill the other buckets, give them to the other dogs, then stand and stare at her bucket. She looks at me. She looks at the other dogs eating. She drools. She nudges her bucket, mouths her bucket, picks it up and drops it. Stops and listens to the other dogs eating and drools again - she's making drool puddles on the floor. Finally she picks up her bucket, brings it to me, and hands it to me. With much dancing and singing and petting, we run to the pantry, fill the bucket, and she gets her supper.

I start the next session in the simple chairs, and she totally understands. Her position is excellent, she's got her butt tucked in and her chin back far enough. In fact, sometimes she tucks her butt TOO far in, but I'm willing to "put up" with that. I move to the chair beside the wall. That's fun to watch, she tries to swing her butt into position, hits the wall twice, then experiments with backing into position. Eureka! Now she can swing her butt into position, she can move her feet in closer to bring her into position, and she can back up into position. We try out each chair in the room, and she understands all of them. I'm really pumped about this.

Since she's doing so well, I start putting a cue on the Finish. I ALWAYS put the Finish cue on too soon, but this time I think I've got it right. Scuba's cue is "Swing" but I try out "Stitch Swing" a couple of times and it doesn't flow, so I'm back to the silly one - "Chook". I can see this becoming "Ch" - a tiny reminder to hold Heel position.

Another session with finding Heel positon with me sitting. There are six table-chairs, and a wicker set consisting of a couch, a chair, and a rocking chair, making nine different positions we can practise Heel position in one room. I make sure the seats are all facing in different directions, and make some easy and some difficult. One chair is beside a step, leaving about a foot of space for her to sit in between the chair and the step. The couch is 18" from the chair, and that chair is 18" from the wall. Three chairs are set in a close conversation piece, two facing each other and one at right angles to them.

I start sitting in one chair in an easy position. Stitch starts to angle off a bit to the left and I click her butt moving. Oh, that again! It takes her six clicks to find position, but once she's got it, she keeps coming back. I move to another chair facing the same direction. Two clicks, and she's got that. Then I move to a chair facing in a different direction. Oh, that's hard! She examines the situation and tries finishing to the previous chair. No click. She tries finishing in front of me with her right side against my knees. No click. She looks me in the eye and stamps her feet - I'm reduced to clicking any motion to the right of any back foot. Eight clicks, and suddenly it cllicks and she's in position. We work on that for a while.

I move to the chair beside the step. She confidently finishes below the step. No click - in order to be in the right place, she'll need to be ON the step. Not getting a click annoys her, she jumps forward and does it again. And again. HEY STUPID, I DID IT! She whines, but I think I've got a good background of reinforcement, she's really in the game, and I'll wait her out. Finally she puts both front feet on the step. Click! I wait again. Her back feet step up, click! Five clicks for just being there, and then I toss a treat out in front of us to get her out of position. It takes her a second to get her front AND back feet on the step, but now she knows how to do it, and we're done.

Having practised, we go again to Wal-Mart, borrow the electric scooter, and find a quiet aisle. She's MUCH better today, having a clue as to what is expected of her. Her butt only "escapes" into the aisle once, and didn't come back in time because I see someone coming and get flustered trying to get out of their way. Once they're past, I regain a brain and Stitch swings in nicely.

A little girl goes by and stops to watch us. Instead of going forward trying to meet and greet, Stitch tries to back up behind the scooter. In the beginning I think this is kid Zen, backing off to eliminate temptation, but as I think about it more, I think she really was backing away from the kid. For the rest of the trip, she's extraordinarily aware of every small person in a shopping cart or walking, while steadfastly ignoring carts and adults. Another fear period starting? Or is my 17-month-old bitch finally coming in season for the first time? Just in time for Christmas. Of COURSE. Other than that, it's an excellent session. She's working reliably, on the ball, in the game. She slows when I slow, goes fast when I go fast, and since she's thinking about the swing Finish, she gives me a brilliant straight backup in nice close Heel position when I back the scooter up.