Agreed, very nice work, Shannon! Lucy is solid... and I love to see such impulse control from a dog who also has all the explosive energy where we want it! A testament to your calm, cool handling and piece-making.
At the 1:08 mark you get yourself in heel position and switch to focus work instead of sit-stay proofing. Glad to see it. The only thing I'd prefer to see different is that you didn't have to use your "watch" cue so much there. Ideally, when you move to the side/heel and extend that arm, Lucy already knows how to 'win'.
Working from the front, first, and establishing an expectation of focus there, with arms extended, moving, challenging her focus, will give her a pattern of success that will hold up as you move around the clock, repeating the proofing steps, into heel.
There's not enough strength yet on "watch" yet to use it to gain behavior. So instead, if you did find yourself in heel and Lucy was problem solving on her own, don't say anything, but hold your position and capture the focus when it happens. But again, work that out from the beginning so that by the time you move to heel, she's solid.
1:19 was better, because you let her work it out a bit more! Great work there, Shannon.
Beautiful job at 1:31! The other thing here, Shannon, is that when we do get to the heel position, we'd like to start rewarding from the left hand exclusively. Rewarding from the left hand will really draw her head up and straight. And as Lucy gets better at finding the focus point, she'll also be better and not 'chasing' the left hand, which will allow you to also reward from it, gaining the benefit we see from that placement without disrupting the dog's ability to be correct in behavior.
Great stuff, Shannon, and as you said, a little more work on clockwork game will have in a good place. And work out the focus proofing/hand movement from the front first, and then systematically work your way along the 'clock' to ensure she's strong at each step!
